Jane Kim Beats Scott Wiener In Pokémon Go Contest

A couple weeks back, Jane Kim challenged Scott Wiener to a Pokémon Go race, and Wiener accepted. The two rivals for one of SF's state senate seats held their contest Saturday, and with the help of three extra team members apiece, they set about trying to catch as many Pokémon as they could in a two-hour span. And Kim's team won.

The Chronicle's John King, who more typically serves as the paper's architecture and urban design critic, covered the silly proceedings. Kim explained, "This just seemed like a way to lighten things up, and take part in a national craze born here."

Things kicked off at the 24th Street BART station, and from there Wiener's group got in a car and headed to the Ferry Building, and Kim's team walked over to Lilac Alley between 25th and 26th Streets where "the murals apparently are infused with Pokémon of all sizes and shapes," writes King, clearly baffled by all this.

It seems like it was a smart move, because after two hours, Team Kim had racked up 738 points compared to Team Wiener's 674. Kim said her team's strategy "shows that walking is good for you."


http://sfist.com/2016/08/01/jane_kim_beats_scott_wiener_in_poke.php

Groove Armada feat. Richie Havens - Hands of time

‘Racialists’ are cheered by Trump’s latest strategy

OAKTON, Va. — Jared Taylor hits play, and the first Donald Trump ad of the general election unfolds across his breakfast table. Syrian refugees streaming across a border. Hordes of immigrants, crowded onto trains.

“Donald Trump’s America is secure,” rumbles a narrator. “Terrorists and dangerous criminals kept out. The border, secure; our families, safe.”

Taylor, one of America’s foremost “racialists,” is impressed and relieved. “That’s a powerful appeal,” he said. “If he can just stick to that, he is in very good shape.”

From his Fairfax County home, Taylor has edited the white nationalist magazine American Renaissance and organized racialist conferences under the “AmRen” banner. He said that Trump should “concentrate on his natural constituency, which is white people,” suggesting that winning 65 percent of the white vote would overwhelm any Democratic gains with minorities.

When Trump made Breitbart News CEO Steve Bannon his campaign’s chief executive last week, Taylor found reasons to celebrate. It was the latest sign for white nationalists, once dismissed as fringe, that their worldview was gaining popularity and that the old Republican Party was coming to an end.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/racial-realists-are-cheered-by-trumps-latest-strategy/2016/08/20/cd71e858-6636-11e6-96c0-37533479f3f5_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_altright745pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

Watch the basketball documentary 'Hoop Dreams' if you have a basketball kid.

This documentary is a real eye-opener about the lengths (and not all of them honest) high schools and colleges will go to recruit kids to play on their teams. I don't know if my own kid will ever reach such an elite level, but at least I will feel a bit wiser when schools come knocking on the door.

Republicans say party can’t afford to cut ties to Trump

A sharpening debate has emerged in Republican circles over whether and when to cut ties with Donald Trump, who has shaken up his campaign team as his poll numbers have dropped.

While some in the GOP have called for Republicans to cut Trump loose sooner rather than later to avoid lasting damage, strategists concerned about control of Congress in 2017 say that would be disastrous.

The argument pits pundits such as Michael Gerson and David Books, against tacticians close to congressional leaders who have one priority: keeping the Senate and House in Republican hands after November.
The Republicans close to congressional leaders argue their party can’t afford to completely cut ties to Trump if it wants to avoid a disaster this fall.

“The bandwagonning [against Trump] that a lot of Democrats are trying to goad Republicans into is one way of ensuring that very good [Republican] candidates have an even harder time getting across the finish line in November,” said one Senate Republican strategist. “A lot of Republican commentators and analysts fall in the same category.


http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/291977-republicans-say-party-cant-afford-to-cut-ties-to-trump

Trump advisor: Maybe a ‘backdrop of a burning car’ would reach black voters better

Donald Trump surrogate former Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) had some trouble explaining away his candidate’s latest statements about African Americans while speaking to a Michigan rally.

Trump told a predominantly white rally crowd in a 93 percent white town that black Americans have been decimated by Democrats and he’ll win 95 percent of their vote. Trump is currently polling lowest among African-American voters. The internet quickly erupted with outrage and mockery.

“He’s polling right now at 2 percent with African-American voters,” CNN host Brianna Keilar said. “Is that the right way to attract a voting block that obviously favors Hillary Clinton much more than him?”

Kingston maintained that the campaign’s internal polls show Trump doing better than two percent. “But the reality is he’s going there and he’s taking it to them. He’s giving them a proposal. He’s saying, ‘You know what? I’m interested, I went to Milwaukee, I’m here tonight, I want to talk to you,'” he said. At his speech in the Milwaukee suburbs, Trump slammed the black protesters in Milwaukee protesting in the streets.

Keilar jumped in, “I have to stop you because you said he’s going there. He’s not, he’s in Diamondale, which is 93 percent white. When he was in Milwaukee the other day, it was part of Milwaukee that wasn’t dealing — I mean he, it’s almost completely white”

“Well yeah, but Brianna he went,” Kingston began to say over her. “I mean, maybe it would have been nice if he went and had a backdrop with a burning car, but the reality is—”


http://www.rawstory.com/2016/08/trump-advisor-maybe-backdrop-of-a-burning-car-would-reach-black-voters-better/

Trump’s New Campaign Manager Regularly Lies to Him About Voter Support

There’s a secret to newly appointed campaign manager Kellyanne Conway’s success with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump: she knows how to play to his ego.

The notoriously thin-skinned businessman promoted Conway over fellow campaign pollster Tony Fabrizio, in part, because he didn’t like it when Fabrizio told him about his poor poll numbers and how he needed to do better, a source close to the campaign told The Huffington Post.

Conway is better at massaging the truth ― she tells him that there are hidden Trump voters lurking in swing states, the source said ― and her words.

“Kelly’s telling Trump what he wants to hear,” the source said.

“She has a whole vocabulary of diplomatic words. That’s the kind of woman he likes around, who can tell him the soft way ― encourage him, guide him but not criticize him,” said a second source close to Trump.

The Republican pollster doesn’t tell Trump not to say something, she says it would be “unpleasant” or “awkward,” the second source said. She doesn’t say something Trump wants to say is a lie, she says it’s “open to so many interpretations, I want to tighten it up so there’s no room for misinterpretations,” the second source said.

“She’s a genius,” the second source close to Trump told HuffPost. “I get much further telling people what they want to hear. That’s a good way to handle Donald, you reinforce what he wants to do. She is so diplomatic it’s unbelievable.”

But diplomacy, while a useful trait in politics, can be disastrous for a campaign pollster. They are often the campaign’s truth-teller, the one person who will tell the candidate when he or she is failing to connect with voters and should switch tactics. So while an impossibly cheerful spokesperson can help a campaign thrive, an impossibly cheerful pollster presents a unique danger to the candidate.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-campaign-manager-kellyanne-conway_us_57b75ad1e4b0b51733a372bc?section=&

Supergirl Meets the Original Wonder Woman in New Photo

Even when Season 1 of Supergirl was still airing, executive producer Greg Berlanti revealed that the original Wonder Woman, Lynda Carter, would eventually appear on the series in the role of the President of the United States. Now, star Melissa Benoist has revealed that Carter has finally made her way to the set and posted a photo of their meeting. Check it out below!

Kara has left the safety of being Cat Grant’s assistant in order to figure out what she really wants to do, while as Supergirl she continues to work at the DEO, protecting the citizens of National City and searching for Jeremiah and Cadmus. Along the way, she will team up with Superman (Tyler Hoechlin) to battle new villains, as she strives to balance her personal life with her life as a superhero.

Benoist leads the cast of Supergirl as the title character alongside Mehcad Brooks as James Olsen, Laura Benanti as Alura Zor-El, Calista Flockhart as Cat Grant, Chyler Leigh as Alexandra “Alex” Danvers, Jeremy Jordan as Winslow “Winn” Schott, Jenna Dewan Tatum as Lucy Lane (sister of Lois), David Harewood as Hank Henshaw, Peter Facinelli as Maxwell Lord, with Dean Cain and Helen Slater. Supergirl season two is also adding recurring roles for Katie McGrath as Lena Luthor, Floriana Lima as Maggie Sawyer and Tyler Hoechlin as Superman.




http://www.superherohype.com/news/380415-supergirl-meets-the-original-wonder-woman-in-new-photo#/slide/1

Andrea Mitchell Joins Trump Campaign in Questioning Hillary’s Health

It’s hard to imagine just how grateful Team Trump must be to Andrea Mitchell for breathing credibility into their despicable rightwing conspiracy theories about Hillary’s health.

After Mitchell offers a litany of patently absurd garbage offered by conspiracy theorists as “proof” of their allegations regarding Hillary’s health, Benenson rightfully responds: “Those things do not even rise to a level of rebuttal. They’re ludicrous. They’re ridiculous. They’re trumped-up allegations, because they’ve got a desperate candidate.”

This is, of course, hardly the first time that Mitchell has happily carried water for conservatives hoping to discredit and defeat Hillary by any means necessary. Mitchell has reported on the OIG report on Hillary’s emails with positive glee, and wrongly reported “that the OIG report showed Powell ‘used both personal and official email.'”

http://bluenationreview.com/andrea-mitchell-joins-trump-campaign-in-questioning-hillarys-health/

Godzilla 2016 [Shin Godzilla]- Atomic Breath Footage (VIDEO)