The Conversation -- November 1, 2024
Michael Gold & Adam Nagourney of the New York Times: "Vice President Kamala Harris and ... Donald J. Trump clashed on Friday over violent comments he made suggesting that Liz Cheney, one of his fiercest Republican critics, should be put somewhere 'with nine barrels shooting at her.' Ms. Harris suggested that the remarks should disqualify Mr. Trump from serving as the nation's chief executive, while he tried to clean up his comments by repeating them in marginally softer terms. He also attacked the vice president for campaigning with Ms. Cheney.... Ms. Harris, speaking to reporters in front of Air Force Two after landing in Madison, Wis., said that Mr. Trump had 'increased his violent rhetoric.'... This must be disqualifying.... Anyone who wants to be president of the United States who uses that kind of violent rhetoric is clearly disqualified, and unqualified, to be president.'..."
Abbie VanSickle of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Friday evening cleared the way for some voters in Pennsylvania whose mail-in ballots had been deemed invalid to cast provisional ballots in person, rejecting an appeal by Republicans not to count such votes. The decision was unsigned and gave no reasoning, which is common in such emergency petitions. The decision could affect thousands of mail-in ballots in a state that is crucial to each party's path to victory in the presidential contest and could be consequential in determining control of the Senate. The latest polls show Vice President Kamala Harris and ... Donald J. Trump virtually tied there.... The ruling, which thrust the justices into a hotly contested legal fight in a critical battleground state, was among a flurry of decisions by the court this week related to the presidential election."
Trump, Abbott & the Six Dwarfs kill another young woman: ~~~
~~~ Texas. Diagnosis: Strep Throat. Lizzie Presser & Kavitha Surana of ProPublica: "It took three ER visits and 20 hours before a hospital admitted Nevaeh Crain, 18, as her condition worsened. Doctors insisted on two ultrasounds to confirm 'fetal demise.' She's one of at least two Texas women who died under the state's abortion ban.... The first hospital diagnosed her with strep throat without investigating her sharp abdominal cramps. At the second, she screened positive for sepsis, a life-threatening and fast-moving reaction to an infection, medical records show. But doctors said her six-month fetus had a heartbeat and that Crain was fine to leave. Now on Crain's third hospital visit, an obstetrician insisted on two ultrasounds to 'confirm fetal demise,' a nurse wrote, before moving her to intensive care. By then, more than two hours after her arrival, Crain's blood pressure had plummeted and a nurse had noted that her lips were 'blue and dusky.' Her organs began failing. Hours later, she was dead."
Tim Balk of the New York Times: "Nicolle Wallace, who was a White House communications director in George W. Bush's administration, called on Friday for Mr. Bush to have a late-hour 'change of heart' and speak out against ... Donald J. Trump. Speaking on her 'Deadline: White House' program on MSNBC, Ms. Wallace said Mr. Trump's violent language about former Representative Liz Cheney had pushed her to publicly raise the question she gets 'asked more than any other' off the set: 'Where is George W. Bush?'... Ms. Wallace said she had appealed directly to Mr. Bush's office, and had been told that the former president would continue his silence. But she said that it felt 'important' to make her appeal...."
Ha Ha! Via digby: ~~~
I think Trump has seen the "your vote is your secret" ads targeting women living with Trumper men... pic.twitter.com/cGCIuv7vb2
— Clara Jeffery (@ClaraJeffery) November 1, 2024
Marie: Woe is me. I am having a sad! ~~~
~~~ Irie Sentner of Politico: "Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt resigned Friday from his columnist position at The Washington Post, he confirmed to Fox News, after walking out on a live interview on the paper's video platform -- the latest blow to the Post after facing widespread blowback over halting presidential endorsements. Hewitt stormed out during a live broadcast of the Post's show 'First Look' during a discussion Friday morning about ... Donald Trump is laying the groundwork to potentially contest the election, leaving host Jonathan Capehart and fellow guest Ruth Marcus stunned."
~~~ Marie: It sounds to me as if Hewitt was criticizing Capehart for a failure of journalistic integrity, which is kinda funny because "journalist" Hewitt frequently hosts Trump on his radio broadcast and allows Trump to spout whatever hoohah he wants, no fact-checking involved.
Georgia. Alex Griffing of Mediaite: "Two of Georgia's top election officials, both Republicans, called out a video circulating social media this week as 'fake' and an 'obvious lie.'... Georgia election official Gabriel Sterling ... shared a post from RNC national committeewoman Amy Kremer that spread the video which purported to show Haitian migrants claiming they voted illegally for Vice President Kamala Harris.... Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) also released a statement about the clip on Thursday. 'Earlier today, our office became aware of a video purporting to show a Haitian immigrant with multiple Georgia IDs claiming to have voted multiple times. This is false and is an example of targeted disinformation we've seen in this and other elections.... In the meantime, we ask Elon Musk and the leadership of other social media platforms to take this down...."
They're Getting Worse. Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: "A parade float [in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania,] depicting Vice President Kamala Harris chained behind a truck with ... Donald Trump on it drew outrage from residents and officials who compared it to an infamous lynching."
Akhilleus wrote today in an essay discussing the right wing's various sex obsessions, "The invented scary fairy tales [about] ...a tidal wave of sex change operations ... are reminiscent of medieval fables of secret witch covens casting evil spells on decent god-fearing folk in the villages and hordes of scabrous, vengeful demons abroad in the land seeking out virgins to defile and babies to eat." ~~~
~~~ But Wait! There ARE vengeful demons, and the demons'll get ya if ya don't watch out. ~~~
~~~ Edward Hellmore of the Guardian: "Tucker Carlson ... has said he was 'physically mauled' by a demon a year and a half ago, in an assault that he says left him bleeding and with scars from 'claw marks'. Carlson made the claim while speaking in an upcoming documentary, Christianities? In a preview clip on YouTube, Carlson is asked by John Heers of the non-profit First Things Foundation if he believed that 'the presence of evil is kickstarting people to wonder about the good'. 'That's what happened to me. I had a direct experience with it,' said Carlson. Asked if he was referring to journalism, Carlson responded: 'No, in my bed at night. I got attacked while I was asleep with my wife and four dogs and mauled, physically mauled.'"
~~~~~~~~~~
Presidential Race
Jacqueline Alemany, et al., of the Washington Post: "Vice President Kamala Harris ... ramped up her campaign's heavy reliance on star power Thursday, as more celebrities took the stage alongside her at rallies in the fiercely contested battleground states of Arizona and Nevada. The vice president appeared in Phoenix with Los Tigres del Norte, a Mexican norteño band famous for anthems portraying the plight of undocumented immigrants. Later on Thursday, she was scheduled to stop in Reno, Nevada, before appearing in Las Vegas alongside the vintage Mexican pop rock band Maná and pop icon Jennifer Lopez. Harris's campaign has stacked her schedule with celebrity surrogates who have huge social media followings, seeking to build up enthusiasm and turnout as early in-person voting comes to an end in several states, including Nevada and Arizona on Friday. Wednesday night in Madison, Wisconsin, more than 13,000 people turned out for Harris's rally-concert that featured performances by Mumford & Sons, Gracie Abrams and the National." ~~~
~~~ Marie: If Harris has a "heavy reliance on star power," it's because her campaign does have star power. Here's what passes for star power in the Trump camp. Sad.
Katie Rogers, et al., of the New York Times: "Vice President Kamala Harris attacked ... Donald J. Trump on Thursday for claiming that he would protect American women 'whether the women like it or not.' Later, her campaign pounced on a new Trump remark that his ally Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would 'work on women's health' in his administration.... Ms. Harris, speaking from Wisconsin on Thursday morning, said that Mr. Trump's comments, made the previous evening at a rally in the state, were 'very offensive' to all Americans.... 'He simply does not respect the freedom of women or the intelligence of women to know what's in their own best interest and make decisions accordingly. But we trust women[,' she said at a rally in Phoenix, Arizona, Thursday.]" ~~~
~~~ Marie: The article covers Trump's campaign stops as well as Harris's. Aside from his comment about siccing RFK Jr. on women, I found this remark extremely offputting: "I love Hispanics, and they're hard workers, and boy are they entrepreneurial, and they're great people, and they are warm. Sometimes they're too warm, if you want to know the truth." You couldn't do much more to otherize and stereotype people who may -- or may not -- have a slightly different cultural heritage than your own.
Tania Ganguli of the New York Times: "LeBron James, the Los Angeles Lakers star, on Thursday became one of the country's biggest celebrities ... to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris, saying: 'When I think about my kids and my family and how they will grow up, the choice is clear to me.'... Mr. James has campaigned for Democrats in the past and has spoken out against ... Donald J. Trump. Mr. James also posted a video that spliced together civil rights protests and abuses from several decades with comments by Mr. Trump and footage from the former president's recent rally at Madison Square Garden. The video made the argument that Mr. Trump is racist and ended with the written quote: 'Hate takes us back.'"
Tara Suter of the Hill: "The Economist announced Thursday that the outlet is backing Vice President Harris over former President Trump in the upcoming election.... 'While some newspapers refused to back a presidential candidate this year, today The Economist is endorsing Kamala Harris,' Economist editors wrote in the endorsement published early Thursday. 'Tens of millions of Americans will vote for Mr. Trump next week. Some will be true believers. But many will take a calculated risk that in office his worst instincts would be constrained.' The writers added later that if Trump were to win election, 'Americans would be gambling with the economy, the rule of law and international peace.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
More Fallout from ApostropheGate. Aamer Madhani & Zeke Miller of the AP: "White House press officials altered the official transcript of a call in which President Joe Biden appeared to take a swipe at supporters of Donald Trump, drawing objections from the federal workers who document such remarks for posterity, according to two U.S. government officials and an internal email obtained Thursday by The Associated Press. Biden created an uproar earlier this week with his remarks to Latino activists responding to racist comments at a Trump rally made by the comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who referred to the U.S. island territory of Puerto Rico as a 'floating island of garbage.' Biden, according to a transcript prepared by the official White House stenographers, told the Latino group on a Tuesday evening video call, 'The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters -- his -- his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it's un-American.' The transcript released by the White House press office, however, rendered the quote with an apostrophe, reading 'supporter's' rather than 'supporters,' which aides said pointed to Biden criticizing Hinchcliffe, not the millions of Americans who are supporting Trump for president." ~~~
~~~ Marie: I really don't know how "the official White House stenographers" were able to see into the President's heart to determine whether or not an apostrophe was intended. For the alterations to "draw objections" seems rather petty. MEANWHILE, Trump too suffered "more fallout" from the umbrage he feigned over Biden's remark. See video & story linked below. ~~~
~~~ Update. Oh, but it's all way serious because Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) & Jim Comey (R-Ky.) are going to investigate!
⭐ Trump Says Liz Cheney Should Be Shot by Firing Squad. Eric Bradner of CNN: "Donald Trump said former Rep. Liz Cheney is a 'war hawk' who should be fired upon, as he raged against one of his most prominent intra-party critics while campaigning Thursday night in Arizona. 'She's a radical war hawk. Let's put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK?' the former president said at a campaign event in Glendale with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. 'Let's see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face.' Trump also hurled insults at Cheney, once the third-ranking Republican in House leadership, calling her 'very dumb,' a 'stupid person' and 'the moron.' Trump's suggestion that Cheney be fired upon represents an escalation of the violent language he has used to target his political foes." ~~~
~~~ Michael Gold of the New York Times: "Throughout Thursday night's interview, Mr. Trump's third event of the day, he gave a series of rambling answers in which he flung personal insults at his critics, at one point relived his 2016 presidential campaign and used dark language to make exaggerated claims about immigration. He repeatedly denigrated [Vice President] Harris, used profanity to refer to President Biden and attacked the physical appearance of Representative Adam B.Schiff.... While reminiscing about his 2016 campaign, he gleefully recalled the 'extremely destructive' nicknames he bestowed upon his opponents.... Mr. Trump seemed to use Mr. Carlson's short questions as jumping off points for whatever topic came to mind." ~~~
~~~ Colby Hall of Mediaite: "Liz Cheney shot back at ... Donald Trump's comments from Thursday night, where he darkly floated a scenario where guns were firing at the former Republican Congressional leader turned Kamala Harris supporter.... Cheney wrote, 'This is how dictators destroy free nations. They threaten those who speak against them with death. We cannot entrust our country and our freedom to a petty, vindictive, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant.'"
Tobi Raji of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump sued CBS News on Thursday over an interview with Democratic nominee Kamala Harris that aired on its '60 Minutes' program earlier this month, arguing that the network's edit of the sit-down was 'deceitful' and 'amounts to a brazen attempt to interfere in the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election.' The long-shot claim was filed in the Northern District of Texas courthouse where Matthew J. Kacsmaryk, a Trump nominee, is the sole judge. While Trump has complained about the '60 Minutes' interview for weeks, it is standard for television networks to edit interviews for broadcast, especially to fit time restraints. A spokesperson for CBS News called the lawsuit 'completely without merit.'..." The Hill's report is here.
Nick Corasaniti & Michael Gold of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, escalated their false attacks about the security of the Pennsylvania elections on Thursday, ramping up baseless accusations about voter fraud that could erode confidence of the results in one of the most critical battleground states. On Thursday Mr. Trump posted on his social media site that Pennsylvania was 'cheating' and breaking the law. He called for prosecutions, though he made no specific allegations. Earlier in the day, Mr. Vance seized on deceptive posts online claiming that Democratic Party volunteers were impersonating election officials at polling sites. The remarks followed a script similar to the final days of his 2020 campaign, when the former president spread dozens of falsehoods about voting before trying to overturn the election. This year, he is focusing most of his false claims on Pennsylvania.... Throughout the past week, election officials in Pennsylvania have been rebutting specious claims of fraud while also reporting when systems flagged suspicious activity, informing voters of issues and enforcing the law where necessary. This is the system working exactly as it should, they have said.... Al Schmidt, Pennsylvania's Republican secretary of state, used his daily news briefing on Thursday to offer a calm yet pointed response to some of the false allegations...." ~~~
~~~ Colby Itkowitz of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump on Wednesday lodged claims of voter fraud in Pennsylvania, a state critical to his election prospects. But Democratic officials and voting rights advocates said that Trump's allegations are wildly exaggerated and that the problems he and Republicans are focused on are not only common, but also proof that election safeguards are working as intended. For months, Trump has been using misinformation to lay the groundwork to claim a stolen election if he loses, just as he did in 2020.... Experts and officials say the Pennyslvania claims are in keeping with his insistence that the only way he can lose this year is if the other side cheats...." Read on for details. The ABC News story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
More fallout from the garbage-truck stunt. Trump nearly slips on the pavement, has trouble opening the truck door & more trouble getting into the cab: ~~~
~~~ Marie P.S. I know this is performance art and Trump is wearing a costume, but does he have to wear so much orange makeup? I am not aware of many orange-hued sanitation workers. Trump's application of orange-face seems inappropriate to the character he's trying to play. ~~~
~~~ Katie Hawkinson of the Independent: Gov. Tim "Walz, speaking in Bucks County, Pennsylvania on Thursday, slammed the septuagenarian after he flew to Wisconsin, donned a bright orange safety vest, and got into a garbage truck in an attempt to troll Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. 'Look, this dude's nearly 80 years old,' Walz said. 'He d*** near killed himself getting into a garbage truck.'"
They said, "Sir, I just think it's inappropriate for you to say." I pay these guys a lot of money. Can you believe it? I said, "Well, I'm going to do it. Whether the women like it or not, I'm going to protect them." -- Donald Trump, remarks at a rally Wednesday ~~~
~~~ Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "Without apparently meaning to -- but without being able to help it -- Trump with that line distilled the wide gender gap that's defining the 2024 presidential contest.... While Trump has a well-established reputation for dishonesty, there are moments when he speaks with an unexpected clarity. His offhand remark about being indifferent to what women might want from his presidency was just such a comment.... Others[, too,] have leaned into a paternalistic and chauvinistic approach to getting Trump elected. Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson recently promised a cheering Trump audience that Trump would return to the White House like an abusive father, ready to dispense corporal punishment to get his children -- that is, Americans who deviate from how Trumpworld thinks they should act -- back in line. Jesse Watters, the Fox host who filled Carlson's slot, said on a different show that he would view his wife voting for Harris as an act of marital infidelity." ~~~
~~~ Kathleen Culliton of the Raw Story: "Jesse Watters on Wednesday night shocked even his own co-hosts with his reaction to Vice President Kamala Harris ads informing conservative women they do not have to disclose for whom they voted -- and that the information cannot be accessed by the public. 'If I found out Emma was going into the voting booth and pulling the lever for Harris, that's the same thing as having an affair,' Watters said. 'That violates the sanctity of our marriage. What else is she keeping from me? Why would she be lying? It's over, Emma....That would be D-Day'... 'I don't care what type of marriage you have -- traditional, modern, whatever -- that's not healthy,' replied Mike Nellis, a former Harris adviser and organizer of White Dudes for Harris. 'And it's weird.'" Others piled on. ~~~
~~~ Charles Davis of Salon: "Women, it turns out, do not care for [Trump's indifference to their wants and needs] -- a large majority of them, at least. While millions will still vote for the Republican candidate, perhaps hating immigrants more than they love reproductive rights, the only certainty at this point is that many millions more will vote for Vice President Kamala Harris. In the latest ABC News/Ipsos national poll, the Democrat enjoyed a 14% advantage with women over Trump; among women with a college degree, that number rose to 23%; among women voters under 40, it rocketed to 34%.... That, in turn, is causing some MAGA commentators to break from their usual posture of feigned confidence to outright panic.... Speaking with former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, [Turning Points USA head Charlie] Kirk seemed genuinely upset that women could be voting for Harris in massive numbers -- and lying to their controlling husbands about it. 'It is so repulsive. It is so disastrous. It is the embodiment of the downfall of the American family. I think it's so gross. I think it's just so nauseating,' Kirk said, set off by a new ad, produced by a liberal Christian organization, that features Julia Roberts reminding women that how one votes need not be shared with any emotionally-stunted man who would throw a fit." ~~~
~~~ Perhaps you're a normal person familiar with normal relationships, so you naturally wondering why such an ad is necessary. ~~~
~~~ Rebecca Solnit of the Guardian explains: "... a lot of households are not democracies; they're dictatorships. This may impact public life, in that it seems to generate a meaningful amount of voter intimidation and suppression. As in previous election cycles, people doing door-to-door outreach to voters are encountering men who prevent their wives from even conversing at the door or who believe their registered-Democrat wives are Republicans and women fearful of speaking or of disclosing their party and chosen candidates." ~~~
~~~ Thank goodness we have that paragon of virtue Newt Gingrich to turn us back to the path of righteousness: ~~~
~~~ Michael Luciano of Mediaite: "'These people are dishonest,' Gingrich [told Sean Hannity]. 'And so, for them to tell people to lie is just one further example of the depth of their corruption. I mean, how do you run a country where you're walking around saying, "Wives should lie to their husbands, husbands should lie to their wives"?' The former speaker of the House, who cheated on his second wife,* then blasted Democrats for their amorality. 'I mean, what kind of a totally amoral, corrupt, sick system have the Democrats developed?' he went on. 'If you think about it at that level, it is astonishing, the decay.'" ~~~
~~~ * Marie: As I recall, Gingrich cheated on his first AND second wives. But who's counting?
Paul Krugman of the New York Times outlines how Donald Trump, Elon Musk & Mike Johnson will make life much more difficult and costly for most of us.
⭐ David Sanger of the New York Times: "... should Mr. Trump prevail [in the election], it will almost certainly mark a return to an era of foreign policy decrees, untethered to any policy process, at a moment of maximum international peril.... To read the memoirs of Trump officials who tried to manage foreign-policy-by-declaration is to page through a litany of anger-management incidents and decisions made without benefit of any real policy process or consultation of allies. But perhaps the most striking is how Mr. Trump's aides -- or at least those whom he later fired -- recount story after story of keeping a naïve president from being manipulated by authoritarians, from Kim Jong-un of North Korea to Vladimir V. Putin of Russia." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Sanger's analysis is a stark and deeply frightening reminder that our fellow Americans, in their astounding stupidity, may put an insane, unstable monster not just in a position to ruin this country but also to destroy what currently passes for the world order. ~~~
~~~ "A Very Fragile Situation." Peter Baker of the New York Times: President "Biden's [last] foreign visitor [before the election] happened to be President Nikos Christodoulides of the Republic of Cyprus, a small island nation ... that could play an important role for whoever is the next president. Cyprus, once a financial haven for Russians, has been a key focus of the effort to sever Moscow from the West while also serving as an important conduit for humanitarian aid to Gaza. The two leaders 'had an in-depth discussion on a range of foreign policy issues of mutual interest,' including the Russian war on Ukraine and Israel's war against Hamas and Hezbollah, according to the summary released by the White House. Mr. Biden praised Cyprus for its 'support for the maritime humanitarian corridor' delivering thousands of tons of food and other aid to Gaza. In an interview after the session, though, Mr. Christodoulides expressed the same concern heard often in Europe and other parts of the world about what he expects to be a volatile period to follow Tuesday's vote and what it would mean for the international order. 'There is always a fear that you could have an America stepping back, a kind of seclusion and isolation,' Mr. Christodoulides said.'We've seen it in the past. That's the main concern because the region is in turmoil right now. It's extremely dangerous.... In a way, there's a vacuum.... You don't know in two months what is going to happen. It's a very fragile situation.'"
Tatum Hunter of the Washington Post: "... young people are encountering the ['Access Hollywood'] tape for the first time on TikTok, where users are sharing videos of their reactions and, in some cases, reaching large audiences. Many first-time voters were young teens in 2016 when The Washington Post first reported the incident, in which the former president seemed to endorse sexual assault during a behind-the-scenes conversation on an 'Access Hollywood' set when he didn't realize his microphone was on.... This week, many said on the social network they were shocked by the former president's words and confused why the episode wasn't a dealbreaker in 2016." The article includes the full video. You can also find it here, if you want to send it to someone who may not remember it. And here it is, via CBS News.
Emily Davies & Joe Heim of the Washington Post: "The mysterious tiki torch statue, part of a series of artworks popping up across the country apparently meant to mock ... Donald Trump, fell Wednesday evening at the hand of a man wielding his skateboard as an ax, according to authorities. The incident occurred about 6:15 p.m. in D.C.'s Freedom Plaza, where the torch once stood about eight feet tall. By the time the skateboarder was done with it, according to charging documents, it was broken into multiple pieces.... Prosecutors charged a man named Balarama-Dasa Adebisi with destruction of property and possession of cocaine. A Park Police officer in charging documents said a 'white powdery substance' was found in Adebisi's pocket after he was detained on charges of destroying the statue....
"The people who obtained a permit from the National Park Service to temporarily display the tiki torch statue and a replica of Rep. Nancy Pelosi's desk topped by a giant swirl of fake poop on the National Mall near the Capitol last week have also claimed responsibility for two statues of Trump that appeared in Philadelphia and Portland, Oregon. Those statues had plaques on them reading 'In Honor of a Lifetime of Sexual Assault.' They quoted from Trump's 2005 remarks to 'Access Hollywood' host Billy Bush about being able to kiss women without asking them and grab them by their genitals. Both of the Trump statues were placed next to prominent female nude sculptures." ~~~
~~~ digby finds another statue "honoring" Trump, this one for his "lifetime of sexual assault." Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)
Betsy Swan of Politico in Politico Magazine: "As a mob of Donald Trump's supporters ransacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Rita Katz was sickened but not surprised. She runs a company called SITE Intelligence Group which tracks online extremism, and she'd been seeing rising chatter suggesting the Electoral College certification could turn violent, with far-right extremists discussing plans to rush police officers, bring guns to Capitol Hill and storm the chambers of Congress.... Now, Katz tells Politico Magazine the threats in the 2024 election season are different than they were four years ago -- and, in some ways, worse. 'How proactive and organized the far right has become -- that is very, very alarming for me,' she said." The article includes Swan's interview of Katz.
Chris Cameron, et al., of the New York Times: "Senator JD Vance of Ohio criticized what he called 'gender transition craziness,' spoke dismissively of women he claimed were 'celebrating' their abortions and said that studies 'connect testosterone levels in young men with conservative politics' during a three-hour episode of 'The Joe Rogan Experience' that was released on Thursday. Mr. Vance criticized transgender and nonbinary people at length during the conversation, saying that he would not be surprised if he and ... Donald J. Trump won what he called 'the normal gay guy vote.' And he suggested that children in upper-middle-class white families saw becoming trans as a way to improve their odds of getting into Ivy League colleges." Read on. Even Joe Rogan pushed back on some of this nonsense.
Will Oremus & Trisha Thadani of the Washington Post: "An attempt by Philadelphia's district attorney to block Elon Musk and his pro-Trump super PAC from continuing a $1 million daily giveaway to registered swing-state voters was put on hold Thursday morning. A hearing on the motion ended without a ruling, after lawyers for the billionaire and his America PAC filed late Wednesday to have the case moved to federal court. Lawyers for Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner signed an order Wednesday compelling Musk to appear at City Hall on Thursday for the hearing, but the billionaire, who has become a key backer of ... Donald Trump, did not attend. Musk's attorneys argued that the proceeding was moot since the case was no longer in the judge's jurisdiction.... The case now moves to federal court, where Krasner said he will push for it to be speedily remanded to the district court...." (Also linked yesterday.)
Erik De La Garza of the Raw Story: "... Elon Musk faces the possibility that his United States citizenship could be revoked if authorities discover he lied on immigration forms, according to a new report that said the world's richest man might have worked in the country without authorization. Legal experts told the news magazine WIRED in an article published Thursday that Musk, who has been floated as a possible Trump cabinet official and poured more than $100 million in support of the former president, could be exposed to criminal prosecution 'if he lied to the government as part of the immigration process.'" MB: The possibility that U.S. officials would revoke any billionaire's citizenship are right around zero.
Voter Suppression: Incompetent, Partisan Judges Edition. Ian Millhiser of Vox: "On Friday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit handed down an astoundingly poorly reasoned opinion claiming it is illegal for a state to count a ballot mailed before Election Day but that arrives for counting afterward. Eighteen states, plus the District of Columbia, currently count at least some late-arriving ballots. The opinion in Republican National Committee v. Wetzel is difficult to parse. Important sections of it appear to be missing several paragraphs, as the decision makes logical leaps without explaining key concepts. It reaches some of its central conclusions without citing a legal authority ... to support those conclusions. If this opinion were submitted as part of a law school exam, the student would risk a failing grade.... The one good thing about the Wetzel opinion is that the Fifth Circuit didn't give it immediate effect, so it is very unlikely to impact the current election. Still, there are two good reasons to be troubled that a federal appeals court handed down such a cocamamie decision. One, is that Wetzel is emblematic of the many bad election decisions we can expect to be handed down in the coming days.... [The other is that] the three judges involved in the case, Kyle Duncan, James Ho, and Andy Oldham, are widely viewed as potential Supreme Court nominees if Trump becomes president again --; certainly, the three of them have all auditioned very hard for such a promotion." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)
The Cheese Stands Disbarred. Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "Kenneth Chesebro, a lawyer who was a key architect of the idea to use false slates of pro-Trump electors to overturn the 2020 election results, was indefinitely barred by a state appellate court on Thursday from practicing law in New York. The disciplinary action was the latest instance of Trump-aligned lawyers losing their licenses over their efforts to help the former president try to subvert the 2020 election.... In an eight-page opinion, the court focused on [Mr. Chesebro's] felony conviction in Georgia, concluding that it was sufficiently serious and similar to a felony in New York to bar him from practicing law 'effective immediately.'"
~~~~~~~~~~
Texas. How Donald Trump & Greg Abbott are protecting women, whether they like it or not: ~~~
~~~ Cassandra Jaramillo & Kavitha Surana of ProPublica: "Josseli Barnica is one of at least two pregnant Texas women who died after doctors delayed emergency care. She'd told her husband that the medical team said it couldn't act until the fetal heartbeat stopped.... Neither [woman] had wanted an abortion, but that didn't matter. Though proponents insist that the laws protect both the life of the fetus and the person carrying it, in practice, doctors have hesitated to provide care under threat of prosecution, prison time and professional ruin." (Also linked yesterday.)
Share Article
Reader Comments (20)
Test
Breathtaking hypocrisy
Mr. Sanctity of Marriage, Jesse Watters, expresses virulent indignation that his wife might dare to vote for someone he did not approve of, says it would be a violation of their marriage.
This is some Grade A Prime Cut Fox self-righteous sanctimonious hypocrisy. This is the same cheating, conniving creep who let the air out of a young woman’s tires, a woman who worked for him at Fox, so he could “bravely” come to the rescue, give her a ride and try to get into her pants. This is the woman he’s married to now. Oh yeah. At the time, he was married to someone else.
So he cheated on one woman, lied to both of them, but he demands complete honesty and obedience.
What a fucking creep. No wonder the MAGAts and Foxbots love him.
…
I own you and I own your vote. Very freedom loving. The to love and obey only go one way.
Guardian
"Stormy Daniels honored at witches’ ceremony in Salem, Massachusetts
Organizers award embattled actor and magic practitioner, under belief she has fallen victim to modern-day witch hunt"
"Guess Who Got Inflation Started?"
The Right is freaking out right now about women being reminded that their votes are secret. Hopefully some of the men out there are reminded of this fact too. The bros down at the watering hole won't know if one their buddies actually pulled the lever for a Democrat. I'm hoping there are a few guys out there with a conscience who are just too afraid to speak openly about Trump's unfitness in their conservative communities and use the voting booth to say what they can't speak publicly.
@RAS: Yeah, it wouldn't take much for the Lincoln Project to tweak that ad so it showed men assuring their buddies they were Trump guys, then secretly casting their votes for Kamala Harris.
The ads where women vote for Kamala “in secret”and their husbands don’t know?
I like them but I think they ignore the reality for many women, where voting “off the reservation” (or if the husband even suspects she might) could lead to being beaten or worse. I think fewer women than we would like will do it because of this fear. But maybe if we get even a few it might help …
JayDee Vance "suggested that children in upper-middle-class white families saw becoming trans as a way to improve their odds of getting into Ivy League colleges.” (story linked above)
He's absolutely right. I remember it very well. Although my white family wasn't what I would call upper-class, in 1962 when I went to college, the only chance I had of getting into some Ivies (like Harvard & Yale, ferinstance) was to get a sex-change operation.
Boola, boola, JayDee.
And all this time, I thought getting into Ivy League colleges had
something to do with intelligence, or former high school grades or
athletics, or maybe daddy was rich and bribed someone.
Live and learn (or not).
Pitchforks and Torches
The extreme vituperation and sky-is-falling alarums from MAGAstan and pretty much the entire right-wing regarding the trans community would lead one to believe that there is currently a tidal wave of sex change operations going on. The invented scary fairy tales are reminiscent of medieval fables of secret witch covens casting evil spells on decent god-fearing folk in the villages and hordes of scabrous, vengeful demons abroad in the land seeking out virgins to defile and babies to eat.
In fact, baby eating tall tales are essential to the Trump loving Qanon morons. Virgin defilement, however is much more in Trump’s line. That particular scabrous demon continues to spread wild tales of school children being spirited away by public schools for instant sex change operations. “The kid goes to school a Jimmy and comes home in the afternoon a Janey!” he wails, as if A. such things really go on at schools across America, and B. major surgeries are done on a drive through basis.
According to the ACLU, scaredy cat PoT pols put forward 452 anti-LGBTQ bills in the U.S. in 2023. Many more this year. Of those 452, 118 were anti-trans health care bills, cuz they believe it is very much THEIR BUSINESS.
And just as an aside here, how AG sees no need to headline this sort of immediately disqualifying bullshit—he’s either spreading despicable, dangerous lies, or he’s mentally unstable—is a disgrace. Better to spend days pearl clutching about Biden’s “garbage” reference. “Biden might have said “garbage”!! Call out the ethics police!” “Trump is claiming thousands of children are given forced sex change operations at school!” “Ahhh…whatever.”
The fact is, only about one percent of Americans identify as trans or non-binary. But guess what? It’s a personal and PRIVATE decision. To hear Shady and Fatty and the MAGA media echo chamber tell it, it’s more like 30%, and it is very much their business.
This obsession with sex seems to be a huge problem for the right. Funny then, that they’re okay with Trump raping women and sleeping with porn stars while Melanie is home with the baby. Seems these faux tough guys like JD (or whatever his name and identity are this week), Fatty (hair and makeup are ready for you now, sir), and TuKKKer (poncy, delicate flower, bow tie rich kid) are so weirdly obsessed with MANLINESS and TESTOSTERONE, it makes one wonder if they have serious problems with their own sense of masculinity.
This stuff doesn’t bother real men. Look at Tim Walz. But it scares the bejesus out of little weenie boys obsessed with penis size, sperm counts, testicle tanning, and…the extremely tiny percentage of trans people.
I’ll tell ya…it must take a lot of guts to go through what these people have to endure to find their path in life, more guts than any of those posh, wealthy weenie boys who constantly punch down at them could ever imagine.
The metaphor of life as a journey is apt. But for those living in the paranoid, fearful, sex obsessed MAGA bubble, if you want to follow a path different from theirs, watch out.
The medieval pitchforks and torches are always at the ready.
Tucker Carlson and his wife sleep with 4 dogs?
And he thinks he was scratched by a demon? As far as I know,
dogs can scratch.
Wonder what Tucker is on.
Marie,
Ya beat me to the Guardian's "in case you were wondering" about Tucker's fight with a demon. He apparently lost.
Poor weenie boy TuKKKums. First, his nuts need tanning (I’ll be happy to “kickstart” that operation), then sperm counts are slipping, then white people aren’t having enough babies, THFN!! mauled by…a D, D,D,D, Demon!* Holy Exorcism, Batman! Cue Tubular Bells!
Does his head spin around now? Does he gakk up green projectile vomit? Does he say nasty things about someone’s mother?
So poor TuKKKums has “experienced evil”?
Know what, TuKKKy? Me too. Every time I see that fat fuck you shill for. Oh yeah, and I’ve also experienced Stoopid. You can too. Got a mirror handy?
*Was he the famous demon known as….Rover? Ruff! Ruff! Down, demon! Here’s a treat. Good demon!
So wait…he sleeps with four dogs and his wife? Not much procreation goin’ on at Chez TuKKK, I’ll bet. Physician, heal thyself. Or whatever sex obsessed weenies do with their spare time…geez…let’s not even go there.
A-ha! Someone better let Melanie know her “secret” vote for Donald is out of the bag!
Oh, not Donald Trump. She voted for Donald Duck. Quaaaack!
Trump's garbage man is as all over the place as himself.
Erasing History
"U.S. Archivist Colleen Shogan and her top advisers at the National Archives and Records Administration, which operates a popular museum on the National Mall, have sought to de-emphasize negative parts of U.S. history. She has ordered the removal of prominent references to such landmark events as the government’s displacement of indigenous tribes and the incarceration of Japanese-Americans during World War II from planned exhibits.
Visitors shouldn’t feel confronted, a senior official told employees, they should feel welcomed. Shogan and her senior advisers also have raised concerns that planned exhibits and educational displays expected to open next year might anger Republican lawmakers—who share control of the agency’s budget—or a potential Trump administration.
Shogan’s senior aides ordered that a proposed image of Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. be cut from a planned “Step Into History” photo booth in the Discovery Center. The booth will give visitors a chance to take photos of themselves superimposed alongside historic figures. The aides also ordered the removal of labor-union pioneer Dolores Huerta and Minnie Spotted-Wolf, the first Native American woman to join the Marine Corps, from the photo booth, according to current and former employees and agency documents."
After seeing the cartoon linked to Digby I felt "compelled" to share this treasure trove stream of humor from the PoliticalHumor on Reddit.
(Note, the link doesn't have a date or sequence number, so I'm not sure how long these posts stay on this link...)
Great Election Laughs
After reading the "Politico" account of Hack Hewitt's abrupt resignation, I'm again wondering if it would be too much to ask "conservatives" to say what they mean when they call something "left wing."
I guess it is too much, because they so seldom do.
I think I know why.