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Drew
Oregon State Police added context to its original statement about leaving downtown Portland. Here's the full, update statement: pic.twitter.com/P9v3ftE7JI
— Kyle Iboshi (@KyleIboshi) August 14, 2020
Via KGW 8:
PORTLAND, Ore. — Oregon State Police (OSP) troopers will no longer protect the federal courthouse in downtown Portland, the agency confirmed Thursday.
“Last night was our last night in Portland,” Capt. Timothy Fox said in a statement.
State troopers, while working with the Portland Police Bureau (PPB), first began monitoring activity outside the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse two weeks ago after Gov. Kate Brown made a deal with President Donald Trump’s administration to withdraw federal officers.
The deal came after nearly a month of escalating tensions and clashes between federal officers and protesters. Many of those nights ended with federal officers using tear gas.
Fox said OSP had a two-week commitment for increased presence outside the federal courthouse, which ended Wednesday night.
For the THIRD day in a row, press are shuffled out of a Biden-Harris event without the chance to ask questions.
It’s not controversial to expect and demand presidential candidates answer unscripted questions from the press and everyday Americans. pic.twitter.com/zkZbQklcTn
— Ken Farnaso (@KLF) August 14, 2020
Via Daily Wire:
Chicago police will deploy 1,000 officers to the city’s central shopping district, the “Magnificent Mile” and into neighborhoods being targeted by rioters and looters, in an effort to curb the violence plaguing local businesses.
In a press conference held late Thursday, Chicago’s police superintendent David Brown said that the city would add 1,000 more officer shifts over three days, Friday through Sunday, similar to a deployment the department undertook several weeks ago, sending 1,200 additional officers into south and west side neighborhood where gang violence has been on the upswing.
Chicago’s mayor, Lori Lightfoot, made a similar announcement in her own press conference on Friday, noting that the Chicago Streets & Sanitation bureau will also be involved in preventing looting and that police will use “new and enhanced tactics” to shut down “caravans” looking for opportunities to cause trouble.
Not hard to understand why.
NYC PBA presents President @realDonaldTrump with a special statue in recognition of his support for the NYPD and all police officers pic.twitter.com/HD6VBqSWBP
— Team Trump (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@TeamTrump) August 14, 2020
“This time we’ll get it right guys!”
Via North Jersey.com:
PATERSON — Facing allegations of vote fraud, Councilman-elect Alex Mendez has decided to accept a judge’s proposal that would negate his victory in the May election and set up a new contest for Paterson’s 3rd Ward City Council seat.
After a bitter battle in the spring election, Mendez and former Councilman William McKoy will engage in a rematch that could shape the city’s political landscape for the next two years. Mendez had loomed as Mayor Andre Sayegh’s main opponent in the 2022 mayoral race after he beat McKoy by 240 votes in the spring.
But six days before Mendez was scheduled to take office as a councilman on July 1, the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office announced he was being charged with election fraud crimes, accusations that are pending. A judge subsequently ruled that the 3rd Ward council seat should stay vacant until the resolution of McKoy’s civil lawsuit claiming there was widespread wrongdoing in the election.
Via CNBC:
New Jersey will send mail-in ballots to all registered voters for the 2020 presidential election while still offering the option for voters to cast their ballots in person, Gov. Phil Murphy said Friday.
“As it relates to mail-in ballots, the good news is in a general election, it doesn’t matter what party you’re in, everybody gets a ballot,” Murphy announced in a CNN interview. “So we’re going to have a hybrid model in November.”
The Democratic governor’s embrace of a plan for widespread mail-in voting comes as President Donald Trump has aggressively sought to undermine that voting model, claiming that it will lead to massive fraud in spite of assurances from election experts.
The Kardashians are doomed lol.
Via Neowin:
In a white paper published last week, Adobe announced its plans to preview a feature that will aim to curtail the spread of fake/altered (or in colloquial language: ‘photoshopped’ ) photos online. The motivation for such a feature took root a year back when Adobe established the Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) with the help of The New York Times and Twitter.
Under the initiative, Adobe aims to use a system of tags to trace back a given image to the photographer and the location where the photograph was taken. These tags will have a layer of additional security with the help of cryptographic signatures. Whenever a photo is edited, subsequent tags will be added to create a record containing the complete history and origins of the photograph to verify its integrity. Adobe believes that this metadata when bundled with the photograph will help mitigate the spread of disinformation and fake photographs online.
CAI’s initiative comes at a time when disinformation is on a rise and social media giants have taken a firm stance on combating it. Twitter has been actively taking down President Trump’s tweets. Facebook has come in the cross-hairs for its stance on disinformation as well. It will be interesting to see whether such websites implement a back-end service that establishes the proposed system of metadata.
Shocking, huh?
Via Yahoo:
WASHINGTON — The coronavirus pandemic has led to a marked deterioration in Americans’ mental health, according to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study made public on Thursday. That study, which surveyed 5,412 Americans, found that “40.9% of respondents reported at least one adverse mental or behavioral health condition.”
According to the new study, 31 percent of respondents were suffering from symptoms of anxiety or depression; 26 percent experienced symptoms of traumatic disorder; 13 percent were using drugs or alcohol more heavily, or for the first time, to cope with the pandemic; and 11 percent had seriously contemplated suicide.
No need for mail in voting. Sorry, Dems, there goes your argument.
Via Townhall:
One of the most highly contentious issues of the 2020 presidential cycle is whether it will be safe for Americans to vote in person on November 3, 2020.
For weeks Democrats have held up crucial Wuhan coronavirus relieve packages while demanding billions of dollars for the Post Office in order to bolster mass mail in voting. In California, a state without voter identification laws and outdated registration records, Governor Gavin Newsom plans to mail every registered voter a ballot ahead of election day. Recent elections in New York, New Jersey and West Virginia have proven mass mail in voting schemes lead to fraud and extremely delayed results.
But according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, an original member of President Trump’s Wuhan Coronavirus Taskforce, voting in person can be done safely.
Imagine that this is what MSNBC viewers are treated to each day, the pitched insanity of it all.
SUPERCUT!@morningmika goes on wild rampage against @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/iU7ePXaPf9
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) August 14, 2020
Via NY Post:
A suspended Kentucky judge accused of turning her chambers into a glorified frat house and having a threesome with staffers was only pulling a prank, her secretary testified in court this week, according to a report.
Judge Dawn Gentry allegedly hired boyfriend Stephen Penrose — a former pastor and her band’s guitar player – to have a threesome with her secretary, Laura Aubrey.
The Kenton County Family Court judge was hit with a dozen charges by the state’s Judicial Conduct Commission related to the Animal House antics in which she allegedly allowed staffers to get drunk on the job – all while abusing her power to win re-election.
The charges accuse Gentry, who has been suspended with pay, of using sex, coercion and retaliation as tools in her judgeship.
Gentry — who served on a panel to help abused children — also allegedly tried to seduce another member of the panel, attorney Katherine Schulz, into having a second threesome.
OMG the meme is finally real!
Via New York Upstate:
Craving bacon at 3 a.m.? Now you don’t have to wait for the store to open in one Upstate New York town.
Saratoga Living reports Oscar’s Smokehouse, a family-owned specialty meat and cheese shop in Warrensburg, N.Y., has launched a new refrigerated vending machine featuring hickory bacon, 3-year-old cheddar cheese, smoked pork chops, sausage, and more. The prices are the same as they are inside the store, giving customers a 24/7, contactless option for meats after stores, including Oscar’s, reduced hours due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Via NY Times:
A former F.B.I. lawyer intends to plead guilty after he was charged with falsifying a document as part of a deal with prosecutors conducting their own criminal inquiry of the Russia investigation, according his lawyer and court documents made public on Friday.
The lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, 38, who was assigned to the Russia investigation, plans to admit that he altered an email from the C.I.A. that investigators relied on to seek renewed court permission in 2017 for a secret wiretap on the former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, who had at times provided information to the spy agency. Mr. Clinesmith’s lawyer said he made a mistake while trying to clarify facts for a colleague.
Mr. Clinesmith had written texts expressing opposition to President Trump, who is sure to tout the plea agreement as evidence that the Russia investigation was illegitimate and politically motivated. Mr. Trump has long been blunt about seeing the continuing investigation by the prosecutor examining the earlier inquiry, John H. Durham, as political payback whose fruits he would like to see revealed in the weeks before the election.
Human beings are not meant to live on this planet anymore…
Via Hollywood Reporter:
Blazing Saddles is currently streaming on HBO Max, along with a new introduction that automatically plays before the Mel Brooks classic begins.
It is unclear exactly when the intro was added to the 1974 comedy classic starring the late Cleavon Little and the late Gene Wilder, but it was sometime after the film premiered on the streaming service in July.
“The intro was added to ensure that the film was put into the proper social context,” an HBO Max spokeswoman told The Hollywood Reporter.
The situation is similar to that of Gone with the Wind, which was pulled from HBO Max not long after the streaming service was introduced due to outcry over its outdated and racist story and themes. The 1939 war classic returned in June with additional context and a disclaimer attached.
TCM host and University of Chicago cinema and media studies professor Jacqueline Stewart provides the intro to Blazing Saddles. She also did the intro for Gone With the Wind.
This is admittedly a few days ago but interesting in context today since the city announced it will not be having a 9/11 tribute this year for the first time since 9/11.
Via NY Post:
City officials ignored their own application process for public art projects to paint Black Lives Matter murals around the five boroughs, in order to mark an important moment in history, Mayor Bill de Blasio said as his administration faces claims of First Amendment violations for refusing to green-light other proposals.
“We haven’t said ‘no’ to people, we’ve said, ‘If you want to apply, you can apply, but there’s a process,’” de Blasio said during his City Hall press briefing Monday.
The pro-President Trump group Women for America First has sued City Hall for blocking a mural of their slogan “Engaging, Inspiring and Empowering Women to Make a Difference!” on a Manhattan roadway, while allowing multiple BLM paintings throughout the city.
I’m not even going to link to the story and give them clicks for this nonsense.
For the record – an absentee ballot is what you MAIL IN when you cannot vote IN PERSON at the place you LIVE AT.
A “mail in” ballot is a ballot that is sent to you in place of IN PERSON voting.
They are two VERY different things. CNN is hoping you don’t know the difference – and maybe some of you don’t. But this is here to educate. When people you know tell you “Trump voted by mail” you say “That’s an absentee ballot not a mail in one”.
Relevant part:
There is no story to link yet from any news source but this was too big not to post.
Yeah no.
Via MSN:
Flare-ups from Australia to Japan show the world hasn’t learned an early lesson from the coronavirus crisis: to stop the spread, those with mild or symptom-free coronavirus infections must be forced to isolate, both from their communities and family.
In Australia, where Victoria state has been reporting record deaths, some 3,000 checks last month on people who should have been isolating at home found 800 were out and about. In Japan, where the virus has roared back, people are staying home but aren’t in isolation: 40% of elderly patients are getting sick from family members in the same apartments.
The failure to effectively manage contagious people with mild or no symptoms is a driving factor behind some of the world’s worst resurgences. But lessons from Italy, South Korea and others that have successfully contained large-scale outbreaks show that there’s a tried-and-tested approach to cutting off transmission: move them out of their homes into centralized facilities while they get over their infections, which usually doesn’t require longer than a few weeks.
The second aspect of this is – if people cross the line. If people involved in that activity violated the criminal law, they will be charged.” Barr told Sean Hannity there was some delay with COVID but he is “satisfied with the progress” + “there are going to be significant…
— Catherine Herridge (@CBS_Herridge) August 14, 2020
developments. Tomorrow there will be a development in the case. You know it's not earth shattering development but it is an indication that things are moving along at the proper pace as dictated by the facts in this investigation.” @CBSNews
— Catherine Herridge (@CBS_Herridge) August 14, 2020
Probably this:
Via The Federalist:
A top FBI lawyer who fabricated evidence in a federal spy warrant against Trump campaign affiliate Carter Page is expected to plead guilty to federal charges brought by U.S. Attorney John Durham. Kevin Clinesmith, who is expected to admit to deliberately fabricating evidence in a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant application, used to spy on a former campaign affiliate of President Donald Trump, was a top attorney in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Office of General Counsel (OGC) and a key agency attorney under fired former FBI Director James Comey.
Clinesmith is the first individual to be charged as part of U.S. Attorney John Durham’s investigation into the efforts in 2016 and 2017 to spy on the Trump campaign and Trump administration. Both Durham and Attorney General William Barr stated at the conclusion of the OIG investigation of the Page FISA warrants that they had reason to believe the entire investigation of Trump, which allegedly began in late July of 2016, was not legally predicated. Durham was tapped by Barr in May of 2019 to investigate the Russian collusion hoax and determine whether any criminal charges against those who perpetrated it were warranted.