politics

state audits and data compiled by groups across the political spectrum have found no indication that noncitizens are voting in large numbers.

Basically, rules imposing additional requirements on voter registration prevent vastly more citizens from voting than noncitizens, since the latter aren't trying to vote.

That video was a viral hit, spread by X accounts with as a many as a half-million followers, despite first appearing on a newly minted San Francisco news outlet that soon vanished. Posts featuring the video racked up 7 million views on X alone, and were also on Facebook, TikTok and YouTube.

Another video manufactured an assault on an attendee of a rally for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, garnering millions of views, Microsoft said. One depicted a fake New York billboard with vulgar messages saying Harris wanted to change children’s gender. It drew hundreds of thousands of views on X.

In all, Microsoft called out three Russian government-backed groups in addition to those described in federal charges last week against employees at propaganda network RT.

One group was “adept at grabbing headlines with its outlandish fake videos and scandalous claims,” Microsoft said, while another “will likely only escalate its targeting of the Harris-Walz campaign in the lead-up to Election Day.”

• One reason is Trump has a particular, well-documented hatred toward Haitians.
• Another reason is Trump and Vance appear not to be interested in helping anyone in Springfield, or anywhere else for that matter.
• Trump’s and Vance’s statements reveal a belief that it would be better to leave dying towns in the Midwest to wither away than revive them and have to share that prosperity with people who are Black, and they seem to be betting that enough American voters in enough swing states agree that it would be better to be broke than integrated.

“With membership at new lows and no electoral wins to their name, it’s time for the Greens to ditch the malignant narcissist who’s presided over its decline.”

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear banned the use of “conversion therapy” on minors in Kentucky on Wednesday, calling his executive order a necessary step to protect children from a widely discredited practice that tries to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity through counseling.

The governor took action using his executive powers after efforts to enact a law banning the practice repeatedly failed in the state’s Republican-dominated legislature. Beshear signed the executive order during a statehouse ceremony attended by activists for LGBTQ+ rights.

“Let’s be clear: conversion therapy has no basis in medicine or science, and it has been shown to increase rates of suicide and depression,” Beshear said in a statement. “This is about doing what is right and protecting our children. Hate is not who we are as Kentuckians.”

The executive order signed by Beshear bans the practice and makes it illegal to use state or federal funds to provide the therapy on minors. It also gives the state’s board of licensure the authority to take action against anyone found to have practiced conversion therapy on minors and gives the board the authority to bring disciplinary action against anyone found in violation of the order.

The notion that Americans should dial down their incendiary rhetoric is undeniable, but that message cannot be delivered credibly by the person who literally sent a mob to the US Capitol, and then sat back and cheered the thugs who assaulted cops for three hours.

The plea to ease up on hate speech cannot be made by the guy who invented a patois of political violence, who prods supporters to assault hecklers, threatens to shoot undocumented immigrants and looters, jeers the husband of a rival who was assaulted with a hammer, and refers to opposition as “vermin.”

And the idea that the toxic talk has gone too far sounds hollow coming from a demagogue who thinks Hillary Clinton’s fate might best be settled by “Second Amendment people,” that Liz Cheney should be sent before a military tribunal, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Mark Milley, should be executed.

This is the political atmosphere that Donald Trump has nurtured, so when he whines about how “the rhetoric of Biden and Harris” has inspired two troubled people (both likely Republicans) to shoot at him with assault rifles, it can be dismissed as one of the most pitiful attempts at gaslighting from a deranged felon who has made a career of it.

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Microsoft said Tuesday that Russian operatives have in recent weeks intensified their online attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign by producing and disseminating videos promoting "outlandish conspiracy theories" aimed at stoking US racial and political divisions.

One of the inauthentic videos, which Microsoft said had been viewed millions of times, claimed to show Harris supporters attacking an attendee of a Donald Trump rally. Another video falsely claimed that Harris paralyzed a young girl in a 2011 hit-and-run accident. Russian operatives promoted the latter story through a website pretending to be a local San Francisco media outlet, Microsoft researchers said.

Both videos were still accessible on X as of Tuesday afternoon, with one post of the video garnering 1.5 million views on its own. CNN has requested comment from the social media platform.

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Trump claims to be a “leader on fertilization.” His party wants to leave it up to the whims of states, with disastrous consequences.

Trump told many lies at last week's debate against Vice President Kamala Harris. One, it seems increasingly clear, is the stumbling claim---meant to shore up his support of in vitro fertilization, or IVF---that he is "a leader on fertilization."

On Tuesday, Senate Republicans provided even more evidence of Trump's lie, by voting---again---to block a floor vote on a bill that would protect IVF access nationwide. Introduced by Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), who said she used IVF to give birth to her two daughters, the legislation would prevent states from enacting restrictions on fertility treatments.

Trump has done far more to impede IVF access than protect it. He is, in fact, the reason it's in the news at all: Trump appointed three of the five conservative Supreme Court justices who overruled Roe in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, imperiling IVF access in states like Alabama. (The state's Supreme Court ruled in February that frozen embryos, often discarded in the IVF process, could be considered children under state law.)

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Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) tore into Republicans as many of them blame the Democrats' rhetoric for the second assassination attempt on former President Trump.

Trump was the target of an apparent assassination attempt while he was golfing at his resort in Florida on Sunday. No one was hurt, but Trump has since blamed Democrat rhetoric for the second attempt on his life in just two months.

CNN's Jim Acosta on Monday asked Sherrill Monday whether the protection around the former president needs to change in the wake of the latest incident. She suggested that the attempted assassination stemmed from the GOP's rhetoric and the availability of assault rifles in the country.

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