https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/07/breaking-massive-fire-engulfs-dallas-area-church-led/

https://www.cafepress.com/+,1215562758

This is a joke btw

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/4783088-teamsters-exec-challenge-obrien-rnc-speech/
International Brotherhood of Teamsters VP at large John Palmer announced he is mounting a challenge to current President Sean O’Brien after he gave a speech at the Republican National Convention.

“This administration rode into power on a wave of excitement generated by our members’ desires and frustration. We were promised a more engaged leadership and a more militant union. What we have received so far is a PR blast furnace of misinformation and betrayal,” Palmer wrote in the letter, first reported by In These Times’ Kim Kelly.

Of the many speeches given at the RNC this week, one of the first ones was delivered by O’Brien. Palmer laid out several reasons why O’Brien has shown he is not fit for his leadership position, including fear of retaliation among members and failing to support members in contracts.

“This has all culminated in his presence at the anti-union, anti-worker Republican national convention, kissing the ring of a man that scabbed a picket line, failing to pay workers, discriminating against people of color as a landlord, falsely accusing five black men in New York of murder, orchestrating an insurrection against the United States, dodging the draft, and appointing Union busters from the Jones Day law firm to create the most anti-union Labor Board in history,” Palmer wrote.

Palmer argued it's “naïve to believe” that people who attended the RNC will support unions in “any way, shape, form, or manner.” “We have successfully estranged ourselves from the rest of the labor movement through the actions of one man. Should we really go out and seek more enemies right now?” his letter said.

AFL-CIO and SEIU statements:
https://aflcio.org/press/releases/afl-cio-president-liz-shuler-responds-trump-vice-president-announcement
https://www.seiu.org/2024/07/seius-verrett-trump-vance-ticket-will-protect-the-wealthy-and-corporations-at-the-expense-of-working-people

A Marine who stormed the U.S. Capitol and apparently flashed a Nazi salute in front of the building was sentenced on Friday to nearly five years in prison.

Tyler Bradley Dykes, of South Carolina, was an active-duty Marine when he grabbed a police riot shield from the hands of two police officers and used it to push his way through police lines during the attack by the mob of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters on Jan. 6, 2021.

Dykes, who pleaded guilty in April to assault charges, previously was convicted of a crime stemming from the 2017 white nationalist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Dykes was transferred to federal custody in 2023 after he served a six-month sentence in a state prison.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell sentenced Dykes, who’s 26, to four years and nine months of imprisonment, the Justice Department said.

Federal prosecutors had recommended a prison sentence of five years and three months for Dykes.

“He directly contributed to some of the most extreme violence on the Capitol’s east front,” prosecutors wrote.

Dykes’ attorneys requested a two-year prison sentence. They said Dykes knows his actions on Jan. 6 were “illegal, indefensible and intolerable.”

“Tyler hates his involvement in the Capitol riot,” his lawyers wrote. “He takes complete responsibility for his actions. Tyler apologizes for those actions.”

Dykes, then 22, traveled to Washington, D.C., to attend the Republican Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally with two friends from his hometown of Bluffton, South Carolina. After parting ways with his friends, Dykes ripped snow fencing out of the ground and pulled aside bicycle rack barricades as he approached the Capitol.

Later, Dykes joined other rioters in breaking through a line of police officers who were defending stairs leading to the Capitol’s East Rotunda Doors.

https://apnews.com/article/marine-capitol-riot-ea3478197e15b21810aa97b3351663c6

https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/elon-musk-donates-group-working-elect-trump-report

Elon Musk has reportedly donated to America PAC, a super political action committee working to elect former President Trump.

Bloomberg, citing sources familiar with the donations, said that the SpaceX and Tesla CEO donated an undisclosed amount of money to the pro-Trump PAC.

The PAC is next required to disclose its list of donors on July 17, the outlet noted.

Musk has not publicly endorsed a candidate for the 2024 race, but has increasingly weighed in on politics on X.

In the months leading up to the election, Musk scorched President Biden on X for his immigration policies and unambiguously sided with conservatives.

In September, he visited the U.S.-Mexico border at Eagle Pass, Texas, declaring the "situation is beyond insane and growing fast."

He has also criticized the Biden administration following the brutal killing of Augusta University nursing student Laken Riley in Athens, Georgia by an illegal migrant.

"Dems won’t deport, because every illegal is a highly likely vote at some point," Musk wrote.

Two Scoops, Two Coups

https://www.yahoo.com/news/republicans-lay-groundwork-deny-2024-023008536.html

MILWAUKEE — Four years ago, Republicans sought to throw out the 2020 presidential election results and disenfranchise millions of Americans based on false allegations of widespread voter fraud, fueling a violent riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Now, despite Trump’s triumphant return to the top of the Republican Party, and polling that shows him positioned to retake the White House, Republicans are making election fraud a running theme at this week’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

And there’s one group the GOP is stoking fears about more than any other ahead of the November election: illegal immigrants.

“We cannot allow the many millions of illegal aliens they allowed to cross our borders, harm our citizens, or disrupt our elections. We will not allow it,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who led the legal effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, said in a speech on Tuesday.

Other top Republicans were even more explicit about a supposed plot by Democrats to flood the country with illegal voters.

“Democrats cynically decided they wanted votes from illegals more than they wanted to protect our children,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said in his own remarks Tuesday night.

“[Democrats] want illegals to vote now that they opened the border,” added Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), who voted to overturn the 2020 election.

It’s illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections, and they rarely do. Johnson acknowledged earlier this year that his illegal voter conspiracy theory has “not been something that is easily provable.” But that’s not stopping Republicans from talking about it.

Trump, the GOP’s presidential nominee, who was impeached and criminally charged for trying to steal an election, accused Democrats of doing the same this time around in a recorded video message shown to RNC delegates.

https://www.axios.com/2024/07/19/trump-republican-national-convention-live-updates

Former President Trump took the stage with a bandaged ear only days after surviving an attempted assassination in Pennsylvania to accept the GOP presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention Thursday night. He left it after roughly 90 minutes of a mostly familiar stump speech.

Why it matters: While his speech — widely viewed as a test of his plea for unity — began on a personal tone, it soon returned to Trumpian talking points, misleading statements and lies.

Trump has received a week of relatively positive press while his Democratic opponent President Biden faces mounting calls from his party to exit the race.
The former president described the assassination attempt at the top of his speech, saying that it's the only time he'll talk about it, "because it's too painful to tell."

State of play: He focused primarily on foreign policy, the economy and immigration.

At on point, he described a "massive invasion at our southern border" and a planet "teetering on edge of World War III," a likely reference to the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza that have begun since his successor took office.

The big picture: The GOP tried to appear as a unified front this week, with many of Trump's onetime presidential rivals appearing as campaign surrogates. Democrats have been in disarray over the top of their ticket.

Trump's running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), spoke Wednesday night, leaning into his personal story as a Rust Belt native — a signal of the campaign's strategy ahead to win vital swing voters in key states.
Trump this year has been convicted of a felony, juggled multiple court cases with the campaign trail, and this week saw one of the federal cases against him dismissed.

On Election Day do a write in for former President Jimmy Carter. He’s what true Americans are about he sever in ww2 gave so much his time after office to building homes and making the world a Better place. Plus he batting cancer. A True American

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna159867

https://apnews.com/article/political-violence-trump-biden-pelosi-assassination-c4423ed88df6f4b3557aa11e798f855d
WASHINGTON (AP) — The leader of a conservative think tank on Thursday misrepresented partisan differences in political violence in the United States, wrongly suggesting that people associated with left-wing causes commit more violence than those on the right.
___

HERITAGE FOUNDATION PRESIDENT KEVIN ROBERTS: “Most political violence in the last 25 years has been initiated by the left.”

THE FACTS: Roberts’ remarks came in response to questions about comments earlier this month in which he said the country was in the midst of “the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”

He told reporters Thursday that he considers himself a historian of the American Revolution and that his comments about a second revolution were a reference to “ambitious policy plans” that Republicans have should former President Donald Trump win the 2024 election. Roberts’ organization has proposed a sweeping overhaul of the federal government known as Project 2025.

Roberts said his comments about political violence were meant to be seen in the historical context.

A deeper look at the available evidence, however, shows that right-wing groups have committed more acts of political violence in recent U.S. history.

Two years ago a team of researchers from four universities examined court records and other data relating to 3,500 extremists active in the U.S. between 1948 and 2022. The individuals were split into three groups — left wing, right wing and relating to Islamic extremism. While some in the database had committed violent acts, others had raised money for extremist groups, volunteered or spoken out in favor of them.

Right-wing extremists were just as likely to commit violent acts as those motivated by Islamic extremism, the researchers found. Left-wing extremists were a distant third.