Today’s posts got interrupted by a friend needing my help with an emotional crisis which I was very happy to give, and then my wonderful husband who puts up and supports me through my own crises / helps me through them needing to work in my Pink Palace to get my Pride Flag backdrop done and start moving my shelving around to make things better for me. Hubby is wonderful and truly understands and wants my Pink Palace to be not only a good space for me but a safe space for all my needs. To anyone who has a complaint about my naming my office space my Pink Palace … nicely said get over yourself. This is 2024 and I get to call my spaces what I want … the not nicely way to put it came to mind but instead of voicing it I will say that I left being embarrassed or upset over my being who I am sexually and emotionally behind me over 40 years ago. Hugs. Scottie.
Doesn’t any good people see what this is. This is government by the tRump cult thugs willing to threaten or even do violence. Horrible way for our country to be run. We need to stop this right now as forceable as we can. Hugs. Scottie.
For Jamie McGregor, a businessman in Springfield, Ohio, speaking favorably about the Haitian immigrants he employs has come to this: death threats, a lockdown at his company and posters around town branding him a traitor for hiring immigrants.
They came by the hundreds — phone calls, emails and letters from white supremacists, neo-Nazis and other people they had never met. “The owner of McGregor Metal can take a bullet to the skull and that would be 100 percent justified,” said one message left on the company voice mail.
To defend himself and his family, Mr. McGregor has had to violate his own vow to never own a gun. “I have struggled with the fact that now we’re going to have firearms in our house — like, what the hell?” said Mr. McGregor, who makes parts for cars, trucks and tractors.
A business owner in Springfield, Ohio had to buy a gun after his family and his 80-year-old grandmother received death threats because he hired Haitian immigrants. Even though the business owner voted for Trump twice. Donald Trump is dividing America. https://t.co/ZpmiPySU3i
Through public remarks, Truth Social screeds and more than 100 preemptive lawsuits, Donald Trump is assembling a detailed catalog of excuses for rejecting the results of the 2024 election — if he loses.
Why it matters: The Trump-aligned efforts to overturn the 2020 election — both overtly and covertly, peacefully then violently — shocked the American public. No one should be surprised this time around.
Listen to Trump: The former president, who risks jail time and more criminal trials if he loses, has expanded his range of baseless attacks on U.S. voting procedures in recent weeks and months.
Overseas voting: Trump falsely claimed Monday that Democrats are exploiting an overseas ballot program for expats and military members in order to circumvent “any citizenship check or verification of identity.”
Early voting: At a rally in Pennsylvania last week, Trump denounced what he called the “stupid” concept of voting 45 days before the election — floating conspiracy theories about his loss in the crucial swing state four years ago.
Mail-in voting: Trump has long despised mail-in ballots. He’s recently attacked the U.S. Postal Service as incompetent and untrustworthy — even as the GOP has pushed its voters to embrace the practice.
Zoom in: The millions of undocumented migrants who have crossed into the U.S. during the Biden administration are a top campaign issue. They’re also being used to fuel new voter fraud conspiracy theories.
Earlier this month, Trump demanded that House Republicans use the threat of a government shutdown to pass a measure requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections.
That effort failed, but it gave Trump and Republicans a new excuse to claim election fraud — even though it’s already illegal and exceedingly rare for non-citizens to vote in U.S. elections.
Between the lines: Even without evidence of voting irregularities, Trump is preparing to deploy broader rhetorical arguments for why the election was fundamentally unfair.
The former president has accused Democrats of “cheating” by swapping out President Biden for Vice President Kamala Harris in June, and engaging in “lawfare” through criminal prosecution.
“If there was no cheating — if God came down from on high and said ‘I’m going to be your vote tabulator for this election,’ I would leave this podium right now,” Trump said Sunday at a rally in Pennsylvania.
“We have to have a landslide because they cheat so damn much.”
The big picture: Since 2020, the Republican Party apparatus has been reorganized — from the top down — to give credence to Trump’s false claims that election fraud is a scourge on American politics.
Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee say they’ve built a network of about 175,000 volunteer poll watchers and poll workers, part of a relentless focus on “election integrity.”
In Georgia, a hard-right election board has passed new rules that Democrats fear could be used to undermine confidence in the results if Trump loses the critical battleground state.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) drew outrage last week by pledging to certify the 2024 election and “follow the Constitution” only if it’s a “free, fair and safe election.”
What to watch: On Nov. 1, 2020, Axios reported that Trump had privately told confidants he planned to prematurely declare victory on election night if it looked like he was “ahead.”
Braddock had fled to the Philippines where he was eventually deported last year as an illegal alien and arrested in Los Angeles.
During a call that was recorded before he became a candidate, William Braddock repeatedly warned an activist to not support GOP candidate Anna Paulina Luna in the Republican primary for a Florida congressional seat because he had access to assassins https://t.co/OQFEYln82dpic.twitter.com/08OLNgwWQy
“It has been determined that Google has illegally used a system of only revealing and displaying bad stories about Donald J. Trump, some made up for this purpose while, at the same time, only revealing good stories about Comrade Kamala Harris.
Trump, as always, is lying. Financial disclosure records show that Paul Pelosi sold 2000 shares of Visa nearly three months ago. The DOJ filed its antitrust suit against Visa on Wednesday.
Trump calls for a Republican AG in "a Republican territory" to investigate Nancy Pelosi pic.twitter.com/oqbQTkptD8
Yesterday the Hollywood Reporter interviewed luxury watch experts who declared that the “Swiss” watches are likely cheap crap made in China. A disclaimer on Trump’s website says that the watches sold may not look like the “representations” seen on the site. The disclaimer also pointedly make no promises about delivery.
“And yet she’s taken in the worst of those people. The killers, the jailbirds, all of the worst of the people. She’s taking them in. And then I have to sit there and listen to her bullshit last night.
Trump on Kamala Harris speech: I have to sit there and listen to her bullshit and who puts it on Fox News? And they shouldn't be allowed to put it on.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said in a Saturday email: “The data in this letter is being misinterpreted. The data goes back decades; it includes individuals who entered the country over the past 40 years or more, the vast majority of whose custody determination was made long before this Administration. It also includes many who are under the jurisdiction or currently incarcerated by federal, state or local law enforcement partners.”
As Dale goes on to note, Trump’s lies have been widely spread by right wing media and GOP lawmakers, such as the Hitler-quoting GOP rep seen below.
The republican’s know their policies and ideas are very, very unpopular. They can’t win on them, so they are forced to cheat and drum up fake fears to scare voters to vote for them. Hugs. Scottie
‘Congratulations’ the fake letter reads, ‘you have been selected as a Wayward Steward exchange home for homeless immigrants and victims of foreign wars.’
A Bala Cynwyd couple received a fraudulent letter from the Pennsylvania Congressional Office of Immigration Affairs this week informing her that she’d been selected as a “wayward steward” to house five refugees. The office does not exist, nor does the program. Elizabeth Bennett holds the letter on Sept. 27, 2024.Read moreCharles Fox / Staff Photographer
A Bala Cynwyd voter got a detailed letter this week from the made-up Pennsylvania Congressional Office of Immigration Affairs notifying her that her household had been selected to house five migrant refugees.
No office exists, nor does such a government-mandated housing program, but the letter, doctored to look like an official government document, provided specific details designed to mislead someone less attuned to a scam — and laid the blame for the fake program at the feet of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris during a heated and close election in which immigration has increasingly become a focal point.
“I’m concerned to find out how many people might have actually gotten it and to make sure the record’s set straight so people aren’t getting fearful or angry and deciding to vote another way,” Elizabeth Bennett, 62, said.
The letter says Bennett was selected as a “wayward steward” as part of “US5Ca12-B … written into Law by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.” No such law exists.
It advised Bennett she’d been selected based on property and income records and would receive an $80 weekly stipend for food costs. The letter suggested a “minimum of one bedroom be prepared with a minimum of 5 beds,” with a link to “government-approved” bunk beds.
The return address listed is for an intersection in front of the Capitol building in Harrisburg.
Neither the governor’s office nor the department of state immediately returned a request for comment.
Bennett is unsure why she was targeted. She has a large Harris/Walz sign in her front yard. Ironically, she’s also done volunteer resettlement work with immigrants for the last 30 years but she assumes that was just a coincidence.
“Of all the people they could send this to, I would be the one who is like, ‘OK let’s get the room set up, we gotta take care of these people,’” she said. But as she read on, she realized the program was fake and intended to scare people.
“I could definitely see, even for me reading this letter it felt threatening even though I’m very pro-immigrant because it felt like something that was being imposed on me,” she said.
It’s unclear if other Pennsylvanians received the letter. Bennett posted about it in small Facebook groups but hasn’t heard from others who received it.
But whoever created the letter took time to make it look like an official document, including an imprint of a fake Pennsylvania seal on the letterhead and a stamped date informing Bennett when to expect the migrants.
A listed phone number for the fake office, with a Harrisburg area code, goes to a voicemail for the named office where a messaging service invites the caller to press one for housing vouchers, two for reimbursements, and three to “expand your footprint to help more people.”
The letter Bennett received went on to specify garages or sheds without electricity and running water could not be used.
“Thank you for your dedication to the health and safety of these future Americans!” it concluded.
Misinformation about migrant resettlement and illegal immigration has been rampant in the campaign. Former President Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance have made it a focus of their bid for the White House claiming that migrant resettlement has drained resources from small towns and that illegal immigration has driven crime and economic hardship, with little evidence.
The federal Office of Refugee Resettlement does invite people to be part of a government hosting program but participation is entirely optional.
State Rep. Joe Hohenstein (D., Philadelphia) is an immigration attorney who called the letter “a betrayal of the actual spirit of our country.”
“It’s definitely designed to make people think that there’s a broader government program to resettle refugees and my guess is that the intention is to stir up fear of immigrants and refugees,” he said. “That’s reprehensible It’s a betrayal of the actual spirit of our country of being a welcoming beacon to people who are seeking freedom.”
In the next week, Hohenstein is cosponsoring a bill to establish an Office of New Pennsylvanians, which would help provide support services for refugee businesses and migrants fleeing persecution in Pennsylvania.
“This would provide help to people who need it,” he said. “It would not be a mandate to anyone.”
He feels entitled to take anything he wants without paying for it. He also believes it is better to just due and ignore anyone else’s rights. He is the great cult leader. Hugs. Scottie
Walters has ordered daily bible lessons for Oklahoma’s public school students in all grades. Several dozen school districts are currently defying that edict.
Earlier this month, local outlets exposed Walters for spending state money to fund a national tour of far-right events to “promote himself on the national stage.”
Walters is widely expected to run for governor. Current governor and fellow Christian nationalist Kevin Stitt is term-limited.
Last month around two dozen GOP state lawmakers signed a letter calling for an impeachment probe into Walters for refusing to disclose his spending.
Walters has hired a raft of far-right figures, including Chaya Rachik and Dennis Prager, to help him “turn students to Jesus.” Raichik is reportedly helping overhaul public school libraries.
Imagine all the good that those millions of dollars could be used for. It could be used to pay Oklahoma’s hardworking teachers or provide additional supplies and resources for its struggling schools.
Instead, it’s being used to promote Walters’ Christian nationalist agenda. https://t.co/DE20Pw1846
Please remember the people who first led Israel in the beginning were also terrorist. Many in the Israeli government in the early decades of Israel’s existence were also labeled terrorist. One person’s terrorist is another person’s avowed wonderful member of government. It has been leaked that members of Israel’s government wants to annex another sovereign country’s land and make it Israel’s property. Just like they have in the West bank, and Gaza. In fact some have talked about trying to take part of Egypt. This is because religious fanatics are running the country now and they claim their god gave them the entire area so they simply have the right to take it. And no one can stop them as long as Biden stays in the mind set of the 1950 / 60s/ 70s, because Biden won’t let anyone else strike Israel back to show them their god did not give them permission to take others lands. Bibi has given the middle finger to every US president and he is desperate to get tRump to win by dragging the US into a war in the Middle East. That is his plan to help tRump and hurt Harris. And they bombed an entire area of occupied apartments in Beirut, which is another war crime they committed. Hugs. Scottie
A marketing director of a well-known Swiss brand, said, “When you look at all of them, they scream Chinese-made watch. None of them is worth the asking price. Those blue screws on the tourbillon cage are a dead giveaway that it was partly made in China. You won’t find blue screws on a tourbillon made in Switzerland. And you can pick up a Chinese tourbillon for $100.”
Trump's "Vastly Overpriced" $100,000 "Swiss Watch" Is Probably Made in China, Experts Say https://t.co/neyxxt5J0U
Milei has cut support for welfare programs, soup kitchens, and other efforts to aid the needy.
Milei’s biggest cheerleader is Elon Musk, who has vowed to bring similar policies as the leader of Trump’s supposed “Department Of Government Efficiency.”
Of note, the planned department’s acronym just happens to be the same as a cryptocurrency often promoted by Musk.
Earlier this year Musk posted the below porn-adjacent image in celebration of Milei.
Not only did Hawley vote against the project, the report below notes that in 2019 Trump defunded all such military projects to divert the money to his border wall.
“We can VERIFY: No, Hawley did not secure $100 million for Fort Leonard Wood's military housing.”
Lying about supporting military families? While even voting AGAINST supporting them? That amounts to nothing more than stolen valor.https://t.co/jWt78m2qd4
The party who has people arrested, charged, and found guilty of voter fraud is the Republican Party. Every accusation from them is a confession of their own actions. They are setting it up to challenge the voters will and overturn the vote in that state. Hugs. Scottie
Hancock said that he learned during the trial that Rittenhouse had allegedly used racial slurs in messages sent to his friends and appeared to be looking for an opportunity to use a weapon. “There was a history of things he was doing prior to Kenosha, specifically patrolling the street for months with guns and borrowing people’s security uniforms, doing whatever he could to try to get into some kind of a gunfight,” Hancock claimed.
‘Patrolling the streets for months’: Kyle Rittenhouse confidants reveal new details the jury never knew https://t.co/zDg2esDw0t
The party maybe have evolved into the kind of anti-migrant, anti-Islam populist force that has taken hold across much of Europe, but it began as a political refuge for former Nazis. Not only has the FPÖ not disavowed that past, it embraces it — at least in private — with the leading party figures regularly getting to trouble for paying quiet tribute to their Nazi forebears.
Abrasive and provocative, far-right leader Herbert Kickl has one of the lowest approval ratings among Austria's top politicians, yet he is the frontrunner in Sunday’s parliamentary election, which has at times felt like a referendum on him https://t.co/NAPLJKizYypic.twitter.com/IUoS0CaQoV
As I often remind the haters, almost all of the children in the foster care and adoption system are there due to abuse and abandonment by the heterosexual parents.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing the federal government over its requirement that states provide LGBTQ+ affirming placement for foster care youth. https://t.co/Al87Q9y6L7
Now, cover you ears and listen, if you can bear it, to Beck and Roseanne Beck utterly desecrate the theme song. That set should be in the Smithsonian, not Glenn Beck’s fucking studio. And Edith Bunker would never have worn flip-flops.
As Tucker Carlson’s tour rolls on, headliner Roseanne Barr tells a cheering audience that the elites are eating babies and are vampires who drink blood and love the taste of human flesh but Trump is going to stop it. pic.twitter.com/ohLDmCm1It
RFK, Jr. will lead a motley collection of MAGA and anti-vaccine activists and others in a D.C. rally to "Rescue the Republic" this Sunday https://t.co/0pxUHC0NmU
Trump, as always, is lying. Financial disclosure records show that Paul Pelosi sold 2000 shares of Visa nearly three months ago. The DOJ filed its antitrust suit against Visa on Wednesday.
Mark Robinson now has to campaign with a cardboard cutout of Donald Trump. 🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/UjJ5UnYqhY
/2024/09/27/1727456622728.gif?w=1920)
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/pmn/FAKIWMSCXVGIDIVVRUCZQ7NRIM.jpg)
/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/pmn/b1bd3a0d-2d7c-4401-a7e3-5ae6984bf698.png)
