Democrats in turmoil; Sanders to appeal for unity
As Democrats gathered in Philadelphia for their convention, leaked emails showed party officials conspired against Senator Bernie Sanders during the presidential primary. The leak threatened to disrupt party unity and overshadow the appointment of Tim Kaine as Hillary Clinton’s running mate, and forced the resignation of party chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Sanders called the episode an “outrage” and welcomed the resignation. However, he was still expected to appeal for unity tonight. The Clinton campaign claimed the release of 20,000 emails by Wikileaks was facilitated by Russia to help Donald Trump, whose campaign chair, Paul Manafort, called that notion “ridiculous”. On the Republican side, new claims of anti-semitic leanings arose after Trump supporter and retired lieutenant general Michael Flynn retweeted an explicitly anti-semitic message. Flynn apologized.
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As Democrats Gather, a Russian Subplot Raises Intrigue, from the New York Times' David Sanger & Nicole Perlroth
"Proving the source of a cyberattack is notoriously difficult. But researchers have concluded that the national committee was breached by two Russian intelligence agencies, which were the same attackers behind previous Russian cyberoperations at the White House, the State Department and the Joint Chiefs of Staff last year. And metadata from the released emails suggests that the documents passed through Russian computers. Though a hacker claimed responsibility for giving the emails to WikiLeaks, the same agencies are the prime suspects. Whether the thefts were ordered by Mr. Putin, or just carried out by apparatchiks who thought they might please him, is anyone’s guess."---------------------------------------------------------------------
"Hillary Clinton has been a national political figure for a quarter-century....Yet contradictions and conflicting portraits of her persist. She is smart, well-versed in domestic and foreign-policy issues, revels in working things out and commands strong loyalty. She also is overly suspicious, insular, often nontransparent and disposed to cutting corners. She has a history of reaching across the partisan divide, yet...is despised by many in the opposing party....Whether she would find equally able White House aides of the kind who might challenge her—the "two or three sons of bitches" that John F. Kennedy said a president needs—rather than just long-time loyalists is a private concern of prominent Democrats who support her."-------------
Trump’s tax plan: good for the 1%
Donald Trump’s three-bracket tax system looks appealingly simple, but it would only make the rich richer and the rest of America anything but great. The Republican nominee has claimed Americans are taxed higher than other nations – this is not only oversimplification, says Suzanne McGee, it is demonstrably false.
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AISLES FIRED
Executives at 21st Century Fox decided to end the tenure of Roger Ailes after lawyers they hired to investigate an allegation of sexual harassment against him took statements from at least six other women who described inappropriate behavior from Mr. Ailes, two people briefed on the inquiry.
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TRUMP WANTS THE ROYALTIES STOPPED.
Tony Schwartz, the ghostwriter for Donald Trump’s 1987 book ‘Art of the Deal,’ said Wednesday that the Republican presidential nominee sent him a “cease and desist” letter following his interview with The New Yorker. The letter, from the Trump Organization, demands that Schwartz return all royalties he received. “It’s nuts and completely indicative of who he is,” Schwartz told Rachel Maddow on MSNBC. “There’s no basis in anything legal. I suspect that Donald Trump called up his chief legal person and said, ‘go after that guy and do whatever you have to do.’” Schwartz said he wrote “every word” of the book: “If he could lie about that, he could lie about anything.”
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TEXAS VOTER ID LAW THROWN OUT.
Tony Schwartz, the ghostwriter for Donald Trump’s 1987 book ‘Art of the Deal,’ said Wednesday that the Republican presidential nominee sent him a “cease and desist” letter following his interview with The New Yorker. The letter, from the Trump Organization, demands that Schwartz return all royalties he received. “It’s nuts and completely indicative of who he is,” Schwartz told Rachel Maddow on MSNBC. “There’s no basis in anything legal. I suspect that Donald Trump called up his chief legal person and said, ‘go after that guy and do whatever you have to do.’” Schwartz said he wrote “every word” of the book: “If he could lie about that, he could lie about anything.”
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A federal appeals court ruled that Texas’ voter identification law, one of the strictest in the country, violated the Voting Rights Act and that the state must find ways to accommodate voters who face hardships in obtaining the necessary documents.
Democrats and voting rights advocates hailed the ruling as a significant victory in one of the nation’s most closely watched voting rights cases. It was the fourth time in nearly four years that a federal court found that the Texas law discriminated against or disproportionately affected black and Hispanic voters.