The Conversation -- September 22, 2024

Maggie Astor of the New York Times: “More than 700 current and former national security leaders, as well as former military officials, endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in a letter released on Sunday, arguing that only she had the temperament and values needed to serve as commander in chief. The signatories of the letter, which was organized by the group National Security Leaders for America, included former secretaries of state and secretaries of defense, former ambassadors and retired generals. They argued that ... Donald J. Trump posed a threat to both national security and the United States’ democratic system. Among the most prominent names were the former defense secretaries Chuck Hagel, a Republican who served under President Barack Obama; William Cohen, a Republican who served under President Bill Clinton; and William J. Perry, a Democrat who served under Mr. Clinton.... 'This election is a choice between serious leadership and vengeful impulsiveness,' the letter said. 'It is a choice between democracy and authoritarianism. Vice President Harris defends America’s democratic ideals, while former President Donald Trump endangers them.'”

NYT Reporters Notice Trump Is the Chaos Candidate. Lisa Lerer, et al., of the New York Times: “Even by the standards of a head-spinning presidential campaign, Donald J. Trump’s campaign over the past two weeks has been tumultuous. A period that began when Mr. Trump pushed baseless claims from the debate stage that immigrants in Ohio were stealing and eating household pets ended with him facing attacks over his support of the Republican candidate for governor in North Carolina, who referred to himself as a 'black Nazi' on the message board of a pornographic website. In between, Mr. Trump invited Laura Loomer, a right-wing influencer known for promoting Sept. 11 conspiracy theories, to join him at events commemorating the anniversary of the attacks. He urged a government shutdown, attacked a cornerstone of his own tax policy, declared “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!” on social media after she endorsed his rival and — at events intended to woo Jewish voters — said '”the Jewish people' would be responsible if he lost the election, prompting fears of antisemitic reprisal.... [AND] Instead of calling for the country to join together and condemn political violence in the aftermath [of a second attempt to assassinate him], he ... blam[ed] what he described as the 'Communist Left Rhetoric' of President Biden and Ms. Harris for the attempts on his life.”

NYT Reporter Notices Trump & Vance Are White Nationalists. Michael Bender of the New York Times: As ... Donald J. Trump warned supporters on Saturday in Wilmington, N.C., that immigrants were 'taking your jobs,' his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, campaigned about 500 miles north in Leesport, Pa., where he told his crowd that immigrants were taking their homes — and their children’s homes. Battling in a tight race, the Trump-Vance team is sharpening the anti-immigrant nativism that fueled the former president’s initial rise to power in 2016, seizing on scare tactics, falsehoods and racial stereotypes. They spread a false claim that Haitian migrants in a small Ohio city were stealing and eating the pets of their neighbors. And they are increasingly failing to draw a distinction between migrants who are in the country legally and those they call 'illegal aliens,' whom they blame for a raft of social ills.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Sadly, Trump's very good brain and JayDee's very good education didn't help them gain any insights into economics: According to Bender, JayDee said, “Our message to Kamala Harris is: Stop giving American homes to foreigners who shouldn’t be in this country. Start giving them to American citizens who deserve to be here.” Let's overlook the premise that only “Americans” “deserve to be here,” and concentrate on the notion that Harris is “giving” “American homes to foreigners.” I don't know how the Haitian workers are paying their rent, but I suspect many of them are paying from their own earnings, while many also may receive some kind of federal and/or state assistance. But however they pay the rent, whether or not it can be construed, in part, as a “gift” from Harris, the Haitian refugees are not “taking American homes.” They also are not “taking your jobs.” Rather, they are expanding demand for housing, thus giving both themselves and Americans more job opportunities. They are helping the economy of the communities in which they live both by increasing the demand for housing, goods and services and by adding jobs to the economy. You have to be small-minded, mean and ignorant to take the positions Trump & the Bumpkin are espousiing.

Karoun Demirjian of the New York Times: “Congressional leaders from both parties unveiled a short-term agreement to fund the government on Sunday, after Speaker Mike Johnson abandoned demands for a longer-term deal that also included new proof-of-citizenship requirements for voter registration. The deal, which extends federal appropriations through Dec. 20, includes an additional $231 million to help the beleaguered Secret Service protect candidates during the upcoming presidential election and into next year.”

Black NAZI News. Dianne Gallagher & Daniel Strauss of CNN: “Four top operatives on Republican Mark Robinson’s campaign for North Carolina governor have stepped down, the campaign announced on Sunday, days after a CNN report uncovered inflammatory comments he made on a porn website. General consultant and senior adviser Conrad Pogorzelski III, campaign manager Chris Rodriguez, finance director Heather Whillier and deputy campaign manager Jason Rizk have stepped down from the campaign.”

Contributor Jeanne & her daughter went to Tim Walz' rally in Bethlehem, Pa. (near Allentown). See her commentary in today's thread.

Texas Senate Race. Martha McHardy of Newsweek, republished by MSN: "Ted Cruz is losing to Colin Allred for the first time in the U.S. Senate race, according to new polling. The survey, conducted by Morning Consult between September 9 and 18, showed Allred one point ahead of Cruz, on 45 percent to his 44 percent among 2,716 likely voters. His lead was within the poll's margin of error of +/-2 percentage points." Thanks to RAS for the lead. MB: An Allred win would be such a good thing. I'm sending his campaign a small contribution right now.

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Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: “President Biden hosted the leaders of Australia, India and Japan at his home in Wilmington, Del., this weekend, seeking to use his fourth and final 'Quad summit' to cement the alliance between the United States and Indo-Pacific nations and to counter China’s rising influence in the region. Mr. Biden used the summit to expand both his 'cancer moonshot' initiative and the Quad Fellowship, a scholarship program designed to build ties among the next generation of scientists and technologists. The four leaders also signed a maritime agreement and announced a joint Coast Guard mission. The Quad alliance has existed for more than a decade, but Mr. Biden was the first president to convene a meeting among the leaders of the nations as a foursome.... Mr. Biden has often said that 'all politics is personal,' and the decision to open his home in Wilmington — the first time he has invited foreign leaders there — reflected his conviction that deep relationships are the best way to forge constructive alliances.”

Presidential Race

Samantha Waldenberg of CNN: “Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday accepted an invitation from CNN to debate former President Donald Trump on October 23, challenging her rival to another engagement on a public stage in the final weeks of the campaign.” The story has been updated to reflect Trump's response/ MB: I heard on the teevee (at 3pm ET Saturday) that Chickenman Trump said he would not debate Harris again. He said it was because the proposed debate would occur after early voting had commenced. Trump debated Joe Biden on October 22, 2020; i.e., after early voting had begun. And he debated Hillary Clinton on October 19, 2016, after early voting had started. (Also linked yesterday.) The Washington Post's story is here.

Maeve Reston of the Washington Post: “Former president Barack Obama headlined his first solo fundraiser for Kamala Harris in Los Angeles on Friday night, bringing in $4 million for her campaign as he framed the election as a struggle against radical forces in America that want to take the country backward. The event was part of the increasingly active role that Obama is playing in Harris’s effort as he wields his popularity within the Democratic Party to power grassroots fundraising and to galvanize younger voters to turn out in what could be a margin-of-error race.” 

Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood. Neil Vigdor & Michael Gold of the New York Times: “Speaking for just over an hour at a boisterous rally on an airport tarmac in Wilmington, N.C., Mr. Trump made no mention of [his designated gubernatorial candidate, Lt. Gov. Mark] Robinson or the scandal surrounding him, even as he gave shout-outs to a number of the state’s officials and politicians. And Mr. Robinson, who has denied the accusations [that he called himself a 'black NAZI' on a porn site years ago], was conspicuous by his absence. Instead, Mr. Trump delivered a fairly standard rally speech, attacking Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democrats on the economy and immigration while digressing to criticize Ms. Harris’s livestreamed event this week with Oprah Winfrey; to call her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, 'weird'; to say that he would ask Elon Musk to help him send rockets to Mars; and to claim falsely that an Olympic boxer was transgender....

“Mr. Trump made a direct appeal to women, repeating claims that he had made in a lengthy all-caps social media post overnight, insisting that women were 'more stressed and depressed and unhappy than they were four years ago.'” MB: Well, see, Trump did say one true thing. Sure, four years ago many women were “stressed, depressed and unhappy” that the three anti-abortion justices Trump had appointed to the Supreme Court might overturn Roe v. Wade, but it wasn't until 2022 that they did so. ~~~

     ~~~ Mr. “They Let You Do It” Sez He Would Be Better President for Women. Meg Kinnard & Erik Verduzko of the AP: “Donald Trump returned to North Carolina on Saturday, stumping in the southern battleground state with direct appeals to women, claiming he would be a better champion for them than Vice President Kamala Harris.... Trump argued women would be safer and more prosperous with him as president and would 'no longer be thinking about abortion.'... 'I will protect women at a level never seen before. They will finally be healthy, hopeful, safe and secure,' Trump said. 'Their lives will be happy, beautiful, and their lives will be great again. So women, we love you. We’re going to take care of you.'... Voters overwhelmingly say they trust Harris to do a better job handling abortion policy, with 55% favoring her while 27% favored Trump in a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: You could take Trump at his word. Or you could ask him why he repeatedly promoted Mark Robinson for N.C. governor, a man who is so anti-woman that he said we should go back to the days women couldn't vote, that the bodies of pregnant women and mothers belong to men, and that abortion must be banned in the U.S. because unwanted pregnancies are the results of women "not responsible enough to keep their skirts down." And that's saying nothing about admitted & adjudicated rapist Trump's astounding disdain for women. ~~~

     ~~~ OR you could check out Trump's social media site where yesterday, just yesterday, he called MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle a "bimbo." Yeah, Trump definitely "will protect women at a level never seen before."

Trump Would Toss the Constitution on Day One. Derek Hawkins, et al., of the Washington Post: “Donald Trump has a long list of executive actions he says he wants to carry out on his potential first day back in the White House. Among them: Begin mass deportations, eliminate perks for electric vehicles and ban transgender women from women’s sports. Since launching his bid for a second term, Trump has made 41 distinct promises about what he says he wants to do 'on day one' as president, and he has mentioned those promises more than 200 times on the campaign trail.... His proposals often envision stretching the powers of the Oval Office beyond how previous presidents — including Trump himself — have invoked them.... Many of Trump’s promises fall outside the scope of a president’s authority under the Constitution, according to legal experts. Even some of those that are within his purview would face legal or logistical challenges that would make them all but impossible to carry out on a short timeline.” ~~~

~~~ Marie: BTW, if you don't quite recall what a thug Trump was during his presidency*, Rachel Maddow's "From Russia with Lev" provides a timely reminder. I watched it yesterday afternoon. If you happen to have Xfinity cable (or maybe some other cable or satellite connection), you can just speak to your remote (as if you're a crazy person) and say "From Russia with Lev," and up pops a link to stream the movie. (Big advantage over watching live: you can fast-forward through the ads.) Otherwise, if you jump through some hoops, you might be able to access it via this NBC page.

MEANWHILE, JayDee Sticks Up for Mark Robinson. Lauren Mayk & Megan Lebowitz of NBC News: “Sen. JD Vance on Saturday reacted for the first time to the bombshell report about Mark Robinson, the Republican candidate for governor in North Carolina, saying..., 'The allegations are pretty far out there, of course, but I know that allegations aren’t necessarily reality.'... When asked whether Vance believes Robinson's denial that the comments were made by him, Vance said..., 'I don’t not believe him, I don’t believe him — I just think that you have to let these things sometimes play out in the court of public opinion.'” MB: Gosh, I guess JayDee is open-minded after all.

Nazi Pillows on Sale at Significant Price Point. Carl Gibson of AlterNet: "Far-right election denier Mike Lindell's MyPillow is now being advertised at a significant discount. One historian is pointing out that the pillow's new price is a reference to a prominent neo-Nazi rallying cry. On the social media platform Bluesky, Willamette University history professor Seth Cotlar observed that the official @MyPillowUSA X ... account tweeted an advertisement for its product with a posted price of $14.88. As the Southern Poverty Law Center explained, the number '1488' is a reference to the '14 words' slogan frequently used by neo-Nazis: 'We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.' The '88' is a reference to the eighth letter of the alphabet twice, interpreted by neo-Nazis to mean 'Heil Hitler.'... The MyPillow advertisement — which is still live on the account as of Saturday afternoon — was praised by numerous X users who made Nazi references."

Katie Hawkinson of the Independent: “New York Magazine’s Washington correspondent Olivia Nuzzi sent 'demure/ nude photos to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. which he later bragged about, two new reports claim....[Seventy]-year-old RFK Jr ... is married to the actor Cheryl Hines. Nuzzi apparently sent nude photos to the former independent presidential candidate, Puck News reported on Friday. Kennedy then bragged to his friends about receiving intimate photos of Nuzzi, The Daily Beast reported Saturday. These boasts ultimately made their way back to her boss, New York Magazine editor David Haskell.... On Friday, Nuzzi’s partner Ryan Lizza, a reporter at Politico, released a statement which referred to Nuzzi as his 'ex-finacée,' indicating the pair have broken up.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Blinkin' Elon Blinks. And Blinks. And Blinks. Jack Nicas & Ana Ionova of the New York Times: “After defying court orders in Brazil for three weeks, [Elon] Musk’s social network, X, has capitulated. In a court filing on Friday night, the company’s lawyers said that X had complied with orders from Brazil’s Supreme Court in the hopes that the court would lift a block on its site. The decision was a surprise move by Mr. Musk, who owns and controls X, after he said he had refused to obey what he called illegal orders to censor voices on his social network. Mr. Musk had dismissed local employees and refused to pay fines. The court responded by blocking X across Brazil last month. Now, X’s lawyers said the company had done exactly what Mr. Musk vowed not to: take down accounts that a Brazilian justice ordered removed because the judge said they threatened Brazil’s democracy. X also complied with the justice’s other demands, including paying fines and naming a new formal representative in the country, the lawyers said.”

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Texas. Erika Edwards, et al., of NBC News: “The number of women in Texas who died while pregnant, during labor or soon after childbirth skyrocketed following the state’s 2021 ban on abortion care — far outpacing a slower rise in maternal mortality across the nation, a new investigation of federal public health data finds. From 2019 to 2022, the rate of maternal mortality cases in Texas rose by 56%, compared with just 11% nationwide during the same time period, according to an analysis by the Gender Equity Policy Institute.... 'There’s only one explanation for this staggering difference in maternal mortality,' said Nancy L. Cohen, president of the GEPI. 'All the research points to Texas’ abortion ban as the primary driver of this alarming increase.... Texas, I fear, is a harbinger of what’s to come in other states.'...” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is state-decreed homicide.

Wisconsin Senate Race. Wis Politics: “A bombshell report this morning from Dan Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel revealed that Banco Azteca, a bank reportedly tied to the Mexican cartel flew $26 million of cash across the U.S.-Mexico Border to [GOP Senate candidate] Eric Hovde’s bank in California. As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel detailed, Banco Azteca was cut off by several other U.S. banks over 'risk and compliance concerns' after reporting linked it to cartel activity. An executive of the bank was recently implicated in a federal indictment detailing his attempts to bribe a member of the U.S. Congress to get U.S. banks to once again do business with the bank. Despite this, Eric Hovde’s bank flew $26 million of cash from Mexico City to Irvine, California as part of a deal with Banco Azteca last December. This shocking revelation comes as Hovde has refused to disclose which foreign banks and governments his bank has done millions of dollars of business with.” Thanks to RAS for the lead. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: According to the Hill's poll of polls, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D) has a 5-point lead over Hovde, but Wisconsin is notorious for overcounting Democratic votes. Baldwin appeared on MSNBC Thursday or Friday and said the race was neck-and-neck.

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France. Ellen Frances & Marisa Bellack of the Washington Post: “French Prime Minister Michel Barnier unveiled the country’s new government Saturday, seeking to end months of political uncertainty, if not the accompanying acrimony. Barnier’s newly named cabinet marks a tilt to the right and will need to maintain enough support across France’s National Assembly to avoid being dissolved with a no-confidence vote. Members of the left-wing alliance that won the most seats in July’s legislative elections — and led the effort to keep the far right out of power — objected that the slate of ministers was undemocratic, representing the election’s losers. France has had only an acting government since July’s snap elections concluded with no bloc of parties securing a governing majority of seats.”

Israel/Palestine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Sunday in Israel's wars are here: “Reeling from a wave of audacious Israeli attacks, Hezbollah on Sunday responded with a barrage of missiles that went deeper into Israeli territory than most previous salvos, reinforcing fears of a broader regional war. Air raid sirens went off in the early hours of Sunday in scores of towns in northern Israel, and officials tightened restrictions on public gatherings in areas including the Golan Heights and Galilee. Most of Hezbollah’s missiles, fired from Lebanon, where it is based, were intercepted by Israel’s air defense system, and there were reports of only minor injuries. Nonetheless, it was clear that life had been disrupted in many places.”

The Conversation -- September 21, 2024

Samantha Waldenberg of CNN: "Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday accepted an invitation from CNN to debate former President Donald Trump on October 23, challenging her rival to another engagement on a public stage in the final weeks of the campaign.: MB: I just heard on the teevee (at 3pm ET Saturday) that Chickenman Trump said he would not debate Harris again. He said it was because the proposed debate would occur after early voting had commenced. Trump debated Joe Biden on October 22, 2020; i.e., after early voting had begun. And he debated Hillary Clinton on October 19, 2015, after early voting had started.

Erika Edwards, et al., of NBC News: "The number of women in Texas who died while pregnant, during labor or soon after childbirth skyrocketed following the state's 2021 ban on abortion care -- far outpacing a slower rise in maternal mortality across the nation, a new investigation of federal public health data finds. From 2019 to 2022, the rate of maternal mortality cases in Texas rose by 56%, compared with just 11% nationwide during the same time period, according to an analysis by the Gender Equity Policy Institute.... 'There's only one explanation for this staggering difference in maternal mortality,' said Nancy L. Cohen, president of the GEPI. 'All the research points to Texas' abortion ban as the primary driver of this alarming increase.... Texas, I fear, is a harbinger of what's to come in other states'..."

Wisconsin Senate Race. Wis Politics: "A bombshell report this morning from Dan Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel revealed that Banco Azteca, a bank reportedly tied to the Mexican cartel flew $26 million of cash across the U.S.-Mexico Border to [GOP Senate candidate] Eric Hovde's bank in California. As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel detailed, Banco Azteca was cut off by several other U.S. banks over 'risk and compliance concerns' after reporting linked it to cartel activity. An executive of the bank was recently implicated in a federal indictment detailing his attempts to bribe a member of the U.S. Congress to get U.S. banks to once again do business with the bank. Despite this, Eric Hovde's bank flew $26 million of cash from Mexico City to Irvine, California as part of a deal with Banco Azteca last December. This shocking revelation comes as Hovde has refused to disclose which foreign banks and governments his bank has done millions of dollars of business with." Thanks to RAS for the lead. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: According to the Hill's poll of polls, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D) has a 5-point lead over Hovde, but Wisconsin is notorious for overcounting Democratic votes. Baldwin appeared on MSNBC Thursday or Friday and said the race was neck-and-neck.

Katie Hawkinson of the Independent: "New York Magazine's Washington correspondent Olivia Nuzzi sent 'demure/ nude photos to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. which he later bragged about, two new reports claim....[Seventy]-year-old RFK Jr ... is married to the actor Cheryl Hines. Nuzzi apparently sent nude photos to the former independent presidential candidate, Puck News reported on Friday. Kennedy then bragged to his friends about receiving intimate photos of Nuzzi, The Daily Beast reported Saturday. These boasts ultimately made their way back to her boss, New York Magazine editor David Haskell.... On Friday, Nuzzi's partner Ryan Lizza, a reporter at Politico, released a statement which referred to Nuzzi as his 'ex-finacée,' indicating the pair have broken up."

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Presidential Race

Reid Epstein & Nicholas Nehamas of the New York Times: "Rallying supporters in two battleground states, Vice President Kamala Harris signaled on Friday that her closing campaign message would focus on the life-or-death risks that abortion bans pose to American women -- and on the argument that ... Donald J. Trump is to blame. In Madison, Wis., a crowd that had been ebullient suddenly grew hushed as Ms. Harris spoke about her visit with the family of a Georgia woman who died of sepsis after waiting for more than 20 hours for medical care to treat an incomplete medication abortion.... Earlier in the day, Ms. Harris traveled to Georgia, where [Amber Nicole] Thurman and another woman, Candi Miller, died after delays in medical care tied to state abortion restrictions, according to reporting by ProPublica. Their deaths occurred in the months after Georgia passed a six-week ban made possible by the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade."

Maeve Reston & Clara Morse of the Washington Post: "Kamala Harris's campaign raised more than four times as much as Donald Trump's effort in August, capitalizing on the surge of Democratic enthusiasm during the first full month of her presidential campaign. But the super PACs aligned with Trump are continuing to raise large sums from high-dollar donors as the two candidates enter the final sprint before November."

Alex Gangitano of the Hill: "Vice President Harris's campaign's unveiled an ad on Friday highlighting former President Trump's praise for North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R), seeking to link the two Republicans following a bombshell CNN report [also linked below] on the gubernatorial candidate. The 30-second spot ... includes clips from Trump talking about Robinson, calling him 'better' than Martin Luther King Jr., 'outstanding,' and saying 'he's been an unbelievable lieutenant governor.' The ad ... also includes clips of Robinson talking about his hard-right views on abortion.... Harris's campaign has been eying North Carolina, a state that Trump won in 2016 and 2020, as a flip this cycle." (Also linked yesterday.) More on Robinson linked under "North Carolina" below. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'm so glad to see the Harris campaign running these hard-hitting ads. Biden's campaign was wa-a-a-ay too polite. You often had to look for the message. Harris' spots are blunt & tough. ~~~

~~~ Trump Stays True to Black NAZI Guy. Matt Dixon, et al., of NBC News: "Donald Trump is facing calls both from his allies and from within his own campaign to pull his endorsement from scandal-plagued North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson, according to four people familiar with the discussions. So far, however, there are no plans for the former president to formally drop him.... On Friday morning, [Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt] told NBC News that reports that Trump is considering pulling that endorsement are 'false.'... Robinson will not be attending a Trump rally planned for Saturday in Wilmington, North Carolina...."

Dawn Roberts in a Des Moines Register op-ed: "I served as an Iowa state co-chair of the Nikki Haley for President campaign.I think both parties let us down by selecting two candidates for president in or near their 80s. I was at a loss. Then, when President Joe Biden stepped down and endorsed Kamala Harris as his replacement, I decided to see who she really was. I was impressed with how she handled herself saying that she wanted to 'earn everyone's support.' She showed willingness to listen to a wider range of views to solve problems. So I am supporting Kamala Harris for president. I am a lifelong Republican."

Nikole Killion of CBS News: "More than 50 former football players and coaches, including several Pro Football Hall of Famers and Super Bowl MVP's, announced their endorsement Friday of Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz in the 2024 U.S. presidential election. The group represents 25 historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU's) and consists of 10 Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees, two Super Bowl champions and MVPs, former No. 1 overall picks and some of the first Black athletes and coaches to break the color barrier.... The announcement is being rolled out on National Black Voter Day, an initiative aimed at getting Black Americans registered to vote by November."

Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "The International Brotherhood of Teamsters may not officially be endorsing a presidential candidate this year, but a scathing analysis concluded that its president has already done Donald Trump 'an unreasonably large favor.' Sean O'Brien divided the union, one of America's largest when he spoke at the Republican National Convention. That divide only deepened after union leadership declined to make a presidential endorsement for the first time in 28 years, with several local units coming forward to make their endorsements for Vice President Kamala Harris. O'Brien's predecessor James P. Hoffa even condemned the move. All of these decisions suggest that O'Brien is 'confused' about his responsibility to workers and not sure how to handle politics as a union leader, wrote Timothy Noah for The New Republic published on Friday." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I was surprised when I linked to an article the other day that reported O'Brien said one reason for not endorsing Harris was that 60% of rank-&-file Teamsters supported Trump. But, even if the poll was accurate, most unions don't let members control endorsements; rather, one purpose of a union endorsement is to educate members on why a particular candidate is the better/best choice.

For Us, It Is the Eve of the Autumnal Equinox. In Trumpland, It's Springtime for Hitler. Rachel Maddow pointed out last night that this past week has been Don & JayDee's Nazi Week. At two events, one meant to condemn antisemitism, Trump made the antisemitic accusation to an audience of Republican Jews that if he lost the election, it would be largely the Jews' fault. (About 2.4 percent of Americans are Jewish.) Then JayDee sat for a second interview with Tucker Carlson (whom Maddow did not name but she showed clips of him) who was just off an interview with an "historian" who praised Hitler. TuKKKer, in return, praised the fake historian as "the best and most honest popular historian in the United States." Finally, we learned this week that Trump's handpicked candidate for governor of North Carolina, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, had called himself "a black NAZI" and said Hitler was better than U.S. political leaders at a time when Barack Obama was POTUS. ~~~

~~~ AND There's This. Christopher Mathias of the Huffington Post: "Last weekend..., Donald Trump posted another anti-immigrant screed to Truth Social. It would have been unremarkable ― at least, graded on the Trumpian curve of extreme xenophobia ― except for one word. '[We will] return Kamala's illegal migrants to their home countries (also known as remigration),' he wrote. 'I will save our cities and towns in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and all across America.'... '#Remigration has had a massive conceptual career," Martin Sellner -- leader of the Austrian chapter of Generation Identity, a pan-European white supremacist network -- tweeted in his native German. 'Born in France, popularized in German-speaking countries and now the term of the hour from Sweden to the USA!'... [Sellner] has been at the vanguard of pushing 'remigration' -- a euphemism for ethnically cleansing non-white people from Western countries -- into the popular political lexicon in Europe.... Trump's use of 'remigration' ... underscor[es] the degree to which ... [the Republican party] is sourcing many of its talking points and policy ideas directly from neo-fascists."

Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Donald Trump's repeated assertion on Thursday that 'the Jewish people would have a lot to do with' his loss if Kamala Harris prevailed on Election Day set off a mix of outrage and concern among Jewish leaders on Friday, raising fears that ardent supporters of the former president could be incited against Jews in an era of rising political violence."

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "Political violence has always been part of American public life. But to the extent that it is today an acute problem, it is impossible to separate from the terrible influence of Donald Trump. On Monday, Trump blamed Democrats for political violence. 'Because of this Communist Left Rhetoric, the bullets are flying, and it will only get worse,' he wrote.... 'Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country,' he said in an interview with Fox News.... In 2016, reported hate crimes jumped by 226 percent in counties that hosted Trump campaign rallies.... Hate crimes reached a 16-year high during Trump's time in office, with a significant increase of violence against Latinos.... There is only one politician who has placed violence at the center of his movement. Only one politician who is running for president on a promise of 'retribution.' Only one politician who has promised that if he is elected again, he will unleash the state against a wide array of disfavored groups."

Even When There Were Guardrails.... Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: In an Oval Office meeting in the spring of 2018, Donald Trump told aides that if AG Jeff Sessions would not prosecute Hillary Clinton & Jim Comey, Trump would prosecute them himself. White House counsel Don McGahn was able to head Trump off, but "the episode marked the start of a more aggressive effort by Mr. Trump to deploy his power against his perceived enemies despite warnings not to do so by top aides. And a look back at the cases of 10 individuals brings a pattern into clearer focus: After Mr. Trump made repeated public or private demands for them to be targeted by the government, they faced federal pressure of one kind or another.... A closer examination [of the cases] reveals the degree of concern and pushback against Mr. Trump's demands inside the White House. And it highlights how closely his expressed desires to go after people who had drawn his ire were sometimes followed by the Justice Department, F.B.I. or other agencies....

"The story of that period has a powerful resonance today as Mr. Trump, angered in part by the two federal and two state-level indictments of him since leaving office, threatens to carry out a campaign of retribution if he returns to the White House. He has signaled that a second Trump administration would be stocked not with people who served as guardrails during his first term, but with carefully vetted loyalists who would eagerly carry out his wishes." It's worth looking at the linked story that outlines the retribution brought against people who aggravated Trump. ~~~

     ~~~ Even if you don't have an NYT subscription, you might want to scroll down the Times' front page, which currently (and certainly not for long) has a video of Schmidt discussing his story. (If the video disappears off the front page, it can be accessed here.)

Arizona. Patrick Marley & Yvonne Sanchez of the Washington Post: "The Arizona Supreme Court's chief justice ruled Friday that nearly 100,000 voters should receive regular ballots this fall even though there is no record that they had submitted documentation to state officials proving they are citizens. The battleground state's high court issued its ruling three days after officials told the justices they had recently discovered state computer systems had identified some longtime residents as having provided citizenship documents even though they had not. Election officials said they were confident all or nearly all of the voters are citizens, but some allies of ... Donald Trump seized on the issue to suggest large numbers of immigrants could be voting illegally. Voting by noncitizens is exceedingly rare...." Thanks to Ken W. for the link.

Georgia. Nick Corasaniti & Johnny Kauffman of the New York Times: "The Georgia State Election Board is set to vote on Friday on a package of nearly a dozen rules that would change the way elections are conducted amid growing pressure from almost every level of Georgia state government advising the board that it is operating outside of its legal authority.... The proposals come just 45 days before the election, after poll workers have been trained and ballots have been mailed to overseas voters. On Thursday, the attorney general's office took the rare step of weighing in on the proposed rules, saying they 'very likely exceed the board's statutory authority.' The fight comes as the election board is under increasing pressure from critics already concerned that it has been rewriting the rules of the game in a key swing state to favor ... Donald J. Trump, including potentially disrupting certification of the election if Mr. Trump loses in November. Last month, the board granted local officials new power over the election-certification process, a change that opponents say could sow chaos." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: "The Georgia State Election Board approved a rule Friday requiring counties in the critical presidential battleground to hand-count all ballots this year, potentially upending the November election by delaying reporting of results by weeks if not months. The change was spearheaded by a pro-Trump majority that has enacted a series of changes to the state's election rules in recent weeks and approved the hand-count requirement despite a string of public commenters who begged them not to. Critics included democracy advocates who accused the board of intentionally injecting chaos and uncertainty into the presidential contest, as well as election supervisors and poll workers who said hand counts would take too long, cost money and almost certainly produce counting errors. The office of the Republican state attorney general, which is responsible for advising the board, wrote in an opinion that the change was unlawful." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Where Chaos Is Not a Bug but a Feature. Ari Berman of Mother Jones on how these Trumpists could overturn a Harris win: "If there's a lengthy dispute over the vote count, Georgia could miss the December 11 deadline for certifying its Electoral College results. If no candidate receives the 270 votes necessary to win the Electoral College as a result, the presidential election would be thrown to the House of Representatives, where Republicans control a majority of state House delegations, allowing them to swing the election to Trump. 'It is not just a nightmare scenario, it's a very real possibility,' [voting rights activist Stacey] Abrams told me recently...." MB: And Abrams drew this conclusion before the very latest rules change.

Nebraska. Patrick Marley, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump spoke by phone this week with a Nebraska state senator as part of a last-minute push to change how the state allocates its electoral votes and block the easiest path Vice President Kamala Harris has to win the White House.... The change is supported by Trump, [Gov. Jim] Pillen, all of the state's U.S. senators and congressmen, and a majority of the unicameral legislature, according to people involved in the process. But Republicans have not yet been able to convince a supermajority of the legislature -- all 33 Republican state senators -- which would be needed to override a filibuster to pass the change before the November election.... [Sen. Lindsey] Graham met Wednesday with Pillen and around two dozen state senators about the proposal...."

Digby, in Salon, comments on the various GOP plans to overturn or toss state election results favoring Harris, including in Nebraska, where "Senator Lindsey Graham ... [is] leading a delegation for Donald Trump ... to try to convince the Republican legislature to change their electoral college system to winner-take-all all.... This first came up a few months back but it didn't go anywhere because Maine, which has a similar system, said they would do the same which would make it a wash. Unfortunately, the deadline for Maine to do that appears to have passed which explains why the Republicans are moving on it now. Graham thinks it's perfectly legitimate to have them change the law 6 weeks before the election for the clear purpose of benefiting Donald Trump but they screamed bloody murder over some rules changes in 2020 to deal with the deadly pandemic. They like to call this 'election integrity.'"

Nevada. Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court said on Friday that it would not restore the Green Party's presidential candidate, Jill Stein, to the Nevada ballot in the coming election. Democrats had challenged her eligibility, saying her party had submitted flawed paperwork. The court's brief order gave no reasons, which is typical when it acts on emergency applications. There were no noted dissents. The Nevada Supreme Court ruled this month that the Green Party's failure to submit a sworn statement required by state regulations meant that its candidates could not appear on the ballot." (Also linked yesterday.)

Mike DeWine Is Sad. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) in a New York Times op-ed: "As a supporter of former President Donald Trump and Senator JD Vance, I am saddened by how they and others continue to repeat claims that lack evidence and disparage the legal migrants living in Springfield. This rhetoric hurts the city and its people, and it hurts those who have spent their lives there. The Biden administration's failure to control the southern border is a very important issue that Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance are talking about and one that the American people are rightfully deeply concerned about. But their verbal attacks against these Haitians -- who are legally present in the United States == dilute and cloud what should be a winning argument about the border. The Springfield I know is not the one you hear about in social media rumors. It is a city made up of good, decent, welcoming people. They are hard workers == both those who were born in this country and those who settled here because, back in their birthplace, Haiti, innocent people can be killed just for cheering on the wrong team in a soccer match." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Shorter DeWine: Trump & Vance are repeatedly attacking the good people of my hometown with racist lies, but I'm voting for them anyway. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Really? Really? DeWine is "saddened" that Don & JayDee have defiled his hometown?

Mychael Schnell & Rebecca Beitsch of the Hill: "The House unanimously passed a bill Friday that seeks to bolster former President Trump's security, the first legislative move the chamber has made in response to the second apparent assassination attempt against the Republican presidential nominee. The House cleared the legislation -- titled the Enhanced Presidential Security Act -- in a bipartisan 405-0 vote, sending it to the Senate for consideration. It's unclear if the upper chamber plans to consider the measure, though similar legislation has been proposed by Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.)." MB: I hope there's something in the bill that says, "but only if that arrogant SOB cooperates with his security detail." (Also linked yesterday.)

Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post: :The Secret Service is responsible for multiple security failures that led to the July 13 assassination attempt against ... Donald Trump ... at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., according to the results of the first report on the attack released Friday. The elite protective agency's internal review found that agents failed to use technology that might have detected the attacker as he flew a drone over the rally venue hours earlier. Trump's protective detail had no idea police were frantically searching for a suspicious person, until shots were fired into the crowd. And the Secret Service, which is the lead agency in charge of security for presidents, former leaders and other top U.S. officials, never directed local police snipers to cover a nearby rooftop even though the snipers were willing to do it, the report found." The story has been updated to include commentary by Acting Director Ronald Rowe. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ The five-page summary report, via the Secret Service, is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Trump's Lawyers Thumb Noses at Judge Chutkan. Alan Feuer of the New York Times: Donald Trump's lawyers "used what was supposed to have been a procedural request for more information from prosecutors to demand that the judge strike the charges altogether -- or at least remake the carefully considered schedule she set this month for pursuing next steps in the proceeding. 'This case should be dismissed,' the lawyers wrote in the first sentence of their 30-page motion to Judge Tanya S. Chutkan. 'Promptly.' While that sort of blunt assertion might not have been surprising in a filing that was actually meant to seek dismissal, Judge Chutkan had requested only that the lawyers weigh in on a procedural question.... And yet ... the lawyers sought to repurpose the filing to their client's own ends, employing the same type of combativeness expressed by Mr. Trump in discussing the charges against him." (Also linked yesterday.)

Jose Pagliery in NOTUS: "Rep. Matt Gaetz attended a drug-fueled sex party in 2017 with the 17-year-old girl at the center of the alleged sex trafficking scandal, according to legal documents filed to a Florida federal court shortly before midnight Thursday, which cite sealed affidavits from three eyewitness testimonies.... One eyewitness cited in the court filings, a young woman referred to as K.M., provided a sworn affidavit that claimed the teenage girl was naked, partygoers were there to 'engage in sexual activities,' and 'alcohol, cocaine, ecstasy -- and marijuana' were present. The teenage girl was identified in the filings only as A.B.... This marks the first time that sworn testimony has been referenced in public court filings alleging that the congressman attended one of the long-rumored parties tied to an alleged underage sex scandal." MB: Gaetz would have been 34 or 35 years old at the time of the party.

Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "What Trump has done to the Republican Party, [Elon] Musk has done to Twitter.... It was always bad, but now it's much worse. Because Musk has ruined its system for verifying users and gutted its content moderation, it's teeming with fake news.... White nationalists have been welcomed back onto the platform, and many journalists have fled.... [Similar to Trump's takeover of the GOP,] Musk has transformed Twitter into a dull, fetid cesspool of white nationalism and paranoid lies. But by making it an extension of his own disordered id, he's taken a platform that has always been toxic and decreased its relevance, especially to those outside the right.... Musk spent a fortune on the largest megaphone he could find, only to discover that the more he shouts into it, the fewer people are listening."

Declan Harty of Politico: "The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to seek sanctions against Elon Musk after he missed previously scheduled testimony for the regulator's investigation into his $44 billion purchase of Twitter, according to a court filing. It was the second time the billionaire tech mogul skipped out on testifying for the probe of the acquisition of the social media site.... Musk was slated to testify on the morning of Sept. 10 at the SEC's Los Angeles office.... However, just hours before the testimony's scheduled start, one of Musk's attorneys notified the SEC that he would not be able to attend because he had to 'urgently travel' to Cape Canaveral, Florida, the day before for SpaceX's latest launch, Polaris Dawn, according to the filing."

~~~~~~~~~~

California. Heather Knight of the New York Times: "A California firefighter was arrested Friday morning after allegedly setting five fires in wine country during what has already been a bad year for wildfires in the state. Robert Hernandez, a 38-year-old fire apparatus engineer with Cal Fire, the state's main firefighting agency, was arrested on suspicion of setting fires on forest land near the Northern California towns of Geyserville, Healdsburg and Windsor between Aug. 15 and Sept. 14. The fires remained small, burning less than an acre of land combined, because local residents and firefighters worked quickly to extinguish them, according to Cal Fire."

North Carolina Gubernatorial Race. Hannah Knowles & Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: "A porn site user linked to North Carolina gubernatorial nominee Mark Robinson praised Adolf Hitler's book 'Mein Kampf' in addition to declaring himself a 'black NAZI,' according to screenshots obtained by The Washington Post.... 'Mein Kampf is a good read,' the user, dubbed 'minisoldr,' wrote in a thread seeking book recommendations. 'It's very informative and not at all what I thought it would be. It's a real eye opener.' The book, an autobiography by Hitler, casts Jews as an 'eternal parasite.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I suppose you could call reading & espousing Nazi propaganda a form of porn, but it still seems odd that a person would use a porn site called Nude Africa to praise Hitler & the Nazis. ~~~

     ~~~ Philip Bump of the Washington Post: Mark Robinson tries out the latest version of the "I was hacked" defense: "AI did it!" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, and it turns out Mark Robinson has a very fine collection of detailed models of SS soldiers. He shares photos of the miniatures on a Website called UltimateSoldier.net. Allegedly. Could have been an AI deep-fake, you know. Via Paul Campos in LG&$.

Texas/New Mexico. Kelly Rissman of the Independent: "In an effort to prevent migrant crossings from the southern border, Texas installed a razor wire along its border with New Mexico, not Mexico -- upsetting the southwestern state's governor. Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced on September 14 that his state would be 'TRIPLING our razor wire border barriers to deny illegal entry into our state and our country.' However, rather than installing the razor wire along the Rio Grande river bank that faces Mexico, KTSM on Tuesday captured footage of Texas Army National Guard troops installing it along a bank that faces New Mexico.... New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, told The Independent in a statement that Republican Abbott's latest move was a 'political stunt' that will have 'will have no meaningful impact on our nation's broken immigration system.'"

~~~~~~~~~~

Israel/Palestine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Saturday in Israel's wars are here.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Friday in Israel's wars are here: "The Israeli military on Friday carried out an airstrike in Beirut that it said killed a senior Hezbollah commander wanted by the United States for his role in bombings in the 1980s that killed hundreds. Hezbollah did not immediately confirm that the commander, Ibrahim Aqeel, had been killed in the strike.... Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman, told reporters that Mr. Aqeel was meeting other militants underneath a residential building in an attempt to 'use civilians as human shields.'... Mr. Aqeel has been accused by the United States of being involved in two terrorist attacks in 1983 that killed more than 350 people at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and the U.S. Marine Corps barracks." (Also linked yesterday.)

The Conversation -- September 20, 2024

Nick Corasaniti & Johnny Kauffman of the New York Times: "The Georgia State Election Board is set to vote on Friday on a package of nearly a dozen rules that would change the way elections are conducted amid growing pressure from almost every level of Georgia state government advising the board that it is operating outside of its legal authority.... The proposals come just 45 days before the election, after poll workers have been trained and ballots have been mailed to overseas voters. On Thursday, the attorney general's office took the rare step of weighing in on the proposed rules, saying they 'very likely exceed the board's statutory authority.' The fight comes as the election board is under increasing pressure from critics already concerned that it has been rewriting the rules of the game in a key swing state to favor ... Donald J. Trump, including potentially disrupting certification of the election if Mr. Trump loses in November. Last month, the board granted local officials new power over the election-certification process, a change that opponents say could sow chaos." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: "The Georgia State Election Board approved a rule Friday requiring counties in the critical presidential battleground to hand-count all ballots this year, potentially upending the November election by delaying reporting of results by weeks if not months. The change was spearheaded by a pro-Trump majority that has enacted a series of changes to the state's election rules in recent weeks and approved the hand-count requirement despite a string of public commenters who begged them not to. Critics included democracy advocates who accused the board of intentionally injecting chaos and uncertainty into the presidential contest, as well as election supervisors and poll workers who said hand counts would take too long, cost money and almost certainly produce counting errors. The office of the Republican state attorney general, which is responsible for advising the board, wrote in an opinion that the change was unlawful."

Alex Gangitano of the Hill: "Vice President Harris's campaign's unveiled an ad on Friday highlighting former President Trump's praise for North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R), seeking to link the two Republicans following a bombshell CNN report [also linked below] on the gubernatorial candidate. The 30-second spot ... includes clips from Trump talking about Robinson, calling him 'better' than Martin Luther King Jr., 'outstanding,' and saying 'he's been an unbelievable lieutenant governor.' The ad ... also includes clips of Robinson talking about his hard-right views on abortion.... Harris's campaign has been eying North Carolina, a state that Trump won in 2016 and 2020, as a flip this cycle." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'm so glad to see the Harris campaign running these hard-hitting ads. Biden's campaign was wa-a-a-ay too polite. You often had to look for the message. Harris' spots are blunt & tough.

Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post: "The Secret Service is responsible for multiple security failures that led to the July 13 assassination attempt against ... Donald Trump ... at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., according to the results of the first report on the attack released Friday. The elite protective agency's internal review found that agents failed to use technology that might have detected the attacker as he flew a drone over the rally venue hours earlier. Trump's protective detail had no idea police were frantically searching for a suspicious person, until shots were fired into the crowd. And the Secret Service, which is the lead agency in charge of security for presidents, former leaders and other top U.S. officials, never directed local police snipers to cover a nearby rooftop even though the snipers were willing to do it, the report found." ~~~

     ~~~ The five-page summary report, via the Secret Service, is here.

Mychael Schnell & Rebecca Beitsch of the Hill: "The House unanimously passed a bill Friday that seeks to bolster former President Trump's security, the first legislative move the chamber has made in response to the second apparent assassination attempt against the Republican presidential nominee. The House cleared the legislation -- titled the Enhanced Presidential Security Act -- in a bipartisan 405-0 vote, sending it to the Senate for consideration. It's unclear if the upper chamber plans to consider the measure, though similar legislation has been proposed by Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.)." MB: I hope there's something in the bill that says, "but only if that arrogant SOB cooperates with his security detail."

Mike DeWine Is Sad. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) in a New York Times op-ed: "As a supporter of former President Donald Trump and Senator JD Vance, I am saddened by how they and others continue to repeat claims that lack evidence and disparage the legal migrants living in Springfield. This rhetoric hurts the city and its people, and it hurts those who have spent their lives there. The Biden administration's failure to control the southern border is a very important issue that Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance are talking about and one that the American people are rightfully deeply concerned about. But their verbal attacks against these Haitians -- who are legally present in the United States -- dilute and cloud what should be a winning argument about the border. The Springfield I know is not the one you hear about in social media rumors. It is a city made up of good, decent, welcoming people. They are hard workers -- both those who were born in this country and those who settled here because, back in their birthplace, Haiti, innocent people can be killed just for cheering on the wrong team in a soccer match." ~~~

     ~~~ Shorter DeWine: Trump & Vance are repeatedly attacking the good people of my hometown with racist lies, but I'm voting for them anyway. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Really? Really? DeWine is "saddened"? I'm saddened, too, that the presidential candidate I support often feels she has to wear spike heels a public events. I like it when she shows up for events wearing sneakers. If she were a lying SOS, like Donnie & JayDee, I would be so saddened that I would renounce her.

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court said on Friday that it would not restore the Green Party's presidential candidate, Jill Stein, to the Nevada ballot in the coming election. Democrats had challenged her eligibility, saying her party had submitted flawed paperwork. The court's brief order gave no reasons, which is typical when it acts on emergency applications. There were no noted dissents. The Nevada Supreme Court ruled this month that the Green Party's failure to submit a sworn statement required by state regulations meant that its candidates could not appear on the ballot. "

Trump's Lawyers Thumb Noses at Judge Chutkan. Alan Feuer of the New York Times: Donald Trump's lawyers "used what was supposed to have been a procedural request for more information from prosecutors to demand that the judge strike the charges altogether -- or at least remake the carefully considered schedule she set this month for pursuing next steps in the proceeding. 'This case should be dismissed,' the lawyers wrote in the first sentence of their 30-page motion to Judge Tanya S. Chutkan. 'Promptly.' While that sort of blunt assertion might not have been surprising in a filing that was actually meant to seek dismissal, Judge Chutkan had requested only that the lawyers weigh in on a procedural question.... And yet ... the lawyers sought to repurpose the filing to their client's own ends, employing the same type of combativeness expressed by Mr. Trump in discussing the charges against him."

The New York Times' live updates of developments Friday in Israel's wars is here: "The Israeli military on Friday carried out an airstrike in Beirut that it said killed a senior Hezbollah commander wanted by the United States for his role in bombings in the 1980s that killed hundreds. Hezbollah did not immediately confirm that the commander, Ibrahim Aqeel, had been killed in the strike.... Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman, told reporters that Mr. Aqeel was meeting other militants underneath a residential building in an attempt to 'use civilians as human shields.'... Mr. Aqeel has been accused by the United States of being involved in two terrorist attacks in 1983 that killed more than 350 people at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and the U.S. Marine Corps barracks."

~~~~~~~~~~

Presidential Race

Erica Green of the New York Times: "Vice President Kamala Harris harnessed the star power of one of her most powerful surrogates -- and one of America-s foremost interviewers -- to lay out a powerful pitch for her campaign on Thursday, as she passionately confronted pressing issues during a livestream forum with Oprah Winfrey. The event, 'Unite for America,' was hosted by Ms. Winfrey and drew hundreds of thousands of viewers.... The event brought together members of over 100 online groups that have coalesced around Ms. Harris since she became the Democratic nominee, including White Dudes for Harris, Cat Ladies for Kamala and Latinas for Harris. Also joining virtually were celebrities that included Chris Rock, Ben Stiller, Jennifer Lopez, Tracee Ellis Ross and Meryl Streep.... Here [Ms. Harris] addressed questions from the audience and Ms. Winfrey about issues like immigration and gun violence, and what would happen if her opponent..., Donald J. Trump, didn't accept the results of the election should he lose a second time." An ABC News report is here.

Lauren Gurley of the Washington Post: "A wave of local and regional Teamsters union branches in battleground states rushed to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris after the national Teamsters union declared that it would not endorse a presidential candidate for the first time in nearly three decades. Teamsters regional councils -- representing hundreds of thousands of members and retirees -- in Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada and western Pennsylvania -- endorsed Harris hours after Teamsters President Sean O'Brien revealed Wednesday that the union would withhold its endorsement.... Separately, powerful local Teamsters unions in Philadelphia; New York City; Long Beach, Calif.; and Miami -- as well as the union's National Black Caucus and a group of retirees -- have endorsed Harris and urged members to vote for her."

Frances Vinall of the Washington Post: "James P. Hoffa, the longtime former leader of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, on Thursday called the union's decision not to endorse a presidential candidate in the 2024 race a 'critical error,' adding that Democratic nominee Kamala Harris was the 'correct choice for labor and working families.'... 'There is only one candidate in this race that has supported working families and unions throughout their career,' he added, 'and that is Vice President Kamala Harris.'"

Donald Trump and NC GOP leaders embraced Mark Robinson for years knowing who he was and what he stood for including disrespect for women and inciting violence. They reap what they sow. -- North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper ~~~

~~~ Stephen Collinson of CNN: "An already fiercely fought presidential contest in the critical swing state [of North Carolina] was thrown into greater turmoil Thursday by a stunning CNN investigation [story linked below] revealing a porn-site scandal surrounding Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson.... [Robinson's] proximity to [Donald] Trump, who dubbed him 'Martin Luther King on steroids' and had him on stage at a recent rally, jolted the White House race. Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign swiftly highlighted the scandal's national implications and tried to equate Trump with Robinson as it argues that the ex-president is anti-woman, immoral, extreme and unfit to serve.... Robinson is the latest in a string of outlandish and often vulnerable candidates who rose because they flattered Trump.... It would be an ironic historical coda if Trump becomes collateral damage to a Republican who would have been anathema to the old GOP but who thrived in the smash mouth political era the ex-president nurtured.... As mayhem envelops Trump, Harris has been doing the grunt work of a traditional campaign as she tries to inch toward the White House." The New York Times story is here.

Donald Trump has used a speech about antisemitism as an opportunity to embrace antisemitic tropes and attack the American Jewish community. -- Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs ~~~

~~~ Scapegoating: "The act of blaming a group for something bad that has happened or that someone else has done." The most antisemitic of antisemitic tropes is to scapegoat Jews. So here's what Donald Trump said at one campaign event designed, supposedly, to denounce antisemitism and at an event for Israeli Americans: ~~~

     ~~~ Chris Cameron & Michael Gold of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump, speaking on Thursday at a campaign event in Washington centered on denouncing antisemitism in America, said that 'if I don't win this election,' then 'the Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss.' Mr. Trump repeated that assertion at a second event, this one focused on Israeli Americans, where he blamed Jews whom he described as 'voting for the enemy,' for the hypothetical destruction of Israel that he insisted would happen if he lost in November. Mr. Trump on Thursday offered an extended airing of grievances against Jewish Americans who have not voted for him. He repeated his denunciation of Jews who vote for Democrats before suggesting that the Democratic Party had a 'hold, or curse,' on Jewish Americans and that he should be getting '100 percent' of Jewish votes because of his policies on Israel." ~~~

⭐ Thom Hartmann in a Substack essay, on how Donald Trump and Mike Johnson are plotting to disenfranchise millions of women. "Trump, on his failing, Nazi-infested social media site, ranted Tuesday that Republicans must get 'every ounce' of the SAVE Act [Safeguard American Eligibility Act] passed or shut down the government 'in any way, shape, or form.'... Lacking a passport or other proof of citizenship with their married names, they must produce both a birth certificate (with the seal of the state where it was issued; no copies allowed) and a current form of identification -- both with the exact same name on them. That could instantly disqualify about 90 percent of all married women without passports or other proof that matches their birth certificates or proof of a legal name change." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Doesn't sound Constitutional, does it? Now, picture the Supreme Six Super-Suppression Specialists. Okay then.

Suppressing Nebraska's Democratic Voters. Neil Vigdor & Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump's allies are resurrecting efforts to change how Nebraska awards its five electoral votes, a hybrid system that could deliver a single but decisive vote to Vice President Kamala Harris from a reliable red state in one tiebreaking scenario.... All five Republicans who represent the state in Congress are pushing for Nebraska to return to a winner-take-all system of awarding electoral votes that had been used before 1992 and was based on the statewide popular vote. Under the state's current hybrid system, its electoral votes are split: Two go to the winner of the statewide popular vote, and the other three are based on who wins the popular vote in each of Nebraska's three U.S. House districts.... Also on Wednesday, Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, visited Nebraska, where he too advocated for the state to change its rules."

Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: Donald Trump got irritated when George "Clooney wrote a guest essay for The New York Times in July imploring President Biden to drop out of the race. Mr. Clooney had just hosted a fund-raiser for the president and observed him up close. So he had a certain credibility, and his article made an impact.... Mr. Trump ... [wrote,] 'So now fake movie actor George Clooney, who never came close to making a great movie, is getting into the act. He's turned on Crooked Joe like the rats they both are....' He concluded that, 'Clooney should get out of politics and go back to television. Movies never really worked for him!!!!' On [Jimmy] Kimmel's program Tuesday night, Mr. Clooney swiped back: 'I will if he does. That's a trade-off I'd do.' Ordinarily none of this would matter -- and who is to say it really does? -- but for the fact that Mr. Trump, formerly the star of 'The Apprentice,' clearly craves the approval of fellow stars." (Also linked yesterday.)

Marie: It's pitchfork time! Trump says he's going to show up in Springfield within the next two weeks. If I were a city authority, I'd tell Trump (and/or JayDee) not to come and that if he does come, I'd tell him that law enforcement will stop him at the town line. I'm serious.

Jeff Stein & Marianna Sotomayor of the Washington Post: "... Republican lawmakers and many other conservatives find themselves in ... [an] awkward position ... over [Donald Trump]'s increasingly extreme trade proposals.... The party's lawmakers overall appear to be hearing what they want to from Trump even as his rhetoric sharply escalates.... Trump recently said tariffs 'don't affect our country,' contradicting mainstream economists, and has implausibly claimed they can solve everything from foreign policy crises to inflation.... Since leaving office..., Trump has dramatically intensified his trade rhetoric and proposals, fueling fears a second term would lead to a global trade war.... While his exact intentions are hard to discern, Trump is leaving little room for interpretation -- he clearly plans to use tariffs in a way that most Republicans will ultimately dislike, said Doug Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum, a center-right think tank." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I guess I should break it to you here that the Congress in its wisdom has given the POTUS control over tariffs. That is, Trump can impose tariffs at will without getting Congressional approval. In this case, even without the Supremes' gift of immunity, Trump "has an Article II where he has a right to do whatever he wants." I meant to run this Chris Hayes segment yesterday, but it hasn't lost its sell-by date. Hayes emphasizes something I have not: that Trump's tariffs-fix-everything "plan" would of course lead affected countries to adopt retaliatory tariffs against the U.S., IOW, there would be a global trade war:

I Can Be Cruel & Defame Innocent, Defenseless People Because I'm a Belligerent, Ignorant White Bully. Maggie Astor of the New York Times: "Senator JD Vance of Ohio ... said on Wednesday that he would continue to describe Haitian residents in Springfield, Ohio, as 'illegal aliens' even though most of them are in the country legally.... 'If Kamala Harris waves the wand illegally and says these people are now here legally, I'm still going to call them an illegal alien,' he said in response to a reporter's question after a rally in Raleigh, N.C. 'An illegal action from Kamala Harris does not make an alien legal.' [MB: Of course Harris did not wave a magic wand; she did not do anything, legal or illegal, to allow Haitian refugees into the country.] Congress created the temporary protected status program in 1990 and presidents from both major parties have used it in response to wars, natural disasters and other humanitarian crises in various countries. The program allows people from countries designated by the Department of Homeland Security to live and work legally in the United States for 18 months, a period that the department can renew indefinitely.... Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio ... and the mayor of Springfield, Rob Rue, both Republicans, have denounced the false claims from Mr. Vance and Mr. Trump." (Also linked yesterday.)

Louie Louie, Oh No No No. Suppressing Votes -- Especially Democrats' -- in Swing States. Noah Pransky of NBC News New York: "In 2020, when the United States Postal Service began an ambitious plan to modernize and consolidate services -- in the middle of the pandemic -- its slow service wound up disenfranchising tens of thousands of voters whose ballots never made it to their elections offices in time. Four years later -- by some measures -- USPS performance is now actually worse, with another nail-biter of an election fast-approaching. Compounding the risk that slow mail could affect the election: NBC found some of the country's slowest mail is in presidential swing states with strict mail ballot delivery deadlines. 'It's a disgrace,' Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said of USPS delivery performance. 'They need to understand the importance [of election mail] and they need to make no more excuses.'" ~~~

     ~~~ ⭐  Do see all the comments in today's thread on Louie's excellent job performance.

Elon Musk, Another Putin Puppet. David Ingram of NBC News: "As Elon Musk increasingly weighed in on politics in the last several years, he used his massive following on his social media app X to repeatedly amplify content from a company that appears to be at the center of an alleged Russian covert operation to manipulate U.S. public opinion ahead of the 2024 election. Musk, one of the world's richest people, boosted content from creators and accounts tied to Tenet Media at least 60 times, resharing the operation's posts and engaging in back-and-forth replies with Tenet's paid pundits on X. Musk's posts, shared with his 198 million followers, put Russia-aligned conservative talking points in front of possibly tens of millions of eyeballs, according to the viewership data published by X.... The day after the indictment dropped, Musk accused The Associated Press of pushing anti-Trump 'propaganda' in its coverage of Tenet Media. And he posted in defense of the right-wing podcasters \ Tenet had retained, agreeing with another conservative commentator, Ben Shapiro, that the men were deceived." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: While it's true that Musk is "one of the world's richest people," it's also true that Putin may be richer. Even Musk thinks so. (Musk means "richer than I," not "richer than me.") And -- whether or not Musk knows it (and I suspect he does) -- they're teaming up against us ordinary people.

OMG! Katie Robertson of the New York Times: "A star New York Magazine political reporter has been placed on leave after disclosing a personal relationship with the former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In a statement posted online on Thursday night, New York Magazine said that its Washington correspondent, Olivia Nuzzi, had recently acknowledged to the magazine's editors that she had engaged in a relationship 'with a former subject relevant to the 2024 campaign while she was reporting on the campaign.' The outlet said the relationship was 'a violation of the magazine's standards around conflicts of interest and disclosures.' A person familiar with the matter confirmed that the relationship was with Mr. Kennedy.... Ms. Nuzzi, in a statement to The New York Times on Thursday, said..., 'The relationship was never physical but should have been disclosed to prevent the appearance of a conflict. I deeply regret not doing so immediately and apologize to those I've disappointed, especially my colleagues at New York.' A representative for Mr. Kennedy said, 'Mr. Kennedy only met Olivia Nuzzi once in his life for an interview she requested, which yielded a hit piece.'" Oliver Darcy, now of Status, broke the news.

Maria Sacchetti, et al., of the Washington Post: "Acting Secret Service director Ronald L. Rowe Jr. is urging Congress to heavily invest in the protective agency after two apparent assassination attempts against ... Donald Trump, saying the service must confront its shortcomings and better position itself to handle a dangerous 'new reality.' Rowe, in a wide-ranging interview with The Post, said the guardians of U.S. presidents, former presidents and other top officials are desperate for more counter-snipers and investigators, upgraded armored limousines for motorcades, and a greater supply of ballistic glass. He said that the agency's aging Maryland training center lacks studios to train agents for real-world attacks and that agents are working more hours in a state of hypervigilance than anyone should."

Brian Mann of NPR: "For the first time in decades, public health data shows a sudden and hopeful drop in drug overdose deaths across the U.S.... National surveys compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention already show an unprecedented decline in drug deaths of roughly 10.6 percent. That's a huge reversal from recent years when fatal overdoses regularly increased by double-digit percentages. Some researchers believe the data will show an even larger decline in drug deaths when federal surveys are updated to reflect improvements being seen at the state level, especially in the eastern U.S." Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)

Evan Halper of the Washington Post: "Pennsylvania's dormant Three Mile Island nuclear plant would be brought back to life to feed the voracious energy needs of Microsoft under an unprecedented deal announced Friday in which the tech giant would buy 100 percent of its power for 20 years. The restart of Three Mile Island, the site of the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history, would mark a bold advance in the tech industry's quest to find enough electric power to support its boom in artificial intelligence. The plant, which Pennsylvanians thought had closed for good in 2019 amid financial strain, would come back online by 2028 under the agreement, according to plant owner Constellation Energy. If approved by regulators, Three Mile Island would provide Microsoft with the energy equivalent it takes to power 800,000 homes, or 835 megawatts. Never before has a U.S. nuclear plant come back into service after being decommissioned, and never before has all of a single commercial nuclear power plant's output been allocated to a single customer." MB: I believe if I lived in Harrisburg, I'd be askeert. I can still picture then-President Jimmy Carter touring the plant after the 1979 meltdown.

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Kentucky. Emmett Lindner & Orlando Mayorquín of the New York Times: "The sheriff of a rural eastern Kentucky county walked into a courthouse on Thursday afternoon and shot and killed a district judge in his chambers after an argument, the police said. Mickey Stines, 43, the sheriff in Letcher County, turned himself in after shooting Judge Kevin Mullins and was charged with first-degree murder, Trooper Matt Gayheart of the Kentucky State Police said at a news conference on Thursday evening. The shooting happened at about 2:55 p.m. inside the Letcher County Courthouse in Whitesburg, a city in southeastern Kentucky. The sheriff was taken to a local jail and had been cooperative with investigators, Trooper Gayheart said.... Mr. Stines ... was and was re-elected in 2022." CNN's story is here. MB: Bad choice, voters!

Mississippi. Jerry Mitchell, et al., of the New York Times: "The Justice Department announced Thursday that it had expanded its investigation into the suburban Mississippi sheriff's department where a self-described 'Goon Squad' of deputies has been accused of torturing people for nearly two decades. Investigators will seek to determine if the Rankin County Sheriff's Department engaged in a pattern of unconstitutional policing through widespread violence, illegal searches and arrests or other discriminatory practices. Rankin County came to national attention last year after deputies, some from the Goon Squad, tortured two Black men in their home and shot one of them, nearly killing him. Six officers pleaded guilty and were sentenced to federal prison in March."

⭐ North Carolina Gubernatorial Race. Andrew Kaczynski & Em Steck of CNN: "Mark Robinson, the controversial and socially conservative Republican nominee for governor of North Carolina, made a series of inflammatory comments on a pornography website's message board more than a decade ago, in which he referred to himself as a 'black NAZI!' and expressed support for reinstating slavery, a CNN KFile investigation found. Despite a recent history of anti-transgender rhetoric, Robinson said he enjoyed watching transgender pornography, a review of archived messages found in which he also referred to himself as a 'perv.' The comments, which Robinson denies making, predate his entry into politics and current stint as North Carolina's lieutenant governor. They were made under a username that CNN was able to identify as Robinson by matching a litany of biographical details and a shared email address between the two. Many of Robinson's comments were gratuitously sexual and lewd in nature. They were made between 2008 and 2012.... The comments were made under the username minisoldr, a moniker Robinson used frequently online."

Pennsylvania Voter Suppression. Maggie Astor & Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: "The Republican National Committee and the Pennsylvania Republican Party are suing to try to stop election officials in the state from letting voters correct technical problems with their mail ballots. The Republican lawsuit, filed Wednesday in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court against Secretary of State Al Schmidt and the state's 67 county election boards, would also stop voters from being able to cast a provisional ballot if their mail ballot is rejected over a technical problem. The lawsuit argues that state law prohibits election officials from notifying voters of such errors and allowing them to be fixed in time to have their ballot counted, a process known as curing. More than half of states allow curing for some types of errors.... Donald J. Trump railed against the process as he falsely alleged election fraud in 2020 and tried to overturn his loss, and it has been a point of contention since then in Pennsylvania and in other states."

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Israel/Palestine, et al.

Aaron Boxerman & Euan Ward of the New York Times: "The Israeli military carried out dozens of airstrikes against the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on Thursday, one of the most intense waves of bombardment this year. The strikes came hours after Hezbollah's leader vowed that 'retribution will come' to Israel after audacious attacks on Hezbollah's pagers and walkie-talkies. The device explosions killed at least 37 people and left many Israelis and Lebanese fearful of a worsening conflict between Hezbollah and Israel. In his first speech since the devices blew up on Tuesday and Wednesday, Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader, conceded that his group had 'endured a severe and cruel blow.' He accused Israel of breaking 'all conventions and laws' and said that it would 'face just retribution and a bitter reckoning.'"

The New York Times' live updates of developments Thursday in Israel's wars are here. (Also linked yesterday.)