So rich

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Perfect

Unwelcome

Sadly, that will only make him happier to go.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

John Kelly tales

Kelly should have told it himself, and a long time ago.

The day after President Trump fired FBI boss James Comey, the president phoned John Kelly, who was then secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, and offered him Comey's job, the New York Times' Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Michael Schmidt reports in his forthcoming book, "Donald Trump v. The United States."

"But the president added something else — if he became FBI director, Trump told him, Kelly needed to be loyal to him, and only him."

"Kelly immediately realized the problem with Trump's request for loyalty, and he pushed back on the president's demand," Schmidt writes.

[...]

Special counsel Robert Mueller never learned of this information because the president's lawyers limited the scope of his team's two-hour interview with Kelly.

  Axios

Kelly could have offered it.

And who still think James Comey was lying about Trump's demand that Comey pledge loyalty to Trump?

"Kelly has told others that Trump wanted to behave like an authoritarian and repeatedly had to be restrained and told what he could and could not legally do."

"Aside from questions of the law, Kelly has told others that one of the most difficult tasks he faced with Trump was trying to stop him from pulling out of NATO — a move that Trump has repeatedly threatened but never made good on, which would have been a seismic breach of American alliances and an extraordinary gift to Putin."

"Kelly has said that having to say no to Trump was like 'French kissing a chainsaw.'"

[...]

Mueller's team wanted to know whether Trump had a role in the firing of the acting FBI director Andrew McCabe and whether Trump was saying anything about prosecuting Comey."

"Trump was indeed discussing prosecuting Clinton and Comey, and McGahn had written a memo to Trump detailing why he should not be pressing the Justice Department for such a prosecution."

Too little, too late, folks.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

On Feb. 23, 2018, White House counsel Don McGahn sent a two-page memo to Chief of Staff John Kelly arguing that Jared Kushner's security clearance needed to be downgraded, the New York Times' Michael Schmidt reports in his forthcoming book, "Donald Trump v. The United States."

Schmidt reports directly from the confidential McGahn memo for the first time, describing how Kelly had serious concerns about granting Kushner a top-secret clearance in response to a briefing he had received related to the routine FBI investigation into Kushner’s background.

[...]

The details of the highly sensitive intelligence that raised alarms with Kelly are not revealed in the McGahn memo or in Schmidt's book.

[...]

"By reducing Kushner's clearance from top secret to secret, McGahn and Kelly had restricted Kushner's access to the PDB, the closely held rundown provided by the intelligence community six days a week for the president and his top aides, and other highly sensitive intelligence that exposed sources and methods."

[...]

"McGahn conceded [in the memo] that Trump could if he chose simply disregard any security concerns and circumvent any standard procedures and grant Kushner the security clearance himself."

  Axios

Exactly. Trump would have told Kushner everything. And now that I set that down in black and white, I realize that Trump did not pay attention to his briefings, as reported by several others, and he couldn't possibly remember anything he did hear. So, maybe that did in fact restrict Kushner's access.

President Trump ultimately intervened to ensure Kushner got his top-secret security clearance.

He needed somebody in his family to get the information so he didn't have to concern himself with it.

It's Sunday

The snarling Tyrannosaurus rex in front of the McDonald’s at Tanque Verde and Grant isn’t going anywhere, according to Lizzeth Alvarez, area supervisor for Dias Management Inc., which owns the bustling franchise.

[...]

Concern for the life-size replica cropped up earlier this month when a post targeting the T. rex on Tanque Verde showed up on the Facebook page of a group called Christians Against Dinosaurs.

According to the page — as well as the group’s website and occasional YouTube videos — CAD is dedicated to the belief that dinosaurs never existed at all but are, in fact, a scam perpetrated by scientists, possibly as part of some liberal plot against religion.

  Tucson.com

I know. I'm sorry.

“Please help! This McDonald’s has this dinosaur and refuse to remove it! This is in Tucson, Arizona. Call the manager and demand the removal of this blasphemy!”

The post from a CAD page member named Josh Brown then gives the address and phone number for the offending burger joint.

[...]

It can be hard sometimes to separate the faithful from the frauds on social media sites, and this seems doubly true in the case of Christians Against Dinosaurs. Though there seems to be an underlying earnestness to CAD’s website, the majority of people posting on its Facebook page seem to be there to get into arguments, spectate or mock the whole thing.

Attempts to reach those in charge of Christians Against Dinosaurs were unsuccessful. According to several articles written about the group since it first gained fame about five years ago, the movement has no clear leadership or agenda beyond trying to contradict centuries of science, including literal tons of actual, physical specimens.

[...]

CAD poster Josh Brown insists he isn’t joking around. Reached through his Facebook page Tuesday night, he said he lives and works in Tucson, and he doesn’t see anything funny about “lying to our children.”

Gee, where have I heard that before? As tots, my siblings and I were told from the start that there is no Santa Claus. Yep. Fundamentalist parents.

“It seems to me that every dinosaur story and display or dinosaur themed event is furthering the myth that the Earth is much older than the Bible says it is,” Brown said via Facebook Messenger. “Yes, the dinosaur should go unless they’re willing to compromise with a plaque of some kind stating that it’s a fictional character.”

Lighten up, Josh. Just go with the other fundamentalists that say dinosaurs and man were on the earth at the same time - in the beginning - 6,000 years ago.

Some employees wondered if there would be a protest of some kind in front of the restaurant, but Alvarez said she wasn’t aware of anyone even calling in to complain about the dinosaur so far, though several people on Facebook claimed they did.

[...]

Most Facebook users responded to Brown’s call to (tiny?) arms with jokes or messages of support for the Tanque Verde T. rex.

Since he posted about the statue, Brown said he’s been harassed and threatened online. Someone even tried to hack into his personal Facebook account.

He said a lot of the comments directed his way have come from “people who wanted to save the dinosaur or to message me personally and spew insults and threats.”

Dinoporn.

Complete and utter bullshit

I'll tell you why this is a fucking lie:

1) There were a total of five people at that ceremony, and it was held at the White House.
2) Here's information about naturalization ceremonies in the United States:
          From US Courts website:

Federal courts conduct citizenship ceremonies, which are open to the public and may be attended by hundreds and sometimes thousands of people. These important civic events, conducted in courtrooms and at sites in the community, present an educational opportunity for promoting public understanding of the federal courts.

  USCourts.gov

If USCIS approves your Form N-400, Application for Naturalization, we will schedule you to take the Oath of Allegiance at a naturalization ceremony. Taking the oath will complete the process of becoming a U.S. citizen.

Types of Ceremonies:
In a judicial ceremony, the court administers the Oath of Allegiance.
In an administrative ceremony, USCIS administers the Oath of Allegiance.

As USCIS safely resumes in-person services, some naturalization ceremonies may be conducted differently than in the past. You may receive supplemental information from USCIS that provides detailed instructions for your ceremony. Please pay close attention to this information to ensure a safe and enjoyable ceremony experience.   USCourts.gov

How many do you think receive instructions that they'll be naturalized in the White House by the president himself? Five. That's how many. And Acting Chad absolutely knew it.  And he knew why it was being done.  If he had to fucking guess, there'd be only two possibilities. 1) To be used at the RNC which was currently happening, or 2) to be used in a presidential campaign video.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Two things, Lara

1) If you can't trust what a man says, you can't trust the man.
2) What he's "actually done" is even worse!

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

"You don't need to be black to be outraged"

I'm outraged by this:

And this:

The caravans bent on destroying this country have arrived.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Salting the wound

That's what he's hoping for anyway.

Molly Ivins: Aug 30, 1944 - Jan 31, 2007

Really, really missing Molly Ivins in these days.

Are they getting extra hazard pay?

Trump’s insistence on traveling and holding campaign-style events amid the pandemic has heightened the risks for the people who safeguard his life, intensifying the strain on the Secret Service.

[...]

When President Trump gave a speech to a group of sheriffs in Tampa late last month, his decision to travel forced a large contingent of Secret Service agents to head to a state that was then battling one of the worst coronavirus surges in the nation.

Even before Air Force One touched down on July 31, the fallout was apparent: Five Secret Service agents already on the ground had to be replaced after one tested positive for the coronavirus and the others working in proximity were presumed to be infected, according to people familiar with the situation.

[...]

In the past two months, dozens of Secret Service agents who worked to ensure the security of the president and Vice President Pence at public events have been sickened or sidelined because they were in direct contact with infected people.

[...]

“Never before has the Secret Service run up against a president so intent on putting himself first regardless of the costs, including to those around him,” said Ned Price, a national security expert and former CIA analyst. “And by maintaining a rigorous travel schedule and otherwise flouting public health guidance, he is demanding that agents add to their already considerable professional risk in ways that are qualitatively different than what they signed up for.”

[...]

“When preparing for and carrying out any travel, White House Operations collaborates with the Physician to the President and the White House Military Office, to ensure plans incorporate current CDC guidance and best practices for limiting covid-19 exposure to the greatest extent possible,” [White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement.]

  WaPo

Exposure for HIM.

Secret Service Director James Murray told personnel last month in staff messages that the numbers of positive cases had been rising, a trend he attributed to the agency’s increased testing in previous weeks, according to two people familiar with the communication.

Thaaaaaaaat's right. If they didn't test, they wouldn't have cases.

In recent weeks, the agency has steadily ramped up its efforts to fend off the virus. To prepare for the pared-down Democratic and Republican conventions this month in Milwaukee and Charlotte, the Secret Service increased testing protocols, requiring that any employee traveling to either convention be tested before leaving for the assignment and within a few days after returning, according to administration officials.

The regimen was put in place after some discontent and anxiety percolated inside the agency earlier this summer, with agents and officers privately complaining that the White House and the Secret Service were not properly addressing the risks they faced on the road, according to people familiar with the concerns. Testing and protective equipment had been offered sparingly and inconsistently, some argued.

[...]

[T]wo agents who were assigned to stand guard at Trump’s private club in Bedminster, N.J., fell sick with coronavirus symptoms this month while the president golfed. It was his third trip there this summer. One law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions said agents on the president’s detail warned colleagues on the Bedminster trip not to share information about the illness because media coverage would anger the president.

To quote Dick Cheney, So?

Milhoan said agents did not test positive for the coronavirus at Bedminster, but she declined to comment on whether agents working at the site fell ill or were replaced.

I take that as a yes.

The men and women of the Secret Service live by a unique code, one in which they pledge that they are willing to take a bullet for the president to safeguard a stable democracy.

But this new virus that has killed nearly 180,000 Americans in eight months has prompted some to ask a new question: Should they be required to risk contracting a lethal disease — and infecting a loved one — to secure an event that does not follow health protocols?

The stakes were driven home in June, when six advance staffers and two agents tested positive for the virus hours before Trump took the stage in a Tulsa arena for a campaign rally that health officials warned could accelerate the spread of the outbreak.

The Secret Service was forced to order dozens of agents to quarantine for two weeks after returning from Oklahoma, creating a strain to find agents to cover for their assignments. A third agent later tested positive.

[...]

Days later, supervisors had to scramble to find enough healthy agents for a security team to prepare for a Pence trip to Arizona on June 30.

[...]

Before Pence’s visit, however, some of the agents who were preparing for his arrival in Arizona — at the time a hot zone for the virus — fell ill. The vice president was forced to postpone his trip to give the Secret Service time to round up healthy replacements.

[...]

Secret Service agents providing security for the president have sought to avoid commercial planes so they are not exposed to the traveling public, meaning that they at times have had to drive hundreds of miles to reach their assignments, government officials confirm. Agents helping coordinate security for the president’s visually dramatic celebration with fireworks in front of Mount Rushmore on the night of July 3 drove in their own cars from regional field offices as far away as Texas to reach the South Dakota landmark, the officials said.

The Secret Service recently began contracting charter planes to transport agents to key events, including the Democratic National Convention.

[...]

Although everyone aboard the plane to Milwaukee wore protective masks and kept several seats open for social distancing, one agent on the plane tested positive for the coronavirus upon arriving, an administration official said. The official said the Secret Service relieved from duty a few agents who sat in proximity to the infected agent and instructed them to quarantine.

Fucking nuts.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

This is what happens when you let them get away with shit.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

How will it do any of that if they're providing written information unless they plan on leaving some things out?

UPDATE:  !!

Because of failed national leadership

And cowardly politicians who won't buck it.

And unfortunately, it's not the only school in this situation.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Indeed

h/t Stephen

Blue in a Red State

This is the kind of stuff that's prevalent on my Facebook feed.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Never forget: he relishes breaking the law and getting away with it

He's been doing it all his life.

Joe Biden is focusing on President Trump’s virus management, while the president is hammering a law-and-order message.

  NYT

And isn't that rich? Law and order for YOU; lawlessness and chaos for him.

Aides to Mr. Trump said on Friday that their line of attack would not change. They plan to repeatedly highlight Mr. Trump’s familiar “law and order” message, and are blunt in their assessment that they will benefit politically from violence erupting at some protests.

Which absolutely implies the possibility of them CAUSING it.

Mr. Trump and his allies spent four nights hammering Mr. Biden with misleading and often false claims about his record on fighting crime and support of the police.

Mr. Biden, by contrast, has charged Mr. Trump with a failure of leadership, particularly regarding his handling of the pandemic, for which Americans give the president low marks. The question of which argument feels more urgent to the American people is likely to play a critical role in determining the outcome in November.

Never mind which is more urgent - which is TRUE, ffs?

Mr. Trump and Republicans also focused on social unrest and the protests against police brutality in Kenosha, Wis., suggesting that the incidents of violence there show the kind of breakdown in order that would proliferate under a Biden presidency. They asserted falsely that Mr. Biden supports defunding the police.

This is a laughable tactic, but will no doubt work with Trump's base: look at what's awful happening under Trump if you want to know what will happen under Biden.

The issue of crime and social disorder is not being taken lightly, Democrats in touch with the Biden campaign said, and they expected Mr. Biden to seize more opportunities in the coming days to emphasize that he makes no excuses for the outbursts in some cities where peaceful protests have soured into scenes of violence.

I hope he emphasizes that it's happening under Trump.

“Donald Trump has anchored his case for re-election on ignoring the pandemic that he’s allowed to spin out of control and bizarrely highlighting violence and discord happening on his own watch — and that he himself has inflamed,” said Andrew Bates, a Biden spokesman.

[...]

Mr. Trump’s campaign aides are projecting an aggressive campaign schedule more typical of a normal election cycle than one taking place during a pandemic.

[...]

Mr. Trump’s campaign aides are projecting an aggressive campaign schedule more typical of a normal election cycle than one taking place during a pandemic.

[...]

Mr. Trump’s aides said he enjoyed the frustration and anger he caused by holding a political event on the South Lawn of the White House, shattering conventional norms and raising questions about ethics law violations. He relished the fact that no one could do anything to stop him.

We the people can.

America is in deep trouble

The National Foundation for Gun Rights, a conservative gun rights advocacy group, announced on the same day Rittenhouse was charged that it would be fundraising for his legal defense, saying he was within his right to allegedly open fire on protesters.

  The Hill

Speaking of Ivanka...

President Trump's niece, Mary Trump, on Friday revealed audio recordings that reportedly capture Trump's sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, swiping at the president's children, Ivanka and Eric Trump.

[...]

"That damn Ivanka puts this picture of the Madonna and Child on Instagram when the big news of the day was how kids are being ripped from their families."

[...]

"Meanwhile, Eric's become the moron publicly. Ivanka gives a s--t. She's all about her," Trump Barry says.

Mary Trump is then heard in the audio saying: "Yeah, she's a mini-Donald."

"She's a mini-Donald but yet he's besotted with her. He always has been," Trump Barry responds. "She's always been his favorite."

[...]

In July, Trump called Mary Trump “a seldom seen niece who knows little about me, says untruthful things about my wonderful parents (who couldn’t stand her!) and me, and violated" a non-disclosure agreement (NDA)."

  The Hill

Milley says no military action will be taken with regard to the election

“The Constitution and laws of the U.S. and the states establish procedures for carrying out elections, and for resolving disputes over the outcome of elections,” [Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark] Milley said. “State and federal governments have qualified officials who oversee these processes according to those laws. We are a nation of laws. We follow the rule of law and have done so with regard to past elections, and will continue to do so in the future.

"I do not see the U.S. military as part of this process; this is the responsibility of Congress, the Supreme Court, and components of the Executive Branch.”

  the Hil

That he even had to say that is an indication of the dangerous fascist-tilting times we are in.

Also, the military may follow the rule of law, but the president and his despicable administration don't.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

This is the plan

Ivanka 2024.

Trump mocked Harris over her poor performance in the Democratic presidential primary during a campaign rally in New Hampshire.

"And this would be your president, possibly? I don't think so. I don't think so," Trump told a raucous crowd. "You know, I want to see the first woman president also, but I don’t want to see a woman president get into that position the way she’d do it, and she’s not competent."

"They're all saying 'we want Ivanka,'" Trump added, motioning to the crowd and eliciting loud cheers. "I don't blame them."

  The Hill

I bet Don Jr isn't saying that.  And no sane person is, either.

As it should be

A federal judge in Texas ruled Friday that the state was violating federal law by not allowing Texans to register to vote when renewing their driver's license online.

[...]

The state's Department of Safety (DPS) follows the federal law when Texans go in-person to a driver's license office. But, when residents go through the state's online portal to register to vote, they are directed to a blank form that must be printed, filled out and then mailed to their county registrar.

[...]

In a lengthy 68-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia concluded that the state's restriction was breaking the National Voter Registration Act, which mandates that states must allow residents to register to vote when applying for or renewing their driver's licenses.

[...]

“Uncontested expert testimony shows that a compliant DPS system would very likely lead to great efficiency, less human error, a massive saving in costs, and increased voter registration."

  The Hill

And that's what the Republican State of Texas didn't want.

If you can get your drivers license renewed online, and your drivers license is valid ID for voter registration, then there's no reason to deny registration this way. Good on the judge.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

And there it is

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Joe, you know the answer

They welcomed the Tea Partiers, and it was a steep slide downhill after that

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Jesus, the sleaze

First the naturalized citizens who didn't know they were going to be part of the Republican National Convention.  Now this:

[Lynne Patton, a longtime Trump associate who oversees federal housing programs in New York,] told a leader of a tenants’ group at the New York City Housing Authority, the nation’s largest, that she was interested in speaking with residents about conditions in the authority’s buildings, which have long been in poor repair.

Four tenants soon assembled in front of a video camera and were interviewed for more than four hours by Ms. Patton herself. They were never told that their interviews would be edited into a two-minute video clip that would air on Thursday night at the Republican National Convention and be used to bash Mayor Bill de Blasio, three of the tenants said in interviews on Friday.

[...]

Throughout the convention, Mr. Trump has shattered the traditional boundaries between government and politics, and the video was aired on a night when the campaign took over the South Lawn of the White House.

[...]

Three of the four tenants in the public housing video were interviewed on Friday by The New York Times. All three said they opposed President Trump and were misled about the purpose of the video.

[...]

Ms. Patton said that she had spoken with all four tenants on Friday and that they were upset with the way The Times was “twisting their words.”

[...]

In a separate interview, Ms. Quiñones said she talked to Ms. Patton on Friday afternoon and was comfortable with how she was being portrayed by The Times. She said she was disappointed that her words had been twisted to make it seem as if she were a Trump supporter.

Ms. Perez and a third tenant, Manny Martinez, said they had not spoken with Ms. Patton on Friday and did not know what she was talking about.

[...]

Ms. Patton is a Trump family loyalist who before the president’s election organized tournaments on his golf courses and planned his son Eric’s wedding. She had little experience in housing policy before her appointment to HUD.

[...]

The public housing clip was the second instance of the Trump campaign’s misleading participants in an event involving the federal government that was filmed for the Republican National Convention. On Tuesday, the convention showed a video of five new American citizens being sworn in at a naturalization ceremony by Mr. Trump. Some of the five said they did not know that they were being filmed for a political event.

  NYT

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

March on Washington

Fifty-seven years after Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech at the March on Washington, the families of Black Americans shot or killed by police officers spoke at the same site Friday, the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.

[...]

The march, organized by the National Action Network, was calling for racial justice and police reform.

[...]

Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris recorded brief remarks for the march that played during the event on Friday.

[...]

Other lawmakers spoke about the need to pass legislation crafted to confront racial injustice. Texas Congressman Sheila Jackson Lee asked the crowd, "how did this happen?" answering, "because of institutional racism." Lee urged for the passage of her bill H.R. 40, which would establish a commission to "study and develop reparation proposals for African-Americans."

Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, demanded that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 be fully restored. The act established federal oversight of election laws in states with a history of racial discrimination, but key sections of the legislation were struck down by the Supreme Court in 2013.

  CBS

Photos from NPR

Another big contrast to the RNC which carried on for the four days prior to the march, aside from the color of the faces, is the number of covid-protective masks.

Wow

The times they are a-changin'.

NBA Statement:

We had a candid, impassioned and productive conversation yesterday between NBA players, coaches and team governors regarding next steps to further our collective efforts and actions in support of social justice and racial equality. Among others, the attendees included player and team representatives of all 13 teams in Orlando. All parties agreed to resume NBA playoff games on Saturday, Aug. 29 with the understanding that the league together with the players will work to enact the following commitments:

1. The NBA and its players have agreed to immediately establish a social justice coalition, with representatives from players, coaches and governors, that will be focused on a broad range of issues, including increasing access to voting, promoting civic engagement, and advocating for meaningful police and criminal justice reform.

2. In every city where the league franchise owns and controls the arena property, team governors will continue to work with local elections officials to convert the facility into a voting location for the 2020 general election to allow for a safe in-person voting option for communities vulnerable to COVID. If a deadline has passed, team governors will work with local elections officials to find another election-related use for the facility, including but not limited to voter registration and ballot receiving boards.

3. The league will work with the players and our network partners to create and include advertising spots in each NBA playoff game dedicated to promoting greater civic engagement in national and local elections and raising awareness around voter access and opportunity.

These commitments follow months of close collaboration around designing a safe and healthy environment to restart the NBA season, providing a platform to promote social justice, as well as creating an NBA Foundation focused on economic empowerment in the Black community. "We look forward to the resumption of the playoffs and continuing to work together – in Orlando and in all NBA team markets – to push for meaningful and sustainable change.

  Yahoo Sports

Amazing.

Oh my

Earlier this week, The Daily Beast reported that President Trump had one thing on his mind heading into his Republican National Convention.

The president was telling his closest aides that he was determined to beat his rival Joe Biden in the TV ratings. He was requesting daily ratings for the Democratic National Convention and insisted that his RNC spectacle would demolish their “pathetic” numbers, according to a senior administration official.

  The Daily Beast

Sad!

In the end, apparently not even all of the unethical pomp and circumstance of a Trump-branded White House as the backdrop of his big speech Thursday night could draw more viewers than Biden’s solemnly rousing speech to an empty auditorium.

According to initial Nielsen numbers, President Trump’s speech Thursday night drew 14.1 million viewers across the three broadcast networks and three major cable news networks. That is more than three million fewer viewers than the 17.5 million who tuned in to watch Biden’s speech one week earlier.

When those numbers are expanded out across nine broadcast and cable networks, Biden still beat Trump by a fairly wide margin, 23.6 million to 21.6 million.

At 70 minutes, Trump spoke close to three times as long as Joe Biden, whose DNC speech clocked in at 24 and a half minutes. It was the second-longest convention speech in modern American history—after the 75-minute speech Trump delivered at the 2016 RNC.

Well, at least he beat himself.

Biden’s DNC beat Trump’s RNC across the board on all four nights, starting with former First Lady Michelle Obama’s speech on night one, which drew about 18.7 million viewers compared to 15.8 million for Donald Trump Jr., Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and others on the first night of the RNC. Night two was closer, but headliner Jill Biden still edged out First Lady Melania Trump, 18.6 million to 18 million.

People watched to see if Melania gave Michelle Obama's speech again.

On night three, Vice President Mike Pence not only lost viewers compared to the previous night but also came in far behind the Democratic vice-presidential nominee Kamala Harris. While approximately 15.7 million viewers watched Pence, about 21.5 million viewers tuned in to Harris.

In fact, while the DNC’s ratings generally grew night by night over the course of the four-day convention last week, the RNC’s numbers appear to have stayed flat or even dropped as the week went on.

Sad, sad, sad.

None of this stopped Trump from tweeting Friday morning, “Great Ratings & Reviews Last Night. Thank you!”

Of course not. I expect him to declare victory on election night, too, regardless of the outcome.

UPDATE:

Day 4 - When the circus pulls up stakes but doesn't leave town

The final day of the RNC has passed.  Let's have a look (together - I didn't watch).

I see two masks.  Apparently there are still two people in the administration who give a shit about other people.  Tell me old Deputy Dawg Ross fell asleep before it was all over.  He'll be lucky if he doesn't contract covid-19, because he sure doesn't look like someone who could survive it.

NPR's home page today:

I suspect Daniel Dale was handling this CNN fact-checking Trump in real time.  Kudos.

She needs to work on her poker face.

And in payback is a motherfucker news...

The first lady also had her social media moment in the spotlight on the final night of the convention, wearing a dress that easily allowed her to be “green-screened”. The internet soon went to work and before long she appeared variously to be endorsing Joe Biden, the nation’s coronavirus death toll, and the weather.

  Guardian

The Nazi uniform she wore for her speech has been paid in full.

Just disgusting.

FACT CHECK: Trump's Address To The Republican Convention, Annotated

UPDATE:

By the time he hit the middle-school history textbook peroration of Thursday night’s extended violation of both pandemic safety protocols and federal law, El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago could barely stand up for falling down.

[...]

(If he’d ever had the aesthetic sense god gave a goat, I would have wondered if his exhausted affect was a result of his being confronted with some of the worst writing ever handed to a politician. There were crows cawing on the South Lawn of the White House Friday morning that were more uplifting than this.)

[...]

Back when I was a sports columnist for a daily newspaper, I would have to write a column off the Boston Marathon every year. This ensured that I was always around at the finish when the noble souls who’d been on the road for four or five hours would stumble triumphantly down Boylston Street and collapse over the finish line. Except for the part about being noble, that’s what the president looked like at the end of his 66-minute address. For the most part, someone managed to keep him chained to the teleprompter, which must have taken all the strength he could muster. The crowd, ummasked, much of it, did the best it could to pep him up, chanting and cheering...and, very likely, spreading the virus. But he still sounded as though every word weighed 50 pounds.

By now, the staggering cargo of lies and misinformation has been ground into a fine powder by dozens of people tasked with that thankless job. [...] But it was his exhausted aspect that most interested me. Is it possible that the burden of being a monstrous fraud his whole life has become too much for a septuagenerian to bear? The newspapers are filled these days with his own family members giving him up. If he wins re-election, he will be stuck in a job he hates until he’s 78 years old. That has to look like a long, dark road ending in a darker place.

I have no illusions—or sympathy. Perhaps, once he’s out doing rallies again, unfettered by prepared texts, he’ll draw strength from his adoring crowds. He has to get re-elected to keep himself and a lot of other people safe from hungry prosecutors. Whoever is running him, here and abroad, likely still has plans for this country. And his base of support remains solid, even though everything on top of it is wavering and tottering. But, on Thursday night, none of that mattered. He ran down a calendar of American greatness like a man asking the attendant for more pudding. Being president kept him up way past lights out.

  Charles P Pierce