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.
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Reader Comments (14)
Hang on…among the documents stolen from the Fatty Treasure Trove of Terrors was a 270 page dossier listing Shady Vance’s “vulnerabilities”? Seriously? 270 pages? Of potentially bad shit? And he still picked the guy?
Even if it was the usual bulleted items in easy words, large type, all caps, four to a page, that’s still a gigantic mound of crap about this asshole. 27 pages of items that essentially say “Whoa! That’s not good!” should trigger an instant “Who else we got?”
But not for the stable genius.
He probably figured “270 pages? Great. He won’t look better than me.” And that’s what matters most.
Hey, what if this mysterious “Robert” who conned Trump’s fantastic team through a phishing scam to let go of its own top secret documents is RFK, Jr.?
Was he maybe curious to see if Vance also had a thing for roadkill?
And while we’re on the subject of absolutely abysmal security protocols, how safe are all those top secret defense documents Fatty still has in his possession? If this Robert guy could crack into his campaign data that easily, whose to say Putin or Xi Jinping aren’t sitting on the toilet reading about our nuclear capabilities?
But never mind that: Boats! Sharks! Batteries! Hannibal Lector! Big steal! Bitches! Indians! Blacks! Vermin! Poisoned blood! Crowd size! Aieeee!
(A few “great ideas” Kamala Harris probably isn’t thinking of “stealing”. Why? Because her brain is not leaking out her ears.)
Fatty adopting a song connected to one of the most infamous disasters stemming from hubris and concern for the lives of other human beings buried by personal ambition and a desire for fame, believing perhaps that it represents a heroism only such as he possesses perfectly encapsulates the standard inability of Republican self promoters to correctly interpret the zeitgeist, seeing only the veneer and ignoring the essence. Kinda like Ronald Reagan trying to co-opt Bruce Springsteen’s “Borj in the USA” as a symbol of You Ess Ay triumphalism when the song was about exactly the opposite.
Nonetheless, connecting oneself with an infamous human tragedy is perfect for the Orange Monster.
“Full speed ahead! I’m the King of the World! Never mind those icebergs! My personal glory demands that others suffer and die for me! Besides, I’ll be first in the lifeboat if anything goes wrong. Me and Willie Brown.”
Marie,
Looks like you’re not the only one who thinks director Ron Howard has a lot to answer for in making that disastrous hagiography of the Hillbilly Fraudster.
“I have difficulty believing that someone as savvy as Howard could believe Vance. Vance is no fool. Vance knew that if he had told Howard that his ambition knew no bounds and that he would do anything for power and influence, including nakedly embracing a controversial figure he had previously compared to Hitler, Howard would have made a very different Netflix movie. Even better, Howard might not have made Hillbilly Elegy at all.
But instead, the Night Shift director deluded himself into thinking he made an apolitical movie about an apolitical figure. Howard seems bizarrely oblivious to the political overtones of his feverish melodrama about how embracing conventional values of self-discipline, education, strength, and personal responsibility allowed Vance to overcome the messiness of his irresponsible, dependent, drug-addled, morally inferior family. Howard accidentally made a two-hour campaign ad for J.D. Vance as a political candidate and public figure that might as well have played at the 2024 Republican National Convention before he spoke.”
emptywheel on the Trump hack
Elon Musk
"Elon Musk tries to dismantle the foundations of US democracy
From blatant election interference to ending the NLRB, he's doing all kinds of damage."
MAGA Nighmares
"It's Happening: Swifties are Officially Organizing for Harris
MAGA is about to lose its damn mind as Aug 27 "Swifties for Kamala" kickoff call is announced"
And zero pushback from the press present!
"162 lies and distortions in a news conference. NPR fact checks former President Trump
A team of NPR reporters and editors reviewed the transcript of his 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."
Stop the presses! A Democratic candidate Maureen Dowd actually writes about without her usual tired, above it all snarkiness? No “Barry” nicknames, no Clinton hatred…no too cool for school EZ hits?
Well, it’s only a matter of time I suppose until her Georgetown-DC cocktail party flippancy comes back into play.
We all know lying is essential to Party of Traitors propaganda, but the lies are getting more freakish and baroque. Hillbilly Fraudster, Shady Vance, in a truly bizarre exchange with ABC house R apologist, Jon Karl, loudly and repeatedly insisted, with zero evidence (natch), that Tim Walz signed a law allowing the state to kidnap children and change their sex.
But here’s a new wrinkle. When finally unable to back up his ridiculous and dangerous lie, Shady tacked away by throwing something completely irrelevant at Karl. “Why aren’t we talking about inflation?? he huffed, as if it were Karl who was spouting crazy gibberish.
Just more evidence demonstrating how snidely irresponsible this sneaky little prick is. This is the guy they want a heartbeat away from the White House?
RAS,
Kudos to the NPR fact checkers, but what good will that do? How many voters actually seriously considering voting for the Golfing Gargoyle read NPR reports? Certainly no corporate “reporters” (ie, Trump stenographers) give a small pile of rat scat about wasting time fact checking Fatty’s multitude of lies. Why, they might have to turn in their Both Sides gold medals! Unpossible!
As Lawrence O’Donnell pointed out, the MSM has had nine years to figure out how to cover a Trump campaign and they’ve failed miserably. He still gets more unqualified deference than you’d give an elderly medal bedecked D-Day veteran on oxygen in a wheelchair.
Live fact checking is impossible. It’d be like trying to count a mile long, hundred yard wide school of krill in whale territory. The only reasonable way to do it is to tape the lie fests, get your fact checkers to dig in, then, in a double box on the screen, put Trump and his yapping pie hole on one side and the facts on the other.
The MAGAts won’t be swayed, but others who ARE swayed by Fatty’s unchallenged insect swarm of lies might be.
and never forget the inevitable answer to any of his lies. "That's just Trump being Trump".
Akhilleus,
Because of how repetitive and stale Trump's act is it should actually be possible to have fact checks ready to pop up on screen in real time. The fact checks have already been put together many times. It is just a matter paying attention to his speech, a tough job, and clicking on the correct fact check for what he is talking about. Or with voice recognition they could set it up to recognize certain phrases and do a pop up on screen that corresponds. They could also do what has been done with "live" feeds before and put it on a one minute delay so they have time to find the corresponding fact check. Or they could have running commentary on the side like is done every day with livestreams on places like YouTube or Twitch that explain or expand on what is being said. There are numerous ways they could accomplish the same goal if they wanted to actually do it and thought their purpose was to information the public. But they don't.
I know that Republicans won't care, but the defeatism of doing nothing because it probably won't matter much gets annoying. We've seen with Project 2025 that if their plans get enough saturation that it does make some difference. And since the margins can be incredibly slim in the key states every little bit helps. Whether it is bringing someone to our side or keeping them from actively supporting the wannabe dictators.
RAS -- good suggestions, technically feasible.
I'd like to see a Close Caption "lie check" at the bottom of the screen, like you can opt for dialogue prints/translations with most NetFlix shows. So when DiJiT says "Worst economy ever", the CC printout would say "Actually: best economy in the world." Your idea of preset corrections would work for 99% of his repetitive lies, and for new ones the CC system could just say "See corrections after the presentation" or something like that.
Do-able. Very do-able.
Of course, the media would have to apply it to Harris as well. OK.