Protesters confront Rand Paul outside White House after RNC  —  Sen. Rand Paul was confronted by protesters early Friday morning after leaving the Republican National Convention at the White House.  —  “Just got attacked by an angry mob of over 100, one block away from the White House.

Two P.R. Experts at F.D.A. Have Been Ousted After Blood Plasma Fiasco  —  The agency's chief spokeswoman, Emily Miller, was removed from her position just 11 days into the job.  —  Two senior public relations experts advising the Food and Drug Administration have been ousted from their positions …

This Is How Biden Loses  —  Here is a prediction about the November election: If Donald Trump wins, in a trustworthy vote, what's happening this week in Kenosha, Wisconsin, will be one reason.  Maybe the reason.  And yet Joe Biden has it in his power to spare the country a second Trump term.

The absurdity of Trump's RNC speech, in one photo  —  Evelyn Hockstein/The Washington Post via Getty Images  —  Trump tried to make his Republican convention into a celebration.  America's current reality is much grimmer.  —  President Donald Trump's speech on Thursday …

Secretly recorded audio of Trump's sister prompts new call for investigation into his admission to Penn  —  A professor at the University of Pennsylvania has renewed a request to investigate how President Trump was admitted to the school in 1966, citing what he called “new evidence” …

Fox News Host Greg Gutfeld Pulls a 180 on Trump's ‘Very Fine People’ in Charlottesville, Now Calls It a ‘Hoax’  —  Gutfeld was one of the more forceful critics of Trump's equivocating on neo-Nazi marchers, but three years later he's all-in on defending the president.

The Malign Fantasy of Donald Trump's Convention  —  Using the White House as his prop, the President makes war on Joe Biden, and pretends the pandemic is all but defeated.  —  For four years, Donald Trump has been asking us to believe the unbelievable, to accept the unthinkable, to replace harsh realities with simple fantasies.

Donald Trump's big convention speech was filled with lies and gall: Mastio and Lawrence  —  David: I don't much like the Democrats or Joe Biden and I certainly don't like leftists, anarchists and cancel culture, so there was a lot in Trump's speech that I wanted to like.

House committee launches contempt proceedings against Pompeo  —  The House Foreign Affairs Committee announced Friday that it will launch contempt proceedings against Secretary of State Mike Pompeo over his refusal to comply with a subpoena for records related to the State Department's involvement …

US to reduce troop level in Iraq to 3,500 from 5,200  —  The Iraqi military's progress was cited as a reason for the drawdown.  —  The U.S. plans to reduce troop levels in Iraq to 3,500 from about 5,200, a U.S. official confirmed to ABC News.  —  The reduction in forces had been anticipated …

Facebook Employees Slammed Zuckerberg Over Militia Groups And QAnon After Kenosha  —  Frustrated Facebook employees slammed CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday during a companywide meeting, questioning his leadership and decision-making, following a week in which the platform promoted violent conspiracy theories …

​Data for August 26  —  As of 5 p.m. on August 27, 2020 there were 24,952 cases of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) with 290 deaths due to COVID-19 reported among Mecklenburg County residents.  —  Of note, approximately 792 COVID-19 tests were conducted among individuals attending …

POLITICO Playbook: What we learned over the last two weeks  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  SIREN ... AP/TOKYO: “Japan's PM Shinzo Abe intends to resign for health reasons”: “Japan's longest-serving prime minister, Shinzo Abe, intends to leave office because of declining health, according to his political party.

The Trap The Democrats Walked Right Into  —  If law and order are what this election is about, they will lose it. … It finally happened.  We have lethal battles in the streets between the two tribes of our polarized politics.  This week, a 17-year-old man, Kyle Rittenhouse …

Top Colorado RNC official spread conspiracy theories and made Islamophobic and sexist comments  —  (CNN)A recently installed Republican National Committee official for the state of Colorado has a history of spreading conspiracies and making sexist and Islamophobic comments.

MGM Resorts Lays off 18,000 Workers  —  Casino industry struggles to regain business after pandemic shutdowns  —  MGM Resorts International MGM 5.15% is laying off 18,000 furloughed workers in the U.S. as a global travel slowdown impedes the casino industry's recovery from the ongoing pandemic.

Pentagon poised to award Medal of Honor to Alwyn Cashe, who died after saving fellow soldiers in Iraq  —  Cashe would be the first African American recipient of the award for valor in Iraq or Afghanistan.  —  The Pentagon is poised to posthumously award the Medal of Honor to Sgt. 1st Class Alwyn C. Cashe …

EXCLUSIVE: Joe Biden's “Republican” Endorser Runs A Chinese Communist Party-Staffed Consulting Firm  —  Cohen recently endorsed Biden, citing his belief that President Trump's actions were “the mark of a dictatorship” and “a tyrant.”  —  Today, The National Pulse can reveal that Cohen works closely …