POLITICO NIGHTLY: Trump’s hospital exit strategy

BY SUDEEP REDDY AND RENUKA RAYASAM With help from Myah Ward HOUSE CALL — President Donald Trump, hospitalized for a disease he spent much of the past nine months downplaying, left Walter Reed medical center tonight to convalesce at the White House. What comes next depends very much on the course of a nasty virus that has delivered a remarkable range of outcomes for the more than 7 million Americans stricken by it. But four weeks from Election Day, with more than 210,000 U.S. coronavirus deaths and counting, Trump is itching to make the most of his experience. The president is returning to the worst Covid-19 hot zone in the nation’s capital. The list of Trump aides who have tested positive is long and growing: His press secretary and a handful of press aides today joined his campaign manager, party chairwoman, current White House counselor, former counselor, debate prep captain and others in the Trump orbit. At least two people on the White House residence staff joined the list recently, and more among them — along with Secret Service agents — are likely to fall into the blast radius as a contagious patient-in-chief returns home. The true gauge of Trump’s recovery will be hearing the president live, day after day, being his old self in interviews. A president who relishes calling in to Fox News programs and friendly radio shows has been unable to do so for almost 96 hours. It’s not clear whether it’s because of a vicious Covid-19 cough, or some other constraint, but the famously loquacious, optics-obsessed president has been silenced like never before. Instead, the greatest showman to occupy the White House has been directing the messaging of his condition from his hospital — deciding what his doctors can and cannot reveal, sending upbeat messages through surrogates, posing for photos with unexplained documents, shooting short videos. Today saw the first tweets in days that sounded authentically Trump. His dramatic exit from the front doors of Walter Reed also left no doubt who is directing the show. His theatrical return to the White House — climbing up seldom-used stairs to a flag-adorned Truman Balcony, removing his mask to pose for pictures, saluting toward the Washington Monument, then entering the building mask-less — won him the TV news clip he’s been dreaming of from his hospital bed. Yet what comes next for his health remains Trumpian-level suspense. If his symptoms emerged last Wednesday or Thursday, then he’s approaching the 7 to 10 day window when experts say some patients with severe Covid-19 have taken a turn for the worse. Rushing back to Walter Reed would be an obvious disaster for his health and his political fortunes, a humiliation after his anti-virus chest-beating. It’s now four weeks until Election Day , a race shaping up as a referendum on Trump’s coronavirus response. The president — along with top campaign leaders and much of his White House communications team crippled by Covid-19 — know the virus is now in charge of the campaign. Already down in the polls, they’re playing their hand the only way Trump can — betting it all on a quick presidential recovery, making Trump’s physical strength a metaphor for the nation. If it works, Trump could have a shot at turning a crushing October embarrassment into a come-from-behind November surprise: The only-I-can-fix-it president would finally have a second-term message that’s authentically Trump. “Don’t be afraid of Covid,” he tweeted today in announcing his Walter Reed departure. “Don’t let it dominate your life.” Never mind that everyone else in America can’t go to Walter Reed in Marine One and have a dozen doctors serving up experimental drug cocktails on demand. It’s a message of Trumpian defiance. If Trump takes a turn for the worse — some patients take weeks or months to recover from the virus at home — then his fate will be sealed before Election Day: He’ll be the president who downplayed the virus while hundreds of thousands of Americans died, who mocked his opponent for following common-sense health guidelines, who shrugged off his own coronavirus threat to own the libs. Either way, it’s largely out of his hands now. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly: Coronavirus Special Edition. It’s a boy: the news we need now. Reach out rrayasam@politico.com or on Twitter at @renurayasam.   JOIN TUESDAY - A PLAYBOOK INTERVIEW WITH REP. JAMES CLYBURN & ERIC HOLDER : The way that Americans are voting in this year's presidential election is changing. What ballot access problems are Black and minority voters facing? Join Playbook authors Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer on Tuesday, Oct. 6, at 9 a.m. ET for an interview with House Majority Whip James Clyburn and former Attorney General Eric Holder on mail-in voting, the Black Lives Matter movement, and what Democratic priorities should be in the next Congress. REGISTER HERE.     Greg Aselbekian of Veterans for Donald Trump holds a sign outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. | Getty Images FIRST IN NIGHTLY STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH COVID — Coronavirus infections are crowding hospitals across the Midwest ahead of an election that could see the region decide the presidency and control of the Senate. But the wave of new cases hasn’t stopped governors and state legislators from pressing on with reopening plans, health care reporters Alice Ollstein and Dan Goldberg write. Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin and other states are loosening restrictions or weighing changes, just as they experience new spikes and as colder weather pushes people indoors — a convergence that could deliver a repeat of the summer’s deadliest months. “We can’t seem to learn our lesson,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health. “We touch the stove, it’s hot, we burn ourselves, but we think if we touch it again, we’ll be fine.” PALACE INTRIGUE BUBBLE BURSTS — White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who held maskless briefings, has tested positive for Covid , putting reporters on the beat at risk for contracting the virus. Nightly reached out to one of POLITICO’s White House correspondents, Anita Kumar, over Slack to chat about what it’s like to worry about your own safety while covering Trump and whether the president’s diagnosis has changed any protocols. This conversation has been edited. What’s it like right now to cover the presidency? We’ve had almost four years of the Donald Trump presidency, so White House reporters are used to the unpredictable. But Covid has taken it to a whole other level. It seems like things are changing every minute — we don’t know who will test positive and who else will be impacted both at the White House and the Trump campaign. Obviously, a large outbreak at the White House has always been a possibility, but the months passed and it never happened. Some people started thinking that maybe it wouldn’t. I worked in Florida and I have covered more than my fair share of natural disasters, mostly hurricanes, and Covid feels like that except for one huge difference. Those assignments would last a few days. This is going on for months and months. Are you worried about your health? Reporters who go to the White House or travel with the president (I’ve done both lately) have to think about their own safety in a way that they haven't before. I stopped going to the White House or traveling for months. Many other White House reporters did the same. Some still haven't come back. I was the sole print reporter in the debate room in Cleveland last week. I wore a mask and had to be tested to be there. But when I returned back to Washington, we learned the president and first lady and others on that trip tested positive. That put me and others at risk. They say to wait five days or so to get the test so I was tested once today at the White House. I will test again later this week on my own. Do you think the White House is doing enough to keep reporters safe? The White House Correspondents’ Association has worked with the White House since the spring to limit the number of reporters who are inside the White House, both working from there and attending events. But as you’ve seen, the White House continues to hold large events like the Supreme Court announcement in the Rose Garden and staff have worked without masks for months. That changed after the president’s diagnosis. The White House had relaxed its protocols. Everyone who entered the building had to have a temperature check, but that ended a while back. And not everyone who enters the building has a test. Only people who will be close to the president. Others are tested randomly. Any protocols that have changed for reporters since the president’s positive diagnosis? The White House hasn’t told reporters about any changes. ‘FIREHOSE OF NEWS’ — Trump was in the hospital with coronavirus. We know that much. But there are lots of unknowns about his condition, and his medical team isn’t filling in the gaps. In the latest POLITICO Dispatch, chief Washington correspondent Ryan Lizza breaks down what it all means for the campaign with less than a month before Election Day. Listen to the latest POLITICO Dispatch podcast AROUND THE NATION ‘COMPLETELY RECKLESS’ — Trump’s fundraiser at his New Jersey golf club unnecessarily exposed hundreds of people to Covid-19, potentially exacerbating a recent surge of new cases in New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy said today in a series of public attacks on the president, Sam Sutton writes. “The knowledge that they had before they left for New Jersey — that there was exposure to a Covid-positive individual — that trip was completely unacceptable, completely reckless and completely uncalled for,” Murphy, a Democrat, said during a press conference in Trenton. “We don’t need folks coming in, knowingly exposed to a Covid-positive individual, and then be in the midst of a couple of hundred people in New Jersey. That’s the last thing we need.” Trump tested positive for the virus shortly after hosting a $2,800-per-ticket fundraiser at his private club in Bedminster, N.J., on Thursday. ALBANY VS. NYC — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has ordered new restrictions on pandemic hot spots in New York City, although they do not go as far as the city’s mayor, Bill de Blasio, had requested. The governor, who has the sole authority over all such actions, will require several schools to close and revert to online-only instruction, and said further actions could be on the table soon. De Blasio had asked for a shutdown of all nonessential businesses in ZIP codes with rising infection rates, all of them in Brooklyn and Queens. Following the governor’s remarks, de Blasio said he expected approval to close those businesses soon, Bill Mahoney and Erin Durkin write. “Picture those hot spots as embers within the field of dry grass,” Cuomo said. “The only course is to run to those embers and stamp them out immediately and dramatically.” The most decisive action Cuomo ordered is a closure of schools in the affected ZIP codes, which are associated with nine neighborhoods. That will start on Tuesday, a day earlier than de Blasio proposed. The governor said that places such as restaurants, nonessential businesses and public spaces “should close,” but did not immediately order them to do so. COVID-2020 THROUGH THE PLEXIGLASS — The Commission on Presidential Debates has approved plans for plexiglass to be used in Wednesday’s vice presidential debate because of mounting concerns about coronavirus transmission, according to two people familiar with the discussions. Plexiglass is expected to be used as a barrier between Vice President Mike Pence and California Sen. Kamala Harris, as well as between the two candidates and moderator Susan Page, Alex Isenstadt and Christopher Cadelago write. The plans have the support of the Cleveland Clinic, which is helping to set health protocols for the forums. “If Sen. Harris wants to use a fortress around herself, have at it,” said Katie Miller, a Pence spokesperson. A Harris spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. FROM THE HEALTH DESK ‘MAY NOT BE ENTIRELY OUT OF THE WOODS YET’ — Sean Conley, the president’s physician, appeared to confirm Sunday that Trump’s condition is more serious than the White House has so far acknowledged. And in a news briefing this afternoon, Conley conceded that the president “may not be entirely out of the woods yet.” But, he continued, “the team and I agree that all our evaluations — and most importantly his clinical status — support the resident’s safe return home, where he’ll be supported by world-class medical care 24/7.” THE GLOBAL FIGHT FRENCH RETREAT — Officials in Paris announced new restrictions today for the city and its suburbs as the area reached the highest coronavirus alert level, Elisa Braun writes. All bars must close, as well as indoor sports areas such as swimming pools and gyms (with limited exceptions, including for children). Restaurants may stay open if they put in place strict protection measures that will be detailed later in the day, Paris police prefect Didier Lallement said during a press conference with Mayor Anne Hidalgo and Aurélien Rousseau, head of the regional health authority. Universities are limited to 50 percent of their capacity and shops and malls must ensure density is limited to 4 square meters per customer. Working from home must be prioritized. The country’s “maximum alert” is reached when the weekly incidence rate exceeds 250 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants and Covid-19 patients represent at least 30 percent of those in intensive care unit beds. The incidence rate in Paris is now at 500 per 100,000 inhabitants in the 20 to 30 age group and Covid-19 patients represent 36 percent of ICU beds, said Rousseau. NIGHTLY INTERVIEW SILVER LININGS — One of the California wildfires has surpassed more than 1 million acres burned, the first blaze in recorded California history to reach seven figures of acreage. In Thursday’s Nightly, we brought you the first part of an interview about how climate change is becoming hazardous to human health — from fires to disease to spreading homelessness. The second and final part of the conversation between POLITICO’s executive health care editor Joanne Kenen and Howard Frumkin , a leading expert on environmental health and the former dean of the University of Washington School of Public Health, is more hopeful: Here’s how tackling climate change might actually benefit our health. (Joanne and Howie know each other professionally as well as socially — he had the good sense to marry her close friend.) The interview has been edited. You told me, “The diagnosis is pretty grim, but the treatment can be really great.” Can you explain? We have to shift diets from meat toward more plant-based diets. That’s healthier, and we greatly reduce the carbon footprint of making food. If we shift our transportation systems, especially in cities, away from single-occupancy motor vehicles toward walking, cycling and transit, then we get cleaner air, we get more physical activity, and we get fewer deaths from car crashes, which is a major killer of young people. We get less urban noise, a stressor in cities. And we probably get better social connectedness, more social capital. At least we’ll get less road rage from reduced congestion. Social connectedness is good for health. The things that we do might bring us together as a society — and help us restore the micro-connections we lost during Covid. Building buildings that are energy efficient, well-lit with natural daylight and protected from the elements. Repairing substandard housing stock. That’s good for health. Shifting from fossil fuels to renewables — that’s much better for health, including improved air quality. There are lots of ways in which the transitions we have to make to deal with climate change are not the story of deprivation and sacrifice. It’s the story of improved lives and better health. NIGHTLY NUMBER 30 The number of people infected with Covid-19 connected with the Trump outbreak, including top White House staffers and those covering the president. Head to POLITICO’s tracker for more details. PARTING WORDS DON’T WORRY, BE HAPPY — In his debate performance last week, Trump called for vigilantes to invade polling places and “watch very carefully,” and suggested he might reject a “fraudulent election” if too many people vote by mail. Before the debate, he refused to pledge a peaceful transfer of power. The president’s illness hasn’t reduced the panic many are feeling. But when it comes to stealing a national election, let’s all take a deep breath, Michael Waldman and Wendy Weiser write. To be sure, Trump is doing all he can to undermine the vote and foment chaos. All who care about our democracy should be angry — and ready. It’s terrifying to think about an Election Day full of chaos and disinformation, followed by false claims of victory and attempts to swap out electors. But there are strong safeguards in place, and many ways for the system to block an illegitimate power grab. There may be a plot against America, but a lot of people would have to break laws for the plot to succeed. An all-out attack can work only if all the institutional checks fail and the American people let it happen.   HELP BUILD SOLUTIONS FOR THE FUTURE OF GLOBAL HEALTH: POLITICO is a proud partner of the ninth annual Meridian Summit, focused on The Rise of Global Health Diplomacy. The virtual Meridian Summit will engage a global audience and the sharpest minds in diplomacy, business, government and beyond to build a more equitable economic recovery and save more lives. Join the conversation to help secure the future of our global health.     Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter Renuka Rayasam @renurayasam   FOLLOW US

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RSN: Norman Soloman | The Man Who Would Be President: Mike Pence, Corporate Theocrat

 

 

05 October 20

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RSN: Norman Soloman | The Man Who Would Be President: Mike Pence, Corporate Theocrat

Norman Soloman, Reader Supported News
Soloman writes: "If President Trump dies from the coronavirus that has killed more than 200,000 Americans largely due to his deliberate negligence, the man replacing him will be no less dangerous."

While Mike Pence has eluded tough media scrutiny – in part because he exhibits such a low-key style in contrast to Trump – the pair has been a good fit for an administration that exemplifies the partnership of religious fundamentalism and corporate power.

The vice president, a former Indiana talk-show host who went on to become a six-term congressman and then governor, has described himself as “a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order.” But he remains at cross-purposes with the biblical admonition (Matthew 6:24) that “you cannot serve both God and money.” Whether Pence has truly served God is a subjective matter, but his massive service to money – big money – is incontrovertible.

Pence ranks high as a Christian soldier marching in lockstep with Trump on all major policy issues, a process that routinely puts business interests ahead of human lives. Whatever his personal piety might be, the results of Pence’s fidelity to right-wing agendas have further consolidated a de facto coalition of those seeking ever-lower taxes on wealth and corporations; denial of LGBTQ rights; a ban on abortion and severe restrictions on other reproductive rights; voter suppression and barriers to voting by people of color; obstruction of healthcare for low-income people; and on and on.

Pence embodies the political alliance of very conservative evangelical forces with anti-regulatory forces of corporatism. In the arenas of elections and governance, that coalition is the present-day Republican Party, dedicated to imposing the edicts of religious dogma, rolling back democratic reforms and serving the rich at the expense of everyone else.

“As vice president, Mike Pence is doing everything in his power to control people’s bodies,” the Planned Parenthood Action Fund declares. Meanwhile, those who are inclined toward racism or outright believers in white supremacy are bolstered. And Wall Street has never had a better friend in Washington.

Pence’s most consequential role during 44 months as vice president has been as chair of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. Since late February, he has functioned – in effect – as Trump’s willing executioner, standing by and blowing smoke while Trump obfuscated and lied as the death toll kept mounting.

“The truth is that we’ve made great progress over the past four months,” Pence proclaimed in a mid-June statement, “and it’s a testament to the leadership of President Trump.” Pence charged that “the media has taken to sounding the alarm bells over a ‘second wave’ of coronavirus infections” – but “such panic is overblown.”

To underscore his full devotion to Lord Trump’s downplaying of the virus, the vice president concluded with a blame-the-messenger flourish: “The truth is, whatever the media says, our whole-of-America approach has been a success. We’ve slowed the spread, we’ve cared for the most vulnerable, we’ve saved lives, and we’ve created a solid foundation for whatever challenges we may face in the future. That’s a cause for celebration, not the media’s fear mongering.”

Pence’s June 16 statement made its way into the Wall Street Journal as a prominent op-ed piece whistling past Covid graveyards. “It was so clearly wrong back then and has turned out to be so clearly wrong since that I hope there's some part of him that's embarrassed,” Ashish Jha, the head of the Harvard Global Health Institute, said in late summer. “I had already been seeing data for a good week that things were really heading in the wrong direction.” The Washington Post editorial board immediately responded with a denunciation under the headline “Mike Pence Is a Case Study in Irresponsibility.”

No one with any discernment would associate Trump with religiosity because he held up a Bible at a photo op. But the other half of the ticket is a very different matter. Days after the November 2016 election, Jeremy Scahill wrote that Trump is “a Trojan horse for a cabal of vicious zealots who have long craved an extremist Christian theocracy, and Pence is one of its most prized warriors.”

Scahill quoted an author of books on far-right fundamentalism, Jeff Sharlet, who said that “when they speak of business, they’re speaking not of something separate from God, but they’re speaking of what, in Mike Pence’s circles, would be called biblical capitalism, the idea that this economic system is God-ordained.”

What does all this mean for progressives? The case of Mike Pence should be an ongoing urgent reminder that – as toxic and truly evil as Donald Trump is – the current president is a product and poisonous symptom of an inherently unjust and anti-democratic status quo.

Instead of focusing our rage on the persona of one destructive leader, we should remember that corporate domination provides an endless supply of destructive leaders. While they come and go, the system of corporate power remains – and we must replace that system with genuine democracy.

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Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction.org and the author of many books, including War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death. He was a Bernie Sanders delegate from California for the 2020 Democratic National Convention.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.

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Military Canines Lest We not Forget Those That Never Complain, and Remain At Our Side Come Hell or High Water     While we remember our troops, let's not forget our loyal dogs who are often fearlessly by their side. Man's Best Friend Serves Us All Well.

RSN: Charles Pierce | What in the Unholy F*ck Are These Idiots Doing?

 

 

04 October 20

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FOCUS: What in the Unholy F*ck Are These Idiots Doing?

Charles Pierce, Esquire
Pierce writes: "NBC News provides us with Thursday's episode in our ongoing national quiz show, What In The Unholy Fck Are These Idiots Doing?"

The Department of "Homeland Security" rallied to the defense of a guy who allegedly crossed state lines with an illegal firearm and killed two people.

BC News provides us with Thursday's episode in our ongoing national quiz show, What In The Unholy Fck Are These Idiots Doing?

In preparing Homeland Security officials for questions about Rittenhouse from the media, the document suggests that they note that he "took his rifle to the scene of the rioting to help defend small business owners." Another set of talking points distributed to Homeland Security officials said the media were incorrectly labeling the group Patriot Prayer as racists after clashes erupted between the group and protesters in Portland, Oregon. It is unclear whether any of the talking points originated at the White House or within Homeland Security's own press office.

The Rittenhouse talking points also say, "Kyle was seen being chased and attacked by rioters before allegedly shooting three of them, killing two." 

"Subsequent video has emerged reportedly showing that there were 'multiple gunmen' involved, which would lend more credence to the self-defense claims." The document instructs officials, if they are asked about Rittenhouse, to say they are not going to comment on an ongoing investigation and to say that "what I will say is that Rittenhouse, just like everyone else in America, is innocent until proven guilty and deserves a fair trial based on all the facts, not just the ones that support a certain narrative. This is why we try the accused in the court of law, not the star chamber of public opinion."

It was inevitable that Rittenhouse would be made into a hero by the camo-and-long-guns crowd. But having the Executive Branch of the United States government go out of its way to concoct a public defense of someone who allegedly crossed state lines and killed two people and wounded one more with an illegal firearm is a step beyond the right's usual lunacy. The deprogramming is going to take decades.

RUSSIANS PROMOTING BACK THE BLUE! MIDDLEBORO REPUBLICANS RALLY - NO FACE MASKS, INCLUDING NEIL ROSENTHAL!

 

If you do your research, RUSSIANS have been promoting SUPPORT THE BLUE as a way of 

creating division in the US with untrue information. 

REPUBLICANS seem to believe ANYTHING AND REFUSE TO DO ANY RESEARCH! 

Russian Operation Masqueraded as Right-Wing News Site to Target US Voters

he Russian group accused of meddling in the 2016 U.S. election has posed as an independent news outlet to target right-wing social media users ahead of this year's vote, two people familiar with an FBI probe into the activity told Reuters.

The latest operation centred around a pseudo media organisation called the Newsroom for American and European Based Citizens (NAEBC), which was run by people associated with the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency, the sources said.

U.S. prosecutors say the agency played a key role in Russian efforts to sway the 2016 election in favour of President Donald Trump, and Facebook and Twitter exposed a fake left-wing media outlet in September which they said was run by people connected to the organisation.

NAEBC and its activity, which have not been previously reported, now show that Russian attempts to influence U.S. voters ahead of the 2020 election have targeted both sides of the political divide.

The website predominately focused on U.S. politics and current events, republishing articles from conservative media and paying real Americans to write about politically-sensitive issues. A network of accounts posing as editors and journalists then promoted the articles on social media sites favoured by right-wing users.

Topics covered by NAEBC ranged from attacks on Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to criticism of the Black Lives Matter movement and praise for Wisconsin shooter Kyle Rittenhouse.

Russia has repeatedly denied allegations of election interference. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he did not know anything about NAEBC or the fake left-wing news site, Peace Data. "The Russian state does not engage in such activity," he said.

The FBI declined to comment.

When asked by email about NAEBC's connections to Russia, a person identifying themselves as Nora Berka, an assistant editor, said: "I have no idea what does NAEBC have to do with it." The person declined to speak by phone or video call.

After Reuters contacted NAEBC for comment, social media accounts in the name of Nora Berka and other NAEBC staff removed all references to the website from their profiles and deleted some of their previous posts.

'SCREW OVER'

NAEBC presents itself as a "free and independent" media outlet based in Hungary with a mission to promote conservative and right-wing voices. Its main page carries a warning to its readers: "Don't get yourself fooled."

The website's own name, however, is a pun on a Russian expletive meaning to deceive or "screw over."

Ben Nimmo, head of investigations at social media analytics firm Graphika, analysed the website after being alerted to the activity by Reuters. He said NAEBC and the left-wing Peace Data showed Russian influence operations had evolved since 2016.

"But the overall strategy looks unchanged: energise Trump supporters, depress support for Biden, and target both sides with divisive and polarising messages," he said.

NAEBC has been active since late June and built a small network of personas on Twitter and LinkedIn - some of which used computer-generated photographs of non-existent people - to solicit articles from followers and freelance journalists, according to the Graphika analysis.

Nimmo said the accounts failed to attract any significant following but got more traction on Gab and Parler - two social media platforms favoured by right-wing users for their lax approach to content moderation.

Paul Rockwell, head of trust and safety at LinkedIn, said his company had previously suspended three NAEBC accounts. "This is part of our regular work to actively seek out signs of state-sponsored activity on the platform and quickly take action against bad actors," he said.

Facebook said it had stopped one attempt to create an NAEBC account and blocked the website from being shared on its platforms.

Twitter declined to comment. Before being contacted by Reuters, the company had already suspended NAEBC's main account and an account in the name of Nora Berka, as well as blocking the NAEBC website address as a "potentially harmful" link.

A spokeswoman for Parler said the company was not aware of NAEBC and had not discussed the activity with law enforcement. Gab did not respond to a request for comment.

DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS

A senior U.S. security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the press, said Russian operatives were increasingly recruiting "unwitting Americans" to write articles and post online.

Reuters identified three writers located in the United States who contributed articles to NAEBC. Two of them were established authors who had written for a number of right-wing outlets, while the third was an amateur journalist.

One of the writers, who asked not to be named publicly, said they had been working for NAEBC for the last month with no knowledge of its Russian backing.

Emails seen by Reuters show the website operated much like it's left-wing counterpart, Peace Data. Writers were paid from $50 to $75 per an article, and money was sent promptly via online transfer.

NAEBC staff also gave detailed instructions for the articles they commissioned and how they should be framed.

In late August, a person emailing as Nora Berka asked one writer for a story about calls to defund U.S. police departments in the wake of nationwide protests over a string of high-profile killings of black men by white officers.

NAEBC asked the author to question "how American citizens are supposed to protect themselves without police," and specifically mention increased gun purchases as well as incidents of violence and shootings.

"Here we should mention that a lot of democrats support de-funding the police," the person writing as Berka said. "And in case if they win 2020, it can happen."

https://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/65435-russian-operation-masqueraded-as-right-wing-news-site-to-target-us-voters

MIDDLEBORO REPUBLICANS RALLIED WITH NO FACE MASKS, INCLUDING NEIL ROSENTHAL. 

CLICK ON THE LINK - LOTS OF PHOTOS OF MIDDLEBORO REPUBLICANS WITH NO FACE MASKS!

Photos: We Back the Blue rally held in Middleboro

Photos: We Back the Blue rally held in Middleboro The Middleborough Republican Town Committee held a We Back the Blue standout at the busy intersection of South M...