Everyone knows Trump wouldn't have gone if he couldn't have used the event for campaign purposes. Too bad it wasn't pouring down rain that day because everyone knows he wouldn't have gone then either.

Army blasts Trump trip to Arlington cemetery for violating decorum

The Republican Party nominee for president took part in a wreath laying ceremony at the cemetery, then visited Section 60 of the cemetery, where many troops killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are buried. Shots of Trump smiling and giving a thumbs-up sign alongside service members' tombstones were later used in campaign spots.

It is an indisputable fact that Trump was endorsing himself during the TikTok video:

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
ARMY NATIONAL MILITARY CEMETERIES
ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY
ARLINGTON, VA 22211-5003
SAAC-PAO 18 April 2022

MEMORANDUM FOR RECORD
SUBJECT: Media Policy for Army National Military Cemeteries

(8) Filming or photographing will not be permitted if it conveys the impression that
cemetery officials or any visitor or family member is endorsing any product, service or
organization. Additionally, ANC will not authorize any filming for partisan, political or
fundraising purposes, in accordance with the Hatch Act, 32 CFR 553, and AR 360-1.

FTA:

Trump reposted an unhinged batch of Truth Social replies calling for his political opponents to be prosecuted, judged, and locked up in prison. Trump and his close associates have signaled for a campaign of retribution if they return to the White House.

Trump reposted images of 27 individuals including Barack Obama along with the word, "coup d'etat." Trump believes these individual have done him wrong and has marked them for retribution.

Ron Filipkowski
@RonFilipkowski
I wonder how much different this election would look if local media in swing states would actually report some of the most vile and insane things Trump posts daily on Truth Social and says at his rallies?

Trump unleashed a new round of threats on Truth Social today, reposting Kamala Harris in an orange jumpsuit, a list of 27 people including Obama who should be prosecuted for treason, and a call to prosecute members of the J6 Committee.

Won't this count as lying for political gain? Yes, I believe it would:

There was an 18-month stretch that saw no combat, or "hostile," deaths in Afghanistan: from early February 2020 to August 2021.

There were two combat deaths reported in early February 2020, when Trump was president, and none reported again until late August 2021, when an attack killed 13 U.S. troops amid the exit from Afghanistan, during Biden's presidency. There were also several "non-hostile" deaths among U.S. service members in Afghanistan during that time frame, specifically in 2020.

Looking at other periods of Trump's presidency also tells a different story than the one he offered.

During the last, full 18 months before Trump left office in January 2021--from July 2019 to December 2020 --there were 12 combat deaths reported.

Further, the parents of those 13 who were killed approved in advance a photographer and videographer.
You can see it here:
x.com
#17 | Posted by BellRinger

It looks like the families of 2, not 13? 2 or 13, it doesn't matter:

A source with knowledge of the incident said the cemetery official tried to prevent Trump staffers from filming and photographing in a section where recent U.S. casualties are buried. The source said Arlington officials had made clear that only cemetery staff members would be authorized to take photographs or film in the area, known as Section 60.

"with overlaid captions claiming Trump didn't lose a single soldier in 18 month"

Trump misleads on Afghanistan casualties

CLAIM: When former President Donald Trump was in charge, 18 months went by in Afghanistan when "we didn't lose one American soldier."

AP'S ASSESSMENT: False. There is no year-and-half time frame under Trump's presidency alone that no combat deaths among U.S. service members were reported. That occurred during the 18 months preceding the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, which included months under the Biden administration as well.

During Trump's presidency, which ran from January 20, 2017, to January 20, 2021, there were 45 combat deaths among U.S. service members reported in Afghanistan, as well as 18 "non-hostile" deaths, according to the Defense Casualty Analysis System.

Ron Filipkowski
@RonFilipkowski

First half of clip is JD Vance today saying he doesn't need a teleprompter like Kamala Harris because he's smart. Second half of clip is him minutes later calling Abbey Gate in Afghanistan "Abbey Road," which is a Beatles album.

Lawyer who drafted special counsel regulations predicts fate of Judge Cannon's deeply dangerous' dismissal of Trump's Mar-a-Lago indictment

A Supreme Court lawyer and former acting U.S. solicitor general who drafted the special counsel regulations in the late 1990s blasted U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon's dismissal of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago indictment as "cuckoo" and all but certain to be overturned on appeal.

Noting that challenges of special counsels' authority have repeatedly flopped in the courts, perhaps most memorably during special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, Katyal recounted some legal history.

"I think the most important point about this . .is eight different judges over the last many years have rejected this exact argument," Katyal said, including the Trump-appointed judge who presided over the felony gun trial of President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden. "And the special counsel regulations that Jack Smith is appointed under, I should say by way of disclosure to all of our viewers, I drafted those back in 1999 when I was a young Justice Department staffer in connection with the entire Justice Department."

Katyal said that when he and then U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno went to Capitol Hill and briefed the House and the Senate on the regulations, there was no pushback of the kind seen in Cannon's dismissal order.

"Not a single person from either political party [in Congress] said a word about this kind of idea that the special counsel wasn't authorized and that's so because we've had special counsels for over a century, since the time of President Ulysses Grant," Katyal said. "And now this judge comes along, and with the stroke of her pen tries to undo these very serious accusations against Donald Trump."

Trump was invited but that doesn't change the fact that photographs and videos were forbidden.

Oops, here's the link:

FTA:

"I want to be clear: We have not seen any indication to suggest Crooks was directed by a foreign entity to conduct the attack," FBI Assistant Director Bobby Wells told reporters.

Another official, Kevin Rojek, the FBI special agent in charge of the bureau's Pittsburgh field office, said that, in addition to searching for information on both conventions, the shooter also searched for details of campaign events held by both Trump and President Joe Biden, who was still the presumptive Democratic nominee when Trump was shot.

Rojek said that investigators found a "mixture of ideologies" in the content the FBI recovered from Crooks' accounts. "I would say that we see no definitive ideology associated with our subject, either left-leaning or right-leaning," he said. "It's really been a mixture and something we're still attempting to analyze and draw conclusions on."

FTA:

The fake accounts are among 56 profiles on X identified by CNN and CIR, using a mixture of digital sleuthing and reverse image search tools, as appearing to be part of a coordinated campaign backing the Trump-Vance ticket ahead of the 2024 presidential election. There's no indication that the Trump campaign is involved.

Experts say this could be just the tip of the iceberg. An analysis of the 56 pro-Trump accounts reveals a systematic pattern of inauthentic behavior. All of the accounts use photographs of beautiful, young women-- many of them stolen, while others appear to be AI generated--who declare their support for Trump and use hashtags such as #MAGAPatriots, #MAGA2024 and #IFBAP (I Follow Back All Patriots). In many cases, CNN and CIR found the images had been manipulated to add Trump and MAGA slogans to otherwise unbranded clothing, all with captions that call to get out the vote.

The accounts also post similar messages, which often include English language errors (a potential sign of foreign interference, according to experts), and sometimes repost each other. Most have been created in the last few months and have seen their follower count grow rapidly; all give their location as being in the United States. Fifteen of the fake accounts have blue check marks--supposed to indicate that they have been verified--and eight of those have been identified as using stolen images.

Yes, Vance is weird, but his ideology is dangerous. He doesn't belong anywhere near the vice-presidency.

Here's the second thread for those who don't use X:

#NeverForget that time Trump accidentally told the truth about the US withdrawal from Afghanistan: "I started the process, all the troops are coming back home. They couldn't stop the process!"

And the lying by the Trump campaign continues:

Dan Lamothe
@DanLamothe
Fact check: JD Vance says here there hasn't been a "single" investigation into the Abbey Gate bombing. That is very wrong.

In fact, there have been a few, including one in which DOD released more 2,000+ pages of docs. They formed a backbone for a series of stories I did in 2022.

Double standard depending on what party the POTUS is from:

emptywheel
@emptywheel
One thing Jack Smith did with the superseding indictment to distinguish official from private acts was to cut everything that happened in the Oval Office (and emphasize that Trump's near-lethal tweet abt Pence was sent from private dining room).

That's a really interesting distinction given that Brett Kavanaugh, who spent years pursuing certain acts that happened within the Oval Office, in a criminal investigation of a President.

Perspective:

Nina Jankowicz
@wiczipedia

Let's talk about Mark Zuckerberg's letter to the House Judiciary Committee, in which he alleges that he felt that the White House "repeatedly pressured his teams to censor" content.

This is nothing more than a cynical political ploy at self preservation. 1/

Jim Jordan and the right have been alleging censorship for years. Why does Zuckerberg release this letter now, three months before the election? To signal to Congressional republicans that he's not against them. It worked for Musk- why shouldn't Zuckerberg try it out now too? 2/

Interestingly, if these allegations were real, Jordan could have made them himself. He has in his possession dozens of interviews and depositions with tech workers, including Facebook employees, who say they did not feel coerced by the White House. 3/

Meta employees were under oath. Zuckerberg's letter is not. He can write whatever he likes, true or not. Jordan should release the transcripts from Meta employees. The Democrats on the Judiciary Committee have been asking for this for months. 4/

These allegations went all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court. The conservative Court could not find a single instance in the mountain of evidence that they reviewed that supported the claim that the US government had unduly coerced social media platforms. 5/

Jordan's manufactured "censorship" crisis started over two years ago, and amounts to a coordinated campaign on those who are standing up for the truth.

I guess Zuckerberg isn't doing that anymore. 6/

I just hope Mark appreciates the irony that by giving Jordan what he wants, he himself is giving into government pressure./end

FTA:

We're once again faced with a situation where a substantial bloc of American politics is talking about committing acts of violence and bringing down the government. We saw this before, in 2020, in the run-up to that election and the aftermath. A lot of us held back; obviously, these guys have a long history of blowing off a lot of steam, talking, and wildly exaggerating their actual ability to carry out a threat. But I think we saw on January 6th, that was probably not the wisest view to take. We should have been paying more attention to what these guys were saying amongst themselves online. And what they're saying amongst themselves right now is probably disturbing. Because they're talking about shooting their neighbors. . . .

So let's talk scenarios. What if Trump wins?

There are two components. One is the immigrant front, the whole Minutemen ethos is going to come into play here, where these guys armed with AR-15s will claim we're just supplementing the government; we're just rounding people up and serving them up to the Border Patrol. Which is what they did in Arizona for quite a few years. But this will spread to the national scale.

The second component, it's pretty obvious that Trump and his minions basically hope that they can work the electoral count to a point where they can force the outcome of the election to either go through the Republican Congress or the Republican Supreme Court. But either way, it will be a de facto installment of a dictator. Then there will be massive protests"I think quite deservedly so. And the Three Percenters, militias, the Proud Boys, who have all been gearing up for this, are going to come out to play, not just defending the Trump administration but attacking the protesters. And doing so with reckless abandon. They'll just call them "antifa""[they] have a ready-made excuse.

If we're talking about the kind of rhetoric we're seeing in right-wing Telegram spaces, they're basically talking about how it will be "decided by the bullet box, not the ballot box."

What happens if the Democrats win?

Kamala Harris said it best: "Donald Trump is not a serious man."

Mr. Thumbs Up Smiley Face has no shame:

Donald Trump Holds Responsibility for Afghanistan Withdraw, Ex-Adviser Says

McMaster, who was Trump's top national security adviser from February 2017 to April 2018, told CNN's Anderson Cooper during an interview on Monday night that his former boss was partly responsible for the debacle because he had decided to negotiate with the Taliban on terms of a withdrawal.

"Oh, yes," McMaster said after being asked by Cooper if Trump bears "part of the responsibility for what happened." McMaster then added, "The whole premise of talking to the Taliban before you leave Afghanistan...why the heck were we even doing that?"

"The Obama administration didn't negotiate with al-Qaeda and Iraq on the way out," he continued. "If we were gonna leave, why not just leave? What happened in these series of negotiations is we kind of threw the Afghans under the bus on the way out... then forced them to release 5,000 of some of the most heinous people on the earth."

In response to a request for clarification from Cooper, McMaster confirmed that he was referring to the Trump administration forcing the then-U.S.-backed Afghan government to release 5,000 Taliban fighters as part of the withdrawal negotiations.

Background info:

Patrick S. Tomlinson
@stealthygeek
Learned more about the story of this photo and now I'm mad.

This was taken today at Arlington National Cemetery. The grave belongs to Sgt Nicole Leeann Gee, USMC. She was among the 13 US service members killed in a suicide bombing during the Afghan withdrawal 3 yrs ago. 1/

Donald Trump is directly responsible for her death.

When negotiating the Afghanistan withdrawal, he deliberately cut out the Afghan government in Kabul we had been supporting for 20 years.

Instead, he negotiated exclusively with the Taliban. The enemy. 2/

Without any input from Kabul or our other partners in the theater, he released 5,000 Taliban, al Qaida, and affiliated fighters, criminals, and terrorists from prison because the Taliban told him to, swelling their combat force in the months before the withdrawal. 3/

When the Pentagon told Trump they would need a bare minimum security force of 4,000 troops to ensure a safe, orderly withdrawal from the country, Trump overrode his military advisors and slashed the number of remaining deployed troops to just 2,500. Sgt Gee among them. 4/

Trump did all of this in the waning months of his time in office, much of it after losing the election, to sabotage the situation and leave a --------- for Joe Biden to inherent. Three years ago today, that trap went off, costing 13 service members their lives. 5/

FTA:

Two members of Donald Trump's campaign staff had a verbal and physical altercation Monday with an official at Arlington National Cemetery, where the former president participated in a wreath-laying ceremony, NPR has learned.

A source with knowledge of the incident said the cemetery official tried to prevent Trump staffers from filming and photographing in a section where recent U.S. casualties are buried. The source said Arlington officials had made clear that only cemetery staff members would be authorized to take photographs or film in the area, known as Section 60.

"Federal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities within Army National Military Cemeteries, to include photographers, content creators or any other persons attending for purposes, or in direct support of a partisan political candidate's campaign," according to the statement. "Arlington National Cemetery reinforced and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants."

On August 20, 2024, Attorney General Ken Paxton's Election Integrity Unit executed multiple search warrants in Frio, Atascosa, and Bexar Counties as part of an ongoing election integrity investigation.

In 2022, the Election Integrity Unit received a referral from the 81st Judicial District Attorney Audrey Louis regarding allegations of election fraud and vote harvesting that occurred during the 2022 elections. The subsequent two-year investigation provided sufficient evidence to obtain the search warrants in furtherance of the ongoing investigation.