http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/3/1555927/-Donald-Trump-may-be-acting-crazy-but-it-s-keeping-the-news-away-from-the-one-story-he-wants-to-bury
"If there was any evidence Donald Trump was capable of thinking beyond the next moment, it would be easy to suspect that 90% of what’s bubbled from his lips over the last three days is a diversion. Attacking the Khans. Hints that he won’t accept the results of the election. Complaints that the polls are fishy. Saying that women should run away from sexual harassment. Even kicking a baby out of a rally. All of it. Because as bad as all this is, if it serves to fend off media attention from the thing Trump’s campaign has suddenly gone quiet about, it could be worth it. Because the thing they’re not talking about is Russia. While Donald Trump may now claim that his request for Russia to interfere in the election was just an example of sarcasm, it certainly didn't seem that way to those listening on that day. And even if you wave that away—including the calls for a Senate hearing on the topic—other aspects of this story simply can't be passed off as a joke. In particular this is one place where both Donald Trump and campaign manager Paul Manafort are deliberately, publicly, and obviously lying.. And that should be setting off major alarms. Donald Trump campaign Chair Paul Manafort denied Sunday a two-week-old report that the campaign pushed for changes in the Republican platform that softened the party's stance on helping Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression. … When asked once more if anyone on the campaign was involved, Manafort said, "No one, zero.” The problem with Manafort’s claim is that there are hundreds of witnesses to the contrary. Inside the meeting, Diana Denman, a platform committee member from Texas who was a Ted Cruz supporter, proposed a platform amendment that would call for maintaining or increasing sanctions against Russia, increasing aid for Ukraine and “providing lethal defensive weapons” to the Ukrainian military. … Trump staffers in the room, who are not delegates but are there to oversee the process, intervened."
