Minnesota’s First Congressional District’s Jim Hagedorn Found To Be Crooked

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Minnesota’s First Congressional District includes much of the southern part of the state. This is a very conservative area, and also a very white area. There are counties that have more combines than people of color. A lot more.

It happens to include Rochester, which is where the Mayo Clinic is located, which gives Liberals (or, at least, Centrists) a chance. This is why Tim Walz, a high school teacher and National Guard lifer was able to represent CD1 as an elected DFLer (DFL = Minnesota’s Democratic Party) for several terms. He had to walk that fine line. He is essentially a progressive, but won there anyway. For various reasons, however, he almost lost his most recent election, and was destine to finally get voted out by an increasingly Trumpian mass of corn farmer, despite having support in the medico-academic community around Mayo and the University in Rochester. He ran that cycle for Governor, and that is what he is now.

Two years ago, Dan Feehan, representing the DFL, and Jim Hagedorn, representing the Republicans, faced off. Dan was a great candidate and a great person, a Paul Wellstone inspired combat veteran. He served for a time as the acting Assistant Secretary of Defense, under Barack Obama. He has since worked with the Farmers Union in Minnesota, focusing on Healthcare.

Jim Hagedorn was the offspring of a former US Representative (Tom Hagedorn) and was half raised in McLean, Virginia and half Truman, Minnesota. For years he ran a blog called “Mr Conservative” that included a LOT of sexist, misogynistic, racist, islamophobic, and anti-Native American yammering. When people noticed and he got called out, he claimed he was only joking. The Washington Examiner declared him “the worst midterm candidate in America” last cycle.

When the corn farmers and medical professionals of the increasingly conservative 1st District were asked to chose between the two, 291,085 people voted, and by virtue of a mere 658 votes, Hagedorn had won the district.

Then he went to work being an asshole. I won’t go into all the details, but here is the latest in a DFL press release:

Hagedorn’s Report Confirms Corruption Within Congressional Office

Independent investigation needed to answer remaining questions

St. Paul, MN – On the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, Congressman Jim Hagedorn quietly released his internal review of the ongoing corruption scandal in his Congressional office. Despite Hagedorn hiring a lawyer for crooked politicians to get him off the hook, the basic facts of the report are damning:

  • “Congressman Hagedorn fully agrees that he is ultimately responsible” for the potentially illegal mismanagement of over $450,000 in taxpayer dollars.
  • Abernathy West is likely tied to Congressman Hagedorn’s top staffer who spent half a year breaking ethics rules and potentially directing our tax dollars into his pockets.
  • Congressman Hagedorn allowed two businesses to rip off U.S. taxpayers by dramatically overcharging Hagedorn’s office for services for over half a year.
  • Congressman Hagedorn is still employing John Sample, a staffer whose company received over $110,000 in taxpayer dollars from the Congressman’s office. As multiple ethics experts have said, Hagedorn’s decision to do business with his own staffer “violated House rules” and constitutes “a problem,” raising “neon signs flashing red signals all over the place.”

Hagedorn’s far-from-independent report fails to answer numerous, serious questions:

  • Why did Congressman Hagedorn lie about completely delegating his mail program to his chief of staff when that was clearly not true?
  • Why did it take reporting months after-the-fact for Hagedorn to become aware of the potentially illegal activity taking place within his own office?
  • How was it that Congressman Hagedorn hired two different staffers who funnel our tax dollars into their pockets?

The report confirms that there still needs to be an independent investigation and Congressman Hagedorn owes it to the people of southern Minnesota to publicly release all relevant correspondence including text messages, emails, and letters prior to Election Day.

DFL Chairman Ken Martin released the following statement:

“It’s laughable that Jim Hagedorn would ask the public to trust him and his bought-and-paid-for report after Hagedorn spent months lying to Minnesotans and trying to cover up the corruption within his own office. Even a lawyer for crooked politicians couldn’t conceal the fact that there was massive wrongdoing in Hagedorn’s office and that an independent investigation is needed to get to the bottom of it.

“Congressman Hagedorn is responsible for using almost half a million of our tax dollars to line the pockets of his employees. This corruption within Hagedorn’s office went on unchecked for months until media reports exposed it to the public, at which point Hagedorn lied to the public and tried to deflect blame. The people of Minnesota deserve better than crooked politicians like Jim Hagedorn.”

Now would be a good time to give Dan Feehan some money, or help his campaign in some other way.

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47 thoughts on “Minnesota’s First Congressional District’s Jim Hagedorn Found To Be Crooked

  1. Apparently Steve Stivers, then head of the NRCC, declared himself shocked after the 2018 primary over the content of Hagedorn’s blog. (Ref: Wikipedia)

    The blog Mr. Conservative still exists, BTW — but it has got to be a satire site now. Here’s the (unaltered) blurb from the “about” page:

    MY NAME IS JEFFREY BUT ALL OF MY FREINDS CALL ME MR. CONSERVATIVE BECAUSE I KNOW ALOT ABOUT POLTICS AND THEY RESPECT THAT PLUS I AM CRHISTAIN AND THEY RESPECT THAT TO BECAUSE GOD IS ON MY SIDE AND I KNOW THE BIBEL TO INSIDE AND OUT. I WAS BORN IN MISSOURI AND THAN MOVED TO GEORGIA AND THAN MOVED TO FLORIDA. I MADE THS BLOG BECAUSE I AM SICK AND TIRED OF LIBTARDS SAYING BAD THINGS ABOUT ARE PRESIDENT DONALD J TRUMP LIKE HE IS A RACEIST AND OTHER LIBERAL LIES AND THE MAIN STREAM MEDIA ONLY TELLS LIES BUT I KNOW WHERE TO GET THE REAL NEWS AND THAT IS WHY MY FREINDS CALL ME MR. CONSERVATIVE BECAUSE I AM A GOD LOVING REPUBLICAN AND I KEEP UP DATED WITH ALL OF THE REAL NEWS NOT THE FAKE LIBERAL MSM NEWS.

    https://mr-conservative.com/mrconservative

  2. Hagedorn’s victory in 2018 should not have been a surprise … Walz went from winning every county in his first re-election bid to losing a majority of the counties in 2016 to Hagedorn and barely winning by 2,548 votes in his last term. Also, Walz probably wouldn’t have beaten Gil Gutknecht if not for the Gutknecht’s support for the DM&E railroad and the possibility of it running through Rochester … compare how Pawlenty won Olmsted County while Gutknecht lost it.

    Hagedorn has spent years campaigning in the vast small communities in the district and converted independent and Republican-leaning voters to back him. Remember that the MNGOP dominates the state legislative races in these counties … heck, in my Senate district, the DFL is not even offering a candidate (but David Pulkrabek is on the ballot for Legal Marijuana Now Party) … and this is at least the third time that the DFL has failed to provide a challenger for district seats to represent me in the Minnesota legislature.

    Hagedorn’s views were well known before and he has lived up to them in his votes. The Abernathy West story was easy to see (reference my commentary on MN Political Roundtable January 27, 2020 entitled Hagedorn Hype : Spending Our Taxdollars To Tell Us How Great 2018 Was and follow-up pieces. Hagedorn now is sending weekly emails (how he got the email addresses is a great question … is this something the taxpayers should pay for?) touting all the great things he is doing … never mentioning that he voted against many of these programs or the problems that really impact us. It’s the marketing that is pure Trumpian.

    So Hagedorn is known … but who is Dan Feehan ? Remember in 2018 he was on “billionaire George Soros bankrolls” “employed by a Soros-funded liberal outfit in D.C.”
    That memory will not be forgotten.

    Does the Feehan campaign know that early voting starts on this Friday — September 18th ? Does it know that there are precincts, like mine, that is exclusively mail in voting ? I have not received one piece of mail from the Feehan campaign but multiple ones promoting Trump. My review of mail-in precincts compared to others show increased voting for MNGOP candidates.

    BTW … Public Policy Polling is in the process of doing a push-poll for Feehan, and that result may provide him some false hope because elections are determined by who actually votes … and Hagedorn and the MNGOP know that.

    Trump is the worst President in my lifetime and Hagedorn is the worst Representative for southern Minnesota in my lifetime, but they both know how to play the game … and play with people’s emotions.

    Just my views.

  3. You nailed it, Marc. These kinds of politicians know exactly what buttons to push – all the while forcing through policies that only benefit a narrow, ruling elite and hurt the vast majority of the electorate, especially those who worship them the most. Trump and the Republican Party are the party of millionaires for the billionaires. I wince not only listening to Trump cultists at his wretched rallies but knowing how much he and his actual policies are shafting them. Destruction of federal agencies tasked with protecting public health and the environment only provides short-term benefits for the monied class and corporations. Since these politicians are old men for the most part, they know they will be dead when the shit truly hits the fan, hence why Trump and the Republicans loot the Treasury and are happy to turn the environment into a veritable cesspit because they will be dead and buried when things really go to hell.

    The naievete and outright stupidity of much of the electorate is something to behold. Working class people and the unemployed swooning at the feet of politicians like Trump who know how to manipulate them. Guns, immigration, religion, security and evil socialism (which few of them undestand and would benefit them in reality) are endlessly wheeled out to create fear, and Trump will save them. At the same time, the Republicans destroy agencies that help these people while they continue to shift the nation’s wealth to themselves.

    What this suggests is that kleptocracy depends on the mass production of ignorance (in addition to the fear). If people were truly informed on a multitude of issues, and then really knew what Trump and the Republicans were all about, they wouldn’t get 10% of the vote. They may not know it, but the American people as a whole are actually far to the left of both parties.

    1. What this suggests is that kleptocracy depends on the mass production of ignorance…

      This is why public education in the US is so deliberately, narrow, partisan and across large swaths underfunded. ‘They’ do not want an enlightened thinking electorate, one that is capable of analytical thought.

  4. Powerline? A far-right nonsense-spewing online site? What next RickA? Breitbart? The Daily Caller? It seems that the neofascists are trembling in their boots at the prospect of their attempted coup being thwarted.

    Keep trying though. But NOTHING from Powerline is remotely interesting.

    1. QUERY : If a candidate announced his intention to send $200 (in cards, not cash) to about 33 million seniors, would that story make a headline in PowerLine ?

      I have read Drazkowski’s letter to Barr requesting an investigation in which he cites,
      “I have been told that campaigns also use an intricate system of paying people to vote in-person, both during early voting and on election day. It has been described to me that in this system:•voters are organized into groups and transported to polling places in vans•campaign workers help these individuals vote and then voters return to the vans to be driven home•in the vans, campaign staff pay these voters up to $200 each for their vote”

      Of course, since in-person voting is “secret”, there is no guarantee that the person will vote according to the instructions given, but they would keep the $200.
      Thus, it is possible that the $200 card provided to seniors would not guarantee a vote for the candidate … but that clearly is the hope.

      Accepting the premise that someone is paying $200 to people to go and vote, where would they get that money ?
      On the other hand, where would the money come from for a $200 card for seniors … with a price tag of an unprecedented, $6.6 billion ? Well, according to that “liberal rag”, The Wall Street Journal, the Trump Administration plans to take the money from the Medicare Trust Fund … in hopes of getting it replenished after they get rebates from the pharmaceutical industry.

      Once again accepting the premise that someone is paying $200 per vote, not only is there not a guarantee, but you may be paying people to do something that they may have done without being paid. Returning to Drazkowski’s letter, he states “I have been repeatedly told that much of this activity has been orchestrated by the congressional campaign of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (MN-05), and the evidence suggests the same. Moreover, much of the alleged illegal activity leading up to and around this year’s primary election matches information that I have been given about similar illegal voting activities in 2016 and 2018.”
      OK … in 2016, Omar won HD60B in a squeaker 79.8% to 19.2% … how long has someone been paying to insure Omar’s victories ?
      If the allegation is that Keith Ellison’s campaign was doing this in 2016 (and not Omar), well that seems odd … because not only did Ellison win quite handily but the number of votes in his district (thus impacting the Presidential race) did not go up that much from 2012 (under 10,000 when the number of registered voters went up over 47,000). And seriously, in 2016, was anyone thinking that Minnesota would not go for Clinton ? BTW, did you know that Ellison’s Republican challenger got more votes than Trump did in MN05 ? So is Drazkowski suggesting that people were paid $200 to vote for the GOP congressional candidate but did not tell them to vote for Trump ?

      Could there be some shenanigans ?
      In my mind what Trump is promoting with the drug cards is directly from the candidates mouth … while what Drazkowski is alleging is pure speculation designed to discredit the election results.

      Oh, and speaking of what is coming from the mouth, let us not forget what happened in 2008 at the Brian Coyle Center in Minneapolis when an election translator working there was instructing people to vote for Sen. Norm Coleman … the translator worked for Coleman’s campaign.

      Here’s a link to Drazkowski letter if you haven’t seen it yet
      https://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/houseimages/dfd20863-b2ea-44c5-bb34-36db89ae9a68.pdf

    2. Speaking of “Have you seen” …
      Liban Osman, who is featured prominently in a video released last week by the conservative media operation Project Veritas claiming there is “massive voter fraud” in Minnesota orchestrated by Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, tells the FOX 9 Investigators he was offered $10,000 by community activist Omar Jamal to say he was collecting ballots for Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.

      “He was setting me up,” said Liban Osman.

      https://www.fox9.com/news/subject-of-project-veritas-voter-fraud-story-says-he-was-offered-bribe

      Gosh, who ya gonna believe … Powerline or FOX9 ?

  5. RickA’s right wing piffle comes from James O’Keefe, a far right activist. Project Veritas and Powerline do not score well on the Media Bias/Fact Check site. Indeed Project Veritas, as explained, has been caught out making assertions that were proved to be baseless. In this case it is an attempt to smear Ilan Omar. Trumpidiots will stoop to any level to stay in power.

    1. RickA makes a habit of citing these disinformation sites, and when he gets called on it he gets butthurt and whines about “filter bubbles” or some other fictional flaw he blames you for. His behavior has gone past sad to simply pathetic.

    2. If you and dean don’t want to look at the information I have brought to your attention because of the source, that is your choice.

      By all means, don’t check it out to see if there is any issue with ballot harvesting in Minnesota (or anywhere).

      Stay in your information silo.

    1. ” I have brought to your attention because of the source, that is your choice. ”

      rickA, when you submit a reputable source (you have never done that yet, so nobody is holding their breath for when you do) people will look at it.

      Your history shows that the people you cite have long, long histories of distorting facts and flat out lying about things, like you do. Add to that they often don’t have any expertise in the subjects about which they’re writing, and it becomes a waste of time to look at your sources. That’s a common thing with far right wing places like those you frequent.

      I’m not avoiding information about by avoiding conservapedia, for example: once you read andrew schafly going on about there not being any need for complex numbers, that proof by contradiction is not valid, that relativity isn’t needed for GPS corrections (and it’s wrong in any case since it was developed by “a Jew”), you don’t need to check anything else he writes. That’s your reputation: we know nothing you present to support your case will be valid.

    2. Now it’s clear why rickA jumped all over the fake story about “ballot harvesting” — it was an attempted smear against Ilhan Omar and the ballots (for which nothing illegal was done) was for a Muslim candidate, if readings are correct.

      By pushing this he gets to spread false accusations against two of his most hated groups: intelligent and outspoken women and Muslims in general.

      Ol’ dirtbag rickA keeps rolling in filth.

  6. The reality of Trumpton voting tactics:

    Donald Trump’s 2016 US presidential election campaign has been accused of actively seeking to deter 3.5 million black Americans in battleground states from voting by deliberately targeting them with negative Hillary Clinton ads on Facebook.

    The secret effort concentrated on 16 swing states, several narrowly won by Trump after the black Democrat vote collapsed.

    The claims have come from an investigation by Channel 4 News, which was leaked a copy of a vast election database it says was used by the Trump campaign in 2016.

    Trump 2016 campaign ‘targeted 3.5m black Americans to deter them from voting’

    And you intend to vote again for this cheating treasonous sack of caca.

    You are as deluded as he.

    1. A political campaign said negative things about their opponent to keep people from voting for that opponent. Oh my.

  7. They just didn’t say negative things, dopey. They lied. Brazenly. But this is par for the course with the pathological liar who won an election he really didn’t win. There is no shame with Republicans when it comes to lust for power. They will throw endless shit around in the hope that some of it sticks. Nothing on Earth will make me happier than to see the lying, rotten scum and his administration booted out of power in 5 weeks. They do not represent the majority of the American people and they never will.

    1. “They lied. ”

      Yup — but find a republican candidate that isn’t. Here in Michigan:

      – A guy running againt a sitting mI senator claimed in multiple TV ads that he served as an active duty Army Ranger. Except: his web site clearly stated he was “Ranger Qualified”. Hmmm. Turns out he completed Ranger training but never served in a Ranger unit so, according to the Army, he didn’t qualify to refer to himself as a Ranger. Picky? Yes, but clearly he knew it because he maintained the distinction on his website.
      – James also claimed he’d never said he would work to repeal the Affordable Care Act — except for the hundreds of tweets he’d posted saying that would be his #1 goal, and the video he’d made while driving and posted to social media where he said the same thing
      – Another of our right wing politicians has been running ads saying his challenger, currently in the MI house, voted in favor of defunding police when that came up for a vote in the house. Except — no such vote was held: they keep records of such things you know

      Are there lies on both sides? Probably — but the sheer number, and sheer absurdity of things right wingers are tossing out (mikeN and rickA included) is astounding. Dishonesty (or racism, homophobia, misogyny, bigotry, …) are no longer viewed as bad things by the modern right, and we’re all suffering for it.

    2. >They just didn’t say negative things, dopey. They lied. Brazenly.

      Oh my. That is some dastardly voter suppression.

  8. lying with intent to confuse and suppress actions by others mikeN, the reason you and rickA spread your disinformation about climate, covid 19, racism, etc.

    Again, your attempt to deflect away from facts is massively transparent and weak.

  9. Interesting. The Pope refused to meet with the white-supremacist in chief’s sidekick.

    https://www.vox.com/2020/9/30/21495579/pope-francis-mike-pompeo-vatican-meeting

    But the Catholic leader refused the photo ops and handshakes with America’s top diplomat out of one major concern: That he’d be a pawn in Trump’s reelection efforts.

    “Yes, that is precisely why the pope will not meet American secretary of state Mike Pompeo,” Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Vatican’s secretary for relations with states, told Italian news agency Ansa on Wednesday.

    Some upper level officials did meet with the low life presidential rep.

  10. It is admittedly difficult to talk about the absolutely obnoxious, nauseating, and downright embarrassing performance Donald Trump gave in the first presidential debate on Tuesday. It was a train wreck, a national embarrassment, and it was the self-proclaimed emperor, the king, the legend-in-his-own mind (Trump) who orchestrated it. His strategy was simple: to bully and bluster and interrupt Biden every time Biden spoke a few words in an attempt to rattle him but it clearly failed. Big time. Instead of changing tactic, Trump simply stuck with the play book his wretched advisers have handed him. He refused to condemn white nationalist violence, telling his fascist thugs (the Proud Boys) to ‘stand back and stand by’. That shocked even many Republicans who are so besotted and in thrall to the orange stain that they cannot see him for who he really is: a pathologically sick, ego-driven maniac. Rick Santorum was grilled about Trump’s refusal to condemn extreme violence by the right on his CNN slot, and his response is pure comedy: “Well, you can’t expect him (Trump) to criticize his supporters. Interviewer: you mean white supremacists? Santorum (blushing and swallowing deeply). Um… yes.

    One of the polling agencies now predicts there is a less than 1% chance of Trump winning a big majority. As I said when RickA made one of his hilarious assertions several weeks ago, it is not going to happen. The best that Trump can hope for is to scrape into the Electoral College while losing the popular vote. The real problem is that Trump holds democracy in utter contempt. He clearly did not want to be at the debate because he thinks there should not even be an election. He honestly thinks that being POTUS is his divine right, probably for life. He sees his crooked family as his heirs. It is sickening to behold. The US is gripped in a horror show and they urgently need to vote this scumbag out in November.

    Seth Myers does a great job as usual taking apart feeble attempts by Fox and Trump’s sycophants to defend his risible performance.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTY_FDO2TXw

  11. It is admittedly difficult to talk about the absolutely obnoxious, nauseating, and downright embarrassing performance Donald Trump gave in the first presidential debate on Tuesday. It was a train wreck, a national embarrassment, and it was the self-proclaimed emperor, the king, the legend-in-his-own mind (Trump) who orchestrated it. His strategy was simple: to bully and bluster and interrupt Biden every time Biden spoke a few words in an attempt to rattle him but it clearly failed. Big time. Instead of changing tactic, Trump simply stuck with the play book his wretched advisers have handed him. He refused to condemn white nationalist violence, telling his fascist thugs (the Proud Boys) to ‘stand back and stand by’. That shocked even many Republicans who are so besotted and in thrall to the orange stain that they cannot see him for who he really is: a pathologically sick, ego-driven maniac. Rick Santorum was grilled about Trump’s refusal to condemn extreme violence by the right on his CNN slot, and his response is pure comedy: “Well, you can’t expect him (Trump) to criticize his supporters. Interviewer: you mean white supremacists? Santorum (blushing and swallowing deeply). Um… yes. One of the polling agencies now predicts there is a less than 1% chance of Trump winning a big majority. As I said when RickA made one of his hilarious assertions several weeks ago, it is not going to happen. The best that Trump can hope for is to scrape into the Electoral College while losing the popular vote. The real problem is that Trump holds democracy in utter contempt. He clearly did not want to be at the debate because he thinks there should not even be an election. He honestly thinks that being POTUS is his divine right, probably for life. He sees his crooked family as his heirs. It is sickening to behold. The US is gripped in a horror show and they urgently need to vote him out in November.

  12. Trump lawyers in Montana; “OMFG look at at all the voting fraud voting by mail causes. It has to be stopped.’

    Judge: “Show me where and when this fraud occurred.”

    Lawyers: “Well, gee, funny thing that. You see…”

    Judge: “STfU and GTFO.”

    https://twitter.com/AriBerman/status/1311395899206180865

    No surprise: despite the lies from the White House and supporting lies from rickA, there’s no evidence of fraud with vote by mail.

  13. The echoes from 1930’s Germany are becoming stronger and clearer, make no mistake the MIC (monster in chief) is playing a dangerous game of bluff.

    Take note RickA (who seems to have gone AWOL of late—sure defending the indefensible is sure to lead to mental anguish, at least WRT anybody with a pulse):

    Trump is wrong to pretend that the left is responsible for the violence on America’s streets. Between 1 January 1994 and 8 May 2020, white supremacists and other rightwing extremists in the US carried out attacks that left 329 people dead. In the same period, a single attack staged by an anti-fascist resulted in a killing. And during that incident, the one person who lost their life was the anti-fascist perpetrator.

    When Trump defends armed rightwing gangs, his rhetoric has echoes of fascism

    Whatever, the USA teeters on the brink, thanks in no small part to the likes of RickA and MikeN

    1. And, as has been widely reported, trump’s “debate” comment to the proud boys was a thinly veiled military style command: the message was to act like storm troopers at voting places Nov 3 (you can’t just walk in and be a polling place observer, as the dishonest defenders try to say). His weak walk back the next day was PR protection, nothing more.

      Saying neo nazis are “very good people’. Check. Failing to denounce white supremacists. Check. His record of embracing the extreme and dangerous branches of the right continues.

    2. And, as has been widely reported, trump’s “debate” comment to the proud boys was a thinly veiled military style command:

      And note: Trump never served nor is this type of language usual for him. So there’s a strong hint that his words were planned and rehearsed.

      So yes, brownshirts* surrounding voting stations seems to be the plan.

      *Okay, Fred Perry black with gold trim but the song remains the same.

  14. What should be clear from Trump’s absolutely wretched performance on Tuesday is that he holds US democracy in complete contempt. He didn’t even want to be there because he thinks the presidency is his by virtue of his greatness. He honestly believes that he is some kind of diety, an emperor, a king who has the divine right to be POTUS. Because of his pathological narcissism, he has no humility. His strategists advised him to bully and constantly interrupt Biden in an attempt to rattle him. It clearly did not work but Trump had no Plan B. His train wreck was complete when he could not bring himself to call out his fascist base in the Proud Boys because he utterly depends on these kind of people. Even Rick Santorum had to scramble on CNN to defend it. When asked why he could not denounce white extremists, Santorum, visibly nervous, said ‘because they support the President’. When the exasperated interviewer asked, ‘but he cannot criticize violent right wing extremists’? all Santorum could do was shrug his shoulders and say ‘yes, he can’t’.

    RickA recently said on here that Trump will win a thumping victory. Not a chance. If he does win, he will scrape in through the highly flawed Electoral Collage while once again losing the popular vote. Several polling agencies now say that there is virtually zero per cent chance of a dominant Trump victory. Trump has made almost no inroads in the polls against Biden in a year. He is way behind. I would not be surprised if Biden told him to jump in the lake and skip the last two debates. Trump clearly needs them more than Biden does.

    1. ICYMI … on Friday, October 2nd, the House took a vote on “Condemning QAnon and rejecting the conspiracy theories it promotes” (House Resolution 1154) … and it passed 371-18-1 while Andy Harris (PartyOfTrump Maryland) could only must a “Present” vote, others had no problem rejecting the call condemn QAnon.

      Amash Independent MI Nay
      Arrington Republican TX Nay
      Babin Republican TX Nay
      Bishop (UT) Republican UT Nay
      Brooks (AL) Republican AL Nay
      Burgess Republican TX Nay
      Carter (GA) Republican GA Nay
      Davidson (OH) Republican OH Nay
      Duncan Republican SC Nay
      Ferguson Republican GA Nay
      Flores Republican TX Nay
      Gosar Republican AZ Nay
      Kelly (PA) Republican PA Nay
      King (IA) Republican IA Nay
      Norman Republican SC Nay
      Perry Republican PA Nay
      Tiffany Republican WI Nay
      Webster (FL) Republican FL Nay

      Turns out that protecting Confederate statues is more important (113 Members voted against removing them from the Capitol grounds — including Jim Hagedorn) than the threat of QAnon.

      On a side note, let’s not forget that the MNGOP has endorsed these QAnon candidates for the Minnesota legislature
      HD6B Julie Buria
      HD46B Melissa Moore
      HD49B Joe Thalman
      HD50B Gary Heyer

      SD19 Elizabeth Bangert
      SD49 Julie Dupré

  15. Trump never served nor is this type of language usual for him. So there’s a strong hint that his words were planned and rehearsed.

    True. He did attend a military school as a kid, but the likelihood of his learning that or remembering anything from there is essentially zero.

    1. Too many lies and too many liars. No doubt LiarA will whine but he’s reveling in this ocean of filth so he can own it.

    2. it should be mentioned that there are multiple attempts to work against a fair election currently in progress

      – the continued efforts of trump’s butt boy at the postal service to screw with services (We’ve seen the lies mikeN and rickA have about this, and seen that they are as baseless as everything else they say)
      – the recent move by the governor of texas to limit ballot dropoff sites to 1 per county
      – laws restricting access to polls for the poorest people in several states
      – Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl spent part of the summer sending automated phone calls to residents in Wayne County saying voting by mail and absentee voting were tools to gain personal information for law enforcement, banks, and build a data base for future “mandatory vaccination programs”. On the good news front, those two long time right wingers have been charged with felonies

      So yes, there are several active attempts to interfere with fair and open elections. Just like the bit of intentional misinformation rickA tried to spread, all of these attempts are coming from the right.

      Edited to ad:
      This headline
      “Trump Now Says He Condemns ‘All White Supremacists,’ After Declining To At Debate”

      just appeared here. Clearly a pr stunt, since white supremacists are the core of his base, but it is interesting that this comment by trump would indicate (if true) that he (rickA) is now officially condemned by the president.

    3. I don’t see anything in that link establishing O’Keefe’s reporting as pure fiction.
      There is a lot about coordination with Trump.
      Then they say some activities might not be illegal, and that other activity would be illegal but it’s not clear who it is that is admitting to the activity.

  16. In Seattle, they tried to cement an exit door shut and set fire to the police building.

    If the mob were after me, I would be happy to have the Proud Boys there.
    It is not a white supremacist group. It is multiracial, and is more a bunch of guys that weren’t good enough to get into MMA.

  17. ‘It is not a white supremacist group. ”

    Yes, it is, despite your lies. it’s also illegal, since private militias are illegal in all 50 states.

    Terrorists is the name you need to use to describe them.

    lots of claims about the cemented door on right wing propaganda sites. oddly the seattle times doesn’t read that way.

    https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/seattle-police-break-up-overnight-protest-after-fire-set-outside-precinct-on-capitol-hill/

    Doubtful that miken can find a legitimate source for his assertion, but the probability isn’t zero.

  18. The Anti-Defamation League clearly lists the Proud Boys as a white supremacy group as well as being fascist. They are, just like Patriot Prayer, jack boot wearing brownshirts.

    There is a desperate attempt by nitwits like MikeN to rehabilitate them as Trump’s support goes further and further south. Indeed, Trump’s base is clutching at more and more straws as their grip on power slips away. Some of the crap MikeN and RickA write on here is beyond belief.

  19. More worrying, but not unexpected or unnoticed, is the fact that white supremacist groups have infiltrated police and other law enforcement agencies. That they are now embedded in police forces is perhaps evidenced by the extreme, illegal, violence some police officers have used when detaining those they suspect of misdemeanour, which they often do based only on ethnicity of the targeted citizen.

    White supremacist groups have infiltrated US law enforcement agencies in every region of the country over the last two decades, according to a new report about the ties between police and far-right vigilante groups.

    White supremacists and militias have infiltrated police across US, report says

    Too many guns in the US could make it a basket case when Trump is voted out, when the hard right controlling Trump call for insurrection and push back against those cheating dastardly commie Democrats.

  20. More worrying, but not unexpected or unnoticed, is the fact that white supremacist groups have infiltrated police and other law enforcement agencies.

    David Duke told his followers to join the police and the military quite a while ago — they’d blend in and get valuable training.

  21. As always MikeN, you are full of crap. Gavin McInness, who founded Proud Boys, is on record for making several anti-Semetic rants including holocaust denial (e.g. 2017). His rallies frequent attract white supremicists to them, and the group has a history of extreme violence.

    Take your warped opinions elsewhere.

    1. Yeah, mikeN’s bullshit argument could be applied to the Nazi army: “Since the Nazi’s army had Jewish soldiers in it it’s clear they didn’t work to kill Jews.

    2. Anti-Semitism is not the same as white supremacy. Anti-Semitism exists in lots of races, particularly among blacks. I think it was a Saudi newspaper that headlined a Nazi death with ‘had the honor of killing 6 million Jews.’

      Yes they are a violent group.

  22. Related?

    The contradictory “information” (re., lies) from White House people and from Dr. Conley about Trump’s status and treatment have been coming incredibly fast. A new standard, even for that crew.

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