The Conversation -- October 27, 2024

Yay! Top-Secret Docs for One & All! No Vetting Required! Shady Characters Welcome! Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "A memo circulating among at least half a dozen advisers to former President Donald J. Trump recommends that if he is elected, he bypass traditional background checks by law enforcement officials and immediately grant security clearances to a large number of his appointees after being sworn in.... The proposal is being promoted by a small group including Boris Epshteyn, a top legal adviser to Mr. Trump who was influential in its development.... It is not clear whether Mr. Trump has seen the proposal or whether he is inclined to adopt it if he takes office. But it would allow him to quickly install loyalists in major positions without subjecting them to the risk of long-running and intrusive F.B.I. background checks, potentially increasing the risks of people with problematic histories or ties to other nations being given influential White House roles. Such checks hung up clearances for a number of aides during Mr. Trump's presidency, including Mr. Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and Mr. Epshteyn himself."

Marie: Have you noticed that when billionaires & other super-rich people donate to Democrats, it's because they "support candidates who demonstrate a clear commitment to improving healthcare, reducing poverty and fighting climate change" or something like that? And when billionaires contribute to Republicans it's often because they want government contracts or other favors to enrich themselves (though, in fairness, some are ideologues)?

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "... in the nine years that he has been running for or serving as president, Mr. Trump has regularly evoked the language, history and motifs of fascism without hesitation or evident concern about how it would make him look.... No American commander in chief over the past couple of centuries has so aggressively sought to discredit the institutions of democracy at home while so openly embracing and envying dictators abroad.... He goes out of his way to portray himself as an American strongman, vowing if re-elected to use the military to crack down on dissent, to use the Justice Department to prosecute and imprison his foes, to shut down news media outlets that displease him, to claim authority that his predecessors did not have and to round up millions of people living in the country illegally and put them in camps or deport them en masse. He has already sought to overturn a free and fair election..., something no other sitting president ever tried to do. When that did not work, he spread demonstrable lies about the 2020 vote so pervasively that he convinced most of his supporters that Mr. Biden's victory was illegitimate..., eroding faith in the democratic system.... He then called for the 'termination' of the Constitution so that President Biden could be instantly removed from power and himself reinstalled without a new election." ~~~

     ~~~ The online New York Times is rerunning its anti-Trump "Believe Him" editorial.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Sunday in Israel's wars are here: "Iran's leaders stressed on Sunday that they had a right to respond to Israel's attack but appeared to take a measured tone, which could help ease concerns that the region's two largest militaries were gearing up for all-out war. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said that the retaliatory attack on Iran had achieved all of its objectives, as analysts questioned how his government might leverage its recent military gains on the diplomatic front. On Sunday, U.S. and Israeli officials were scheduled to travel to Qatar for meetings aimed at reviving negotiations for a cease-fire in Gaza and the release of hostages held there."

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Presidential Race

Michelle Obama Campaigns in "Kamalazoo." Rebecca O'Brien & Nicholas Nehamas of the New York Times: "Michelle Obama issued an impassioned plea to American voters on Saturday -- and, in particular, American men -- anchored in a searing and intimate depiction of women's bodies and reproductive health, and what she described as the life-or-death stakes of returning ... Donald J. Trump to power. In her first appearance on the campaign trail during this election, Mrs. Obama, long reluctant to engage in the political arena, described the far-reaching consequences of the 2022 Supreme Court decision overturning the constitutional right to abortion, in the concrete terms of personal tragedy.... She discussed menstrual cramps and hot flashes, describing the shame and uncertainty girls and women feel about their bodies. She told women they should demand to be treated as more than 'baby-making vessels.' And she castigated the media and many voters for holding [Vice President] Harris to a higher standard than her opponent, for 'choosing to ignore Donald Trump's gross incompetence, while asking Kamala to dazzle us at every turn.'" ~~~

     ~~~ The AP's report is here. You can watch Obama's full speech here. Here's a clip: ~~~

Robert Draper of the New York Times profiles Kamala Harris.

Alexandra Petri of the Washington Post Goes There: "The Washington Post is not bothering to endorse a candidate in the 2024 presidential election. (Jeff Bezos, the founder of Blue Origin and the founder and executive chairman of Amazon and Amazon Web Services, also owns The Post.) We as a newspaper suddenly remembered, less than two weeks before the election, that we had a robust tradition 50 years ago of not telling anyone what to do with their vote for president. It is time we got back to those 'roots,' I'm told! Roots are important, of course. As recently as the 1970s, The Post did not endorse a candidate for president. As recently as centuries ago, there was no Post and the country had a king!... But if I were the paper, I would be a little embarrassed that it has fallen to me, the humor columnist, to make our presidential endorsement. I will spare you the suspense: I am endorsing Kamala Harris for president, because I like elections and want to keep having them." ~~~

~~~ Anna Young of the New York Post, republished by AOL: "A high ranking former editor at the Washington Post is claiming that the paper's billionaire owner, Jeff Bezos, entered into a quid-pro-quo agreement with ... Donald Trump to kill the newspaper's planned endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. Longtime Post editor-at-large Robert Kagan, who quit after the non-endorsement on Friday, told The Daily Beast that Trump met with executives at Blue Origin -- the space company owned and operated by Bezos -- after the Post's announcement, suggesting Bezos entered a deal with the possible next president. 'Trump waited to make sure that Bezos did what he said he was going to do, and then met with the Blue Origin people,' he reportedly said. 'Which tells us that there was an actual deal made, meaning that Bezos communicated, or through his people, communicated directly with Trump, and they set up this quid pro quo.'" ~~~

~~~ Benjamin Mullin & Katie Robertson of the New York Times: "The decision by Mr. Bezos had been in the making for weeks. It is not clear what motivated his final determination or its timing.... The businesses Mr. Bezos founded, including Amazon and Blue Origin, his aerospace company, still compete regularly for lucrative government contracts. Blue Origin executives met with Mr. Trump on Friday, and the company has a $3.4 billion contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to build a lunar lander." ~~~

~~~ The Word from Woodstein: ~~~

Statement on Washington Post’s refusal to endorse presidential candidate. pic.twitter.com/r8jrMPW5GR

— Carl Bernstein (@carlbernstein) October 26, 2024

Michael Gold of the New York Times: "When he ran for president eight years ago, Donald J. Trump floated the idea of creating a national registry of Muslims and proposed banning immigration from Muslim countries. So it was striking to see him on Saturday at a rally in suburban Detroit celebrating endorsements from a handful of Muslim and Arab American leaders. It was a political turnaround that would have seemed unthinkable during Mr. Trump's first campaign, when he frequently spouted anti-Muslim rhetoric. As president, Mr. Trump blocked travel from several predominantly Muslim countries, creating travel chaos. And at moments during this campaign, he has drawn on the anti-Muslim sentiments from earlier in his political career. But in a tight election, Mr. Trump and his campaign have been trying to win the support of Arab American and Muslim voters who may be disaffected with Democrats over President Biden's handling of the war in Gaza and the party's positions on social issues. Their support is seen as especially important in Michigan, a key battleground state with many Arab American and Muslim voters. At Saturday's rally in Novi, Mich., a suburb of Detroit, Mr. Trump invited a group of people that his campaign said included a number of Muslim and Arab American leaders to the stage, where they endorsed him. (Mr. Trump claimed they were 'highly respected leaders,' but his campaign has not provided any details about who most of them were, making it difficult to assess their prominence.)" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: What Trump almost always means when he describes a person as "highly respected" is "someone who supports me."

Fuad Shalhout of Michigan Live: Donald "Trump spoke for an hour and a half [Saturday at a rally in Novi, Michigan,] and spent a portion of his time saying that Arab and Muslim voters have his support.... At the Suburban Collection Showplace ... [in Novi, Michigan,] a group of Muslim imams from the Michigan Chapter of the Arab American Bar Association took the stage to endorse Trump, expressing their support for his stance on ending the wars in the Middle East.... Joining them was the mayor of Dearborn Heights, Bill Bazzi, who also took the stage to endorse Trump." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: At the end of yesterday's thread, Akhilleus marveled that Muslims would support "the guy who wanted to ban all Muslims, called them all terrorist scum, and will happily do it again after he steals the election." As for me, I would speculate their support has little to do with world peace (as they claimed) and a lot to do with misogyny. In my experience, there are some Muslim men who take it as an article of faith -- literally -- that women must wholly submit to men, and that of course precludes their holding any positions of power. ~~~

~~~ Meryl Kornfield, et al., of the Washington Post: Donald "Trump slams early voting at [a] Michigan rally marking [the] start of early voting.... Trump went on to disparage Michigan's procedures and restate his position that all voting should occur on Election Day with paper ballots. Most states allow early and absentee voting." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Sorry, sometimes I am going to have to link stories in the Bezos Gazette -- like this time, when I couldn't find another story that emphasized (or maybe way down the page somewhere mentioned) Trump's continued antipathy to early voting, which he emphasized in a speech that should have centered on GOTV & encouraged early voting.

Lisa Lerer & Jess Bidgood of the New York Times: "A campaign marked by Donald J. Trump's apocalyptic extremes has turned even darker in its final days.... The former president on Friday escalated his threats to prosecute and imprison a wide range of people involved in elections and politics. Hours later, on the hugely popular 'The Joe Rogan Experience' podcast, he said that the 'enemy within,' a phrase he has used to describe political opponents, poses a bigger threat to the nation than North Korea.... In a post on his social media site on Friday, Mr. Trump wrote that those who 'cheated' in the election would face 'long-term prison sentences' and would 'be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country.'... During his presidency, he called for investigations of his perceived foes, and he frequently got them....

"He often singles people out by name on social media and at his rallies.... In Austin, Texas, on Friday, Mr. Trump slammed The Atlantic, which first reported the claim about his desire for generals like Hitler had, and went out of his way to note that the magazine was 'run by a guy named Goldberg' -- a direct attack on the magazine's editor, Jeffrey Goldberg, that appeared to be an antisemitic dog whistle. 'These are evil people, they're a threat to democracy,' he said later, after referring again to Mr. Goldberg. There are signs that Mr. Trump's statements may be having a chilling effect beyond the campaign trail on business leaders and media outlets owned by them. Both The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times announced they would not make an endorsement in the presidential contest, breaking with years of practice."

Sebastian Murdock of the Huffington Post: "... Donald Trump heaped praise on authoritarian Chinese President Xi Jinping during a lengthy interview Friday with the podcaster Joe Rogan. 'We're dealing with the smartest people,' Trump said, referring to the leaders of U.S. adversaries, about an hour and a half into their conversation. 'They hate when I say, you know, when the press -- when I called President Xi, [the press] said, "Well, he called President Xi brilliant." Well, he's a brilliant guy. He controls 1.4 billion people with an iron fist. I mean, he's a brilliant guy, whether you like it or not. And they go crazy.' 'Right, it doesn't mean he's not evil, or it doesn't mean he's not dangerous,' Rogan responded.... 'Yeah, of course not,' Trump said. 'But, actually, we have evil people in our country.'"

Sure, Trump Cares About You. Jill Colvin, et al., of the AP: "Many of Donald Trump's supporters left a Michigan rally before he arrived after the former president kept them waiting for three hours to tape a popular podcast interview. Those who remained at the outdoor rally on an airport tarmac huddled in the cold Friday night as they waited for the former president to touch down in the battleground state. Trump apologized to the crowd for the delay, which he blamed on an interview with Joe Rogan, the nation's most listened-to podcaster and an influential voice with younger male voters Trump is aggressively courting.... [Even when his plane was more than two hours away,] Trump recorded a video from his plane urging his supporters to stay, noting it was Friday night and promising, 'We're going to have a good time tonight.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "Other countries overcame this stereotypical thinking about women leaders, but there is still a thick strain of it in America.... Trump is running a hypermasculine campaign -- with Chief Bro Elon Musk bizarrely bouncing up and down -- that is breathtakingly offensive to women. Trump is exploiting the crisis among Gen Z men, a crisis driven by loneliness, Covid isolation, economic insecurity, a lack of purpose and a feeling that the modern world seems more accommodating to young women.... At a Trump rally in Georgia on Wednesday, Tucker Carlson gave a rant that became an instant classic of perversion.... Somehow, Carlson was even more creepy and retrogressive than JD Vance, with his denunciations of 'childless cat ladies' and his dissing of postmenopausal women. Trump is phallocentric -- always a sign of insecurity. At a rally in Latrobe, Pa., he rhapsodized about Arnold Palmer's anatomy." (Also linked yesterday.)

Eva Dou of the Washington Post: "Elon Musk's fast-growing satellite business Starlink could be poised to gain billions of dollars more in federal contracts and subsidies under a Donald Trump presidency, industry experts say, in a reflection of the world's richest individual's deepening financial stake in Washington politics.... Musk has struggled to reassure parts of the defense community that he is a trustworthy partner, even as industry experts say Starlink is rapidly building out an advanced satellite surveillance system on track to be the most powerful one in history.... Musk's shift to supporting Trump appears to be driven largely by conviction on social issues.... But the tech executive's business empire also stands to benefit if Trump wins the election -- potentially by a far larger amount than the billionaire has splashed out to support Trump's campaign." About those social issues: ~~~

~~~ Elon Musk, Illegal Immigrant. Edward Helmore of the Guardian: "Elon Musk briefly worked illegally in the US after abandoning a graduate studies program in California, according to a Washington Post report that contrasted the episode with the South African multibillionaire's anti-immigration views.... [Musk] has previously maintained that his transition from student to entrepreneur was a 'legal grey area'. But the Washington Post reported Saturday that the world's wealthiest individual was almost certainly working in the US without correct authorization for a period in 1995 after he dropped out of Stanford University to work on his debut company, Zip2, which sold for about $300m four years later. Legal experts said foreign students cannot drop out of school to build a company even if they are not getting paid. The Post also noted that -- prior to the September 11 terrorist attacks ... -- regulation for student visas was more lax. 'If you do anything that helps to facilitate revenue creation, such as design code or try to make sales in furtherance of revenue creation, then you're in trouble,' Leon Fresco, a former US justice department immigration litigator, told the outlet." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Reading the WashPo story, it appears Elon worked in the U.S. illegally at least into 1997. He seems to have broken the law in other ways, too, by lying to authorities about his immigration status a few times & by persuading his brother Kimbal -- who also was an undocumented immigrant -- to run his company. BTW, according to the WashPo story, Elon never was a student here; he was accepted into a grad program at Stanford but never enrolled in classes. Frankly, I'm not a bit troubled by workers who don't have legal status, but I am offended by hypocrites who got here as undocumented workers, yet now campaign against and even vilify today's undocumented workers.~~~

     ~~~ Lora Kolodny of CNBC: "President Joe Biden called out Elon Musk ... for hypocrisy on immigration on Saturday, saying Musk launched his long career in the U.S. as an 'illegal worker' before becoming the world's wealthiest man. The president made these remarks at a campaign event to support Democrats that took place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.... 'He was supposed to be in school when he came on a student visa. He wasn't in school. He was violating the law. He's talking about all these "illegals" coming our way,' Biden [said]. He then criticized Trump and Republicans for failing to sign legislation that would fix the problem with the border. He added, 'We have fewer people crossing the border illegally now -- or crossing the border period -- than at any time since his third year as President of the United States.'"

Glenn Thrush, et al., of the New York Times: "... law enforcement officials are confronting a rising wave of threats to election workers and political activists.... On Monday, the Justice Department unsealed a complaint against a man in Philadelphia who had vowed to skin alive and kill a party official recruiting volunteer poll watchers. On Tuesday, the police in Tempe, Ariz., arrested a man in connection with shootings at a Democratic campaign office, which resulted in no injuries, and other acts of political vandalism. On Wednesday, prosecutors charged a 61-year-old man from Tampa, Fla., with threatening an election official -- on top of pending charges over menacing messages sent in the past five years. And on Thursday, police officers in Phoenix arrested a person in connection with a mailbox fire, damaging some 20 ballots in a Democratic stronghold.... [A Brennan Center survey of election workers] found that almost 40 percent had been the target of threats or harassment." (Also linked yesterday.)

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Israel/Palestine, et al., Amy Bentov, et al., of the AP: "Israeli strikes on northern Gaza have killed at least 22 people, mostly women and children, Palestinian officials said Sunday, as the Israeli offensive in the hard-hit and isolated north entered a third week and aid groups described a humanitarian catastrophe. Israel said it targeted militants. In a separate development, a truck rammed into a bus stop near the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, wounding 35 people, according to Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service. The circumstances were not immediately clear, but Palestinians have carried out dozens of vehicle-ramming attacks over the years. The attack occurred near the headquarters of Israel's Mossad spy agency."

The Conversation -- October 26, 2024

Robert Draper of the New York Times profiles Kamala Harris.

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "Other countries overcame this stereotypical thinking about women leaders, but there is still a thick strain of it in America.... Trump is running a hypermasculine campaign -- with Chief Bro Elon Musk bizarrely bouncing up and down -- that is breathtakingly offensive to women. Trump is exploiting the crisis among Gen Z men, a crisis driven by loneliness, Covid isolation, economic insecurity, a lack of purpose and a feeling that the modern world seems more accommodating to young women.... At a Trump rally in Georgia on Wednesday, Tucker Carlson gave a rant that became an instant classic of perversion.... Somehow, Carlson was even more creepy and retrogressive than JD Vance, with his denunciations of 'childless cat ladies' and his dissing of postmenopausal women. Trump is phallocentric -- always a sign of insecurity. At a rally in Latrobe, Pa., he rhapsodized about Arnold Palmer's anatomy." ~~~

~~~ Marie: Oh, you might as well watch this, as I wouldn't be surprised if it's the SNL cold open tonight (Update: SNL ran a rerun tonight, so no Tucker): ~~~

Elon Musk, Illegal Immigrant. Edward Helmore of the Guardian: "Elon Musk briefly worked illegally in the US after abandoning a graduate studies program in California, according to a Washington Post report that contrasted the episode with the South African multibillionaire's anti-immigration views.... [Musk] has previously maintained that his transition from student to entrepreneur was a 'legal grey area'. But the Washington Post reported Saturday that the world's wealthiest individual was almost certainly working in the US without correct authorization for a period in 1995 after he dropped out of Stanford University to work on his debut company, Zip2, which sold for about $300m four years later. Legal experts said foreign students cannot drop out of school to build a company even if they are not getting paid. The Post also noted that -- prior to the September 11 terrorist attacks against the US in 2001 -- regulation for student visas was more lax. 'If you do anything that helps to facilitate revenue creation, such as design code or try to make sales in furtherance of revenue creation, then you're in trouble,' Leon Fresco, a former US justice department immigration litigator, told the outlet." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Reading the WashPo story, it appears Elon worked in the U.S. illegally at least into 1997. He seems to have broken the law in other ways, too, by lying to authorities about his immigration status a few times & by persuading his brother Kimbal -- who also was an undocumented immigrant -- to run his company. BTW, according to the WashPo story, Elon never was a student here; he was accepted into a grad program at Stanford but never enrolled in classes. Frankly, I'm not a bit troubled by workers who don't have legal status, but I am offended by hypocrites who got here as undocumented workers, yet now campaign against and even vilify today's undocumented workers.

Sure, Trump Cares About You. Jill Colvin, et al., of the AP: "Many of Donald Trump's supporters left a Michigan rally before he arrived after the former president kept them waiting for three hours to tape a popular podcast interview. Those who remained at the outdoor rally on an airport tarmac huddled in the cold Friday night as they waited for the former president to touch down in the battleground state. Trump apologized to the crowd for the delay, which he blamed on an interview with Joe Rogan, the nation's most listened-to podcaster and an influential voice with younger male voters Trump is aggressively courting.... [Even when his plane was more than two hours away,] Trump recorded a video from his plane urging his supporters to stay, noting it was Friday night and promising, 'We're going to have a good time tonight.'"

Glenn Thrush, et al., of the New York Times: "... law enforcement officials are confronting a rising wave of threats to election workers and political activists.... On Monday, the Justice Department unsealed a complaint against a man in Philadelphia who had vowed to skin alive and kill a party official recruiting volunteer poll watchers. On Tuesday, the police in Tempe, Ariz., arrested a man in connection with shootings at a Democratic campaign office, which resulted in no injuries, and other acts of political vandalism. On Wednesday, prosecutors charged a 61-year-old man from Tampa, Fla., with threatening an election official -- on top of pending charges over menacing messages sent in the past five years. And on Thursday, police officers in Phoenix arrested a person in connection with a mailbox fire, damaging some 20 ballots in a Democratic stronghold.... [A Brennan Center survey of election workers] found that almost 40 percent had been the target of threats or harassment."

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Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

Kay Graham Is Rolling in Her Grave. Hadas Gold & Brian Stelter of CNN: "For the first time in decades, The Washington Post will not endorse a candidate in this year's presidential election, the newspaper's publisher announced Friday, a decision that sparked widespread outrage among the paper's staffers.... The Post reported the decision not to endorse was made by the newspaper's billionaire owner, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, citing two sources briefed on the matter. The Post's editorial page staffers had drafted an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris and it was ready to be approved by its board, but the draft was never presented, a person with knowledge of the matter told CNN.... Robert Kagan, an editor-at-large at the Post, told CNN he had resigned from the newspaper over Bezos's decision to block the endorsement. The move was also quickly denounced by Marty Baron, the Post's former executive editor who led the newspaper through its coverage of the January 6, 2021, attack. 'This is cowardice, with democracy as its casualty. Donald Trump will see this as an invitation to further intimidate owner Bezos (and others),' Baron wrote in a social media post. 'Disturbing spinelessness at an institution famed for courage.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ David Folkenflik of NPR broke the story earlier. Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)

Sewell Chan of the Columbia School of Journalism reports on the tick-tock of how Washington Post "leadership" quashed the Harris endorsement.

Washington Post Opinion Columnists in the Washington Post: "The Washington Post's decision not to make an endorsement in the presidential campaign is a terrible mistake. It represents an abandonment of the fundamental editorial convictions of the newspaper that we love.... An independent newspaper might someday choose to back away from making presidential endorsements. But this isn't the right moment, when one candidate is advocating positions that directly threaten freedom of the press and the values of the Constitution." -- Karen Attiah, Perry Bacon Jr., Matt Bai, Max Boot, E.J. Dionne Jr., Lee Hockstader, David Ignatius, Heather Long, Ruth Marcus, Dana Milbank, Alexandra Petri, Catherine Rampell, Eugene Robinson, Jennifer Rubin, Karen Tumulty & Erik Wemple

Anna Betts of the Guardian: "There was uproar and outrage among the Washington Post's current and former staffers and other notable figures in the world of American media after the newspaper's leaders on Friday chose to not endorse any candidate in the US presidential election.... In a statement, the union representing editorial staff and reporters at the Washington Post expressed that they were 'deeply concerned' by the decision 'especially a mere 11 days ahead of an immensely consequential election'.... Semafor reported that in the 24 hours ending on Friday afternoon, about 2,000 subscribers had already canceled their subscriptions.... 'So much for "Democracy Dies in Darkness",'[former ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice] said.... 'This is the most hypocritical, chicken-shit move from a publication that is supposed to hold people in power to account.'"

Marie: WashPo publisher William Lewis claimed in his CYA "explanation" for the Post's decision not to endorse was that it was "returning to its roots." But as Ben Wittes points out (essay linked below), those so-called roots were remarkably shallow: "The Post before Nixon was a bit of a backwater. It was small, privately held. It had not yet become a national voice. It had not yet benefited from the collapse of the other major Washington newspaper. The traditions of the Washington Post are the traditions of the Washington Post of the Pentagon Papers and Watergate era and the subsequent decades. "That is to say, if it walks like a chicken, pecks like a chicken & squawks like a chicken, then it probably is a chicken. Susan Rice is on the mark.

Michael Schaffer of Politico Magazine: "There is nothing quite so frustrating as an act of cowardice presented as an act of principle. That's the essence of the short statement today authored by Will Lewis, the publisher of The Washington Post. According to Lewis, the paper is not making an endorsement in the 2024 presidential race in order to make a brave declaration about its independence. 'We see it as consistent with the values The Post has always stood for...,' Lewis wrote. 'We also see it as a statement in support of our readers' ability to make up their own minds,' he added. Lewis, a former Rupert Murdoch associate hired less than a year ago by Post owner Jeff Bezos, picked an awfully convenient moment to embrace readers' decision-making.... The timing of this stinks -- a self-inflicted wound at best, and something a lot more sinister at worst."

"The Guardrails Are Already Crumpling." Jonathan Last of the Bulwark: "It's a situation analogous to what we saw in Russia in the early 2000s: We are witnessing the surrender of the American business community to Donald Trump.... This story is ... about the most consequential American entrepreneur of his generation signaling his submission to Trump -- and the message that sends to every other corporation and business leader in the country. In the world. Killing this editorial says, If Jeff Bezos has to be nice to Trump, then so do you. Keep your nose clean, bub."

Bemjamin Wittes in the Bulwark: "... Trump spent a lot of time attacking Bezos and Amazon during his first term over Washington Post content and that he has more recently become cozy with Elon Musk, with whom Amazon competes in a number of areas.... If you're not prepared to defer to the editorial board you have hired to think things through for you, you have no business owning the Washington Post.... Democracy, and journalism, cannot rest on the shoulders of oligarchs.... Bezos did a lot of good for the Post when he first took it over, but the consent of the billionaire is not a stable structure for newspapers or magazines in an authoritarian era. Eventually, they can be counted upon to protect themselves, and that may sometimes mean not speaking the truth -- either by lying or, as here, just by not speaking at all."

Dan Froomkin in Salon: The Washington Post's decision to kill its endorsement of Kamala Harris "says: We are so terrified of a Trump presidency that we are bending the knee in advance. Most importantly, it makes clear that owner Jeff Bezos doesn't want to lose government business in a second Trump administration.... [This, along with the Los Angeles Times' similar move days earlier] makes it more clear than ever: You cannot be a truly independent news organization if you are owned by an oligarch.... Just as these oligarchs are a plague on society, they are a plague on the news business. They have now ruined -- possibly for good -- two of our most treasured news organizations.... An overarching theme here is that the moves by the Post and the LA Times reflect what Timothy Snyder, the author of 'On Tyranny,' calls 'anticipatory obedience.'... These institutions are not just succumbing to authoritarianism, they are advancing it."

Margaret Sullivan of the Guardian: "There's no other way to see this other than as an appalling display of cowardice and a dereliction of their public duty."

Parker Molloy of the Present Age cites a number of participants, authorities & observers of this performative capitulation to an anticipated authoritarian regime. They point to a few other examples of media conglomerates compromising their news outlets to accommodate their other business interests. MB: There's a reason I call network execs "the suits" long after that term seems to have been discarded.

Cheryl Rofer of LG&$ Headline: "I didn't know that "Democracy Dies in Darkness" was an instruction to the editorial staff."

Ross Lincoln of the Wrap: "Alongside its endorsement of Kamala Harris, the Los Angeles Times editorial board had also planned a multi-part series against Donald Trump before the whole thing was quashed by owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, TheWrap has learned. According to internal memos viewed by TheWrap, the series, tentatively called 'The Case Against Trump,' would have ran throughout this week. The endorsement of Kamala Harris would then have been published on Sunday. However, Soon-Shiong ordered the cancellation of the series and the endorsement without explanation, current and now former staffers have confirmed.... The South African-American billionaire's interference in his paper's editorial independence has sparked a rise in canceled subscriptions and several high profile resignations....

"In a dissembling statement of his own posted Wednesday on ... [X], Soon-Shiong blamed the editorial team itself for the lack of an endorsement, yet also essentially confirmed he had in fact shut it down.... So far, the Los Angeles Times Guild is the only institution within the paper that has commented publicly on the matter. 'We are deeply concerned about our owner's decision to block a planned endorsement in the presidential race,' the union said in a statement Wednesday. 'We are even more concerned that he is now unfairly assigning blame to Editorial Board members for his decision not to endorse." ~~~

~~~ AP: "Two more members of the Los Angeles Times editorial board have resigned after the newspaper's owner blocked the board's plan to endorse Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris for president. Veteran journalists Robert Greene and Karin Klein announced their resignations Thursday, a day after the editorial page editor Mariel Garza left in protest over LA Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong's decision not to endorse a candidate. Greene, a Pulitzer Prize winner for editorial writing, said in a statement shared with the Columbia Journalism Review that he was 'deeply disappointed' in the decision not to endorse Harris.... Editorial writer Tony Barboza, who remains on the editorial board, said in a post Friday on an internal Los Angeles Times message board that the board had planned a series of editorials that would have culminated on Sunday with a Harris endorsement."

Marie: It's dusk & you glimpse a burglar lurking in the bushes. Do you lock the doors? Do you call 911? Do you arm yourself? No, you do not. You open all the doors and lay out the sterling & Grandma's diamond brooch so he can't miss them. If democracy dies in darkness, the darkness has come this time as a result of voluntary capitulation -- or "anticipatory obedience." This is a siren warning to every voter, a confirmation that those of us who for years have been pointing at the Trumpian threat to democracy were right all along. Sadly, far more than half of Americans still cannot hear us. The billionaires are closing ranks against us: Musk, Dimon, Soon-Shiong, Bezos. Along with this Forbes list of Trump's top billionaire donors. (To be fair, at this point, also according to Forbes, more billionaires [81] are supporting Harris than are supporting Trump.)

Presidential Race

Reid Epstein, et al., of the New York Times: "Vice President Kamala Harris diverted from the presidential battlegrounds on Friday to receive the endorsement of the global superstar Beyoncé in Texas, in an event almost entirely focused on abortion rights. With the presidential race deadlocked, the Harris campaign sought to use Beyoncé's status -- particularly in her hometown, Houston -- to focus attention on the state's near-total abortion ban as a cautionary tale for what could happen throughout the country should ... Donald J. Trump win another term in the White House. The rally in Houston was not only her campaign's largest but also its most emotionally charged event since she became the Democratic nominee. Beyoncé offered a speech focused on a more optimistic future, and the wrenching stories of Texas women who suffered life-threatening health complications as a result of being denied proper care for pregnancy complications were center stage. Ms. Harris and many of the speakers laid the blame solely on Mr. Trump, who frequently boasts of appointing three of the Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022."

Ashleigh Fields of the Hill: "The Houston Chronicle's editorial board officially endorsed Vice President Harris in a Friday write-up hours after The Washington Post revealed it would cease presidential endorsements for years to come. Journalists drew stark contrasts between Harris and former President Trump early on in the piece, highlighting the candidates' different responses to the devastation caused by hurricanes Helene, Milton and Harvey."

Today, the New York Times online edition republished its September 30 presidential endorsement: "Kamala Harris is the only choice." MB: This may be a case of the Times highlighting its superiority to the Washington Post, but that's okay with me.

Arizona. Carl Gibson of AlterNet: "A coalition of Islamic leaders in a must-win battleground state is now urging their respective communities to get behind Vice President Kamala Harris in November. The New Republic reported that more than 100 progressive Democratic Palestinian, Arab and Muslim leaders in Arizona have now co-signed a letter in support of Harris' candidacy. The letter, which was posted to X ... by Arizona-based progressive activist Kai Newkirk, acknowledges that while many Muslim voters are understandably upset about how President Joe Biden's administration has handled Israel's ongoing assault on Gaza, affected communities cannot afford to have ... Donald Trump return to power. 'In our view, it is crystal clear that allowing the fascist Donald Trump to become President again would be the worst possible outcome for the Palestinian people,' the letter read. 'A Trump win would be an extreme danger to Muslims in our country, all immigrants, and the American pro-Palestine movement.'"

Maya King of the New York Times: "Former President Barack Obama offered a stark warning on Friday night of dangers posed by a second Donald Trump presidency, pleading with North Carolina voters to cast their ballots over the final days of early voting in the state. Speaking for nearly 50 minutes to a crowd of hundreds of supporters in the Charlotte Convention Center on Friday, Mr. Obama highlighted Gen. John Kelly's claims that Mr. Trump had spoken admiringly of Hitler. He laid out the concerns raised by former Trump administration officials and senior Republican White House staff members about what they saw as abuses of power and authoritarian tendencies that made Mr. Trump a threat to America's democratic principles. Alluding to recent erratic behavior..., Mr. Obama posited that his successor in the White House was unfit in more ways than one. 'If a family member acted like that, you might still love them, but you wouldn't put them in charge of anything,' Mr. Obama said. 'And yet, when Donald Trump lies or cheats or shows utter disregard for our Constitution, when he calls our service members who died in battle "losers," when he calls our fellow citizens "vermin," people make excuses."

Neil Vigdor & Simon Levien of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump gave a fiery rebuttal on Friday to two damning quotations attributed to him by [editor Jeffrey Goldberg of] The Atlantic magazine, which accused him of disparaging fallen veterans and of making a racist remark about a murdered Mexican-American soldier. During a campaign stop in Texas, Mr. Trump vehemently denied being opposed to paying for the funeral of Specialist Vanessa Guillén, a Fort Hood soldier who was murdered in 2020, when Mr. Trump was president, because of the cost. He was joined at the event in Austin, Texas, by some of Specialist Guillén's relatives.... While hosting her family at the White House in April 2020, Mr. Trump had offered to help cover any expenses not picked up by the military. 'It doesn't cost 60,000 bucks to bury a fucking Mexican!' the article quoted Mr. Trump saying [after an aide told him the bill's total]. On Friday, the former president said Specialist Guillén's family had stepped forward to help vindicate him.... A lawyer for the family of Specialist Guillén told The Atlantic that she had sent the bill to the White House but that no money was ever received by the family from Mr. Trump.... In a statement, Mr. Goldberg defended his reporting.... [Noting that the family did not attend the meeting where Trump disparaged Mexicans, Goldberg wrote,] 'I stand by my reporting, including the undisputed detail that Trump never provided the family with any financial assistance.'"

Michael Gold, et al., of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump taped a nearly three-hour episode of 'The Joe Rogan Experience' on Friday. He courted the show's young male audience by floating the idea of eliminating the income tax, talking about mixed martial arts fighters, praising the military skills of Gen. Robert E. Lee and speculating that there was 'no reason not to think' there could be life on Mars and other planets.... That Mr. Trump opted to ... spend hours in Mr. Rogan's studio in Austin[, Texas] -- a detour that delayed the start of his remarks at a rally on Friday evening in Michigan by several hours -- was a mark of Mr. Rogan's reach and the importance of the audience he draws.... Mr. Rogan ... offer[ed] Mr. Trump a platform to repeat his debunked claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election and the lie that he won that year.... Mr. Rogan seemed to back Mr. Trump's questioning of election processes.... Mr. Rogan was a friendly interviewer, often praising Mr. Trump."

Former President Trump has a "For Sale" sign around his neck and appears to be willing to sell basically any policy in exchange for campaign contributions. -- Dennis Kelleher, president of Better Markets, a nonprofit that seeks stronger regulations ~~~

~~~ Riding on the Shake-Down Express. Shane Goldmacher, et al., of the New York Times: Donald Trump "has come a long way from his 2016 campaign pitch that he was so rich he was incorruptible. Back then, he mocked the G.O.P.'s donor-lobbyist class and boasted in his announcement speech, 'I don't need anybody's money.' Today, Mr. Trump is looking everywhere for cash: asking small donors online, pressing fellow billionaires over private meals in Trump Tower and lobbying for donations from industries regulated by the government. As he does so, he is sometimes making overt promises about what he will do once he's in office, a level of explicitness toward individual industries and a handful of billionaires that has rarely been seen in modern presidential politics. In some cases, Mr. Trump has sought to shake loose cash from industries like oil and energy that have long aligned with his deregulation agenda. In others, Mr. Trump has flipped his positions, such as on crypto."

Paul McLeary of Politico: "The Army on Friday released the report from a controversial August incident between the Trump campaign team and an Army staff member working at Arlington National Cemetery, in which the campaign staffer made contact with the Army official 'with both hands,' according to the heavily redacted document. The release, which identifies the incident as 'simple assault,' comes amid fresh scrutiny over Trump's treatment of veterans, including comments by former chief of staff John Kelly, who said the former president disparaged wounded and fallen troops.... A judge ordered the Army to release the document by Friday following a lawsuit by American Oversight, a government watchdog group." ~~~

This Is Rich. Anthony Adragna of Politico: "Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell asked Vice President Kamala Harris in a rare joint statement to tone down her rhetoric in the lead-up to Election Day, days after Harris said she considered Donald Trump a fascist.... 'She must abandon the base and irresponsible rhetoric that endangers both American lives and institutions,' Johnson and McConnell said in their statement. 'We call on the Vice President to take these threats seriously, stop escalating the threat environment, and help ensure President Trump has the necessary resources to be protected from those threats.' Their statement does not mention Trump's recent rhetoric, in which he's referred to Harris as a 'fascist,' 'marxist,' 'communist' and 'comrade.' The former president has also railed against 'enemies within' and called for using government resources to prosecute domestic political opponents -- such as California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Johnson downplayed Trump's comments on Sunday shows." MB: Both MSNBC & CNN played video montages of Trump calling Harris a fascist on about 10 different occasions.

Mississippi, Plus. Voter Suppression, Fifth-Circuit Style. Emily Pettus & Kevin McGill of the AP: "A conservative federal court said Mississippi cannot count mail-in ballots that arrive shortly after Election Day, however Friday's decision was not expected to affect the Nov. 5 election. Although the appellate judges firmly asserted that counting late ballots violates federal law, even if those ballots are postmarked by Election Day, the judges stopped short of an order immediately blocking Mississippi from continuing the practice. Their ruling noted federal court precedents have discouraged court actions that change established procedures shortly before an election. The outcome may be negligible in most elections in heavily Republican Mississippi, but the case could affect voting in swing states if the Supreme Court ultimately issues a ruling.The three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a July decision by U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr., who had dismissed challenges to Mississippi's election law by the Republican National Committee, the Libertarian Party of Mississippi and others. The appeals court order sent the case back to Guirola for further action. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said he was so proud of the USPS in 2020 when, he claimed, almost 99 percent of mail-in ballots were delivered within seven (7) days of posting. Mind you, most of these ballots were just going across town, not across the country. But the vote in swing states very well could be closer than one percent (and I don't know what almost 99 percent means). In the 2020 election in Georgia, for instance, President Biden beat the other guy by less than one quarter of one percent (and that means 0.23 percent) Similarly, in Arizona in 2020, Biden won by 0.30 percent. IOW, DeJoy himself tacitly admits that -- all by itself -- the USPS could swing the election in close states simply by failing to deliver a small percentage of postmarked ballots.

North Carolina. Congressman: Forget the Vote, Choose Trump Electors. Kyle Cheney of Politico: "The chair of the conservative House Freedom Caucus says the North Carolina Legislature should consider allocating the state's presidential electors to Donald Trump even before votes are counted in the swing state. Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) said Thursday that such a step by North Carolina's Republican-controlled Legislature 'makes a lot of sense' given the devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene in the western part of the state. Counties in that region are expected to vote heavily for Trump. Potential difficulties with voting in the hurricane-damaged area would be a basis for the state Legislature to declare in advance that Trump should win the state's 16 electoral votes, Harris said at a Republican Party dinner in Maryland's Talbot County." The New York Times story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'm just gonna assume that Andy Harris is no relation to Kamala Harris. You have to admit it's quite impressive all the excuses people can invent to undermine democracy. Here are the brilliant minds at the country's major newspapers saying let the people decide (when they mean we're afraid of the big, bad dictator), while Rep. Dipshit is saying the people are too distressed to decide (so let the GOP legislature decide).

Boris & Natasha Meddle in Pennsylvania Election. Melissa Goldin, et al., of the AP: "Russian actors were behind a widely circulated video falsely depicting mail-in ballots for Donald Trump being destroyed in Pennsylvania, U.S. officials confirmed on Friday. The video had taken off on social media Thursday but was debunked within three hours by local election officials and law enforcement after members of the public reported it. U.S. officials said in a statement sent by the FBI that they believe the video was 'manufactured and amplified' by Russian actors. The officials said it's part of 'Moscow's broader effort to raise unfounded questions about the integrity of the U.S. election and stoke divisions among Americans.'" The New York Times story is here.

Uh, Who You Callin' "Comrade?" Eric De La Garza of the Raw Story: "Calling reports of ongoing conversations between tech billionaire Elon Musk and Russian President Vladimir Putin 'concerning,' the head of NASA [Administrator Bill Nelson] on Thursday called for an investigation into the bombshell accounts 'if the story is true.' The comments came a day after the Wall Street Journal reported that Musk, a vocal Trump supporter, and Putin had been in regular communication for at least two years.... The [WSJ] notes that Musk's security clearance gives him access to certain classified information and that he has 'deep business ties with U.S. military and intelligence agencies. SpaceX, which operates the Starlink service, works on classified government programs and is also the primary rocket launcher for the Pentagon and NASA.'" ~~~

~~~ Lora Kolodny of CNBC: "Russia's KGB, and its successor agency the FSB have, for decades, been interested in controlling media narratives and reaching as many people as possible with anti-Western or pro-Kremlin messages. The conversations between Musk and Putin, who once ran the KGB, reportedly occurred as Musk was in the midst of a leveraged buyout and takeover of Twitter.... In 2022, Eurasia Group founder and political analyst Ian Bremmer wrote that Musk had spoken to Putin before the X owner posted social media messages in early October about Russia's war on Ukraine. Musk had proposed that Ukraine should hand over Crimea to Russia and that Kyiv should remain 'neutral' rather than attempting to join NATO. He continued to promote the idea, via X (formerly Twitter) that some Ukraine citizens would prefer to join Russia. Kremlin officials praised Musk for his opinion then...."

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South Carolina Judge: The State Screwed Up So You Can't Vote, Kids. Jeffrey Collins of the AP: "A judge in South Carolina ruled Friday that it is too late to reopen voter registration for nearly 1,900 teens after the state Department of Motor Vehicles failed to notify election officials that they checked the box to register as they got their driver's licenses. The teens were 17 at the time they went to the DMV, but would be 18 by Election Day. A glitch in the DMV's computers did not identify the teens as qualified and did not present them with an additional electronic form certifying they were citizens, not felons and otherwise qualified to vote. The American Civil Liberties Union sued to reopen registration on Tuesday, a day after early voting started in South Carolina. They provided several possible ways the teens could register and be allowed to cast ballots. But Judge Daniel Coble said it is just too close to Election Day to do something so drastic as to alter the voting rolls." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I can't figure out why the AP puts the number of disenfranchised South Carolina teens at only 1,900. According to this Democracy Docket report, "approximately 17,000 young voters were not registered to vote despite indicating a desire to do so. These voters were also not notified that their registrations had been rejected. The DMV has been working to identify the impacted voters. So far, 6,000 were able to register through other means and the names of the remaining 11,000 were sent to the SEC for processing. The SEC has thus far refused to register those 11,000 voters." South Carolina's population is more than 5 million, so 17,000 17-year-olds seeking driver's licenses sounds more likely, but I'm no actuary so don't trust me.

Texas. Natalia Contreras of the Texas Tribune: "An election clerk in San Antonio was allegedly assaulted late Thursday and the suspect, a voter..., was arrested on suspicion of injury to an elderly person, a felony. The incident is first instance of reported violence against an election worker this fall.... According to a sheriff's report, the suspect, 63-year-old Jesse Lutzenberger, walked into the polling location ... wearing a Make America Great Again hat..., which is considered electioneering and against the law in Texas. The poll worker, 69, asked Lutzenberger to remove the hat, which he did, officials said. Lutzenberger went on to cast his ballot. While still inside the polling location, Lutzenberger put the hat back on.... The poll worker approached the man to tell him that was unacceptable and then began to escort the man out as they were approaching the doors of the location. Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said a surveillance video showed Lutzenberger 'throw an arm back toward the victim.... The victim seemed to push off of the suspect. At that point, the suspect then turned and threw several punches right at the face of the victim,' Salazar said."

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Israel/Palestine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Saturday in Israel's wars are here.: "The Israeli military said Saturday that it had struck Iran in response to several Iranian attacks on Israel, raising fears that a long-brewing confrontation between two of the most powerful militaries in the Middle East could escalate into an all-out war. The military said in a statement at 2:30 a.m. that it was 'conducting precise strikes on military targets in Iran' in response to more than a year of attacks on Israel by Iran and its allies across the Middle East. Just after 6 a.m., the military said the strikes had concluded."

The Conversation -- October 25, 2024

Kay Graham Is Rolling in Her Grave. Hadas Gold & Brian Stelter of CNN: "For the first time in decades, The Washington Post will not endorse a candidate in this year's presidential election, the newspapers publisher announced Friday, a decision that sparked widespread outrage among the paper's staffers.... The Post reported the decision not to endorse was made by the newspaper's billionaire owner, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, citing two sources briefed on the matter. The Post's editorial page staffers had drafted an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris and it was ready to be approved by its board, but the draft was never presented, a person with knowledge of the matter told CNN.... Robert Kagan, an editor-at-large at the Post, told CNN he had resigned from the newspaper over Bezos's decision to block the endorsement. The move was also quickly denounced by Marty Baron, the Post's former executive editor who led the newspaper through its coverage of the January 6, 2021, attack. 'This is cowardice, with democracy as its casualty. Donald Trump will see this as an invitation to further intimidate owner Bezos (and others),' Baron wrote in a social media post. 'Disturbing spinelessness at an institution famed for courage.'" ~~~

     ~~~ David Folkenflik of NPR broke the story earlier. Thanks to RAS for the link.

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Presidential Race

"Yes, We Can.” Nicholas Nehamas of the New York Times: "Former President Barack Obama sought to transfer the energy of his political movement to Vice President Kamala Harris at a rally on Thursday night outside Atlanta -- their first joint appearance of the campaign -- as he tried to help propel her over the finish line. 'Together, we have a chance to choose a new generation of leadership in this country,' Mr. Obama told a crowd of 23,000 people at a high school football stadium in Clarkston, Ga. 'And start building a better and stronger and fairer and more hopeful America.' When Ms. Harris took the stage, he lifted up her arm like a prizefighter in celebration. She quickly seemed to try to adopt his mantle, leading the audience, the largest she has drawn since becoming the Democratic nominee, in a chant of 'Yes, we can,' Mr. Obama's 2008 campaign slogan."

Sarah Rumpf of Mediaite: "Former Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), who served 18 terms in Congress before retiring last year, is endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris -- issuing a scathing condemnation of his own party's nominee..., Donald Trump. Upton told The Detroit News that he was voting for Harris -- his first time supporting a Democrat for president, although he has split his ticket on other down-ballot races in the past -- because Trump had 'not changed his colors' and continued pushing his baseless claims about fraud in the 2020 election.... '... he's still talking about the election being stolen, trashing women left and right. He's just totally unhinged,' he added. 'We don't need this chaos. We need to move forward, and that's why I'm where I am. Upton told The Detroit News that he had spoken with Harris's running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, on Wednesday. The two served together in the House for twelve years.... Upton was one of the Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, drawing his ire -- and then gloating after Upton announced his retirement." The New York Times story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Lydia O'Connor of the Huffington Post: "The longest-serving member of the Wisconsin state Senate ― a Republican who's been in the chamber since 1987 ― revealed Thursday that he's voting Kamala Harris for president, warning that Donald Trump is 'a totalitarian and very much a fascist.' State Sen. Robert Cowles, who's retiring at the end of his term, shared his decision with Madison-based radio station Civic Media, saying this will be the first time he's not picking a Republican for president because of the threats the former president poses to American democracy."

Julie Bosman of the New York Times: "Mayor Shawn Reilly of Waukesha, Wis., an independent who was a Republican for most of his life, said in an interview on Wednesday that he was endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for president. The endorsement is a key one for Ms. Harris, whose campaign has lavished attention on the suburbs of Milwaukee, which lean Republican but are so densely populated that they deliver a pivotal number of Democratic votes.... Mr. Reilly, 63, said that he had never endorsed a Democrat before. But this election is different, he said, describing his own evolution from loyal Republican for decades to an independent in 2021. 'It's very easy to not even stick your nose in this...,' he said. 'But the reason I'm doing it is because I think we're at a crossroads. I'm very afraid of the direction our country will head in if Donald Trump becomes president. I think we'll be heading down a road of authoritarianism and fascism.'" The NBC News story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Katrina Miller of the New York Times: "More than 80 American Nobel Prize winners in physics, chemistry, medicine and economics have signed an open letter endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for president. 'This is the most consequential presidential election in a long time, perhaps ever, for the future of science and the United States,' reads the letter.... 'We, the undersigned, strongly support Harris.'... Donald Trump ... would 'jeopardize any advancements in our standards of living, slow the progress of science and technology and impede our responses to climate change,' the letter said." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ That's Fine, Smart People. But There Is No One to Save Us from Stupid. Marie: While I was working on the entry above, a CNN reporter was saying on the teevee that he had interviewed many young swing-state college men, and that they liked Kamala Harris better than Donald Trump -- BUT they were planning to vote for Trump because he would be better for business. Also (but this seemed to be secondary), that they were of draft age and Trump would keep the U.S. out of wars.

Meryl Kornfield & Marisa Iati of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump painted a dark picture of the United States under the Biden administration at a campaign rally [in Tempe, Az.,] Thursday, comparing the country to 'a garbage can for the world' because of illegal border crossings. The remark was a new rendition of a common refrain for Trump, who has repeatedly used dehumanizing language when talking about immigrants.... He spent much of his insult-laced rally decrying a border 'invasion' that he blamed on Vice President Kamala Harris. For roughly an hour, the Republican presidential nominee interwove attacks on illegal immigration and invective aimed at Harris -- the Democratic nominee -- other Democratic politicians and journalists." The NBC News story is here.

Big Surprise. Amy Wang & Meryl Kornfield of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump said Thursday that he would 'fire' special counsel Jack Smith on his first day back in the White House if he is elected again, making clear that he would push to drop a pair of federal cases against him.... The authority to hire and fire a special counsel falls to the attorney general. But if Trump wins the election, he is expected to appoint an attorney general who would dismiss both federal cases against him.... Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign said Thursday that Trump's latest comments indicate that the former president thinks he is above the law...." (Also linked yesterday.)

"Believe Him." New York Times Editorial Board: "Donald Trump has described at length the dangerous and disturbing actions he says he will take if he wins the presidency.... These statements are so outrageous and outlandish, so openly in conflict with the norms and values of American democracy that many find them hard to regard as anything but empty bluster. We have two words for American voters: Believe him. The record shows that Mr. Trump often pursues his stated goals, regardless of how plainly they lack legal or moral grounding. The record further shows that many of his most reckless efforts in his first administration were stymied only because of others in his administration who blocked, delayed or watered down his aims.... Mr. Trump has learned from that experience to surround himself with supplicants who would instead obey his wishes and bring his words and ideas to life even if they contradict facts, the public interest or the Constitution.... The promises Mr. Trump made during his first presidential campaign, in 2016, turned out to be a pretty good road map of the policies and priorities he pursued as president." The editorial then lays a number of Trump's threats along with evidence that he means them.

Believe Him. Isaac Arnsdorf, et al., of the Washington Post: "In running to retake the White House, Trump has named his unfulfilled demands to deploy the military against civil unrest as one of his top regrets -- and one he aims not to repeat. His allies have laid plans for him to do so by invoking emergency authority under the Insurrection Act of 1807.... In a Fox News interview Oct. 13, he said the military could handle his domestic political opponents such as congressional Democrats and election protesters, whom he deemed 'the enemy from within.'... Some of Trump's most senior former advisers are warning Americans to take his militaristic impulses seriously."

Believe Him. Thomas Frank & Scott Waldman of Politico's E&E News: "In early September 2020, wildfires tore through eastern Washington state, obliterating tens of millions of dollars of property, displacing hundreds of rural residents and killing a 1-year-old boy. But then-President Donald Trump refused to act on Gov. Jay Inslee's request for $37 million in federal disaster aid because of a bitter personal dispute with the Democratic governor.... Trump sat on Inslee's request for the final four months of his presidency.... Trump ignored Inslee's 73-page request even after the Federal Emergency Management Agency found during weeks of inspection that the wildfires easily met the federal damage threshold for disaster aid. 'It really was an outrageous abuse of power,' Inslee said in a recent interview with E&E News."

Meredith McGraw of Politico: "More than a dozen former Trump administration officials on Friday came out in support of former chief of staff John Kelly, who went on the record this week to say the former president fits the definition of a fascist, would govern like a dictator and has no concept of the Constitution. In a new letter, shared exclusively with Politico, the former Trump administration officials -- some of the officials have been outspoken Trump critics for years -- stated, 'this is who Donald Trump is.' The letter was signed by Trump administration officials, including Kevin Carroll, former senior counselor to Kelly; former deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews; former assistant secretary of homeland security Elizabeth Neumann; former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci; former chief of staff at the Dept. of Homeland Security Miles Taylor; former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham; former press secretary to the vice president Alyssa Farah Griffin; and former national security adviser to vice president Pence, Olivia Troye."

Isaac Arnsdorf & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Trump's recent public appearances have been strikingly erratic, coarse and often confusing.... His speeches have gotten longer and more repetitive compared with those of past campaigns. He promotes falsehoods and theories that are so far removed from reality or appear wholly made up that they are often baffling to anyone not steeped in MAGA media or internet memes. He jumps more abruptly between subjects and from his script to improvising, sometimes offering what sound like non-sequiturs. He occasionally mixes up words or names, and some of his sentences are meaningless or nonsensical. As he delivered more speeches in October, he has made multiple slip-ups per day. He has become more profane in public."

Marie: Sometimes, some stories are too icky for me to stomach. This is one. I should have linked something about it earlier, but, well, ick! I apologize both for not linking it earlier and for linking it at all. ~~~

~~~ Maggie Astor of the New York Times: "The former Fox News host Tucker Carlson stirred up a crowd of Trump supporters on Wednesday night with a bizarre extended metaphor that cast ... Donald J. Trump as an angry father about to come home and give a 'vigorous spanking' to his disobedient daughter.... In Duluth, Ga., Mr. Carlson said that the country under Democratic leadership was like a toddler allowed to 'smear the contents of his diapers on the wall of your living room,' or a 'hormone-addled 15-year-old daughter' who gives her parents the finger and slams her bedroom door. And he cast Mr. Trump as the strict, disappointed father. 'When Dad gets home, you know what he says? "You've been a bad girl, you've been a bad little girl, and you're getting a vigorous spanking right now,"' Mr. Carlson said. Grinning, he went on: 'And ... this is going to hurt you a lot more than it hurts me. And you earned this. You're getting a vigorous spanking because you've been a bad girl.' The crowd went wild. Mr. Carlson's speech -- at a rally ... that featured Mr. Trump as the headline speaker -- was full of disparaging comments about women....

"He cast Democrats as illegitimate, calling them 'the most parasitic, useless, violent, nasty, aggressive people in your country.' In an apparent reference to people who fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War, he continued: 'They tore down statues to their memory. People who never built anything in their lives, they went out of their way to humiliate you and spit on you and the graves of your ancestors.'And he told the crowd directly that they should not accept the election results if Ms. Harris wins." (Also linked yesterday.)

Ezra Klein of the New York Times interviews Maggie Haberman about Donald Trump. This is an edited transcript and includes video of the interview. MB: Edited or not, it's still quite long, and I have lost most of my curiosity about what makes Donald tick because I find him just as fascinating as I do Tucker Carlson (see story linked below).

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post: "Something is wrong with this split-screen picture. On one side..., Donald Trump rants about mass deportations and claims to have stopped 'wars with France,' after being described by his longest-serving ... chief of staff as a literal fascist. On the other side, commentators debate whether Vice President Kamala Harris performed well enough at a CNN town hall to 'close the deal.'... It is apparently baked into this campaign that Trump is allowed to talk and act like a complete lunatic while Harris has to be perfect in every way."

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Brad Reed of the Raw Story: "CNN is reporting that Fox News edited out several portions of a recent event with ... Donald Trump to omit what it describes as his 'rambling answers and false claims.' During one point in Trump's chat with Black voters in a New York barbershop, the former president was asked about eliminating federal taxes. On the Fox News broadcast, Trump was simply shown saying that 'there's a way' to get the job done -- but the full video shows something else entirely. 'That response from Trump actually came more than seven minutes later, after Trump... brought up other topics, including inheritances, the Keystone Pipeline, Ronald Reagan, Russia, and transgender sports players,' CNN writes. 'Trump had to be nudged back on track several times by the unnamed audience member, who kept circling back, apologetically, and said "I wasn't able to finish my question.' After he repeated his tax inquiry yet again, Trump said "there is a way."'" The CNN story is here; it is firewalled. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Wait, I thought even minor, immaterial edits were reasons for a network to lose its license (even though a network does not actually have a broadcast license). So what does Trump propose to do to Fox?

Avery Lotz & Ivana Saric of Axios: "Elon Musk's super PAC announced two lottery winners Thursday in its daily $1 million giveaway, defying a warning from the Justice Department.... The winners of the $1 million prizes are the first to be announced since news broke that the DOJ had sent a letter notifying America PAC, Musk's pro-Trump group, that its lottery could violate federal law against paying people to register to vote, per multiple outlets."

Scott Lemieux, in LG&$, republishes a chunk of a Wall Street Journal article that goes like this: "Elon Musk, the world's richest man and a linchpin of U.S. space efforts, has been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin since late 2022. The discussions, confirmed by several current and former U.S., European and Russian officials, touch on personal topics, business and geopolitical tensions.... Musk has emerged this year as a crucial supporter of Donald Trump's election campaign, and could find a role in a Trump administration should he win. While the U.S. and its allies have isolated Putin in recent years, Musk's dialogue could signal re-engagement with the Russian leader, and reinforce Trump's expressed desire to cut a deal over major fault lines such as the war in Ukraine. At the same time, the contacts also raise potential national-security concerns among some in the current administration, given Putin's role as one of America's chief adversaries." Lemieux: "The fact that this authoritarian dipshit still has a security clearance is a classic example of the very rich being exempt from rules and norms that apply to anyone else."

Tara Copp of the AP: "In a rare move, the Pentagon strongly pushed back Thursday against misinformation spread on social media that falsely suggests U.S. troops have been authorized to use force against American citizens during the election. The misinformation -- spread online by former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn and former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., among others -- suggests that a Defense Department policy revision released in late September was timed to interfere with the Nov. 5 presidential election. Use of force by federal troops on U.S. soil against U.S. civilians is against the law -- except in cases of self-defense -- and is outlined in the Posse Comitatus Act. Kennedy ... tweeted the false narrative to his 4 million followers. It falsely claims that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris ... pushed through a Defense Department directive allowing lethal force against Americans who protest government policies."

Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times: "Now, as voters and campaign professionals prepare for what promises to be a hard-fought election match, a smaller group of lawyers and longtime MAGA supporters is preparing the ground for an even harder-fought post-election rematch. And as they did in 2020, they are preparing to battle on the grounds of certification.... What I found [during interviews in four battleground states] was that although the Stop the Steal movement of 2020 has evolved into the considerably more sophisticated 'election integrity' movement of 2024, its success is still premised on persuading election administrators of two things that are not true: that widespread election fraud is a real and present threat to democracy and that they have not only the authority but also the legal duty to do something about it -- that they must 'do their duty' and deny certification. I also found a growing number of election officials who seemed willing to do exactly that. For them, going so far as to block certification wasn't a partisan gambit; it was a patriotic duty."

Christopher Maag of the New York Times: "Two brothers from upstate New York were arrested Thursday on charges of attacking law enforcement agents at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and of participating in the violent mob that attempted to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Roger A. Voisine Jr., 48, and Reynold R. Voisine, 47, face felony charges including civil disorder and assaulting an officer with a deadly or dangerous weapon."

For decades, this terrible chapter was hidden from our history books. But now our administration's work will ensure no one will ever forget. -- Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a Native American, who traveled to Arizona with President Biden ~~~

~~~ Aishvarya Kavi of the New York Times: "President Biden on Friday will formally apologize for the role of the federal government in running boarding schools where thousands of Native American children faced abuse, neglect and the erasure of their tribal identities. 'I'm heading to do something that should have been done a long time ago, to make a formal apology to the Indian nations for the way we treated their children for so many years,' Mr. Biden said on Thursday as he departed the White House for Phoenix, where he will address the Gila River Indian Community on Friday. The trip is Mr. Biden's first visit to a Native American reservation as president, and the first time an American president has apologized for the abuses that happened on the federal government's watch over more than a century. From the early 1800s to the late 1960s, the U.S. government removed Native children from their families and homes and sent them to boarding schools for the purpose of erasing their tribal ties and cultural practices."

Katie Mettler of the Washington Post: "The owner of the Dali container ship that crashed into Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge earlier this year, collapsing the span and killing six people, has agreed to pay more than $100 million in damages to resolve a Justice Department lawsuit, authorities said Thursday. The Justice Department announced the settlement agreement in a news release, saying that the ship's owner, Grace Ocean Private Ltd., and operator, Synergy Marine Pte Ltd., would pay $103 million in funds that would go to federal agencies affected by the collapse. That figure far exceeds the $43.6 million cap the companies had sought on the liabilities they could be made to pay -- and signals the possibility of many more payouts on the horizon. The state of Maryland, which owned and operated the Key Bridge, is pursuing separate damages, the department said, alongside dozens of others who have made claims against Grace Ocean and Synergy Marine since the disaster seven months ago."

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Jessica Piper of Politico: Elon "Musk gave $10 million to the Mitch McConnell-linked Senate Leadership Fund on Oct 1., according to a report filed with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday. He also gave $2.4 million to The Sentinel Action Fund, a super PAC formerly linked to the Heritage Foundation that is spending to boost several GOP Senate candidates as well as ... Donald Trump."

California. Tim Arango & Matt Stevens of the New York Times: "The Los Angeles County district attorney said on Thursday that he would request the resentencing of Lyle and Erik Menendez, who killed their parents in 1989, a step that could lead to their release from prison. The district attorney, George Gascón, announced his decision at a news conference at the Hall of Justice in Los Angeles. 'I believe that they have paid their debt to society,' he said. Mr. Gascón, who was surrounded by members of his office and members of the Menendez family, said he would ask the court on Friday to resentence the brothers to a murder charge that comes with the possibility of parole.... The district attorney noted that there was disagreement in his office about whether to move forward with the resentencing. He cited a recent documentary that he said 'brought a tremendous amount of public attention' and requests for information."

Ohio. Kim Bellware of the Washington Post: "An Ohio judge struck down a state law that banned nearly all abortions on Thursday, ruling it was unconstitutional in light of a 2023 voter referendum to constitutionally protect abortion access. The decision carries important implications for access to reproductive health care, even after the law's core restriction, a six-week abortion ban, has been unenforceable for nearly a year. The decision brings finality to a five-year legal battle that began in 2019 when Ohio's Republican Gov. Mike DeWine signed the six-week ban into law.... The law was immediately blocked from taking effect since Roe v. Wade was still the law of the land, but it later took effect the day of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling in June 2022.... It was blocked months later by a temporary restraining order.... [The state attorney general's] office ... did not immediately say whether it would appeal." The AP's report is here.

Pennsylvania. Simon Levien of the New York Times: "The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that voters who submit mail-in ballots that are rejected for not following procedural directions can still cast provisional ballots. The decision is likely to affect thousands of mail-in ballots among the millions that will be cast in Pennsylvania, the swing state that holds the most electoral votes and is set to be the most consequential in the presidential election. The court ruled 4 to 3 that the Butler County board of elections must count provisional ballots cast by several voters whose mail-in ballots were rejected for lacking mandatory secrecy envelopes.... In Pennsylvania, voters must accurately sign and date this outer envelope before sending in their ballots.Under the new ruling, voters whose mail-in ballots are rejected for being 'naked ballots,' lacking the secrecy envelope, or for bearing inaccurate or missing information on the envelope will be given the chance to cast a provisional vote at their polling place. The ruling makes the practice available statewide.... Many counties in the state will notify voters if their mail-in ballots are rejected for not following technical procedures and will give them the opportunity to cast a provisional vote." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: When I read this, I saw a lawsuit coming. I didn't know what the basis of a suit might be, but election law expert Rick Hasen does: "... in 2020 ... Justice Alito, facing a similar issue in a case involving ballots arriving within 3 days after election day ordered to be counted during the pandemic by the state supreme court, ordered those ballots sequestered. A sequestration order could happen again, and there could be a fight over the treatment of these ballots. Let's hope the margin of victory of the winning candidate in PA exceeds greatly the number of these ballots." (Also linked yesterday.)

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Israel/Palestine, et al. The New York Times live updates of developments Friday in Israel's wars are here: "Israeli forces carried out attacks across Gaza overnight, raiding one of the last working hospitals in the north of the territory and launching airstrikes in the south that left dozens dead, Gazan health officials said on Friday. The Health Ministry also said that Israeli forces had raided Kamal Adwan Hospital, one of the few medical facilities still functioning in northern Gaza.... Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken was meeting on Friday with Arab officials in London, concluding a weeklong diplomatic tour aimed at jump-starting negotiations over a cease-fire in Gaza." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings of developments Friday are here.

News Lede

New York Times: "A sweeping onion recall linked to an E. coli outbreak involving McDonald's Quarter Pounders has prompted several other major fast-food chains to remove raw onions from their menu offerings. Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC and Burger King have stopped adding fresh onions to their signature items at certain locations. A spokeswoman for Yum Brands, which owns several fast-food chains, said that its restaurants were yanking onions from their menus 'out of an abundance of caution.' Yum Brands would not elaborate or say how many sites in how many states would not offer onions."