Category Archives: Donald Trump

While Trump was not present when the incident occurred, lawyers for the plaintiff want to question him to determine if he is responsible for his employees conduct. While we cant say for sure if the former real estate developer instructed his security team to allegedly assault the plaintiffs, hes obviously a huge fan of violence, havingtoldsupporters at a rally to knock the crap out of protesters,instructedpolice officers to let suspects heads knock against the side of their squad cars, and insisted that a violent insurrection that left five people dead was justified.

Trumps lawyers did not respond to CNNs request for comment.

In addition to next weeks deposition, Trump has also been ordered by a separate judge to answer questions under oath by December 23, in the defamation suit brought against him by former Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos, who accused Trump of defaming her when he denied her allegations of sexual assault. According to Zervos, during a meeting to discuss a job, Trump thrust his genitals on her and groped her breast. As Trump declared during the infamous Access Hollywood tape, Im automatically attracted to beautiful womenI just start kissing them, its like a magnet. Just kiss. I dont even wait. And when youre a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab em by the pussy.

In related news, in December 2020 and February 2021, respectively, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. were deposed under oath by D.C.s attorney general, and it certainly seemed as though they lied about their involvement in their fathers 2017 inauguration. So theres probably at least a tiny possibility Trump will also fail to tell the truth.

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Insane Texas school district declares teachers must include opposing perspectives on the Holocaust in classrooms

As weve noted a number of times around these parts, Texas has rapidly become an uninhabitable hellhole that should pop up on Zillow when people are looking at properties at Guantanamo Bayas a neighborhood you might also be interested in. Abortion has effectively been banned at six weeks, the governor practically insists everyone must get COVID, you can carry a gun without a license, background check, or training, and Ted Cruz could be lurking around the corner, unless hes en route to Cancn. Oh, and now at least one school district is insisting teachers give equal weight to Holocaust deniers as they do to people who actually accept the fact that the Holocaust happened.

Per NBC News:

A top administrator with the Carroll Independent School Districtin Southlakeadvised teachers last week that if they have a book about the Holocaust in their classroom, they should also offer students access to a book from an opposing perspective, according to an audio recording obtained by NBC News. Gina Peddy, the Carroll school districts executive director of curriculum and instruction, made the comment Friday afternoon during a training session on which books teachers can have in classroom libraries. The training came four days after the Carroll school board, responding to a parents complaint, voted to reprimand a fourth-grade teacher who had kept an anti-racism book in her classroom. A Carroll staff member secretly recorded the Friday training and shared the audio with NBC News.

Just try to remember the concepts of [House Bill] 3979, Peddy said in the recording, referring toa new Texas lawthat requires teachers to present multiple perspectives when discussing widely debated and currently controversial issues. And make sure that if you have a book on the Holocaust, Peddy continued, that you have one that has an opposing, that has other perspectives.

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Trump Will Be Deposed Under Oath Next Week, and You Know What Happens When Trumps Are Under Oath - Vanity Fair

Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) has suggested that Donald Trump will run again in 2024 in order to "keep ahead of the jailer," with the former president facing a number of lawsuits and criminal investigations.

Speaking to The New York Times podcast Sway, the chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence said he "absolutely" believes that Trump will announce his intentions to run again, but ultimately will not become president once more.

"It would be intolerable to him to see anyone else get the attention. I mean the idea of Donald Trump sitting at home watching Mike Pence become the nominee, or Nikki Haley, or Chris Christie, or any of these people," Schiff said. "He would go out of his mind. And so I think he feels a compulsion, it's a pathology."

Schiff, who led the prosecution for Trump's first impeachment trial in 2017 and is part of the House Committee panel investigating the January 6 attack, also suggested that the former president will want to get back in the White House as he thinks it's a "great way to make money" and "may keep him one step ahead of the jailer."

"As long as he is a president, or a presidential candidate. Maybe he can keep ahead of the jailer," he added.

Trump faces a number of criminal investigations, but has not been formally charged in any of them.

In Georgia, the Fulton County District Attorney's office is investigating Trump's phone call to secretary of state Brad Raffensperger in which he asked him to help him "find 11,780 votes" in an apparent attempt to overturn the election results in 2020.

In May, New York Attorney General Letitia James confirmed that a long-running investigation into allegations that the Trump Organization altered property values to avoid tax liabilities is "no longer purely civil in nature."

The probe is running alongside an investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr into alleged criminal conduct at the organization. The investigation is also looking into Trump's longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg.

Vance's office is investigating if the Trump Organization inflated the value of some New York properties to obtain better loans from banks, as well as claims some failed to pay taxes on a number of company benefits.

Elsewhere during the interview, Schiff told Sway that he doesn't think Trump will ultimately win in 2024 as the country does not "want to go back to that nightmare."

He added: "With every passing day, when we gain more and more perspective on what we've been through, I think people will recoil more and more every day at the idea of ever going back to that.

"They're not going to want to go back to the days of a president calling everything a hoax and attacking the media as the enemy of the people."

Trump's office has been contacted for comment.

See original here:

Adam Schiff Says Donald Trump Will Run in 2024 to 'Keep Ahead of the Jailer' - Newsweek

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RICHMOND, Va. In the main auditorium for a conservative rally titled Take Back Virginia this week in the states capital, speakers promoted election conspiracy theories, warned of a coming civil war with liberal states, and proclaimed President Biden should be arrested for treason.

But in the events back room, that grim tenor gave way to the type of darkly festive tone often found at one of former President Donald J. Trumps signature rallies food, drinks and laughter. The sounds of a football tailgate converging with political grievances.

As a politics reporter for The New York Times, I have been to nearly two dozen events of this kind, including Mr. Trumps stadium rallies, smaller events like this, or makeshift festivals like Trumpstock for Mr. Trumps super fans in Northern Arizona. Each time, Im reminded of how these occasions are constructed to barely feel like a political event.

Mr. Trump has his signature rally playlist which his die-hard supporters have come to memorize full of wide-ranging music including opera, rock and even Memories, from the musical Cats.

The event in Virginia, where Mr. Trump delivered an address by phone, served meatballs and cheese plates and had a cash bar, where customers could watch speakers from the other room. At one point, two patrons swapped petitions about election integrity, updating each other on ongoing efforts to overturn the 2020 election while ordering a glass of wine.

However, the most noticeable reflection of how Mr. Trumps most ardent fans have taken on his personality and grievances is in the clothing. Among some attendees, it is not enough to go to an event in the name of Mr. Trump; their attendance also requires wearing something that mimics some of his political calling cards mocking his political opponents, using vulgar language and openly embracing political incorrectness. At some events, Ive seen people with particularly crass T-shirts hold their own photo lines, as others queue for selfie after selfie.

In Virginia, I talked to three men all dressed fairly typically for an event like this about what they decided to wear, and how their clothing reflected their political beliefs.

These interviews have been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.

James Thornton, 47, of Virginia

Im open to both sides. But when I go over to the other side, they dont like me. I want to hear their side and they can hear my side. Thats the way society should be. Not shutting down things because you cant answer.

Education for me is the biggest thing. The critical race theory and the L.G.B.T. Which I dont mind. I dont care if youre gay. Its when you push your views onto my views. Where do your rights start and mine end?

Its not that I hate Democrats. Its their agenda and what they push. Im a hard-working person. And I see my tax dollars not benefiting me at all. It benefits a kind that dont want to give 100 percent and give that effort. I know everyone isnt like that. Some people need help, no doubt. But when I see a 27-year-old laughing, saying, I get assistance, I go, What! Im paying for that. You know I used to have a sticker that said, Keep working the millions on welfare depend on it.

Val Yurachek, 52, of Virginia

Im worried about our freedoms. The American people want what this country is based on, which is our freedoms. And all these mandates and forced vaccinations, thats not America and thats not freedom and thats not our God-given rights. Rights come from God. And thats what the Constitution is based on.

We dont want to go the route of a socialist or communist country. My family came from a place that had one of those types of regimes, and thats not something that we want here.

I was in the Marine Corps. And my father was in the Marine Corps, too. And as Americans we love our country, and the flag and the eagle represent that. I dont want to put a blanket over everyone and say only one party supports that. But if youre going to support America, and youre going to support patriotism, the conservative side the Constitution side thats the group to do it. The left has gone too far to communism and socialism.

Robert Levy, 62, of New Jersey

We started the T-shirt company last summer. First it was a couple of shirts, and then we put up a sign fighting the Covid restrictions and it was a big hit.

Its gotten easier to sell anti-Biden stuff. Because of the horrendous stuff hes doing, people on both sides of the aisle are sick of what hes doing. If youre not brain-dead, you dont support these type of policies.

We have to go to events like these, because if we tried to sell on Facebook, wed get taken down. Because they dont like the message. We have to dance to the music. We have to find our people who have our political beliefs.

Our biggest seller is a shirt that says Stolen Property with a picture of the White House.

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Trump Fans Wear Their Grievances at Conservative Rallies - The New York Times

Late last Friday, the Biden administration did something that was, in a way, surprising. Across many years and multiple administrations, presidents have jealously guarded the executive branchs prerogative to withhold certain categories of information from Congressas well as from the courts and the publicinsisting that executive privilege is both constitutionally grounded and essential to the separation of powers. But the Biden administration decided to go against that norm, announcing that it would not invoke executive privilege to block the release of White House documents requested by the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.

The letter announcing the decision, from White House Counsel Dana Remus to the archivist of the United States (in whose custody the documents reside), explained that President Joe Biden has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not in the best interests of the United States, and therefore is not justified as to any of the documents. A second letter, released by the White House Wednesday night, acknowledged that former President Donald Trump had informed the archivist that he wished to assert executive privilege over the requested documents, but that after due consideration, Biden adhered to his original determination. This clears the path for the documents release to the committee, although Trump may still attempt to use the courts to blockor at least delaythe committees access.

Adam Serwer: The Capitol rioters won

In its strongest form, the argument for executive privilege holds that it is necessary to the presidents discharge of the constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed. Because few executive-privilege disputes reach judicial resolution, the practice and precedents of the political branches form the backdrop against which future disputes play out. At first blush, then, the decision to allow congressional access to these documentssome of which likely reveal the details of presidential conversations and decision making, exchanges that executive-branch lawyers typically view as covered by an especially strong form of executive privilegeappears to be at odds with the executive branchs long-term institutional interest in retaining the ability to assert executive privilege.

But thats not the right way to understand the Biden administrations decision. Its decision is actually consistent with the principles and purposes that underlie executive privilegeprinciples that receded in the Trump administration, as the executive branch adopted a posture of complete defiance of congressional demands for information. The determination here is both faithful to the purposes of executive privilege, and also an important instance of constitutional course correctionone that confirms the role of legitimate congressional oversight in our scheme of separated powers.

First, despite its importance and constitutional foundations, executive privilege is far from absolute; indeed, in the very case in which the Supreme Court first recognized the privilege and pronounced it fundamental, the Court went on to unanimously order President Richard Nixon to turn over the Oval Office tapes he sought to withhold. Deciding whether to make or sustain a claim of executive privilege always requires balancing the need for confidentiality against the countervailing need for the requested material.

Just as the Court in United States v. Nixon found the need for evidence in the context of an ongoing prosecution weightier than the presidents generalized interest in confidentiality, previous presidents have made the same determination in the context of various important investigations. President George W. Bush granted the 9/11 Commission access to hundreds of sensitive Presidents Daily Briefs from the Bush and Clinton administrations; that commission also received testimony from Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. During the Iran-Contra investigation, President Ronald Reagan made numerous executive-branch officials and documents available to the committees investigating the affair, and even went so far as to turn over his personal diaries.

In the context of the January 6 investigation, the legislative interests are unusually compelling and consequential. The committees mandate is to investigate and report on the events of January 6 and their causes, with a goal of preventing future acts of violence, domestic terrorism, and domestic violent extremism, including acts targeted at American democratic institutions. The Remus letter references the unique and extraordinary circumstances, and emphasizes the Committees need to understand the facts underlying the most serious attack on the operations of the Federal Government since the Civil War.

A second factor that both supports the decision and suggests that it will not weaken executive privilege more broadly is the fact that some of the requested documents likely contain evidence of serious misconduct or wrongdoing. The Remus letter, which conveys familiarity with the requested documents, references an assault on our Constitution and democratic institutions provoked and fanned by those sworn to protect them. It also explains that the Documents shed light on events within the White House on and about January 6, and concludes that the constitutional protections of executive privilege should not be used to shield, from Congress or the public, information that reflects a clear and apparent effort to subvert the Constitution itself.

The executive branch has long taken the position that serious allegations of executive-branch wrongdoing undermine if not vitiate the privilege. As the current acting head of the Office of Legal Counsel, Dawn Johnsen, wrote in a law-review article in 1999, where a President asserts executive privilege in order to hide evidence of illegal acts or other wrongdoing by high level executive officials, the assertion is illegitimate. Although the Supreme Court hasnt squarely addressed this issue, some relevant judicial authority does exist. In the 1974 Senate Select Committee case, in which the D.C. Circuit denied access to White House tapes to the Senate committee investigating Watergate, the court nevertheless emphasized that the Executive cannot invoke a general confidentiality privilege to shield its officials and employees from investigations by the proper governmental institutions into possible criminal wrongdoing. More recently, the same court explained that at least one strain of executive privilege, the deliberative-process privilege, disappears altogether when there is any reason to believe government misconduct occurred. The court in that case found that another strain of executive privilege, the presidential-communications privilege, does not disappear upon an allegation of misconduct, but can be overcome with a specific showing of why it is likely that the subpoenaed materials contain important evidence and why this evidence, or equivalent evidence, is not practically available from another source.

David Frum: Dont let anyone normalize January 6

There is already significant evidence, both public and likely in the committees custody, that President Trump was engaged in an effort to promote a false narrative of widespread voter fraud, undermine the elections results, and ultimately delay or prevent the final stage in the Electoral College process for confirming Biden as the next president. Additional evidence of his efforts emerges by the day. It is difficult to imagine a more serious act of presidential misconduct than a protracted effort to subvert the results of a presidential election. But many specifics of Trumps activities on January 6 remain unknown, and the committee has no obvious other route to obtaining that information. Under these circumstances, no interest in concealing such conduct could possibly outweigh the congressional and public interest in disclosure.

In addition, although the picture of Trumps activities over the course of January 6 remains murky, theres a strong argument that both at the rally that preceded the attack on the Capitol, and in the hours afterward, Trump was acting in a way that is best understood as outside the scope of his official duties. Drawing a line between the official and unofficial acts of a president is surely a difficult task, and its not a line that courts have typically used in cases implicating executive privilege. But in related contexts, the Supreme Court has rejected presidents efforts to shield themselves from ordinary legal process. The Court in Trump v. Vance rejected Trumps efforts to protect his financial records from release to the Manhattan district attorney, explaining that it was refusing to extend protection designed for official documents to the Presidents private papers. The Court treated President Bill Clintons efforts to delay his response to Paula Joness civil lawsuit similarly, largely because the alleged misconduct was unrelated to any of his official duties as President. However else we might characterize a scheme to attempt to cling to power after losing an election, it does not fall within the scope of a presidents official duties.

Taken together, these circumstances warrant the unusual step of declining to assert executive privilege. They are also distinct enough that they can coexist with a strong commitment to executive privilege under ordinary circumstances.

Finally, some may see the Biden administrations move as purely politicalhanding Trumps documents to a Congress controlled by Democratsand one that could come back to haunt Biden if and when his administration faces a hostile Congress. This too misses the mark. First, the January 6 committee is bipartisan; that fact both complicates the partisan-collusion narrative and provides an important way to distinguish this case from any purely partisan efforts to access White House information. In addition, the Biden administration has shown itself quite willing to assert various privileges to protect the information of previous administrations, including a DOJ memo related to former Attorney General Bill Barrs determination that Trump had not obstructed the Mueller investigation, and, just last week, testimony regarding Bush-era detention and interrogation, which the Biden administration argues remains shielded by the state-secrets privilege.

Trump may yet file suit to protect these documents. If he does, existing authority suggests that Bidens views should prevail. As the Supreme Court has explained, the incumbent President is vitally concerned with and in the best position to assess the present and future needs of the Executive Branch, and to support invocation of the privilege accordingly. The point here is that executive privilege protects the institutional presidency, not any individual presidents interests, and theres no reason to believe Biden is not acting in the institutional interests of the presidency. Indeed, an overly broad or aggressive assertion of privilege, where all relevant criteria tilt against its existence, would risk a ruling that cuts the privilege back. So perhaps thats whats most surprising of all: In this case, declining to assert the privilege may not only promote a healthy balance of powersit may be the best way to protect the privilege itself.

Read more here:

Executive Privilege Should Not Protect Trump's January 6 Actions - The Atlantic

Delusional thinking

A recent letter writer stated that Trump loved God and his country, which reveals the particularly delusional thinking of many on the right. Simply reviewing Trump's quotes mocking the "losers" who died in wars or his self-acknowledged history of manipulating anyone to his personal benefit, makes it crystal clear he is neither a patriot nor a man of faith.

He has denied the need for any forgiveness from anyone (a valued Christian tenet), rarely attends any religious proceedings while several of his top aides acknowledge that he frequently mocked his Christian supporters as dupes and hustlers.

More: Letters to the editor for Wednesday, Oct. 6: Miss Donald Trump yet?

Meanwhile, not only did he deceptively avoid the draft, but also even said to Gen. John Kelly on Memorial Day when they were visiting the gravesite of Kelly's son, "I don't get it. What was in it for them?"

Essentially, Trump is incapable of understanding the idea of doing something for someone other than himself, which is at direct odds with someone who would love either God or country and more aligned with an immoral narcissist who so wanted to remain in power that he encouraged an attempted insurrection while promoting a well-documented lie about the election.

Shame on him and those who continue to excuse his unconscionable behaviors.

John Pinney, Eugene

In response to Lynn Thomasons question of Does anyone miss Trump yet?, let me count the ways I dont.

Do I miss the misogyny and unrelenting disrespect of women? (Grab em by the p----. You can do anything.) Nah, I dont think so.

How about the blatant racism; its just so charming. Nope, not even a little bit.

The lying, OK,who doesnt miss the constant lying? (Obama wasnt born in America.) Not me, not a chance.

The never-ending whining, the blaming everybody else for his shortcomings, the petulancy that a three-year old has discarded. Now, come on, I must miss those. Umm, nope.

Am I saying I dont miss the boasting, the bragging, the inflated sense of self-importance? Yeah, I guess I am.

Norma Sax, Eugene

Two writers recently have written about their problems with our country. One says he and others want to get rid of all of our lawmakers from president to mayor. He says any lawmaker who tells us what to do or how to live needs to be removed. In other words, any laws, regulations or mandates he doesnt like should be abolished, which sure sounds like anarchy where we all do as we please regardless of how dangerous to other citizens.

The second cant sleep at night because of our current president and his policies. She longs for the good old days when our former president bullied, blasphemed and constantly mislead our citizens, and even brought about an attempt to overthrow our constitutionally elected government while assaulting Capitol police officers. This same former president, without any medical expertise, advised our citizens to inject bleach or take animal medications to protect themselves from a deadly virus which he called a hoax that killed more than a half-million of our citizens on his watch.

It seems like both writers need to pack up and leave our misguided country and maybe both can sleep well.

Hal Huestis, Eugene

Submit a letter of 200 words or fewer to rgletters@registerguard.com. Include your full name, mailing address and phone number for purposes of verification.

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Letters to the editor for Wednesday, Oct. 13: Donald Trump stirs the pot again - The Register-Guard

Who knew that the pairing of New Jersey Generals owner Donald Trump and running back Herschel Walker would haunt us almost 20 years later?Illustration: Getty

It was only last month that the world was reminded and presented with sickening details of Ric Flairs alleged sexual assault of a flight attendant on WWEs infamous Flight From Hell in 2002.

So, cancel culture being what it is, thats the last wed ever hear about Flair in a public setting, right?

Oh, you thought cancel culture was real? Ha! You must have also thought that Flair and Dusty Rhodes really hated each other all those years.

Of course Flair is back in the news already, and of course hes finding comfort hanging out with another alleged sexual predator, former President Donald J. Trump. Both of those too-tanned egotists will be part of a faded-star-studded fundraiser for former USFL running back and current U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker who we learned this week is definitely not a Nazi sympathizer because his campaign explicitly had to say so.

G/O Media may get a commission

Doug Flutie, of course, played with Walker for the New Jersey Generals, the team owned by Trump before like so many of The Donalds ventures they went out of business. More recently, Flutie has been on television helping Frank Thomas sell Nugenix, the thing that isnt quite a steroid, isnt quite a dick pill, and isnt quite something you should probably put in your body. He should be right at home with a bunch of people who have suggested hydroxychloroquine, bleach, and horse dewormer as potential coronavirus cures!

And then theres Tom Glavine. Hes only seemingly connected to Walker through the post-career athlete charity circuit, which is a good thing. Hes also a rich white guy who grew up playing hockey and then became a pro baseball player, so its not stunning that the leftys politics would veer right. Still, it takes a special kind of person, and not a good kind of special, to be like, Mar-A-Lago fundraiser? And Im on the dais? Sign me up!

For just a thousand bucks, you can have dinner in the same room as all of these has-beens, and also share air with a lot of people who, uh, youre not gonna want to share air with in the middle of this pandemic. But we never said any of this was a good idea. Quite the opposite, just like pivoting away from swastikas by cozying up to sex pests.

See the rest here:

Weird flex to pivot from swastikagate to cozying up with alleged sex predators, but you do you, Herschel - Deadspin

Jon Stewart thinks former President Donald Trump has a real shot at returning to the White House if he runs again in 2024.

I think hes got it, hes got a very good chance. And theyre smarter about it, Stewart told The New Yorker editor David Remnick during a virtual interview Sunday as part of The New Yorker Festival.

Stewart likened the deadly Jan. 6 riot in which a mob of violent Trump supporters, incited by the ex-president and his enablers, stormed the U.S. Capitol in a futile bid to overturn the 2020 election to the television special which all the TV networks were focused on.

Former reality personality Trump, who has yet to formally declare his candidacy, is brilliant at understanding what will drive the television narratives, said Stewart, whose new Apple TV+ show The Problem With Jon Stewart debuted last month.

But although a future Trump run would all be about Jan. 6 and Stop the Steal, Stewart predicted, he said what Republicans really learned from this exercise was there are really specific pivot points within the American electoral system, and those pivot points are generally the administration of elections run by partisans, but not ideologues.

Stewart suggested the replacement of said election officials with ideologues could lead to a right-wing administrative coup and bring about an early-stage minority rule. The actual danger of what happened is that it exposed a fragility at a level that is not flashy, or sexy, or known, he added.

Last month, Stewart admitted misjudging Trump before the 2016 election, saying it was ridiculousness and shamelessness that actually made him dangerous.

More here:

Jon Stewart Explains Why Donald Trump Has Very Good Chance Of Winning In 2024 - HuffPost

Make your vote count for local government

Election Day for local government and school board races is Tuesday, Nov. 2. Many decisions profoundly affecting our lives will be made by those we choose by our vote.

Learn about your candidates through your newspaper and virtual candidate forums online.

Find your polling place at VOTE411.org. Read what some candidates have to say about the issues at Find Your Races on VOTE411.org. The non-partisan questions were posed by the League of Women Voters.

Call your County Election Office to get a Mail-in Ballot or apply online at KSvotes.org. You can mail your ballot or hand carry it to your Election Office. Also, check with your County Election Office for Advance Voting hours, beginning Oct. 13.

Have your government-issued Photo ID when you go to vote. For a list of acceptable IDs, visit lwvk.org. To get a free Kansas photo ID, go to http://www.gotvoterid.com.

If you do not have your ID with you at the polls or are not on the voter rolls as registered, you must be offered a Provisional Ballot. Contact your Election Office immediately after Nov. 2 to see what you can do to increase the chances of your Provisional Ballot being counted.

Make a plan now to exercise your right to vote!

Jacqueline Lightcap andMartha Pint, co-presidents of the League of Women Voters of Kansas, Topeka

Kansas Attorney General and wannabe governor Derek Schmidt is a conspiracy theorist and still believes Trumps Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen and fraudulent. He hasnt denounced the January 6 insurrection when criminals invaded and tried to destroy the the U.S. Capitol and hoped to kill officials viewed as Trumps enemies.

His most notorious stunt was joining with other crackpot attorneys general to sign a brief in support of a wacky Texas lawsuit designed to overturn the presidential election. This puts Derek in league with insurrectionists and seditionists. God help Kansas if such a traitor to the U.S Constitution becomes governor.

Prayer is needed that enough voters will emerge from their stupor and brainwashed state to flush Schmidts gubernatorial wishes down the election toilet. Sadly, Kansans have an abysmal record of supporting and voting for crooks and incompetents. Think Trump, Brownback, Kobach, Wagle, Masterson and Ryckman. Go figure!

Richard Schutz, Topeka

Logic, persuasion, facts I thought all that was rational would turn around this nations march toward total insanity. But now I know, there are a significant number of my countrys citizens who want a king to rule them, where the only fair election is not just when the king gets a majority of the votes, but when the king gets all of the votes.

These same citizens want a white country. We will all agree with each other, we will all be fundamentalist Christians, schools will teach what the king tells them to teach, we will no longer need elections.

When Donald Trump won in 2016, I was confident that ethical Republicans would save my country. What happened instead was that Republicans did speak up were lone voices who were quickly silenced. I thought elected Republicans would join forces and defeat this terrible scourge called Donald Trump.

What we have instead are elected Republicans who have been reduced to sniveling, groveling mere remnants of what they used to be or what I naively thought they were. Read page 291 of Michael Wolffs excellent book, "Landslide,"which chronicles the final days of the Trump presidency.

Most of the congressional Republicans have been co-opted. They think their own re-election is whats important. Democracy is no longer a value. Freedom to disagree, to be different, to care for others is being violently stripped away.

We will all be subjects of the king. What he tells us will be truth, even if some of our eyes are telling us otherwise. Too many of our peers already believe the would-be king. Others of us see him for what he strives to be: a dictator.

Terry Larson, Topeka

For the first time in quite a while I decided to go out to eat by myself for lunch. I chose one of my favorite places in southwest Topeka. The atmosphere was great, and the server was friendly and helpful. After all, I chose a salad and soup, so who can go wrong with that?

As I sat there in the air conditioning eating my salad, I thought of people during this pandemicwho are currently struggling with food insecurity. I have a friend who receives food assistance,and her main food supply for the month is when she goes shopping at the beginning of the month.

She told me that she usually eats the fresh items first and then when I asked if she had any food left at the end of the month she said, "Oh I have some lasagna and Chinese food in the freezer I can thaw." When we go out to eat, she keeps half her sandwich to take home for supper that evening.

For many of us to think of not having enough food to eat or not having access to proper nutritious food is something we just don't think about. The Topeka Rescue Mission has done an incredible job of helping those with food needs with Operation Food Secure.

My goal and I would propose a goal for each of us is to pick a local nonprofit organization to donate to or to volunteer at this fall and winter season. Let's not judge when someone in front of us in line is using a food card to pay for their groceries. And finally, let's offer up a prayer of thanksgiving for the food we get to eat each day. After all, we have so much.

Rebecca Lyn Phillips, Topeka

I wonder if any of you have had to file for unemployment, change insurance, get forms filled out for retirement, keep you household bills/repairs up to date--without any help from a wife or secretary, on an income of less than $50,000? This alone is a full-time job, so who has 45 hoursa week to work?

Sales tax, property tax, FCC tax, delivery tax, shipping charge, FED income tax ...

The piles of paperwork get bigger each day. The proof of who you are and are you really youmakes life almost impossible. One computer key punched in wrong can destroy your credit, your bank account, your incomeand change how many children you have, how much tax you oweor prove that you already paid someone, after they took your money.

The simplest things take months to get done. Life sure was simple when all you had were Wheaties or Cheerios to decide from now 365 flavors of cereal, and everyone is confused.

Do I wonder why there is more stress, depression, strokes, heart attacks andPTSD? If the system wasn't causing this then there wouldn't be a strain on the amount of doctors and nurses, medications and working-class taxpayers.

America was built on pride of buying your home, keeping it maintained, raising good children, paying your bills, working hard andbeing a good Christian. All I see now are people having expectations of a free ride, no pride in who they are, no ambition as to working, as others have, to get these things.

Congress, how about learning how your choices aren't working.The history class teaches checks and balances, have you heard of it?

Joyce Stuckey, Topeka

Read more:

A call to vote, Derek Schmidt's career turn, gratitude and fear of Trump. Readers have a lot to say. - The Topeka Capital-Journal

Oct. 15 (UPI) -- In complying with a Supreme Court order, President Joe Biden's administration says within a few weeks it will reinstate an immigration policy created by former President Donald Trump that forces migrants at the border to stay in Mexico, or another country, until their case is heard.

Biden and the Homeland Security Department had originally scrapped Trump's Migrant Protection Protocols, or the "Remain in Mexico" order. But the Supreme Court ruled in August that they had to reinstate it.

Thursday, the government said it disagrees, but is complying with, the high court's decision -- and that it should be back in effect by mid-November.

"[We are] taking necessary steps to comply with the court order, which requires us to reimplement [the policy] in good faith," the Homeland Security Department said, according to NBC News.

"We are working to do so, despite our appeal of the court's order, including, for example, by issuing contracts to rebuild temporary immigration-hearing facilities near the Southwest border."

The "Remain in Mexico" plan would require having the complete asylum case process done within six months, using temporary courts in tent facilities located at Texas border crossings.

The department said the government of Mexico must agree to accept the asylum seekers before the policy is restarted.

Originally posted here:

DHS says it will restart Trump's 'Remain in Mexico' policy next month - UPI News

In a party where Trumps enemies tend to see their political careers abruptly ended, Raffenspergers approach is being closely watched by Republicans within the state and outside.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger speaks during a news conference on Nov. 11, 2020, in Atlanta. | Brynn Anderson/AP Photo

The last internal poll I saw said that 87 percent of Republican primary voters felt like the election was stolen, said former Republican Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.). With those kinds of numbers, I dont see Brad getting through the primary.

If Raffensperger isnt Trumps top GOP nemesis, hes close to it. The Georgia secretary of state refused Trumps requests to alter the states vote count and feuded with the former president over Trumps baseless claims of widespread voter fraud. At one point, Raffenspergers office secretly recorded Trump trying to persuade the secretary of state to find votes to make him the winner a potential crime by Trump that local prosecutors are now investigating.

As a result, Trump has showered him with criticism for nearly a year, going so far as to call Raffensperger an enemy of the people.

Trumps obsession with Raffensperger shows no sign of fading. In July, the former president sent him a letter asking yet again to decertify the results of the 2020 election. As recently as two weeks ago, during a Georgia rally, Trump called Raffensperger incompetent and strange.

When Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.) a staunch Trump ally announced earlier this year hed challenge Raffensperger in the primary, Trump immediately endorsed him.

Trump also had Hice give brief remarks at the September rally where the former president also trashed Gov. Brian Kemp, Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and state Attorney General Chris Carr all Republicans who rebuffed Trumps calls to overturn the election results.

Duncan, who has been critical of Trump, decided against running for another term and instead wrote a book about the future of the party. Kemp and Carr are seeking reelection next year along with Raffensperger, but have largely ignored the presidents attacks.

Raffensperger has taken a different tack.

After Trump used his rally to mock-endorse Democrat Stacey Abrams who is expected to mount her second campaign for Georgia governor after refusing to formally concede her last race for the office three years ago Raffensperger wrote a USA Today op-ed comparing Trump to Abrams.

Next month hell publish a book called Integrity Counts, billed by Simon & Schuster as Raffenspergers inspiring story of commitment to the integrity of American democracy.

Were out there setting the record straight. No. 1 is that President Trump did not carry the state of Georgia, Raffensperger told POLITICO, pointing to multiple recounts, reviews and investigations that confirmed the accuracy of the Georgia results.

Seth Bringman, a spokesperson for Abrams, swiped at Raffensperger for comparing her 2018 loss to Trumps, saying that Abrams succeeded in court to count more Georgians votes, with reputable attorneys presenting coherent arguments, and the courts agreed and counted those votes. It surprises us that Raffensperger equates counting eligible votes based on fact with throwing out the will of the people based on the Big Lie.

Raffenspergers op-ed, Bringman said, amounts to attacking Stacey and pushing election subversion in a sad attempt to win the votes of the insurrectionist wing in his upcoming primary.

Raffenspergers frontal assault on Trump is widely viewed as a doomed strategy in a state where Trump dominates the GOP and majorities of Republicans believe the 2020 election was stolen a January poll showed only 45 percent of Republicans supported the secretary of state.

That survey was taken just after Republican incumbents lost their two U.S. Senate runoff races on Jan. 5. Both senators called on Raffensperger to resign at Trumps insistence after he lost Georgia in November.

Speaking of Raffenspergers confrontational approach toward Trump, Westmoreland said, its probably not helpful in a primary. Republican voters think the election was stolen. But he also said many Republicans were troubled with Trumps rally comment that Abrams might be better than having your existing governor.

While Raffensperger acknowledges the difficulties he faces going forward, he said he has no choice but to speak out. He also did not fault Kemp or Carr for failing to denounce Trumps efforts to overturn the election.

It's a conundrum on how to respond to some statements [from Trump] when they're over the top, or they're said pejoratively, Raffensperger said. If the former president has endorsed Stacey Abrams, I would think that would be shocking for most Republicans.

Raffensperger said he has faith that voters will reward him for running a race with integrity and that they understand that I'll make the hard, difficult calls of standing up because it's easy to follow your integrity. It may not be fun. But the decision was easy, because it was based on the law, based on the Constitution, and based on the truth.

Trump is expected to return to the state before the 2022 primaries, and hes certain to trash Raffensperger again. Raffensperger said hes comfortable continuing to push back against Trump if the situation warrants.

I think it's always important to speak the truth, he said. I think it's always important to do that respectfully.

See the rest here:

Georgia election official takes the fight to Trump - POLITICO