Check out our slate of Daily Kos-endorsed candidates

Well, we’re still alive. And there’s still a United States of America. Apparently.

So Trump hasn’t killed us yet.

We’ll wrap up the week with whatever insane garbage he’s used to fill the last 22 hours. But to make it all worth it, we’ll visit again with Josie Duffy Rice, to make you smart for the weekend.

Listen right here at 9:00 AM ET!

Oh, right! It’s probably time to craft a new shtick for this middle part, here. This is the bit where I remind you that we need your help in order to make a living at this. If the show is something you enjoy, or just want people to think it is, why not pitch in and keep alive our hopes of one day fully justifying to our families the time we spend on it?* You can make a one-time donation, or subscribe via PayPal or Patreon to provide ongoing, monthly support!

Not sold yet? How about a FREE SAMPLE of our show, in convenient YouTube format? Like what you see? Why? It’s just a logo! How about what you hear? Well, then, consider subscribing to our YouTube channel! Our goal is to have so many of you listen to the show each day via YouTube, that we’ll then punish you by running ads at the beginning, in exchange for even more money, but from other people’s wallets!

 YouTube | iTunes | LibSyn | Support the show: Patreon; PayPal; PayPal Subscription

How would you like to be Donald Trump today? If so, contact Donald, he can probably find a way to work something out. Usually KITM is your source for the news, before it hits the “news”, but David Waldman Just can’t keep up with all of the new Trump accusations popping up! Good thing Greg Dworkin is available to lend a hand, although he first wants to make sure no one is going to get sued. (Don’t worry) Check out the testimony of women caught too close to Donald’s fingers, tongue, leer, in the Abbreviated Pundit Roundup, then move on to Twitter where there will be more shortly. Are you still at the non-acceptance stage on the Donald Trump assault news? Or you might even be at the Kellyanne Conway or uncontrollable rage monster stage. If so here is an acceptance guide. “The Tape” trebucheted the Clinton campaign last weekend. There’s lots of polls at APR. Listen to Greg to learn how to savor the fine nuances! For polling and psychology, Pennsylvania is a state to watch, as Hillary dominates the Philly suburbs. As Trump accusations flood in, Trump troops fight on, and lose, in skirmishes. Donald Trump invests in 10 year olds with potential, checks in on the progress of 15 year olds, until he finds the right moment to strike. Donald has a certain preference, and certain preferences.  Assaulting a journalist was a big mistake.

We begin today’s roundup with this editorial from The New York Times regarding Donald Trump’s threat to sue the paper for reporting on sexual assault allegations:

...Justice William Brennan Jr. wrote that “public discussion is a political duty, and that this should be a fundamental principle of the American government.” Such discussion “may well include vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials.”

In Donald Trump’s view, these principles shouldn’t exist. “I’m going to open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money,” he said in February. Never mind that as president, he would have no power to alter state libel laws.

Of course, Mr. Trump’s threat to sue may be an empty one, as so many of his previous threats — intended mainly to energize his angry base — have been. But it is yet another frightening reminder of what a Trump presidency could bring.

Timothy O’Brien, who was sued by Trump in the past, writes about Trump’s baseless lawsuits:

For starters, the attempts at intimidation are familiar. In the run-up to the suit, Kasowitz showed up at a book reading I was giving to tell me, with a grin, that he was a writer, too. The Trump team recorded the reading with a video camera posted across the street, and the audience included a few obvious plants (literally dressed in raincoats) who asked probing questions like: “Didn’t you write this book to hurt Trump because you don’t like him?” I think I said something really shrewd like, “Of course not,” without thinking to add: “Are you crazy? The guy could be president someday.”

In retrospect, I realized that Kasowitz and his crew were preparing for the libel suit Trump filed against me a few months later. The suit dragged on for several years — in part because Trump was slow to respond to discovery requests for his financial and tax records — before the court tossed it out in 2011. In short, Trump lost his case, and he spent boatloads of money litigating it.

Trump never seemed to have thought through the implications of sitting through discovery in a hotly contested lawsuit — which is why my lawyers had the opportunity to depose him for a two-day stretch during which he lied 30 times about his career and finances.

Here are some excerpts from the November edition of the Harper’s Index:

Percentage of American renters who spend more than half their salary on housing: 28

Number of years by which an average U.S. book reader outlives a nonreader: 2

Rank of the United States among countries with the largest proportion of book readers: 6

Of China: 1

Number of state prisons that are at least partially run by private companies: 89

Rank of police officer among the deadliest professions in the United States: 15

Of logger: 1

Minimum number of traffic tickets that have been successfully challenged by an online chatbot named DoNotPay: 180,000

Number of states that require aborted fetuses to be either interred or cremated: 6

Number of countries that have had a female head of state: 52

If you haven’t yet heard Michelle Obama’s speech today, here’s your chance:

 And here is atranscript.

HIGH IMPACT STORIES • TOP COMMENTS 

TWEET OF THE DAY

BLAST FROM THE PAST

At Daily Kos on this date in 2010—ThinkProgress documents more foreign funding to Chamber:

ThinkProgress has a new investigation to supplement their story from last week that documented "the disclosure of fundraising documents U.S. Chamber staffers had been distributing to solicit foreign (even state-owned) companies to donate directly to the Chamber’s 501(c)(6)."

This new chapter of the investigation adds significantly to ThinkProgress's case with very specific donations documented that are far beyond what the Chamber has publicly acknowledged in interviews.

ThinkProgress began by documenting the three ways in which the Chamber fundraises from foreign corporations, and how that money goes into its "501(c)(6) entity, the same account that finances its unprecedented $75 million dollar partisan attack ad campaign." The Chamber has responded with a focus on just one of those avenues for fundraising--the red-herring AmChams, the network of Chabmer affiliates internationally, composed of American and foreign companies. The Chamber acknowledges their existence, and that it receives money from them, but has stonewalled any attempt to deteremine whether or not that money is making its way into their attack ads for Republicans. To date, the traditional media has just bought that story, has accepted the Chamber's "just trust us" line.

On today’s Kagro in the Morning show, Greg Dworkin updates us on the first polls to include reaction to the Trump tapes. And they look pretty much as you thought they would. It can only get worse, as the floodgates open & we try to keep up with the accusations. And they may yet find video!

 YouTube | iTunes | LibSyn | Support the show: Patreon; PayPal; PayPal Subscription

FOLLOW @RubenBolling on the Twitters and a Face Book.

JOIN Tom the Dancing Bug's subscription club, the Proud & Mighty INNER HIVE, for exclusive early access to comics, extra comics, and oh, so much more. 

GET Ruben Bolling’s new hit book series for kids, The EMU Club Adventures. (”A book for the curious and adventurous!” -Cory Doctorow)  Book One here.  Book Two here.

On Thursday night, Mike Pence was told of an 11-year-old girl who had heard some of Donald Trump’s hurtful words about women’s bodies and said:

 When I hear those words and look in the mirror, they make me feel bad about myself.

Pence was asked what he would say to that little girl and his answer is … well, judge for yourself:

Well I would say to any one of my kids and any children in this country, that Donald Trump and I are committed to a safer and more prosperous future for their family. The weak and feckless foreign policy that Hillary Clinton promises to continue has literally caused wider areas of the world to spin apart. The rise of terrorist threats that have inspired violence here at home, and we’ve seen an erosion of law and order in our streets. And we’ve seen jobs and opportunities evaporate and even leave Ohio and leave this country. I would say to any of our kids that if Donald Trump and I have the chance to serve in the White House, that we’re going to work every day for a stronger, safer and more prosperous America.

Shorter answer, don’t worry about being fat, little girl, because if your mommy and daddy don’t vote for us, you’ll all be dead anyway. Next?

What a jackass.

Ready to stop Donald Trump? Sign up for a phonebanking shift with MoveOn, and make calls to voters in the swing states from the privacy of your home.

“It’s always darkest before the dawn.” In theory, the shining of the light of day onto police transgressions/atrocities is intended to serve as a check against future transgressions/atrocities. There are times, however, when that bright light illuminates such horrors as to make you want to close the curtains and seal up the windows. Recently, the story of two Chicago police officers who sodomized a man with a screwdriver came to light:

On Aug. 28, 2004, Chicago Police Officer Scott Korhonen did something truly heinous to a young man named Coprez Coffie. Just 20 years old at the time, Coffie was spotted by Korhonen and his partner in what they claimed was a drug deal. Coffie, who was employed as a security guard at a local hotel, was then driven to an alley, handcuffed and strip-searched with his pants down. During the strip search, Korhonen got a screwdriver and jammed it deep into the rectum of Coffie — causing internal injuries to Coffie. [...]

As you could imagine, Coprez Coffie refused to simply accept what happened to him. For the next three years he fought like hell to prove that he was brutalized and assaulted by Korhonen. At first, Coffie and his attorneys fought for the case to go to trial and filed several motions before judges requesting his day in court. In the meantime, the Chicago Police Department stonewalled and refused to even discipline Officer Korhonen or his partner, Officer Gerald Lodwich, who stood by and did nothing when the assault took place.

Finally, on Oct. 17, 2007 a civil jury found Officers Korhonen and Lodwich guilty of the “unreasonable search” and ordered the City of Chicago to pay Coffie a $4 million settlement plus nearly $675,000 for his legal fees. In the process of the investigation, it was determined that not only did the officers have screwdrivers in the glove compartment of their car, but that human fecal matter was found in the glove compartment as well. The injuries to Mr. Coffie’s rectum were also confirmed and documented.

Thousands of transgender women nationwide are facing a shortage of injectable estrogen after the manufacturer lost supply of a key ingredient and the Food and Drug Administration has failed to approve a new supplier. Originally, the FDA said the drug would be accessible again come October, but now availability appears to be delayed by another month. Samantha Michaels writes:

"The FDA recognizes this is an important drug, and is working with the drug manufacturers so that the drug may return to the market as quickly as possible," Andrea Fischer, a spokeswoman for the agency, told BuzzFeed. Perrigo, a company that makes the generic version, did not respond to BuzzFeed's request for comment.

The shortage has left thousands of transgender women in a tough situation. "The drive and desire to be authentic, to live in the correct body, it's so strong," Gina Bingham, a trans woman in California, told BuzzFeed. "Something like this can throw people to a bad place."

Not all injectable estrogen is in short supply. The smallest dose (10mg), which is usually prescribed to post-menopausal women, remains available. Meanwhile, the two larger doses (40mg and 20mg) typically used by transgender women have both been affected. 

The shortage "speaks to the disparity of how we as a community understand the importance of hormones for trans people," Anthony Vavasis, the director of an LGBT health center in New York, told Out magazine. "What if tomorrow we announced, 'There's no more insulin available for diabetics?' How would that play?"

Donald Trump today responded to reports from four women charging that Donald Trump sexually assaulted them by declaring it to be the product of a nationwide media conspiracy against him and his supporters. In the speech, he declared that Clinton "meets in secret" with international bankers to "plot the destruction of U.S. sovereignty." He declared that the "corrupt government cartel" was working alongside the media and the "criminal" Clintons to destroy him. He declared that electing him was, in fact, the nation's only remaining hope.

This is a struggle for the survival of our nation. Believe me. This will be our last chance to save it on November 8. Remember that. This election will determine whether we are a free nation or whether we have only the illusion of democracy, but we are in fact controlled by a handful of global special interest rigging the system and our system is rigged.

So there is Donald Trump's teleprompter-read defense to sexual harassment and sexual assault charges spanning decades and to his own leaked recording bragging about the same: There is an international cabal of bankers and media figures working with the government to destroy the country, to "allow radical Islamic terrorists to enter the country by the thousands", and only he, the strong and charismatic leader, could save the nation from this underground network of colluders and criminals.

After the speech, a Trump supporter left a sign bearing a scrawled swastika and the word "MEDIA" on a table inside the press pen. It seems clear Trump's message was heard.

Back in February the Department of Justice launched an investigation into the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) regarding their use of force policies and ethnic disparities in arrests. On Wednesday the Justice Dept. released their findings of that investigation, noting that police in San Francisco “disproportionately used force on people of color, and stopped and searched them more often than it did white people.”  

Federal officials reviewed 548 use-of-force cases between May 2013 and May 2016, finding 37% of the people whom city police used force against were African American, a larger percentage than for any other ethnic group. Nine of the 11 people who were killed during use-of-force incidents in that time frame were people of color. [...]

Federal officials made 272 separate recommendations for reform in the report, including better training with batons to non-fatally subdue suspects with knives.

The study found that the department did not properly investigate officer use-of-force incidents, does not keep “complete and consistent officer-involved shooting files,” and generally had outdated information technology systems and tools to identify patterns of misconduct. [...]

Federal investigators also discovered that while black and Latino drivers were more likely to be pulled over than white drivers, they were “less likely to be found with contraband.”

Here’s another bombshell the six-month study found:

“The department was not transparent about officer discipline, completing only one investigation into the deadly use of force during the three-year period — and an analysis of 500 use-of-force incidents showed city police officers properly categorized the type of force used on only five occasions.”

The six-month study examined the period under former police chief Greg Suhr’s leadership. Suhr, who had been appointed in 2011, resigned in May of this year, after the SFPD shot and killed a woman sitting in a car believed to have been stolen. Police said the woman attempted to drive off when they approached and crashed into another vehicle. Calls for Suhr’s firing had begun in earnest after the SFPD shot and killed Mario Woods in December of 2015. The shootings were simply one cause of concern out of many about the behavior of the department’s officers.

Ew, ew, ew!

In an “Entertainment Tonight” Christmas feature in 1992, Trump looked at a group of young girls and said he would be dating one of them in ten years. At the time, Trump would have been 46 years old.

The video, released Wednesday evening, was shot at Trump Tower.

In the clip, Trump asks one of the girls if she’s “going up the escalator.” When the girl replies, “yeah,” Trump turns to the camera and says: “I am going to be dating her in 10 years. Can you believe it?

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) just can't make up his mind whether to dump Trump or not. His constituents, however, seem to be having no problem making up their minds. 

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) falls two points behind Democratic challenger Katie McGinty in a new Bloomberg/Selzer poll of the race to keep his seat as U.S. Senator for Pennsylvania.

 The U.S. Senate election in Pennsylvania has been closely followed for its close polls and is currently marked as a tossup on TPM's Senate Scoreboard. 

McGinty, a former member of the Bill Clinton administration, leads the race, 47-45 among Pennsylvania likely voters.

Daily Kos's polling average gives her a slight edge, and the forecast gives her a 60 percent chance of winning. The HuffPost aggregate also gives her a one-point lead. The trendlines are moving exactly as McGinty needs them to.

The results for Toomey are likely already baked-in—whatever he does is unlikely to make much difference now. It's his to lose, which mean it's McGinty's to win. Let's help her.

Can you chip in $3 to Katie McGinty to send Pat Toomey packing?

Conservatives want to stop people from voting on Election Day—especially in Pennsylvania. Fight back against voter suppression by clicking here and signing up as a volunteer for Protect the Vote. Help make sure all Americans have the chance to cast their ballot.

The Republican National Committee is absolutely firm in its support of Donald Trump. Or so they say. The dollars might convince a beleaguered, suspicious Trump to see things differently:

In 2004, the committee spent $18.2 million on independent expenditures — or IEs, in campaign parlance — boosting George W. Bush’s reelection bid. In 2008, the RNC’s IE spending surged to $53.5 million in support of John McCain’s campaign against Barack Obama. And in 2012, the RNC spent $42.4 million on IEs boosting Mitt Romney or opposing President Obama — with nearly 80 percent of the spending occurring before mid-October.

By contrast, this cycle the RNC has spent only $321,000 on independent expenditures attacking Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. And all of that spending occurred last fall — before Trump had emerged as the leader for the GOP presidential nomination.

According to the RNC, it’s nothing to do with Trump, but rather the outcome of a strategic decision made after the 2012 election. And indeed, the DNC isn’t doing any IE advertising for Hillary Clinton, and no one would question her party’s commitment to her. The problem is, Trump needs the help and it looks awfully suspicious (hear that, Donald?) that he’s not getting it:

The RNC “had no way of knowing that Trump as the nominee wouldn’t have a significant paid media effort,” said Chris Mottola, a veteran Republican strategist who helped to oversee the committee’s 2012 ad campaign. “If you had predicted this election cycle, you would be living beside a pool in Vegas.”

Given the way the election developed, an adviser to one of the pro-Trump super PACs said the RNC should have adapted and stepped in to help offset the advertising gap for the good of the whole party. “It’s shocking that the RNC wouldn’t do an IE for the candidate at the top of its ticket,” the adviser said. “It’s the single best way to help every Republican candidate down the ballot.”

If you want to get technical about it, the single best way to help every Republican candidate down the ballot might be to have a nominee who wasn’t a sexual predator, but nothing can be done about that now! So TV ads might be the best option for the reality the RNC finds itself in. If their support for Trump was really as unswerving as Reince Priebus keeps saying it is.

Daily Kos is teaming up with Color of Change to mobilize black voters in crucial swing states, with groundbreaking texting technology. Click here to get involved from the comfort of your home.