Meanwhile, At The Huffington Post:

National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre took aim Friday at moves to restore voting rights to people with past felony convictions — an absurd argument, since the NRA helps former felons restore their gun rights.

LaPierre told the organization’s annual meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, that Democrats are “even allowing felons the right to vote, including violent rapists and murderers.”

“Tentacles of the Clinton machine are out registering those felons right now,” he said. “They’re releasing them, and then they’re registering them. Heck, when they sign their release papers, they might as well at the prison door ... give ‘em a Hillary Clinton bumper sticker.”

LaPierre characterized recent moves by Democrats in Maryland and Virginia to allow ex-offenders to vote as dangerously crooked political maneuvers.

But when it comes to giving those same people the right to own a gun, the NRA takes a different position.

The NRA, the largest gun-rights group, has fought for decades to make it easier for ex-offenders to restore their gun rights, even though federal law holds that people convicted of felonies are barred from bearing arms. In some cases, NRA lobbying has made it easier for ex-felons convicted of violent crimes to legally purchase guns.

The NRA was a key supporter of the Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986, which contained a provision allowing felons convicted of gun crimes and other violent offenses to petition to have their gun rights restored. A review by the Violence Policy Center, a nonprofit that studies the effects of gun regulations, found a number of instances in which violent ex-felons had been given “relief” to own a firearm, only to be arrested on charges of commiting another violent crime.

Congress removed funding from that program in 1992, against the protests of the NRA.

“There’s no reason why a person who has demonstrated they are now a good citizen should be deprived of their right to own a firearm,” NRA representative Richard Gardiner told The Washington Post before the vote. “We ought to recognize that some people can change.”

In recent years, the NRA and other gun-rights advocates have shifted their focus to nonviolent ex-felons.

The process for restoring gun rights to ex-offenders varies by state. Congress, however, has made the process more burdensome by blocking funding for the Justice Department to process applications. Last year, the House passed an amendment that would have provided funds to ensure that more ex-offenders who were prohibited from buying guns could apply for restoration status.

“Those who have lost the right to purchase and obtain a firearm are now one step closer to being able to petition the government for a full restoration of those rights,” the NRA wrote on Facebook.

Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), who sponsored the amendment (which eventually failed), said the measure was long past due.

“America is a land of second chances,” Buck said in a floor speech. “One mistake should not define your future.”

For people like LaPierre, however, that spirit of redemption apparently only applies to people who want firearms, not those who want to participate in democracy.

presidential nominee of the Republican Party, and the mere fact of it hasn't come to feel any less weird, or any less scary. It also means that the three people I had coffee and pastries with last Wednesday morning—Danny Diaz (Jeb Bush's campaign manager), Jeff Roe (Ted Cruz's campaign manager) and Alex Conant (Marco Rubio's communications director)—have been able to process what the hell happened.

Well-compensated, highly intelligent and very publicly defeated, each one of them is still angry, both at Trump and at the media. Each one of them has theories about how we got to this very disconcerting place in American political history. And not one of them is prepared to vote for Trump.

...

GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, whose eventual electoral domestication seems to be forever around the next corner, pivoted back in the direction of the surreal and reprehensible Wednesday morning at a press conference in Doral, Florida. And once again, Trump is taking fire from fellow Republicans in a way that shatters all precedent, as disaffected conservatives receive one more sign that their party’s nominee is catastrophically unfit for office.

Trump managed to reinflame his antagonists throughout his press conference, where ― among sundry bewilderments ― he at one point seemed to confuse Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Kaine with former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean.

But if any of his various statements at the press conference really stood out, it was probably the part where he called for state-sponsored Russian hackers to conduct cyber espionage on the United States for his electoral benefit. (Security experts have found evidence that Russia was involved in the hack, and subsequent leak, of a cache of Democratic National Committee emails, which has cast a shadow over the Democrats’ convention in Philadelphia this week.)

Referring to the 33,000 emails deleted from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email server, he addressed Russia like so: “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.” ...

The more problematic statement was him saying he would consider recognizing the Russian invasion of Crimea as legit and lifting the sanctions that have sunk the Russian economy.

Russia has always been the enemy

Putin kills or locks up people that don't agree with him.

He has a long list of human rights violations, his corruption has even spread to the IOC and his country is paying for it.

He has literally taken Russia from being a growing threat and 8th largest economy to being a poverty-stricken country with an obsolete military.

lifting the sanctions that have sunk the Russian economy.

All he has accomplished in Syria is showing the world how inept Russian leadership is.

He can't even bomb the right targets.

3 years ago, people cared what Russia did, now the only reason they are relevant is they have a veto in the UN.

lol, what is that garbage KN? Another trolling attempt? This subject is beyond you.

Russia has always been the enemy, Putin kills or locks up people that don't agree with him. He has a long list of human rights violations, his corruption has even spread to the IOC and his country is paying for it. He has literally taken Russia from being a growing threat and 8th largest economy to being a poverty-stricken country with an obsolete military. All he has accomplished in Syria is showing the world how inept Russian leadership is. He can't even bomb the right targets. 3 years ago, people cared what Russia did, now the only reason they are relevant is they have a veto in the UN.

You know Vic, you seriously are flailing a lot.

I mean, first you say Russia is a thread, now you say they aren't. You say that Putin is crippling the Russian economy, now you say it's the US.

And, as far as I know, ISIS isn't only in Iraq. Maybe you, with your inside intelligence of US military tactics, know better. Who knows?

But I do know you are full of fluff, and flailing about even more.

Okay, so Hillary pretends to be a champion for women's rights and gay rights, yet takes money from countries where being a woman makes you a 2nd class citizen and being gay is a death penalty. Not only that, she refuses to condemn them because of said money. Any comments on that?

She should give the money back and continue to champion equality for all Americans, something that we still haven't achieved, thanks in large part to people hiding behind their religion.

Its the go to argument again, you could have just gone with this right away instead of pretending to know things. I wouldn't have had to waste my time straightening you out.

You haven't made any points on this page. None. Maybe try to talk about something else, Rav tried to change the subject, follow his lead I guess.

Donald Trump has denigrated Mexicans and Muslims, threatened to break international prohibitions on torture and shown a shocking disregard for the importance of a free press.

But none of that may be as disqualifying for the presidency as his casual attitude toward the use of nuclear weapons ― particularly in light of a news report from Wednesday morning.

The report came from Joe Scarborough, the host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” during a segment about national security issues that featured former CIA director Michael Hayden. When Hayden said he knew of no prominent experts working with Trump, Scarborough jumped in:
It’s just one secondhand account ― and just a few hours later, Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort told interviewers on Fox News that Scarborough’s story was all wrong. “The idea that he’s trying to understand where to use nuclear weapons?” Manafort asked. “It just didn’t happen. I was in the meeting, it didn’t happen.”

But Scarborough, a former Republican congressman, is as well-connected as anybody in Washington these days. One of his show’s regular guests is Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, who met with Trump at least once, in August 2015.

More important, as The Huffington Post’s Igor Bobic points out, Trump’s previous statements suggest he is far less reluctant to contemplate the use of nuclear weapons than any other recent president or major presidential candidate.

In a March interview with Bloomberg Politics, for example,Trump was asked whether he would rule out using tactical nuclear weapons against the self-described Islamic State, also known as ISIS. He replied, “I’m never going to rule anything out — I wouldn’t want to say. Even if I wasn’t, I wouldn’t want to tell you that because at a minimum, I want them to think maybe we would use them.”

Later, during an MSNBC town hall, he said, “I’m not going to use nuclear, but I’m not taking any cards off the table.”

It’s hard to overstate how unsettling Trump’s posture on nuclear weapons is. Although precise details of launch procedures are classified, the U.S. has a two-person rule in place for the use of nuclear weapons, according to several published accounts. And under this rule, the secretary of defense must confirm a presidential order before it becomes effective. But in a Trump administration, the defense secretary would be a Trump appointee. In theory, that official would have a legal obligation to verify Trump’s command.

“In military law and discipline, orders must be followed ― as long as they are legal,” Heather Hurlburt, a national security expert at New America, told HuffPost. “So one could easily imagine a President Trump ordering a nuclear strike that military officers thought failed to meet Geneva standards.”

The drama has played out in movies, usually with an unhinged president launching weapons against the Soviet Union or Russia ― or in response to some kind of false alarm. (Yes, false alarms have happened before.) But to imagine a first strike happening with Trump in the White House, it helps to imagine a different kind of scenario ― say, a terrorist attack somewhere in the U.S.

In the fevered, panicked environment that a homeland incident could provoke, it’s not so crazy to imagine Trump ordering a nuclear strike against ISIS targets in Syria ― even though such a strike would, in fact, be crazy.

Probably the most generous interpretation of Trump’s statements is that Scarborough’s account is somehow inaccurate and that Trump merely intends to dangle the possibility of using nuclear weapons as part of his negotiating technique to intimidate foreign adversaries.

But even musing about the use of nuclear weapons would be profoundly destabilizing, because one of the most important checks on the use of such weapons is the knowledge that no nation that possesses them would actually use them without facing an existential threat.

Is there even evidence on what he said?

I mean, what somebody said what Trump said sounds fishy enough.

I can quote Clinton saying she eats children for breakfast if that's the case.

Hillary Clinton’s Musings On Eating Children May Be The Most Disqualifying Thing She’s Done Yet
Even threatening cannibalism would be profoundly destabilizing.

WASHINGTON ― Donald Trump has said he’s the best ally to the LGBT community in this election cycle. The best, just the greatest. All you have to do is “ask the gays” themselves, he’s said.

But he probably didn’t say that Thursday as he surrounded himself with some of the nation’s most extreme anti-gay activists.

Trump headlined a Pastors and Pews event in Orlando sponsored by American Renewal Project ― a Jerry Falwell Jr. creation ― that brought together hundreds of evangelical pastors who want to shape public policy. Trump shared the stage with a mix of conservative religious leaders who say gay people, in one way or another, are taking the nation on a one-way trip to hell.

Let’s meet them!

David Barton. The evangelical political activist and author says HIV/AIDS is God’s way of punishing people for being gay. He also says Republicans who support same-sex marriage should be “scalped,” and for GOP senators in particular, people should “hang a bloody scalp” over the Senate gallery railing as a warning to other senators.

William Federer. An author of books about faith, he says gay people in the military with access to guns might try to “force their agenda” onto straight people. He also thinks that letting gay people serve openly in the military would lead to large numbers of Christians converting to Islam.

Ken Graves. The Maine pastor and former lumberjack has warned of “militant homofascism” taking over America. He thinks gay families are incapable of being happy because “they are depressed,” and spent his own money to run local ads against same-sex marriage.

Fred Lowery. A pastor at a Florida megachurch, he says America has “deleted God,” which has resulted in the “kinds of problems” like legalized abortion and same-sex marriage.

David Lane. The founder of American Renewal Project, he says “homosexual totalitarianism is out of the closet” and “the militants are trying to herd Christians there.” He says people who embrace homosexuality “know little and practice nothing of Christianity.” Lane also led a push to unseat Iowa Supreme Court justices after they legalized same-sex marriage; demanded a recall of Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal (R) after he vetoed a bill that would have discriminated against LGBT people; and criticized Jeb Bush for hiring a gay spokesman.

Mathew Staver. Where to begin. He founded Liberty Counsel, a group declared “extremist” by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The group is behind anti-LGBT bills around the country that came in response to the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling on marriage equality. Staver has argued in court in favor of so-called conversion therapy, a wholly debunked practice of trying to convert gay people into straight people. He’s also compared legalizing same-sex marriage to forced sterilization; compared Christians living in a country with same-sex marriage to Jews in Nazi Germany; and compared gay rights advocates to terrorists. Staver represented Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis in court when she refused to issue marriage licenses to a same-sex couple. He also condemned Mitt Romney for hiring a gay staffer.

A Trump campaign spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment on why he decided to associate himself with rabidly anti-LGBT people. During his remarks, Trump didn’t touch on LGBT issues at all.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) also spoke at the meeting. He said in a statement that it was simply “a celebration of faith.”

“The event I will be speaking at in Orlando is a gathering of local pastors and faith leaders. Leave it to the media and liberal activists to label a gathering of faith leaders as an anti-LGBT event. It is nothing of the sort,” Rubio said.

“Because I believe that a strong America is not possible without strong families and strong values, for years now I have participated in events hosted by faith leaders to speak about the cultural and social issues before America, including the importance of parents and families, religious liberties and combatting poverty,” he continued. “I have always supported a traditional definition of marriage. But I recognize that a significant number of Americans hold a different view. Because marriage is regulated by the individual states, they have the right to petition their state legislature to change the law. And those of us who support traditional marriage also have a right to oppose those efforts.”

Democratic operatives took note of Trump’s and Rubio’s role at the gathering ― particularly because it falls on the two-month anniversary of the shootings at an Orlando gay club that left 49 people dead.

“Instead of honoring the memory of those we lost at Pulse two months ago, Donald Trump and Marco Rubio have come to Orlando to headline a gathering of some of the nation’s most incendiary anti-gay bigots,” Democratic National Committee chair Donna Brazile and DNC LGBT Caucus chair Earl Fowlkes said in a statement.

“We at the DNC join all people of good conscience in expressing our solidarity with the Orlando LGBT community as they continue to grieve the deadliest shooting in American history. We suggest Trump and Rubio disavow these anti-gay extremists who have likened gay people to Nazis and characterized HIV/AIDS as divine ‘penalties’ for being gay,” they said. “Failing to do so will be yet another example of the utter lack of judgment that makes Trump unfit to serve.”

Some weeks, it’s tough coming up with a subtitle for these columns. Some weeks, not so much. This is one of the latter, because the juxtaposition of a colorful (to say the least) description of Donald Trump with a soap opera’s title just naturally presented itself.

The quote comes in response to Trump’s campaign shakeup, which we’ll get to in a moment. One of the new people Trump hired comes from Breitbart News, and former Breitbart editor Ben Shapiro was being interviewed by CNN’s Brianna Keilar for his response to the shakeup. Here is the transcript, for everyone’s edification:

Thanks for clearing that up, Ben! We’ll just add that to the images we never thought we’d have to think about in the world of politics (a list which has grown to epic proportions during this presidential race, it’s worth pointing out). With such an auspicious metaphor to work with, let’s see just how the turd tornado (turdnado?) turned last week.

The week began with a speech Donald Trump read off a TelePrompTer. And in a stunning development — are you sitting down? — he then did not stomp all over his message by saying monumentally stupid things for the rest of the week. No, really! True, his message was stomped all over by the shakeup news from his campaign, but this is actually an improvement for Trump. There wasn’t a single tweet or off-the-cuff statement at a rally that derailed Trump’s message this week — which has got to be a new record for him. How many days can he keep this up? We certainly don’t know, as evidenced by the fact that on Monday we wrote of the inevitability of it already happening by the end of the week — which we have to admit turned out not to be the case at all.

Before we get to the shakeup, a word about Trump’s messaging this week. He actually read three TelePrompTer speeches this week, and he seems to be improving (somewhat) on his delivery with each one. The first was on the subject of defeating terrorism and foreign policy in general. The Morning Joe program helpfully put together a mashup video of just a few of the things he said in Monday’s speech that utterly contradict what he’s said about the subjects in the past, which is pretty amusing to watch. The second was a law-and-order speech in front of a mostly-white audience, warning of the dangers of urban crime (which has been par for the course for Republicans since Richard Nixon’s time, it’s worth noting). By week’s end, Trump had made some astonishing news in the third speech, but we’ll get to that in a moment.

The campaign shakeup news was rather ominous for Republicans, since Trump pushed aside the only guy running his campaign who has had actual experience running campaigns before, and replaced him with two additions — a woman who worked for Todd Akin’s campaign (in the “outreach to women” job — you just can’t make this stuff up), and a guy who ran Breitbart News, a website for those who think that Fox News is just another part of the mainstream media’s liberal conspiracy. Yes, there are people out there who think Fox isn’t rightwingy enough, and they all apparently get their news from Breitbart. They also get plenty of conspiracy theories, but that almost goes without saying. The new theme for the campaign, as Shapiro referenced above, is going to be returning to “letting Trump be Trump.” Hoo boy. Buckle up, boys and girls!

Little-noticed in the midst of all this news was the very first poll Breitbart ever commissioned, which was intended to “unskew” all that liberal polling saying Trump wasn’t beating Clinton. The only problem was that even after all this unskewing, Clinton still beat Trump by five points. Guess they’ll have to rework that unskewing formula, eh?

But back to the Trump campaign. With Trump adding a Breitbart executive to his campaign, the rest of the Republican Party spent the entire week waiting for the other shoe to drop. Nobody knew what form it would take, but this morning that shoe hit the ground with a thump, with the announcement that Paul Manafort would be stepping down from the Trump campaign. All week long, the Trump campaign had insisted that they weren’t going through a shakeup at all, they were instead expanding the campaign by hiring more people to run things. This falsehood was exposed with Manafort’s resignation. The Trump campaign is now being run by people who have never run a national campaign for anyone before. And it’s worth pointing out that this isn’t the first such top-level shakeup in Trump’s campaign (and likely won’t be the last).

All of this news has led to noticeable glee over in the Clinton camp (and among Democrats in general). It’s easy to understand such giddiness, since Clinton’s recent polling is so strong, both in battleground states and in previously-deep-red states as well. Tim Kaine is campaigning in places like Wyoming, Idaho, and Missouri (to be fair, the first two aren’t realistic for Clinton to even hope for, as he was just fundraising there from wealthy Democrats). People are beginning to ask whether Trump’s defeat will rival Barry Goldwater’s — and it’s only August. With Trump doubling down on “being Trump,” things look pretty rosy for Hillary Clinton right now.

But there’s a cautionary tale running through the week that few inside-the-Beltway pundits have so far noticed. Could Trump actually be successfully pivoting, in the midst of the shakeup? He gave three TelePrompTer speeches, and had zero blowups this week. He didn’t say (or tweet) anything so radical it dominated the news cycle in a negative way — this during a week when naked Donald Trump statues mockingly appeared in multiple U.S. cities (more on that in the awards). He introduced his first two television ads of the general election. This is all new, for Trump. To end the week, Trump decided to pay a visit to flooding victims in Louisiana — an opportunity for him to show some compassion and “look presidential.” And in the third of those speeches he read this week, he kind-of sort-of apologized for all his previous outrageous statements. Here’s what he read off the screen:

Laughable as that might sound (especially that last line), this appears to be the first time Donald Trump has ever even remotely admitted any sort of mistake he’s made during the campaign. So, to review: three speeches read from prepared texts, two new television ads that will run in battleground states, one presidential-looking photo op, zero speeches ad-libbed at rallies, zero new controversial statements, and one semi-apology. That’s a much more focused Trump than we’ve yet seen. So perhaps all the Democratic celebration about his new campaign team might be a wee bit premature. Has Trump truly pivoted? Has he ridden out his own personal poopstorm? Time will tell. Perhaps this is all the final influence of Manafort, on his way out — perhaps next week Trump will return to form. But even with all the campaign shakeup news, Trump had a better week on the campaign trail than usual.