https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/10/trump-qanon-denounce/616751/

In the NBC Town Hall last night Trump tried to walk back his earlier refusal to disavow White Supremacy. Good for him. Small steps are better than none. But then, as the late Texas Governor Anne Richards might say “Bless his heart, he cannot help himself” because he went on to refuse to disavow QAnon saying only that pedophilia is bad.

So, what is Qanon?

From the Washington Post . . . “It’s a concoction of allegations against Democratic politicians, celebrities and supposed members of a “deep state” bureaucracy against whom Trump is seen as valiantly battling. Purported pedophilia rings are central to the conspiracy theory, along with Satanism and secret judicial proceedings. QAnon believers await the ‘Great Awakening,’ or the moment the general public realizes the conspiracy exists, and the ‘Storm,’ when thousands of wrongdoers face justice. “

Does Trump actually believe this bizarre and dangerous nonsense? Or does he understand his base and does not want to de-motivate them? Who knows. Either answer is bad for this country.

For those who cannot read the story, the gist is that at the same time that Trump was “down playing” the threat from the virus senior members of his administration gave private briefings to the Board of the conservative Hoover Institution and other major supporters that were far less sanguine. A hedge fund consultant wrote a memo about these briefings which circulated among the fat cats and fueled the sell-off that we saw.

From the article . . . “But the memo’s overarching message — that a devastating virus outbreak in the United States was increasingly likely to occur, and that government officials were more aware of the threat than they were letting on publicly— proved accurate.”

From the article . . . “traders spotted the immediate significance: The president’s aides appeared to be giving wealthy party donors an early warning of a potentially impactful contagion at a time when Mr. Trump was publicly insisting that the threat was nonexistent.”

Another MAJOR scandal in this Scandal-a-day Presidency.

https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/520922-unmasking-probe-concludes-without-finding-any-substantive-wrongdoing

Another of Dear Leader’s politically motivated “investigations” of his political opponents crashes and burns. For lying liars reality is a cruel mistress. In normal times, the President using the DOJ as his opposition research arm trying to “lock up” his enemies would be the cause of a Constitutional crisis. With this jackass in the White House it is just another Ho Hum moment.

https://www.pilotonline.com/government/elections/vp-nw-voter-registration-database-20201013-sirjqyavlra2fkg34rfsmkkq5y-story.html#nws=true

Could be either behind this. Or both.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election/dr-fauci-trump-coronavirus-ad-campaign-us-election-b1012393.html

In a typical bit of Trump’s sleazy dishonesty he has taken a snippet of video of Dr. Fauci out of context and used it in an ad to make it appear that Dr. Fauci is endorsing him. Dr. Fauci is not having it and letting anyone who will listen what he thinks of such sleazy nonsense.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/trump-antibody-treatment-fetal-tissue/2020/10/08/92f9b2d6-0971-11eb-9be6-cf25fb429f1a_story.html

The irony is heavy on this one. The “miracles coming down from God” that Trump says have cured him of Covid-19 depend on research done with cells from aborted fetuses – research that Trump says he opposes and research that could become criminal if Trump’s so-called “pro-life” supporters get their way.

The headline above uses the “pro-life” term for an aborted fetus. Just one more circle for hypocrite “Christians” to try to square as they continue their Faustian bargain to get the courts to back their plans for a theocracy.

https://www.berkshireeagle.com/news/local/dalton-man-faces-charge-for-setting-political-message-ablaze-at-dalton-farm-video/article_fcaa2eaa-0b0f-11eb-838d-371cbcd41547.html

Is this arsonist typical of Trump supporters? If we apply the logic used by Dear Leader we would have to say . . . Yes, of course they are. Let some peaceful protest be marred by the arson or rock throwing of a hooligan is all the evidence HE needs to make such claims about ALL Democrats.

https://www.axios.com/barr-durham-report-election-3c02ec6a-7613-4083-b35c-4844de6da16b.html

Seems that the desperately anticipated Durham “investigation” is coming up with NOTHING supporting Trump’s demented claims. How can we know that? Simple, my dear Watson. It’s release would not be delayed until after the election if there was ANYTHING in it that would validate Trump’s ravings. A dollar against a donut says that Mr. Durham will find and report PLENTY of reasons that the Russian interference activities triggered a national security response.

Trump outraged by Democrats’ plan to assess president’s fitness to serve

Pelosi is obviously trolling Donald Trump by bringing this up now. But, the failure of the sycophants in the Trump Cabinet to act when it is so clearly needed highlights the dangerous flaw of the current approach – it assumes that those people in the Cabinet will put country ahead of party or personal interests. Obviously, they don’t. Otherwise, Trump would still be in the hospital where he belongs while taking mood altering drugs.

There is no way that the proposed bi-partisan commission can be implemented before Trump leaves office anyway, but – as Pelosi has pointed out – Trump’s behavior shows that it is something worthy of serious consideration.

Trump’s rants yesterday against Mike Pompeo for his failure to produce the “missing” Clinton emails reminds me of this classic scene from The Caine Mutiny.