The Conversation -- August 13, 2024

Since Donald Trump is so ignorant about how Kamala Harris got her last name, here's an article by Jeff Stein of the Washington Post which delves into the career of Kamala's father, Dr. Donald Harris, an economist who received Jamaica's Order of Merit for his work credited with boosting the nation's economy.

Rebecca Picciotti & Lora Kolodny of CNBC: "The United Auto Workers union on Tuesday filed federal labor charges with the National Labor Relations Board against ... Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk for publicly applauding the practice of firing employees who threaten to strike. 'I look at what you do,' Trump said to Musk during a two-hour interview Monday night on X.... 'You walk in, you say, "You want to quit?" They go on strike,' Trump said to Musk.... 'I won't mention the name of the company, but they go on strike and you say, "That's okay, you're all gone. You're all gone. So, every one of you is gone,"' Trump said. Trump was referring to the 2022 gutting of Twitter staff after Musk took over the social media business and renamed it X. It is illegal to fire workers who threaten to strike, because the right to strike is protected under federal labor law. 'When we say Donald Trump is a scab, this is what we mean,' UAW President Shawn Fain said in a statement Tuesday on the new charges. 'When we say Trump stands against everything our union stands for, this is what we mean.'"

Rex Huppke of USA Today, republished by Yahoo! News: "For a fascism-curious billionaire who loves cuddling up to right-wing loons, Elon Musk sure is good at making right-wing politicians look stupid.... Donald Trump had loudly trumpeted a planned Monday night interview with Musk that would stream on X. But much like the disastrous X-platformed launch of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' presidential campaign, the Musk/Trump interview failed to launch, leaving social media users laughing at the collective incompetence.... Of course, things didn't get better for Trump once the interview was able to proceed.... He was rambling, babbling on about crowd sizes and immigration and President Joe Biden and whatever else seemed to pass through his mind. He was also badly slurring his words, raising questions about his health, and doing nothing to knock down rising concerns about his age and well-being. He sounded like a disoriented, racist Daffy Duck."

Kansas. Ben Brasch & Sofia Andrade of the Washington Post: "A former police chief in Kansas was charged Monday with a felony for allegedly tampering with an investigation into his raid of a small-town newspaper's office. Gideon Cody faces a single count of interference with a judicial process, according to Marion County court records. Barry R. Wilkerson, one of the two special prosecutors assigned to the case, alleged that Cody 'induced a witness to withhold information,' according to the court filing. No attorney was listed online as representing Cody. He could not immediately be reached by phone. The Aug. 11, 2023, raid of the Marion County Record's newsroom and the home of its editor and publisher, Eric Meyer, brought the nation's attention to a county of 12,000 residents roughly 60 miles north of Wichita. The raid sparked national outrage from press freedom advocates.... Meyer ... told The Post on Tuesday that ... the chief should be charged over the raid itself," not just the cover-up.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Tuesday in the Israel/Hamas war are here.

If, like Seth Meyers, you've been on vacation for three weeks, not to worry. Seth is here to catch you up on the news. Thanks to RAS for the link: ~~~

And Jon Stewart points out how much Donald is missing Joe. In the end, Jon comes up with a plan that will certainly appeal to Trump, as it's kind of Trump's idea, and he has tried it before. BUT the part that's most compelling is the part that begins at about 11:25 min. in, where Stewart compares Trump's attacks on Biden to his attacks on Harris. A wonder to behold: ~~~

Presidential Race

On the Cover of Time Magazine. Cover story by Charlotte Alter: Kamala "Harris has pulled off the swiftest vibe shift in modern political history.... Over the span of a few weeks in late July and early August, Harris became a political phenomenon.... Suddenly, she seems matched to the moment: a former prosecutor running against a convicted felon, a defender of abortion rights running against the man who helped overturn Roe v. Wade, a next-generation Democrat running against a 78-year-old Republican. Perhaps above all, she has given Americans the one thing they overwhelmingly told pollsters they wanted: a credible alternative to the two unpopular old men who have held the job for the past eight long years." (Also linked yesterday.)

Marie's Sport's Report. In the Athletic (New York Times), fellow high school football coaches and players at remember defensive coach Tim Walz.(Also linked yesterday.)

Crash of the Titans. Musk's X Fails, Trump Slurs His Lies. Marianne LeVine, et al., of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump's much anticipated conversation on the social media platform X with owner Elon Musk was marred by technical errors Monday evening, starting more than 40 minutes late as more than a million users tuned in to the event. It was the latest mishap for the Republican nominee as he has sought to regain his footing amid a surge in Democratic enthusiasm for his new rival, Vice President Kamala Harris. The joint appearance was also a high-profile embarrassment for Musk's X, which has faced numerous outages since the entrepreneur's takeover and suffered from a server meltdown during [Ron DeSantis's] presidential campaign launch last year.... During much of the discussion Monday, [Musk] focused on comfortable topics for Trump, such as undocumented immigration. He also allowed the former president to deliver his preferred talking points and a stream of false statements, giving the chat some of the hallmarks of Trump's signature campaign rallies."...

Musk blamed the long delay in the start of the interview on bad actors who attacked X, but "an X adviser in a position to know said he saw no evidence of an attack, but cautioned that he could not immediately rule out a stealthier offensive.... The former president's speech during the interview sounded different from his usual delivery.... Some on social media said it sounded like he was slurring his words.... Trump made a flurry of posts on X earlier in the day ahead of the interview, reviving a social media account that was central to his 2016 election and turbulent presidency but had been dormant since last August." MB: But otherwise, everything went very smoothly.

Gaby Del Valle & Kylie Robison of the Verge dispute Musk's claim that outsiders attacked X.

Shoring up the White Bro & Incel Votes. Leigh Ann Caldwell & Marianna Sotomayor of the Washington Post: "... several Republican operatives ... told us [the Trump-Musk chat] was also likely to help him reach a specific pro-Trump group: young White men."

He Called Her "Camilla." Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: During the interview, "... Donald Trump went on a bizarre riff in which he claimed that Vice President Kamala Harris resembled his wife ... Melania Trump in her TIME Magazine cover illustration.... '... I saw a picture of her on time magazine today. He looks like the most beautiful actress ever to live. It was a drawing. And, uh, actually, she looked very much like a great first lady. Melania. She looked --.... She didn't look like Camilla. That's right. But of course, she's a beautiful woman, so we'll leave it at that, right?'"

Sarah Rumpf of Mediaite: "Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign bashed Elon Musk's interview with ... Donald Trump that was hosted on X..., issuing a statement that dunked on the two participants as 'self-obsessed rich guys' who couldn't run a livestream.... 'Donald Trump's extremism and dangerous Project 2025 agenda is a feature not a glitch of his campaign, which was on full display for those unlucky enough to listen in tonight during whatever that was on X.com,' the statement read. 'Trump's entire campaign is in service of people like Elon Musk and himself -- self-obsessed rich guys who will sell out the middle class and who cannot run a livestream in the year 2024.'... The campaign also posted several clips from the interview on its official X account, @KamalaHQ, throughout the evening." One notes that Trump was "slurring" his words.

How Not to Run a Gigantic Social Media Site. Seb Starcevic of Politico: "The European Union's digital enforcer wrote an open letter to tech mogul Elon Musk on Monday ahead of a planned interview with ... Donald Trump to remind him of the EU's rules on promoting hate speech.... Europe's Digital Commissioner Thierry Breton reminded the world's richest man of his legal obligation to stop the 'amplification of harmful content.' The EU in July charged X, which Musk bought in 2022, for failing to respect its social media laws. The platform faces multimillion euro fines.... It's in the context of [the Trump-Musk] interview that Breton made his intervention, posting a link to the letter on X itself, with the caption: With great audience comes greater responsibility #DSA.'... Responding to Breton, Musk tweeted out a meme containing the words: 'Take a big step back and literally, fuck your own face!'"

Marie: At first, I thought the video here was fake, but a cursory Internet search provides evidence it is not. It turns out that Donald Trump's bizarre claim (see link in yesterday's Conversation) that Kamala Harris was speaking before fake crowds has its roots, as is often the case, in Trump's penchant for projection. Trump, it seems, waves to fake crowds all the time. Thanks to RAS for the lead: ~~~

You can't blame Trump for being sensitive about the huge crowd that showed up at the airport for Harris, given the fact that he has to always wave to imaginary people he wishes would show up. pic.twitter.com/ZbdUtYaTGJ

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) August 11, 2024

Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "Why would Trump and his allies spread a false claim about attendance at a rally that was covered on C-SPAN? In part because many elements of Trump's base have embraced rejections of basic reality ... for years.... But in part, it's because Trump and his allies are already eagerly raising questions about the reliability of measures of Harris's support -- and by extension, the reliability of the results in November.... Recall that his efforts to reject the 2020 results did not emerge out of the blue in November of that year.... [He began claiming mail-in ballots were insecure months before the election.] His base was more than prepared when he subsequently challenged the actual election results. That's the pattern that is again underway...." (Also linked yesterday.)

Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "When Donald Trump says something ludicrous and unhinged, it is often difficult to tell if he is acting out of feral political calculation or narcissistic injury. We saw this on Sunday, when he claimed that Kamala Harris had used A.I. to fake an image of an enthusiastic crowd greeting her when she arrived in Michigan.... By insisting that Harris's support isn't real, Trump is bolstering the idea that if she prevails, it won't be legitimate.... At his Mar-a-Lago news conference last week..., [Trump] claimed that the MAGA movement encompasses 75 percent of Americans.... Even if the system holds, Trumpist officials are likely to cause delay, confusion and uncertainty over the election's outcome, all justified by the big lie that America has a MAGA majority. The people who refuse to accept that Kamala Harris's crowds are real are telling us they won't accept that her votes are either."

Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump's ongoing meltdown over his changed electoral prospects is becoming genuinely bizarre. It is foolish to underestimate him, but this doesn't come off as any kind of subtle gambit in a game of three-dimensional chess. It looks and sounds like angry, disoriented flailing that inflicts more self-harm than damage on his opponents.... Away from social media, Trump's public statements have become increasingly divorced from reality. At a rally Friday in Montana, Trump said the following: 'Kamala Harris, you know, it's interesting, nobody really knows her last name. If you ask people, "Do you know what her last name is?" nobody has any idea what it is. Harris, it's like Harris. I don't know, how the hell did this happen?'" MB: Another bizarre, offensive attempt to delegitimize (or should I say "illegetimize"?) Harris. Trump won't say her first name properly and now asserts that her last name is not legitimate, either because she was born out of wedlock or because she stole the name, maybe to seem more English-y. Everything about Harris is fake -- even her name -- Drumpf says.

About Trump's claim that Kamala Harris STOLE Trump's original idea of eliminating taxes on tips for service workers, a claim that is neither original or particularly helpful to most workers, it turns out that it also is in direct conflict with a Trump screw-the-workers plans. Akhilleus pointed out in yesterday's Comments thread that in 2017 the Trump administration proposed a rule that would take an estimated $5.6 billion from workers' tips and turn the money over to employers. Sweet. But, as NPR reported in 2019, hundreds of thousands of people wrote in objecting to the rule, "Congress passed a law preventing business owners from skimming tips, but also allowing for more mandatory tip-sharing." The Trump administration then responded by proposing a rule that "would allow employers to require more widespread sharing of tips with 'back of the house' coworkers, such as cooks and dishwashers." The rule went into effect as a Grinch-y parting shot at workers on December 22, 2020. The Biden administration rescinded this and other rules that hurt tipped workers.

Devlin Barrett, et al., of the Washington Post: "The FBI is investigating suspected hacking attempts by Iran targeting both a Trump associate and advisers to the Biden-Harris campaign, according to people familiar with the matter, as the agency formally acknowledged Monday it has opened a high-stakes national security investigation months before Election Day. Three staffers on the Biden-Harris campaign received spear phishing emails that were designed to appear legitimate but could give a intruder access to the recipients' communications.... So far, investigators have not found evidence that those hacking attempts were successful.... When the Trump campaign initially concluded it had been hacked, it did not alert the FBI, according to campaign advisers....

People familiar with the matter said the phishing attempt appears to have succeeded in compromising the communications of at least one person...: Roger Stone.... That Stone was an apparent victim in the effort is remarkable given his long, tangled history with hacked emails. Stone was convicted of seven felonies, including lying about his attempts during the 2016 presidential campaign to get details of Hillary Clinton's private emails from the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks. Trump pardoned him in 2020 a month before he left office."

Media Bend Over Backwards for the GOP Ticket. Again. David Bauder of the AP: "At least three news outlets were leaked confidential material from inside the Donald Trump campaign, including its report vetting JD Vance as a vice presidential candidate. So far, each has refused to reveal any details about what they received. Instead, Politico, The New York Times and The Washington Post have written about a potential hack of the campaign and described what they had in broad terms. Their decisions stand in marked contrast to the 2016 presidential campaign, when a Russian hack exposed emails to and from Hillary Clinton's campaign manager, John Podesta. The website Wikileaks published a trove of these embarrassing missives, and mainstream news organizations covered them avidly.... Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for Trump's campaign, said over the weekend that 'any media or news outlet reprinting documents or internal communications are doing the bidding of America's enemies.'... In 2016, candidate Trump and his team encouraged coverage of documents on the Clinton campaign that Wikileaks had acquired from hackers."

Chris Cameron & Michael Gold of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump's presidential campaign said on Monday that it was unaware that a private plane used by Mr. Trump for campaign travel on Saturday was once owned by Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and sex offender. Mr. Trump flew from Bozeman, Mont., to Jackson Hole, Wyo., and Aspen, Colo., on the jet, made by Gulfstream, to attend campaign fund-raisers after Mr. Trump's signature Boeing 757, often referred to as Trump Force One, experienced a mechanical issue en route to a campaign rally in Bozeman on Friday." MB: Bad look, maybe, but on the upside, Epstein's plane would be familiar to Trump.

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times is already writing a post mortem for Trump's campaign and the loser party he heads. Perhaps a bit premature, but a welcome reverie.

Oh, Shame on Us. Alexandra Marquez of NBC News: "After years of condemning ... Donald Trump for spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories, Democrats are now poking fun at his running mate using a false, vulgar rumor. The rumor, first posted on X last month, involves a fake passage about a sex act and a couch supposedly in Sen. JD Vance's 2016 book, 'Hillbilly Elegy.' The lie spread like wildfire, spawning jokes and memes even as the original joke's author clarified that it wasn't real and later made his account private." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Yeah, well, you can't prove JayDee never fucked a sofa, either. Years ago, Akhilleus and I (and others) used to joke about Ross Douthat's having a relationship with a blow-up doll. I don't recall where we got that story, but I think it too came via something the subject of our derision had written, maybe about his technical celibacy. The point isn't that these stories are true but how easy it is to picture JayDee and Ross animating the inanimate for sexual gratification. And if you're an obnoxious jerk who aspires to celebrity, you just have to accept this kind of, well, gleeful flogging. ~~~

     ~~~ Update: Near the end of yesterday's Comments thread, RAS and others explain to media scolds what is vulgar. It is not vulgar to "poke fun at a weird loser who thinks he has the right and authority to tell others how they are allowed to live their lives."

New York Ballot. Of Bad News, Bears. Rebecca O'Brien, et al., of the New York Times: "Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s independent presidential campaign was dealt a blow on Monday when a judge ruled that his petition to appear on New York's ballot was invalid, saying Mr. Kennedy had used a 'sham' address to maintain his New York residency. The ruling, if it stands, would keep Mr. Kennedy off the ballot in a state where he lived for much of his adult life and could endanger his efforts to be placed on the ballot in dozens of other states. He has three days to appeal the decision, handed down by a judge in Albany, N.Y.... The trial began on Aug. 5.... Mr. Kennedy's testimony had been immediately preceded by a bizarre incident in which the candidate confessed to collecting a dead bear off the side of an upstate highway in 2014 and then ... dumping the carcass in Central Park."

North Carolina Ballot. Gary Robertson of the AP: "Robert F. Kennedy Jr. can remain on North Carolina's presidential ballots after a state judge on Monday refused to block printing his name and those of other candidates of the 'We the People' party that was recently certified by the State Board of Elections. Wake County Superior Court Judge Keith Gregory rejected the preliminary injunction request by the North Carolina Democratic Party, which challenged the board's decision last month that declared We the People an official party. Separately late Monday, a federal judge halted the board's rejection of official party status for another political group -- Justice for All -- that collected signatures to put progressive activist and professor Cornel West on the presidential ballot. U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle told the board to declare Justice for All of North Carolina an official party and to accept its candidates for the fall ballot."

Lisa Rubin & Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "An attorney for ... Donald Trump has filed a legal notice announcing that his client plans to sue the Justice Department and the FBI for $115 million for alleged 'malicious political prosecution' and 'abuse of process.' The notice, a copy of which NBC News obtained Monday, baselessly accuses DOJ leadership and special counsel Jack Smith of having perpetrated a 'malicious political prosecution aimed at affecting an electoral outcome to prevent President Trump from being re-elected'.... The filing says Trump is seeking "$15 million in actual harm due to his legal costs in defending the Special Counsel proceedings...." It's unclear how much of that money came from Trump personally. NBC News has reported previously that Trump appeared to be using money from a political action committee for his legal fees. He's also seeking $100 million in punitive damages." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ One minor flaw in Trump's suit: Rubin said on MSNBC that federal law prohibits awards for punitive damages against the federal government. Later, Andrew Weissmann, also on MSNBC, said Trump would not actually sue because to do so would open him up to massive fines for bringing a frivolous lawsuit.

Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: Rep. Jason Crow's (D-Colo.) "credentials -- including three tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan and a Bronze Star, as well as a law degree and a background in private-sector investigations -- have made Mr. Crow a go-to lawmaker for Democratic leaders on difficult national security issues.... [Then-Speaker] Pelosi tapped him in 2019 to manage the first impeachment of President Donald J. Trump. He was part of the whip operation to rally support for legislation to send tens of billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine. He was selected as the top Democrat on a subcommittee investigating the Biden administration's botched withdrawal from Afghanistan. And last month, he was named the senior Democrat on a bipartisan task force to investigate the attempted assassination of Mr. Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania." (Also linked yesterday.)

Alex Griffing of Mediaite: "Donald Trump's media company, Trump Media, shed another five percent of its market value on Monday, closing at its lowest value since mid-April. The stock tumble came the day after the company's quarterly earning report on Friday revealed only $836,900 in revenue for the company valued at over $4.5 billion. The company register a net loss of $16.4 million for the second quarter, which ended on June 30th. Trump himself also began posting again on X Monday, which is a rival to his Truth Social platform that is the main holding of Trump Media."

~~~~~~~~~~

Colorado. Alan Feuer & Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "Tina Peters, the former clerk of Mesa County, Colo., was convicted on Monday of tampering with voting machines under her control in a failed attempt to prove that they had been used to rig the 2020 election against ... Donald J. Trump. After nearly five hours of deliberations, a jury in Grand Junction found Ms. Peters guilty of seven criminal charges connected to her efforts to breach a machine manufactured by Dominion Voting Systems. The jury determined that Ms. Peters had helped an outsider gain unauthorized access to the machine in May 2021 and obtain information that was later made public at a conspiratorial event held to undermine trust in Mr. Trump's defeat to Joseph R. Biden Jr."

~~~~~~~~~~

The New York Times' live updates of developments Monday in the Israel/Hamas war are here. (Also linked yesterday.)

The Conversation -- August 12, 2024

On the Cover of Time Magazine. Cover story by Charlotte Alter: Kamala "Harris has pulled off the swiftest vibe shift in modern political history.... Over the span of a few weeks in late July and early August, Harris became a political phenomenon.... Suddenly, she seems matched to the moment: a former prosecutor running against a convicted felon, a defender of abortion rights running against the man who helped overturn Roe v. Wade, a next-generation Democrat running against a 78-year-old Republican. Perhaps above all, she has given Americans the one thing they overwhelmingly told pollsters they wanted: a credible alternative to the two unpopular old men who have held the job for the past eight long years."

Marie's Sport's Report. In the Athletic (New York Times), fellow high school football coaches and players at remember defensive coach Tim Walz.

Lisa Rubin & Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "An attorney for ... Donald Trump has filed a legal notice announcing that his client plans to sue the Justice Department and the FBI for $115 million for alleged 'malicious political prosecution' and 'abuse of process.' The notice, a copy of which NBC News obtained Monday, baselessly accuses DOJ leadership and special counsel Jack Smith of having perpetrated a 'malicious political prosecution aimed at affecting an electoral outcome to prevent President Trump from being re-elected'.... The filing says Trump is seeking "$15 million in actual harm due to his legal costs in defending the Special Counsel proceedings before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida." It's unclear how much of that money came from Trump personally. NBC News has reported previously that Trump appeared to be using money from a political action committee for his legal fees. He's also seeking $100 million in punitive damages." ~~~

     ~~~ One minor flaw in Trump's suit: Rubin said on MSNBC that federal law prohibits awards for punitive damages against the federal government.

Oh, Shame on Us. Alexandra Marquez of NBC News: "After years of condemning ... Donald Trump for spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories, Democrats are now poking fun at his running mate using a false, vulgar rumor. The rumor, first posted on X last month, involves a fake passage about a sex act and a couch supposedly in Sen. JD Vance's 2016 book, 'Hillbilly Elegy.' The lie spread like wildfire, spawning jokes and memes even as the original joke's author clarified that it wasn't real and later made his account private." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Yeah, well, you can't proveJayDee never fucked a sofa, either. Years ago, Akhilleus and I (and others) used to joke about Ross Douthat's having a relationship with a blow-up doll. I don't recall where we got that story, but I think it too came via something the subject of our derision had written, maybe about his technical celibacy. The point isn't that these stories are true but how easy it is to picture JayDee and Ross animating the inanimate for sexual gratification. And if you're an obnoxious jerk who aspires to celebrity, you just have to accept this kind of, well, gleeful flogging.

Marie: At first, I thought the video here was fake, but a cursory Internet search provides evidence it is not. It turns out that Donald Trump's bizarre claim (see below) that Kamala Harris was speaking before fake crowds has its roots, as is often the case, in Trump's penchant for projection. Trump, it seems, waves to fake crowds all the time. Thanks to RAS for the lead: ~~~

You can’t blame Trump for being sensitive about the huge crowd that showed up at the airport for Harris, given the fact that he has to always wave to imaginary people he wishes would show up. pic.twitter.com/ZbdUtYaTGJ

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) August 11, 2024

Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "Why would Trump and his allies spread a false claim about attendance at a rally that was covered on C-SPAN? In part because many elements of Trump's base have embraced rejections of basic reality ... for years.... But in part, it's because Trump and his allies are already eagerly raising questions about the reliability of measures of Harris's support -- and by extension, the reliability of the results in November.... Recall that his efforts to reject the 2020 results did not emerge out of the blue in November of that year.... [He began claiming mail-in ballots were insecure months before the election.] His base was more than prepared when he subsequently challenged the actual election results. That's the pattern that is again underway...."

Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: Rep. Jason Crow's (D-Colo.) "credentials -- including three tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan and a Bronze Star, as well as a law degree and a background in private-sector investigations -- have made Mr. Crow a go-to lawmaker for Democratic leaders on difficult national security issues.... [Then-Speaker] Pelosi tapped him in 2019 to manage the first impeachment of President Donald J. Trump. He was part of the whip operation to rally support for legislation to send tens of billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine. He was selected as the top Democrat on a subcommittee investigating the Biden administration's botched withdrawal from Afghanistan. And last month, he was named the senior Democrat on a bipartisan task force to investigate the attempted assassination of Mr. Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania."

The New York Times' live updates of developments Monday in the Israel/Hamas war are here.

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Presidential Race

Here's a handy bar graph on the front page of the New York Times that charts the careers of the Republican and Democratic candidates. Not sure why Trump's bar is so much longer than everybody else's; oh, he's so old:

     ~~~ Here's a link to a more detailed NYT chart of the candidates' careers.

Yamiche Alcindor & Summer Concepcion of NBC News: "Several prominent Democratic figures are set to speak at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this month, two sources familiar with the plans told NBC News. President Joe Biden, former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have been confirmed as speakers at the convention. Obama and the Clintons delivered speeches during the 2020 DNC, which was largely held virtually to prevent the spread of Covid-19 amid the pandemic. A source familiar said that former President Jimmy Carter's grandson Jason Carter is also confirmed to be speaking as a representative for his grandfather." MB: Wonder why the RNC didn't feature speeches by any former presidents or their representatives?

Robert Costa of CBS News: "In his first interview since withdrawing from his re-election bid last month, President Biden told 'CBS Sunday Morning' that he made his decision, in part, so that the Democratic Party could fully concentrate on what he believes is an urgent task at hand: preventing ... Donald Trump from regaining the White House.... '... although it's a great honor being president, I think I have an obligation to the country to do what [is] the most important thing you can do, and that is, we must, we must, we must defeat Trump.'" The article includes video of the interview. Or you can watch it here on YouTube.

⭐Adam Kinzinger in a Fox "News" opinion piece: "In general, [members of the U.S. military] all respect each other and understand that whether you are kicking down doors, flying planes, gassing vehicles, or cooking food, you are willing to do what 98 percent of the country isn't: serve for a cause above all others. This makes the attacks on Tim Walz, particularly those from JD Vance, especially sickening. JD Vance was an enlisted Marine who served honorably. While he didn't see combat (he was in public affairs), he deployed and served his nation. He got out at the end of his service commitment after four years. For his service, he should be commended. Following in his father's footsteps, Tim Walz joined the Army Guard, enlisting just two days after his 17th birthday, when he first became eligible, and served honorably for 24 years, achieving the highest enlisted rank offered. Then, he went on to serve as a champion for veterans and military families in Congress, leading the effort to pass a bipartisan bill to provide mental health services to veterans, leading a bipartisan effort to expand the GI Bill, and repeatedly voting to increase military funding. The nation should be proud, and JD Vance should be respectful of his fellow brother-in-arms.... The attacks on Walz have proven to be not only false but also disgusting." Read on. (Also linked yesterday.)

⭐ Trump Gets Crazier. Ariana Cha of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump falsely claimed on social media Sunday that a crowd at a Michigan rally for Vice President Kamala Harris last week 'DIDN'T EXIST,' 'nobody was there' and that photos of the event were fabricated by artificial intelligence.... 'Has anyone noticed that Kamala CHEATED at the airport? There was nobody at the plane, and she "A.I."d it, and showed a massive "crowd" of so-called followers, BUT THEY DIDN'T EXIST!' the Republican nominee for president wrote on social media. Trump continued, 'She's a CHEATER. She had NOBODY waiting, and the "crowd" looked like 10,000 people! Same thing is happening with her fake "crowds" at her speeches. This is the way the Democrats win Elections, by CHEATING.' There were in fact thousands of people gathered when the plane arrived at the airport, and there is no evidence that news organizations altered photos using artificial intelligence. There is also no evidence that Harris, or Democrats more broadly, have cheated to win elections.... Trump ... for years has been focused on crowd size as a metric of success." ~~~

     ~~~ Eric Bradner of CNN: "Donald Trump falsely claimed in a series of social media posts Sunday that 'nobody' attended Vice President Kamala Harris" Michigan rally last week -- and said his Democratic rival should be 'disqualified' over a 'fake crowd picture.' The former president appeared to have fallen for a far-right conspiracy theory -- one easily disproved by photos and videos captured by attendees and media showing thousands of supporters at the event at an airport hangar near Detroit." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Of course some of Trump's crazy is fox-adjacent: many of his lies and misstatements are calculated to delegitimize Harris. Sunday, his charge was that a fake fake photo "disqualified" her from becoming president. Thursday, he claimed that her nomination to the presidency was "unconstitutional." So if Harris wins the election, not only will it be because she CHEATED, but also because of various Constitutional prohibitions (he's already floated birtherism) and disqualifying acts.

Matt Bai of the Washington Post implies, but doesn't quite say, that the fact that Trump didn't appear to age much during his so-called presidency* is proof he didn't have the qualities to be president. "... clinical callousness may well be a fountain of youth -- from which Trump's been guzzling his entire life." MB: Personally, I think Trump has grown noticeably more addled than he was when he first took office, although holding the top job should not have affected his faculties because he spent little time at work.

Domenico Montanaro of NPR (August 11): "A team of NPR reporters and editors reviewed the transcript of [Donald Trump's] news conference and found at least 162 misstatements, exaggerations and outright lies in 64 minutes. That's more than two a minute. It"s a stunning number for anyone -- and even more problematic for a person running to lead the free world." Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: As a number of contributors pointed out in yesterday's Comments, that's all very nice, but what the public needs are contemporaneous fact-checks. This one -- which includes the 162 lies and misstatements -- was published three days after Trump's press availability. While it would be impossible to immediately check all of Trump's lies during his public speeches, many of his falsehoods are repetitions, so it's possible to have a cursory fact-check at the ready for those. My suggestions would be a side-crawl on the teevee, plus a somewhat more extensive fact-check, with links where possible, on the network's Website. Networks could try sharing factcheckers to save money.

⭐A Brit Describes Donald Trump. Nate White in the London Daily: "Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace -- all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed." Read on. You may like the British better and Trump even less than you already do. (Also linked yesterday.)

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "As long as I've covered Republican campaigns, there has been racial fearmongering.... Trump, who adopted his father's view that some bloodlines are 'superior' to others, has slipped into the usual Republican race-baiting.... He is clearly befuddled by someone with brown skin who has come not to hurt Americans, but to save them from Donald Trump; someone who is not scary, as he is, but joyful, not threatening but thrilling. And, in Trump's worst nightmare, this dark-skinned someone is attracting huge adoring, dancing, laughing crowds." (Also linked yesterday.)

David French, a right-wing, anti-abortion columnist for the New York Times, will vote for Kamala Harris to "save conservatism" from Donald Trump. "The only real hope for restoring a conservatism that values integrity, demonstrates real compassion and defends our foundational constitutional principles isn't to try to make the best of Trump, a man who values only himself. If he wins again, it will validate his cruelty and his ideological transformation of the Republican Party. If Harris wins, the West will still stand against Vladimir Putin, and conservative Americans will have a chance to build something decent from the ruins of a party that was once a force for genuine good in American life."

"Sofa Loren." Lily Lazarus of the Daily Beast, republished by Yahoo! News: "An image of JD Vance allegedly dressed as a woman and wearing a blonde wig was posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, on Sunday. The unconfirmed image quickly picked up steam and began trending under the hashtag #SofaLoren, a reference to the iconic Italian actress ... and false claims that the Republican senator had sex with a couch. A spokesperson for the Republican vice presidential pick did not deny the photo's authenticity when approached by the Daily Beast, and did not offer any further comment. The source who surfaced the alleged photo, Travis Whitfill, says the picture was taken by a fellow Yale classmate in 2012, when Vance was attending law school at the university, and sent to him by another friend. Whitfill then sent it to podcast host Matt Bernstein, who posted it to X." MB: I wonder if JayDee thinks cross-dressers should get extra votes (the same way he said parents should) because they speak for more than one sex.

Fiduciary Duty? Ha Ha Ha. Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "To protect older Americans' life savings, President Joe Biden pledged in October to crack down on financial advisers who recommend investments just because they pay higher commissions. Then the insurance industry got to work. Lobbying groups representing New York Life, Lincoln Financial Group, Prudential Financial and other companies first pushed back against the newly proposed regulations before suing to topple them entirely. Now the government's latest attempt to protect retirees is in political and legal limbo, facing the possibility that it may never take effect. It is the latest example of a pervasive pattern: As the Biden administration tries to impose new restrictions on powerful industries, those businesses successfully turn to Congress and the courts for a reprieve.... In July, the industries scored a string of critical early victories: Congress took the first step toward invalidating the new rules, while judges in two federal courts blocked the government from implementing the proposal nationwide in September, as planned, potentially setting the stage for the regulations to be scrapped."

Lisa Neeham of Public Notice argues that Elon Musk is trying "to dismantle the foundations of democracy." Thanks to RAS for the link. MB: Not that we don't have plenty of our very own home-grown seditionists, but Elon does kind of validate the Founders' decision to prohibit foreign-born presidents.

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Hawaii Congressional Races. Praveena Somasundaram of the Washington Post: "Sen. Mazie Hirono (D) won the Democratic primary in Hawaii for her Senate seat, the Associated Press projects, defeating two challengers on her path to a third term. The Democratic Party dominates politics in Hawaii, and Democratic winners are likely to defeat their challengers in November, an advantage they will need as they try to hold the Senate amid tight contests in other states.... In November, Hirono will face Bob McDermott, who won the Republican nomination for the Senate race, AP projected.... In Hawaii's 1st Congressional District primary, Rep. Ed Case defeated Cecil Hale, the Associated Press projected. Case, who first served in Congress from 2002 to 2007, has held the seat since 2019. In November, he will face Republican Patrick Largey, who ran unopposed. In the 2nd District, Democratic Rep. Jill Tokuda, who is seeking her second term, and Republican Steven Bond ran unopposed and will advance to the general election in November."

Hawaii State House Election. AP: "Hawaii's longtime House speaker lost his Democratic Party primary election to a former state Board of Education member who campaigned on tackling corruption in government. Speaker Scott Saiki was ousted by Kim Coco Iwamoto. Iwamoto's website says she is fighting to expose government corruption and waste -- and to provide sufficient shelter and enough social workers to address homelessness. Saiki has been speaker since 2017 and a state representative for three decades. He served as president of the National Conference of State Legislators from 2021 to 2022."

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The New York Times' live updates of developments Sunday in the Israel/Hamas war are here. (Also linked yesterday.)

The Conversation -- August 11, 2024

⭐A Brit Describes Donald Trump. Nate White in the London Daily: "Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace -- all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed." Read on. You may like the British better and Trump even less than you already do.

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "As long as I've covered Republican campaigns, there has been racial fearmongering.... Trump, who adopted his father's view that some bloodlines are 'superior' to others, has slipped into the usual Republican race-baiting.... He is clearly befuddled by someone with brown skin who has come not to hurt Americans, but to save them from Donald Trump; someone who is not scary, as he is, but joyful, not threatening but thrilling. And, in Trump's worst nightmare, this dark-skinned someone is attracting huge adoring, dancing, laughing crowds."

⭐Adam Kinzinger in a Fox "News" opinion piece: "In general, [members of the U.S. military] all respect each other and understand that whether you are kicking down doors, flying planes, gassing vehicles, or cooking food, you are willing to do what 98 percent of the country isn't: serve for a cause above all others. This makes the attacks on Tim Walz, particularly those from JD Vance, especially sickening. JD Vance was an enlisted Marine who served honorably. While he didn't see combat (he was in public affairs), he deployed and served his nation. He got out at the end of his service commitment after four years. For his service, he should be commended. Following in his father's footsteps, Tim Walz joined the Army Guard, enlisting just two days after his 17th birthday, when he first became eligible, and served honorably for 24 years, achieving the highest enlisted rank offered. Then, he went on to serve as a champion for veterans and military families in Congress, leading the effort to pass a bipartisan bill to provide mental health services to veterans, leading a bipartisan effort to expand the GI Bill, and repeatedly voting to increase military funding. The nation should be proud, and JD Vance should be respectful of his fellow brother-in-arms.... The attacks on Walz have proven to be not only false but also disgusting." Read on.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Sunday in the Israel/Hamas war are here.

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Presidential Race

Nina Lakhani of the Guardian & Agencies: "Kamala Harris and Tim Walz wrapped up their first week together on the campaign trail with a rally in Las Vegas on Saturday, as the Democratic party seeks to further galvanize its base and win over undecided voters in battleground states such as Nevada.... Harris told supporters at the rally she supported eliminating taxes on tips, taking a similar position to her rival, Donald Trump, in an effort to win over service workers, an important constituency in the state. 'It is my promise to everyone here when I am president we will continue to fight for working families, including to raise the minimum wage and eliminate taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers,' Harris said.... The Harris campaign said more than 12,000 people were in the arena in Las Vegas on Saturday and police turned away roughly 4,000 more because people in line were becoming ill in the Nevada heat as temperatures reached 109F (40C)." ~~~

Nicholas Nehamas, et al., of the New York Times: "Vice President Kamala Harris said on Saturday that she would seek to end federal income taxes on tips if she were elected president, mirroring a policy proposal that ... Donald J. Trump made earlier this year. The proposal from Ms. Harris -- which she announced in Las Vegas, where thousands of casino employees depend on tipped wages -- is a priority of Nevada's influential Culinary Workers Union.... Mr. Trump also announced his support for the policy in Las Vegas. The former president responded immediately to Ms. Harris's proposal on Saturday night, posting on his social media website, Truth Social, that she had 'copied' his own. 'This was a TRUMP idea,' he wrote. 'She has no ideas, she can only steal them from me.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: IOW, this is MY election gimmick and you can't have it. If Trump were concerned about eliminating taxes on tips, of course he would welcome everyone's support for the policy, including his opponent. But it's the stunt that matters to Trump; it's what he gets out of it, not the workers. Not only that, the policy definitely is NOT "Trump's idea." Former Rep. Ron Paul (crackpot father of crackpot Rand Paul) first introduced a "no tax on tips" bill in Congress in 2007 and for years after that. Trump himself admitted it was not "his idea" at the time he made his proposal. He said, "... we're gonna do that right away, first thing in office, because it's been a point of contention for years and years and years." In addition, as with all things Paulist, it's a crackpot idea (sorry, Kamala), as it helps very few workers. The liberal Center for American Progress finds that "This is a much worse approach to lifting working families than the American Rescue Plan's enhancements to the earned income tax credit (EITC) and child tax credit (CTC), which the Biden administration and congressional Democrats ... have proposed making permanent." Additionally, the non-partisan Tax Foundation finds there would be multiple other unintended consequences that would be bad for both workers and customers. ~~~

     ~~~ BTW, the Culinary Union endorsed Harris on Friday and the hospitality workers' union UNITE HERE endorsed her on Monday. The AP reported, "Gwen Mills, [UNITE HERE's] president, said Trump was merely 'making a play' for votes while Harris has credibility from having supported unions. She discussed the move with The Associated Press before the union's announcement of an endorsement."

Dylan Wells of the Washington Post: "In the nascent weeks of her presidential campaign, [Vice President Kamala] Harris has tried to flip the script on the Republican attacks on her immigration record. During her first campaign swing through the Southwest as the Democratic nominee, she continued to portray herself as tough on the border and went on the offensive to attack ... Donald Trump, who has centered much of his campaign on border issues.... Harris has also taken aim at Trump for his immigration policies, blaming him for blocking a bipartisan border security bill earlier this year and arguing that he doesn't want to resolve the issue. 'Earlier this year, we had a chance to pass the toughest bipartisan border security bill in decades. But Donald Trump tanked the bill because he thought it would help him win an election,' she said in Las Vegas. 'Well, when I am president, I will sign that bill into law.'...

~~~ Here's Harris' border control ad:

Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "... Donald Trump's campaign said Saturday that some of its internal communications had been hacked. The acknowledgment came after Politico began receiving emails from an anonymous account with documents from inside Trump's operation. The campaign blamed 'foreign sources hostile to the United States,' citing a Microsoft report on Friday that Iranian hackers 'sent a spear phishing email in June to a high-ranking official on a presidential campaign.' Microsoft did not identify the campaign targeted by the email and declined to comment Saturday.... On July 22, Politico began receiving emails from an anonymous account. Over the course of the past few weeks, the person -- who used an AOL email account and identified themselves only as 'Robert' -- relayed what appeared to be internal communications from a senior Trump campaign official. A research dossier the campaign had apparently done on Trump's running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, which was dated Feb. 23, was included in the documents. The documents are authentic, according to two people familiar with them...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, gosh. Akhilleus has already IDed the hacker (or at least the guy who's been emailing Politico about the hack). See today's Comments.

Titanic Trump. Marie: I'd guess that somewhere in their lives, most American adults have gleaned that the sinking of the Titanic was not only a disaster, it also remains a symbol of disaster. So a political campaign, say, would not want to associate its candidate with such an infamous disaster. BUT THEN there's Donald Trump's campaign: ~~~

     ~~~ Faris Tanyos of CBS News: "A video clip of [Celine] Dion performing the theme song from the 1997 movie 'Titanic' was shown Friday night at a rally in Boseman, Montana, and has also been played at several previous Trump rallies." NOT ONLY THAT: "Representatives for Canadian singer Celine Dion stated Saturday that the use of her hit 1990s song 'My Heart Will Go On' at a campaign rally for ... Donald Trump was 'unauthorized' and had not received her permission. 'And really, THAT song?' Dion's representatives asked cheekily in a statement posted to the singer's social media accounts.... To be in compliance with copyright law, political campaigns must receive a public performance license...."

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Marie: Thanks to the WashPo, I now see why Trump took time out from his busy golfing schedule to go out West & hold a little rally for Tim Sheehy, the GOP nominee for Senate in Montana. These two liars and losers have a lot in common. ~~~

~~~ Montana. Beth Reinhard & Jonathan O'Connell of the Washington Post: Republican Tim "Sheehy, 38, has attracted national support largely on the strength of his biography as a war hero and entrepreneur.... As he campaigns in one of the nation's most competitive U.S. Senate races..., Sheehy recounts how he started an aerial firefighting business in his barn and built it into a publicly traded company on the front lines of increasingly dangerous wildfires. 'That's a success story,' he said in a June television interview. Reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in recent months tell a different story about Bridger Aerospace.... Bridger is facing a cash crunch so dire that there is 'substantial doubt about the Company's ability to continue,' according to public filings that show the company lost $77.4 million last year and $20.1 million in the first three months of 2024. Several directors have left, including one who flagged concerns about internal auditing....

"Sheehy, an ex-Navy Seal who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, has faced scrutiny over an incident involving a firearm in Montana's Glacier National Park in 2015. Documents show Sheehy told a park ranger at the time that he accidentally shot himself in his right arm and the wound was treated at a hospital. Sheehy told The Washington Post he did not shoot himself but had lied to the ranger, a federal law enforcement officer, to protect him and his platoon-mates from a potential military investigation into an older bullet wound he said he got in Afghanistan in 2012. He has talked about being shot in the arm in combat while campaigning."

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Turkey. Claire Moses of the New York Times: "An ancient calendar, recently discovered, may document a long-ago disaster. A researcher at the University of Edinburgh has discovered what he believes is the earliest calendar of its kind at Gobekli Tepe, an archaeological excavation site in what is now southern Turkey that used to be an ancient complex of temple-like enclosures.... Dr. [Martin] Sweatman [of the University of Edinburgh] said that the intricate carvings at Gobekli Tepe tell the story and document the date when fragments of a comet -- which came from a meteor stream -- hit Earth roughly 13,000 years ago.... The comet strike ushered in a 1,200-year ice age and led to the extinction of many large animals, Dr. Sweatman said. For humans, the comet probably also led to differences in lifestyle and agriculture that helped usher in the rise of civilization as we know it." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: What an uncanny coincidence. Because in our own calendar, today -- August 11 -- is National Presidential Joke Day, and it so happens that we have a former president* who is both a national joke and a present-day disaster.