This is one of the most disturbing videos I have seen out of Portland yet. If this is what federal troops will do to a woman when the world is watching, imagine what they would have done if they were alone.
Portland Attorney Says Feds Did Not Read Her Rights, Identify Themselves
She was physically and sexually assaulted. I have to go try and calm down. My blood pressure is surging out of control after reading this. https://t.co/xy2ArA76k5
Here is a video of an arrest last night that has already appeared on Twitter filmed from another angle. The feds hold the arrestee down in the gas, for an interminable period of time. pic.twitter.com/bia17Zsx5a
The Senate rejected a bipartisan effort to significantly scale back Pentagon transfers of surplus military gear to civilian law enforcement in the wake of nationwide protests against police brutality and racism https://t.co/QezARfmx2l
A Detroit police corporal is facing felony assault charges amid accusations that he shot rubber pellets at 3 photojournalists who covered a protest in May against police brutality https://t.co/kHyTKxaIoe
— Brian 'Person Woman Man Camera TV' Beutler (@brianbeutler) July 24, 2020
NEW: Two filmmakers gained unprecedented access to the immigration officials carrying out Trump's hardline agenda. Then, they say they were threatened, told to delete scenes that made officers look bad and delay publication under after the election. https://t.co/JXhf8LmdEU
I have been informed that a number of factual claims McEnany makes in this clip are false. Paw Patrol has not been canceled and LEGO is still making police station sets. https://t.co/EX8Kqn0Gjk
And Live PD was cancelled because producers deleted footage of cops killing a man they pulled over for not dimming his headlights, not from "cancel culture".
Trump to Barstool: "The best day in my life in terms of business and life and everything was the day before I announced I was running for president. Everything was good...Now I’m really glad I did but I was treated very unfairly."
Trump told Barstool a detailed story about getting booed with Melania at the Robin Hood Foundation charity dinner around the night he announced his campaign in 2015.
They haven't gone to that dinner since 2011. And the 2015 event was a month before he announced.
The surge in the United States is so extreme that, once adjusted for population, 10 states are recording more new cases than any country in the world. @LaurenLeatherbyhttps://t.co/YAuicThA7F
“At some point, we’re going to have to do something much stronger than being invited in” — Trump teases using federal authorities to invade cities against the will of local officials pic.twitter.com/ycuCntX62k
Trump: You have to be very sharp. I’m dealing with the heads of these countries and everyone of them is a world class chess player and if you’re not a 100% on your game, if you’re not 100% sharp plus, you got a problem pic.twitter.com/g1T36f1U08
Saying "Air Force" again is not just misspeaking but is a failure of working memory. His brain should have slammed on the brakes at that moment and he should have paused or stammered before correcting himself. The fact that he just keeps on going means there's a problem.
— Sarah Annabelle Reeves (@SarahAnnabell15) July 24, 2020
We’re maybe two days away from Trump doing a press conference in a zoo to prove he can pick out an elephant.
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) July 24, 2020
Well... this is awkward. The NDAA, including the language on changing names of bases named after Confederate figures within three years, passed the Senate yesterday 86-14. https://t.co/EUd20BxHei
"We're going to do some other things with tele-rallies and online the week that we're discussing which will be really good" -- Trump announces that the 2020 RNC that was scheduled to take place in Jacksonville will not be happening pic.twitter.com/gU2U1GE0ka
Trump on Jacksonville: "When we chose it it was not at all hot, it was free. And all of a sudden it happened quickly. It happens quickly. And it goes away and it goes away quickly." Really does not, not without a major effort.
Ignoring pleas from health authorities, Trump held a no-distancing arena campaign rally in June. In July, he has bashed Democratic governors for not letting him do more. https://t.co/APqJK1j9CW
The United States has reported more than 1,000 coronavirus deaths on two consecutive days for the first time in almost two months, according to data from CNN and Johns Hopkins University.
"So I’m okay with it if they want to do it, but again, it makes us look bad, but they say it's good." Here's a transcript of Trump's dishonest, detached comments on testing to Fox News today: pic.twitter.com/nvByNTC1hx
Let me get this straight. So the states that closed down and had people abide by face masks are in good shape and those who didnt arent? That's pretty shocking to me
"Yesterday was a record corn day. They purchased more corn than any order ever, and that went on for two or three days, and soybeans and all" -- Trump on China pic.twitter.com/m6CWDVFebJ
"I have a very, very special person who loves children, who's I think one of the greatest athletes of all time. A lot of people say the greatest pitcher of all time. Known as a relief pitcher" -- Trump goes on a bizarre aside about Mariano Rivera pic.twitter.com/bxxX7KgSO3
Fauci is throwing the first pitch at Nationals Stadium, so naturally Trump has to counter with playing catch with Mariano Rivera. @Acynpic.twitter.com/vQdPbXtoNw
Trump concludes the building by announcing he wants a new FBI building in downtown DC to have a running track on the roof because "FBI people like to work out a lot." #wutpic.twitter.com/N2HolVHSX1
Trump Is Condemning People In Republican-Governed States To Death, Also (Equal Opportunity Murderer)
These are mostly Republican-led states. The president, at his "new tone" briefing the other day, said no states had been left wanting anything. https://t.co/l0K6434ied
"He misled viewers into believing we would publish his address when he was aware that we had no intention of doing so...After the broadcast someone attempted to break into the home of a photographer who doesn’t even know where Carlson lives" - @deanbaquethttps://t.co/pTmTUJokvO
Turns out when Guilfoyle tested+ for c19 at Rushmore, she did not drive home as advertised. Flew back private, left exposed staffers behind https://t.co/8zRhctAu6D
TRUMP: I asked the doctor, I said, 'is there some kind of cognitive test that I could take?' ... the last questions are much more difficult. Like a memory question. You'll go 'person, woman, man, camera, TV.' So they say -- 'can you repeat that?' ... for me it was easy." 😳 pic.twitter.com/pCKYoNy3BH
Most alarming was that he said it was really difficult. A test to determine if you are experiencing dementia or have had a stroke should not, by design, be difficult for a healthy person.
TRUMP: "The FBI, ATF, DEA, US Marshals service, and Homeland Security will together be sending hundreds of skilled law enforcement officers to Chicago to help drive down violent crime." pic.twitter.com/0xijEEi5aG
TRUMP: "That would be great if we can go into the hospital and just cure people were and we are at a position where we are actually able, to a certain extent, with what we have right now and we think in a very short period of time we will be able to do that." pic.twitter.com/m9eYkSy5F2
Trump on sending federal law enforcement agents into Chicago against mayor's will: "There will be a time when they're gonna want us to go in full blast ... we're arresting a lot of people that have been very bad." pic.twitter.com/2rg9WDQlGr
Trump on risk of kids transmitting coronavirus to parents and grandparents after contracting it in schools: "A lot of people are saying they don't transmit." (This is false.) pic.twitter.com/ElaNNOR1od
Trump responds to a question about whether he did some egregious self-dealing by asking his ambassador to get the British Open at his Turnberry golf course by doing a free promo for it pic.twitter.com/Gd0AteOF1S
Trump ends the news conference and walks away while ignoring a question asking him to clarify why he extended well wishes to accused sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell pic.twitter.com/RmGPD0cDV6
Trump on lessons he's learned from coronavirus: "It's highly political, and the Democrats are using it for political reasons ... regardless, to a certain extent it is what it is. It's going to burn out." pic.twitter.com/6bL1G2MyRt
Amanda Marcotte writes about the drivel consistently pushed by the mainstream press that Donald Trump has suddenly changed his "tone" and is acting mature and presidential.
Trump's act is about as believable as a guilty five-year-old insisting he did not eat that cookie – he cannot mask his boredom and it's impossible for him to sound sincere when reading his notes because he's borderline illiterate – but the top journalists in the country fall for it every. single. time., like Charlie Brown trying to kick the football.
Donald Trump is not going to "pivot." Yes, on Tuesday he stood at a podium and, in stiff and sulky fashion, said words that, as written, were relatively serious and realistic. ...
These are all words that Trump said. But they don't mean anything. ... [W]hatever temporary behavior we see on display, he will always, always, always revert to being "who he is, and always has been," which is to say a rancid monster with no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
Unfortunately, much of the media coverage gave an entirely different impression, presenting Trump's performance at Tuesday's press briefing as if it represented a real shift, and seeding the absolutely false hope that Trump might actually start doing something to fight the coronavirus, instead of acting like the coronavirus's biggest champion.
We've been down this road dozens of times before: Trump, facing bad press, sucks it up and, with the posture of a kid being dragged to the dentist, feigns being presidential for a few minutes. Then, with the predictability of a clock, he ... goes right back to his preferred mode: vitriol, incompetence and asserting that everything is "great" no matter how bad it gets. ...
Despite his claims that there's a new "strategy" in development, the White House has actually been trying to defund the already-failing coronavirus testing system and force hospitals to report cases to a mysterious data collection service within the Department of Health and Human Services, instead of directly to the CDC. The purpose of all this, of course, is to hide the numbers and hope that tricks the public into thinking Trump has the coronavirus problem licked. (Or that it never existed in the first place. Whichever!)
It's no mystery what's going on here: Trump demoted campaign manager Brad Parscale last week and hired a new one ... As often happens with the revolving door in TrumpWorld, new hires try to rein Trump in a little, coaxing him to pretend to be a normal human being ... The act never lasts. Trump always lashes out shortly after one of these "pivots," often saying something especially odious, a man gleefully throwing off the shackles of having to pretend to have any pro-social impulses at all. [*]
Remember, it was literally just last weekend that Trump ... told Chris Wallace of Fox News that the U.S. has "one of the lowest mortality rates in the world" (it's actually among the highest), that our death rate is going down (it's been climbing for several weeks and just reached 1,000 a day), and that he was right to claim ... the virus would just "disappear" one day (needless to say, that's not how this works). ...
Perhaps it's foolish to expect mainstream news outlets to get smarter about how they cover Trump, just as it's foolish of such journalists to expect Trump to get smarter, listen to his aides and start acting more presidential. But Trump is a deeply disturbed man who likely suffers from a personality disorder that makes growing, learning or changing impossible. Mainstream journalists, whose job is literally to learn things so they can boil down their knowledge for the general public, can and should do better. ... Stop falling for these stunts and focus on reporting the real news.
[*]: I prefer the more colloquial version of Marcotte's tweet:
It's not a mystery what happened: Trump's got a new campaign manager in his ear, begging him to act "presidential". It's also not mysterious what will happen next: Trump will decide that advice is stupid, as he always does, and act like a nuclear grade asshole.
Here are two statements from Trump, from the "OMG HE CHANGED TONE!" press conference:
All the best apologies include the phrase, "I cannot apologize".
— Jericho, Tin Street Kingpin (@fullincense) July 22, 2020
This “apology” checks all the boxes:
✅ I have daughters and therefore can empathize with women.
✅ I didn’t say what you heard I said.
✅ If I offended anyone because of something you thought I said, I’m sorry.
✅ My wife and I have struggled in the past.
✅ I love God.
🤦🏻♀️ https://t.co/AIBIQev89K
Robert Evans has worked as a conflict journalist in Iraq and Ukraine and reported extensively on far-right extremist groups in the United States.
I have been in the streets of Portland documenting this movement since the very first riot. Before the national press unleashes a flood of new stories based on their first few hours in town, I’d like to explain what’s been happening:
State and Federal law enforcement are at war with the people of Portland.
On July 20, Evans posted what must be the definitive account to date of what has been going on in Portland. offering a sober view of events; he has also uploaded numerous videos. With Donald Trump vowing to dispatch federal troops into other US cities to control and assault protesters, it is essential reading [any bolding below is my emphasis].
The city of Portland, Oregon is currently in the national spotlight after video evidence of federal agents driving rented vans and abducting activists went viral. This footage was taken in the early morning hours of July 15, and an Oregon Public Broadcasting article published on the 16th brought the matter out of the local social networks of Portland activists and on to the national stage.
The abduction filmed on the 15th did not happen in a vacuum. As other local reporters have noted, it was the end result of more than six weeks of escalating state violence against largely nonviolent demonstrators.
Evans details an early split within Portland's protest movement, between "more moderate liberal marchers, who sought to avoid conflict with the police while engaging in 'peaceful protest'" and "more radical demonstrators", who have sought confrontation.
June 2 became known as "Tear Gas Tuesday" after police assaulted protesters with "an indiscriminate barrage of grenades, kettling the crowd on all sides with walls of tear gas".
By the end of the month, however, the city's "protest culture [had] settled into an odd rhythm. There were nightly gatherings at the Justice Center, which sometimes ended in police violence and sometimes ended in parties."
Portland Police have targeted and harassed journalists. Evans details the arrests of three reporters (Cory Elia, Lesley McLam and Justin Yau) and notes "most of the Portland press corps, including myself, are actively suing the Portland Police Bureau".
On the night of July 4, the 39th consecutive night of protests, more than one thousand people assembled in front of the Justice Center and Federal Courthouse. They began launching dozens of commercial-grade fireworks into the concrete facades of both buildings, prompting a response from the police and federal agents inside both buildings.
What followed resembled nothing so much as a medieval siege. The windows of both government buildings had been covered in plywood weeks ago, after the first riots. Officers inside fired out through murder holes cut in the plywood, pumping rubber bullets, pepper balls and foam rounds into the crowd, while the crowd formed phalanxes of shield-bearers to protect the men and women launching fireworks back in response. Federal agents dumped tear gas into the street, but Portland's frontline activists had long since lost their fear of gas. The feds and the police were eventually forced to sally out with batons to drive the crowd back.
I reported on the fighting in Mosul back in 2017, and what happened that night in the streets of Portland was, of course, not nearly as brutal or dangerous as actual combat. Yet it was about as close as you can get without using live ammunition. At times, dozens of flash-bangs and fireworks would detonate within feet of us over the course of a few minutes. My ears rang for days afterwards. My hands shook. I could not write for days.
The whole situation prompted the first major federal response to Portland's nightly protests. It started in the media, with CBP commissioner Mark Morgan going on Fox News to denounce local activists as "criminals." ...
[Morgan has referred to various items allegedly thrown at police by protesters (including 85% of a Granny Smith apple)] as deadly. However, so far, the only person who came close to dying as a result of these demonstrations is Donovan LaBella. On Saturday, July 11th, LaBella attended one of the nightly rallies in front of the Justice Center. People who were in attendance at the time described the general mood as subdued, and the crowd as passive, when Federal Agents with the U.S. Marshals began charging out to arrest and shoot protesters.
In the video below, Donovan can be seen holding a set of speakers above his head. Federal agents fire a munition towards him, and he gently tosses it away. He does not throw the munition towards officers, merely away from himself. After this, a federal agent shoots him directly in his skull with a rubber bullet. Donovan collapses instantly, his skull shattered.
— Garrison Davis (Teargas Proof) (@hungrybowtie) July 12, 2020
... On July 18th, the New York Times reported on a leaked DHS memo which warned that the agents deployed to Portland had no training in riot control or managing protests.
On July 10th, one day before Donovan was shot, President Donald Trump had congratulated the head of the Department of Homeland Security, Chad Wolf, for crushing the protest movement in Portland. At a meeting of military commanders in Doral, Florida, he praised Wolf by stating: "It was out of control. The locals couldn't handle it, and you people are handling it very nicely — so nicely that the press doesn't want to write about it."
The protests and riots have, of course, continued.
[T]he Trump Administration has turned up the heat on their rhetoric. Acting secretary Wolf visited Portland on the 16th. He called protesters "lawless anarchists." In a statement issued the same day, he wrote that:
A federal courthouse is a symbol of justice — to attack it is to attack America. Instead of addressing violent criminals in their communities, local and state leaders are instead focusing on placing blame on law enforcement and requesting fewer officers in their community. This failed response has only emboldened the violent mob as it escalates violence day after day.
This is untrue. Virtually all crime, including violent crime, has been lower in the city of Portland during the last several weeks. The Acting Secretary's statement was filled with a number of other inaccuracies as well. ...
[T]he only escalation seen recently has been the federal agents now roaming the streets of downtown Portland in rented vans, arresting activists seemingly at random. These men display no identification, no name tag or badge number or anything else that might be useful identifying them. That fact has rightly shocked Americans across the country, but at this point, it is nothing new to Portland protesters.
Portland Police have been hiding their names for weeks, instead using numbers that cannot be correlated to names by any means available to citizens. Members of multiple different law enforcement agencies, all with different rules of engagement from the PPB, have been policing demonstrations since the very beginning. As Tuck Woodstock, a local reporter, noted on Twitter:
This is the natural escalation of the last 7 weeks. This is what has come of Portlanders protesting police brutality for 50 days: more bizarre acts of police brutality. Portlanders are risking everything every day. Please notice.
That is, in the end, what both the Portland press corps and the people out in the streets, protesting every night, seem to want from the rest of the United States. Please pay attention to the videos of officers ripping people's face masks off to spray mace directly into their mouths. Please pay attention to the video of Donovan LaBella, blood gushing from his head, seizing on the ground. And, yes, please pay attention to the videos of men in full combat gear abducting activists off the street.
Pay attention, because it is my belief that all of this will not stay confined to Portland. Your city might be next.
We had very successful briefings. I was doing them and we had a lot of people watching, record numbers watching. In the history of cable television there's never been anything like it. And we were doing very well. ... [A] lot of positive things were happening. ... So, I think what we're going to do is, I'll get involved and we'll start doing briefings ... probably tomorrow, and I'll do briefings. ... I'll do it at five o'clock like we were doing. We had a good slot and a lot of people were watching ... I'll be discussing the, as I call it, the China virus, the China plague, I'll be discussing it, and I'll also be discussing perhaps some other things. But, we're doing very well in so many different ways ... I think we're going to get it solved in numerous ways ...
Because the “Ratings” of my News Conferences etc. are so high, “Bachelor finale, Monday Night Football type numbers” according to the @nytimes, the Lamestream Media is going CRAZY. “Trump is reaching too many people, we must stop him.” said one lunatic. See you at 5:00 P.M.!
The Radical Left Democrats have gone absolutely crazy that I am doing daily Presidential News Conferences. They actually want me to STOP! They used to complain that I am not doing enough of them, now they complain that I “shouldn’t be allowed to do them.” They tried to shame.....
...the Fake News Media into not covering them, but that effort failed because the ratings are through the roof according to, of all sources, the Failing New York Times, “Monday Night Football, Bachelor Finale” type numbers (& sadly, they get it $FREE). Trump Derangement Syndrome!
The Wall Street Journal always “forgets” to mention that the ratings for the White House Press Briefings are “through the roof” (Monday Night Football, Bachelor Finale, according to @nytimes) & is only way for me to escape the Fake News & get my views across. WSJ is Fake News!
Because the T.V. Ratings for the White House News Conference’s are the highest, the Opposition Party (Lamestream Media), the Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats &, of course, the few remaining RINO’S, are doing everything in their power to disparage & end them. The People’s Voice!
What is the purpose of having White House News Conferences when the Lamestream Media asks nothing but hostile questions, & then refuses to report the truth or facts accurately. They get record ratings, & the American people get nothing but Fake News. Not worth the time & effort!
Here is Trump last night not wearing a mask at his DC hotel fundraiser just hours after posting that wearing a mask is "patriotic." Also not wearing masks at the event in violation of a DC mask mandate: Madison Cawthorn, Lindsey Graham and Mark Meadows. pic.twitter.com/0UmP5VcevZ
"We are in the process of developing a strategy that's going to be very, very powerful ... it will probably, unfortunately, get worse before it gets better" -- we have been dealing with this pandemic since February pic.twitter.com/Yl1aHmLbVf
Asked about testing delays, Trump dodges by citing the total number of tests conducted (testing is useless if it takes 2 weeks to get results) pic.twitter.com/P324isYF2E
If the journalists in that room do not ask this, they are not doing their jobs:
"Mr. President, you just took credit again for 'Veterans Choice' as you often do - are you aware, sir, that it was Barack Obama who signed Veterans Choice into law in 2014?" https://t.co/urFude8BlM
Trump on Ghislaine Maxwell: I just wish her well frankly. I’ve met her numerous times over the years especially since I lived in Palm Beach and I guess they lived in Palm Beach but I wish her well pic.twitter.com/wCfzsZfjTT
is the mainstream media so intent on normalizing Trump that they insist on the "new tone" and don't headline his acknowledgement that he had NUMEROUS meetings with the alleged co-head of a child sex ring. This is complete media fail.
Also, no questions about Trump cutting CDC funding for testing to $0 or his terrorist gangs of secret police grabbing citizens off the streets, etc. ... Such good work, once again, "liberal media".
Trump told NC residents yesterday that their Democratic governor told him he could only have 10 people in a 19,000-seat arena for the RNC.
More than 430 babies have tested positive for coronavirus in the four largest counties in North Texas, but the Texas Department of State Health Services is currently only reporting 125 cases in children ages 1 and younger. https://t.co/jlabksrKdd
!!My colleague Mike saw @RepTedYoho accost @RepAOC at Capitol today for her suggestion poverty & unemployment are driving NYC spike in crime amid COVID.
In an exchange reported by @RealMikeLillis, Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla) told @AOC she was "disgusting" for suggesting poverty/unemployment driving a spike in crime in NYC.
They parted. "Yoho offered a parting thought to no one in particular."
Gotta love Republican courage from Rep @RogerWilliamsTX: when he undeniably sees another man engaged in virulent harassment of a young woman, just pretend you never saw it in the most cartoonish manner possible and keep pushing.
Like @aoc, I believe poverty to be a root cause of crime. Wonder why Rep. Yoho hasn’t accosted me on the Capitol steps with the same sentiment? #shamefulhttps://t.co/f5qkC3CbTR
— Rep. Dean Phillips (@RepDeanPhillips) July 21, 2020
Mr. Trump has at times appeared to inhabit a different universe ... [He] is mostly just frustrated by the reality that it has not disappeared as he has predicted. ... Some of Mr. Trump's closest advisers are adamant that the best way forward is to downplay the dangers of the disease.
Now, the virus that we're talking about ... Typically, that will go away in April.
February 25, 2020:
[China is] getting it more and more under control. So I think that's a problem that's going to go away. ... [The coronavirus] is very well under control in our country. We have very few people with it, and the people that have it are — in all cases, I have not heard anything other. ... We have — we've accomplished a lot.
February 26, 2020:
Again, when you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero. That's a pretty good job we've done. ... There's a chance that it won't spread ...
February 27, 2020:
It's going to disappear. One day - it's like a miracle - it will disappear. ... It could maybe go away. We'll see what happens. Nobody really knows. The fact is, the greatest experts - I've spoken to them all. Nobody really knows."
March 6, 2020:
You have to be calm. It'll go away.
March 10, 2020:
We're prepared and we're doing a great job with it. And it will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.
March 12, 2020:
It's going to go away. It's going to go way. ... [W]ithin two months. ... It's going away. We want it to go away with very, very few deaths.
March 15, 2020:
The virus is "something that we have tremendous control over".
March 16, 2020:
The virus is "not under control for any place in the world".
March 25, 2020:
It's hard not to be happy with the job we're doing, that I can tell you.
March 30, 2020:
[B]y a little short of June, maybe June 1, we think the — you know, it's a terrible thing to say, but — we think the deaths will be at a very low number. ... It will go away. You know it — you know it is going away, and it will go away. And we're going to have a great victory. ... I want to have our country be calm and strong, and fight and win, and it will go away.
March 31, 2020:
It's going to go away, hopefully at the end of the month [April]. And, if not, hopefully it will be soon after that.
April 3, 2020:
It is going to go away. It is going away. ... I said it's going away, and it is going away.
April 7, 2020:
It did go — it will go away. ... I'm a cheerleader for this country. I don't want to create havoc and shock and everything else.
April 28, 2020:
I think what happens is it's going to go away. This is going to go away.
May 8, 2020:
This is going to go away without a vaccine. It's going to go away, and it's — we're not going to see it again, hopefully ... At some point, it will probably go away by itself.
May 15, 2020:
[I]t'll go away — at some point, it'll go away. It may flare up, and it may not flare up. We'll have to see what happens. ... Other things have never had a vaccine and they go away.
June 17, 2020:
If you look ... It's dying out. [Cases are declining in only 2 of 50 states.] ... [I]t's fading away. It's going to fade away.
June 23, 2020:
It's going away. [Stated in Phoenix, Arizona, which saw an increase of 149.2% in new cases from the previous week]
July 1, 2020:
I think we're gonna be very good with the coronavirus. I think at some point that's going to sort of just disappear, I hope.
July 19, 2020:
I'll be right eventually. ... I'll say it again, it's going to disappear.
