ELECTION 2020: The Rise of the Council for National Policy and Who is Behind It

President Donald Trump’s appearance in Arlington, Virginia, on Aug. 21 before the Council for National Policy (CNP), a hyper-secretive Christian Right powerhouse that helps set the movement’s agenda, offered an hour-long preview of the stem-winding speech he would deliver several nights later on a balcony in front of the White House to the Republican National Convention.

Joined by his acting and still-unconfirmed Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, the longtime corporate lobbyist who guided federal troops against anti-racism protesters, the president proclaimed, “China very much wants Joe Biden to win.”

Next, Trump inspired gales of applause by boasting, “I could run in Israel, and I think they set up probably a 98 percent approval rating in Israel… And you know who appreciates it the most are the evangelical Christians.”

The president earned more cheers when he previewed a line he deployed a few nights later at the RNC: “Nobody has done more for the black community or the Hispanic community than we have. Nobody. Nobody. I guess, maybe Lincoln. Questionable.”

Trump’s recent event with the CNP was his second appearance before the group. The first encounter came during an October 2015 CNP forum, as candidate Trump was surging ahead of his Republican primary rivals and emerging as the Christian Right’s foul-mouthed Chosen One.

Several CNP members went on to serve in Trump’s White House, including Kellyanne Conway and Steve Bannon. But this appearance was different.

This time, in contrast to other Republican presidential hopefuls who had addressed the CNP, the White House videotaped Trump’s speech and proudly disseminated it online. Conspicuously missing from the footage, however, were any clear images of the audibly enthused crowd.

That is because the CNP’s membership is a carefully guarded secret; its meetings are private – off limits to the public and the press – and even the location of the gatherings is carefully protected.

In-House Only

Literature distributed to members at the entrance of meetings instructed attendees not to disclose the names of fellow members and forbade them from distributing the membership list to outsiders in order “to maintain the quality of membership communications.”

The Grayzone obtained the Council for National Policy’s October 2018 membership list, which can be found here. Pages 1-72 show the names and bios of members; 72-87 contain CNP literature, including official policies and guidelines, as well as details about future meetings.

The release of the CNP’s membership list represents the first time in the Trump era that the Christian Right powerhouse has been exposed, and the most recent disclosure since a copy of its 2014 member roll was published.

The CNP’s personnel comprise a blend of conservative movement leaders, industry moneymen, foreign policy hardliners, and culture war activists enforcing right-wing unity at the base of a Republican Party that has cohered around the doctrine of ultra-nationalist Trumpism.

https://consortiumnews.com/2020/09/02/election-2020-the-rise-of-the-council-for-national-policy-and-who-is-behind-it/

Houthis’ Advance Continues: Strategic Territories Captured In Northern And Central Yemen

The Houthis have captured new areas from the Saudi-led coalition and its proxies in the Yemeni provinces of Ma’rib and al-Jawf.

On August 31, the Houthis advanced on the western front of Ma’rib in the country’s central region. The group’s fighters captured the district center of Madghal following heavy clashes with the Saudi-led coalition.

According to the Islamic World News, Houthi fighters are now advancing to Tabyan mountain and the western areas of Madghal.

On September 1, in the northern province of al-Jawaf, the Houthis captured the heights overlooking the Taibat al-Esm base, known as the Khawr Mountain.

The group also increased its attacks on the fronts of al-Ruwik and al-Alam al-Abyadh in order to drain Saudi-backed forces occupying the region.

The Houthis have been maintaining a slow but steady advance in central and northern Yemen since the outbreak of the war in 2015. The Saudi-led coalition and its Yemen proxies are failing to hold their grounds, despite air support.

The continuous advance of the Houthis can be attributed to the high morale of the group’s fighters. Houthis fighters are ideologically motivated contrary to Saudi-led coalition proxies.

https://southfront.org/houthis-advance-continues-strategic-territories-captured-in-northern-and-central-yemen/

Cuomo Delays Release Of Data On New York's COVID-19 Nursing Home Deaths Until After Election

Last week, Democrats denounced the DoJ Civil Rights Division's decision to demand more data from New York, Michigan, New Jersey and Pennsylvania on policies enacted by each (Democratic) governor that required hospitals and long-term care homes to accept COVID-19 positive patients. Such a bone-headed policy sounds almost horrifying in retrospect - and mainstream media outlets have even admitted that these decisions might stand as the worst policy blunders of the entire pandemic. Even worse than the Trump Administration's struggle to ramp up testing during the early days of the outbreak (something the Washington Post once showed was primarily caused by bureaucratic incompetence at the CDC).

Fast forward to Tuesday evening, and it appears the governor's office is stonewalling the DoJ by refusing to turn over some of the information being requested. Remember, the DoJ didn't launch a full-on investigation - at least, not yet. This is mostly a fact-finding mission to try and determine how these harmful policies, which have been blamed for thousands of COVID-19 deaths, were left in place for so long. Cuomo reportedly didn't scrap the policy in NY until May.

Now, the Empire Center for Public Policy is accusing the New York Health Department of stalling on compliance with a Freedom of Information (FOIA) request seeking more information.

Since New York state is comfortably Democratic, bureaucrats can comfortably brush off these types of requests because they know they won't be held accountable by voters. When pressed for a reason on why the state couldn't turn over these nursing home death records, it said it needed more time to "find the records". How much more time? Well, at least until Nov. 5 - two days after the Nov. 3 presidential election.

"The state Health Department is offering a new explanation for why it won’t provide the full death toll of coronavirus in nursing homes: it can’t find the records,” according to Bill Hammond, a health analyst for the Empire Center who submitted the legal request, who spoke about the situation in an interview with the New York Post.

Responding to Hammond, the department said it couldn't fulfill the request "because a diligent search for relevant documents is still being conducted."

"We estimate that this Office will complete its process by November 5, 2020. The Department will notify you in writing when/if the responsive materials are available for release or if the time needed to complete your request extends beyond the above date," said the department’s record access officer, Rosemary Hewig.

Hammond called bs in a blog post, arguing that this type of a delay "should not be necessary", and claiming it appeared to be a brazen stalling tactic to avoid embarrassing Cuomo, and, by extension, Joe Biden and all the other Democrats on the ticket.

Right now, the state's nursing home death toll only includes people who died inside long-term care homes. Thousands more likely succumbed while at the hospital in the ICU, days after being transferred there for treatment.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/cuomo-struggles-delay-release-data-new-yorks-covid-19-nursing-home-deaths

Dem Bullock Changes Voting Rules As He Eyes Senate Seat

GOP suit challenges Dem's executive orders that affect his Senate bid

The Trump campaign, Republican National Committee (RNC), National Republican Senatorial Committee, and Montana GOP filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Democratic governor Steve Bullock's "unconstitutional" executive order allowing counties to vote entirely by mail.

Bullock—who is running to unseat Sen. Steve Daines (R., Mont.) in a race vital to determining the Senate majority in 2020—issued an August order that allows counties to conduct all-mail voting in the upcoming November election. Republicans are asking a federal district court to block the implementation of the order, saying that the Democratic governor overstepped his authority in "a direct usurpation of the legislature’s authority." The suit said the order was a nakedly political move designed to boost Bullock's candidacy.

"The Governor’s power grab under the cover of COVID-19 is particularly egregious. The Governor is running for U.S. Senate as a member of the Democratic Party, and his race is one of the most competitive in the country," the suit says. "He is using his current position to force a brand-new election system on Montanans that, according to his own party, will sway the election in his favor."

Bullock called the challenge a "template lawsuit."

"Voting by mail in Montana is safe, secure, and was requested by a bipartisan coalition of Montana election officials seeking to reduce the risk of COVID-19 and keep Montanans safe and healthy," Bullock told the Washington Free Beacon. "This is the same directive that the Republican President of the Senate and Republican Speaker of the House said was the right thing to do for the June primary. Today, we have many more active cases of COVID-19 than we did back in June."

Bullock's office did not respond to a follow-up on his order's constitutionality.

Trump campaign general counsel Matthew Morgan called the order a "unilateral power grab," noting that the "last-minute election rule changes" would "stack the deck for his own Senate race."

"The power to direct Montana's elections lies with the state's legislature, which already has key safeguards in place to protect each Montana voter's ballot," Morgan said in a statement. The RNC went on to accuse Bullock of "manipulating the state's election processes while he is also a candidate on the ballot for the U.S. Senate."

Bullock's order allows counties to determine their own vote-by-mail and early voting measures, creating a "patchwork election code with no uniform procedures," according to RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel. While Montana's current vote-by-mail system requires voters to request a ballot, Bullock's order allows counties to send unsolicited ballots to all registered voters.

"Upending our elections process in the 11th hour is a recipe for disaster," McDaniel said in a statement.

https://freebeacon.com/2020-election/dem-bullock-changed-voting-rules-as-he-eyes-senate-seat/

Portland Police Association Pres: Other Agencies Won’t Help Us Because ‘They See the Political Dynamics’ in Portland

On Wednesday’s “CNN Newsroom,” Portland Police Association President Daryl Turner stated that sheriffs from neighboring counties have refused to send officers into Portland to help quell the violence in the city due to “the political dynamics in the city of Portland, the elected officials not supporting law enforcement.”

Turner said that the refusal by neighboring sheriffs is “Because they see the political dynamics in the city of Portland, the elected officials not supporting law enforcement. We have great relationships with those adjoining law enforcement agencies. However, they are, just as we are, handcuffed, and we are afraid with the political dynamics of our city and a lack of support from our political elected leaders to be able to do our job and end this violence. It’s come to a point where there’s going to be a meeting of the minds, but it is — we are already in what I call a sinkhole and we’re getting deeper and deeper and deeper as we go. And so, we have to do something to end this violence, and it needs to be a zero-tolerance policy so that we can end the violence, and the elected officials, the district attorney, and our commissioners need to all be on board.”

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2020/09/02/portland-police-association-pres-other-agencies-wont-help-us-because-they-see-the-political-dynamics-in-portland/

Israeli-Russian Businessman Steps in With Offer That Could Save El Al

David Sapir offers $51 million for 28% stake in El Al, giving him joint control over the company with Knafaim holdings; proposal would require El Al to scrap a planned $150 million stock sale

Businessman David Sapir submitted an offer to El Al’s board of directors to immediately inject $51 million into the company in exchange for 190 million shares, which works out to 27.7% of the company. The offer reflects a price of 0.90 shekels per share, which is a premium of 21% over El Al’s value as of the beginning of trade Wednesday.

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/business/.premium-israeli-russian-businessman-david-sapir-offers-51-million-for-28-stake-in-el-al-1.9123683

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