The Conversation -- October 13, 2024
Presidential Race
Maureen Dowd of the New York Times & James Carville admonish Kamala Harris to get aggressive, and they give some concrete examples of how to do that. Now. "Democratic strategists I talked to agreed that Harris needs to let her guard down, cut loose and turn on the afterburners. Mainly, her pitch is that she's not Donald Trump. And that's an excellent pitch. But she needs to make the case for herself more assertively.... As Carville says, we need less mulling and more action in a do-or-die moment. She needs to do so we don't die." MB: I agree. Fun's over. Fuck joy. Hit below the belt. Hit hard, because it's not easy to punch above your weight (literally), especially when your opponent is wearing adult diapers that will soften the blow. Listen to Carville. He knows how to win. He put a very flawed -- but talented -- candidate over the top.
Monica Alba & Carol Lee of NBC News: "Vice President Kamala Harris' team has been discussing ways to clean up her responses to questions this week about how she would differentiate herself from President Joe Biden.... Harris' answers -- including one where she said she couldn't think of anything she;d do differently than Biden -- quickly became fodder for ... Donald Trump, who has played a video clip of the exchange at campaign rallies as a majority of voters still view the current president unfavorably.... Since declaring her candidacy in July, Harris has tried to walk a fine line between praising Biden's leadership and record, and defining her agenda by explaining to voters how she would represent her campaign slogan of 'a new way forward.'" The reporters note that Harris wants "to distance herself from Biden somewhat delicately." MB: That's sweet and all, but I don't think the Harris campaign has time and space for delicate.
Katie Rogers, et al., of the New York Times: "Vice President Kamala Harris released a letter on Saturday from her White House doctor, who said she is in 'excellent health' and is successfully managing some minor health issues. Ms. Harris, 59, has seasonal allergies, mild nearsightedness and skin hives that she treats with over-the-counter and prescription medication, wrote Joshua R. Simmons, the physician to the vice president. 'Vice President Harris remains in excellent health,' Dr. Simmons wrote in a two-page letter that appeared to be a summary but not a complete medical report. 'She possesses the physical and mental resiliency required to successfully execute the duties of the presidency, to include those as chief executive, head of state and commander in chief.' Ms. Harris has not had diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis or neurological disorders, Dr. Simmons wrote.... The release of Ms. Harris's medical information comes as ... Donald J. Trump, her 78-year-old rival, has refused to reveal similar basic health information.... Mr. Trump ... has declined requests to release new information about his health even though he has promised to." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Here's Dr. Simmons' letter, via the White House. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Fritz Farrow, et al., of ABC News: "Vice President Kamala Harris released a report with details about her health and medical history on Saturday, as the Harris team tries to place ... Donald Trump's health and advanced age under new scrutiny." MB: Note that right up in the lede ABC News contrasts Harris's release of her medical report with Trump's refusal to do the same, whereas the NYT first makes reference to Trump's refusal to release recent medical records a ways down the page. (Also linked yesterday.)
Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: Twenty-four "days before the election[, Donald Trump made a campaign stop in Coachella, California]. In 2020, Mr. Trump lost the state by more than five million votes to President Biden.... The last Republican to win the state was George H.W. Bush.... Mr. Trump then spoke for about 80 minutes in a rambling speech.... It was Mr. Trump's second foray into a blue state in two days.... Mr. Trump is no stranger to Coachella. His name once graced a casino just five miles from the site of Saturday's rally as a part of a short-lived business partnership with a Native American tribe, which eventually bought him out while his company was going through bankruptcy." ~~~
~~~ Hannah Knowles & Marianne LeVine of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump suggested that a heckler would later get 'the hell knocked out of her' during an insult-laced speech [in Coachella] Saturday that portrayed a dark image of the country and demonized undocumented immigrants. 'We are known all throughout the world now as an occupied country,' Trump said. "... But it's no different really than if we lost a war.'... He repeatedly mispronounced Harris's first name. He warned about being 'very close to World War III.' He described Democrats as 'professional thieves.'" ~~~
~~~ The WashPo reporters cite some audience call-and-response that reflects just who the "animals" are. I'm not talking animals like those tasty dogs & cats of Springfield, Ohio; I mean lions and tigers and bears, oh my, ones who have been incited to fury with cattle prods.
~~~ Marie: Obviously, the reason Trump is campaigning in non-competitive states is that his campaign wants to keep him as far away as possible from decider-voters so they won't notice he's a babbling idiot. And by campaigning somewhere, it doesn't look as if he's a do-nothing candidate. Besides, he doesn't have the option to loll around playing golf because, as RAS pointed out yesterday, because the Secret Service doesn't want him out on the links. ~~~
~~~ One reason some top campaign strategist(s) want to hide Trump is because they hope swing voters won't hear him say stuff like this, which the Washington Post Editors thought you should know: "Last month in Wisconsin: 'They will walk into your kitchen,' Mr. Trump said of undocumented immigrants. 'They'll cut your throat.' Later, he called the same people 'animals.'... On Thursday at the Detroit Economic Club, he returned to the matter of immigrants: 'We allowed them to come in and raid and rape our country. "Oh, he used the word rape." That's right, I used the word rape. They raped our country.'" ~~~
~~~ If you or someone close to you is not an immigrant from what Trump calls a shithole country (which is pretty much any country that is not in Northern Europe), then you may be disgusted with his hatred of others while still having little idea what it feels like to be otherized & shunned, not just by Trump, but by millions of Americans. Carlos Lozado can help you with that: ~~~
~~~ Carlos Lozado of the New York Times: "I'm an immigrant but over the years the label has moved lower on my drop-down menu.... In recent years, though, the distance has narrowed between memory and identity, between immigration as a once upon a time versus a here and now.... I've long regarded Trump as a challenge for America -- for democratic institutions, for honesty and, yes, for its immigrant tradition -- but this xenophobic cacophony, building so relentlessly over the past decade, now feels overpowering. It also feels directed my way, at who I am and the choices I've made.... Immigration is a chronic condition, and the only cure, Trump tells us, is a 'bloody story' of mass deportation.... Trump's pledge to build the wall was his essential promise in 2016; the call for mass deportation is his crucial commitment today. The immigrant threat has been redefined from those who are coming ... to those who are here. The wall purported to protect America; deportations are meant to purify it."
Ariana Baio of the Independent: "After mocking Vice President Kamala Harris over her teleprompter use, Donald Trump's rally in Reno, Nevada, ground to a halt as he ... was forced to fix his [teleprompter] on-stage after a campaign sign fell on it. 'Thank god I don't use teleprompters too much,' Trump told rallygoers after the sign fell on the teleprompter, causing the script to stop being projected. 'I look at the teleprompter, it's totally gone. I say "What the hell happened." The sign fell on top of it.... He went on to, again, falsely accuse Harris of using one during her town hall with Univision on Thursday. Both the Harris campaign and Univision have confirmed to CNN that the vice president did not use a teleprompter during her town hall. A teleprompter that was seen in a photo from the event was in Spanish and meant for the moderator, not Harris." MB: Harris does not speak Spanish. "Many questions were asked in Spanish and translated for her [at the town hall]." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Ha Ha. From the Independent story: Trump told supporters on Friday night that "there's something wrong with [Harris]' for using teleprompters. He added: 'I don't use them that much. The concept I use but I don't like it.'" So after thinking about it since 2015, he has concepts of a healthcare plan. And now he has a concept of a teleprompter. Either Trump is a great philosopher who spends his waking hours theorizing & conceptualizing stuff, or he lives in a fantasy world that absolves him a need to grapple with the vicissitudes of reality.
Myah Ward of Politico: Donald Trump's "rhetoric has veered more than ever into conspiracy theories and rumors, like when he amplified false claims about Haitian immigrants in Ohio eating pets. And Trump has demonized minority groups and used increasingly dark, graphic imagery to talk about migrants in every one of his speeches since the Sept. 10 presidential debate, according to a Politico review of more than 20 campaign events. It's a stark escalation over the last month of what some experts in political rhetoric, fascism, and immigration say is a strong echo of authoritarians and Nazi ideology.... Trump vowed to 'rescue' the Denver suburb of Aurora, Colorado, from the rapists, 'blood thirsty criminals,' and 'most violent people on earth' he insists are ruining the 'fabric' of the country and its culture: immigrants.... The supposed threat migrants pose is the core part of the former president"s closing argument.... He is no longer just talking about keeping immigrants out of the country.... Trump now warns that migrants have already invaded, destroying the country from inside its borders, which he uses as a means to justify a second-term policy agenda that includes building massive detention camps and conducting mass deportations." (Also linked yesterday.)
⭐ Donald's New Owner. Mary Trump in a Substack essay: "Donald Trump has always been for sale. It used to be shocking how many people were willing to prop him up in the hopes of profiting off his increasingly seamy ventures. But thanks to a morally bankrupt Republican Party and our degraded corporate media, Donald remains alarmingly close to the kind of power that's worth shelling out massive amounts of money to be close to -- and benefit from.... Given this decades-long pattern, it's not surprising that the world's richest fascist, South African jumping bean Elon Musk, would also be interested in purchasing a few shares in a man who is willing to sell whatever he can get his hands on.... In exchange for Donald's willingness to throw Musk the keys to the federal government, Musk is throwing a considerable fortune, as well as the weight of Twitter's influence, behind the Republican candidate. For him, it's a safe bet because he knows, if Donald is elected, he'll do anything Musk wants him to do."
About Those Tariffs: A Case Study. Joseph Politano in a Washington Post op-ed: "To understand why nearly every economist believes that Donald Trump's protectionist trade agenda will be a blow to the U.S. economy, look to his team's own favorite case study: the great laundry tariffs of 2018.... The explicit, written, intentional purpose of those tariffs was to increase the cost to consumers and stop the steady doldrum of price declines caused by foreign competitors.... By that metric, tariffs definitely achieved their goal; U.S. laundry machine prices spiked in the immediate aftermath of the tariff and remained high for years.... Purchases of household appliances stagnated after years of growth.... The vaunted domestic industry buildout was much weaker than tariff proponents would have you believe.... When the Biden administration let the tariffs expire early last year, laundry machine prices quickly declined, indicating that domestic industry wasn't cost-competitive even after half a decade of protection from foreign competition.... Consumers spent years paying higher prices for inferior products to support a domestic industry that remains no stronger or more efficient than it was a decade ago." Politano goes on to discuss what the effects of Trump's planned universal tariffs would be. ~~~
~~~ Marie: BTW, if you think Congress isn't as stupid as Trump and would never allow him to impose universal tariffs on Americans, I'm here to remind you that Congress has no say. The administration can unilaterally impose tariffs.
Dan Diamond & Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: JD Vance "has hit on a new strategy to defend the GOP's oft-criticized health-care record: talk about his own family's experience. 'Members of my family actually got private health insurance, at least, for the first time ... under Donald Trump's leadership,' ... Vance ... said at this month's vice-presidential debate.... Vance was referring to his mother, who purchased private health insurance through the Affordable Care Act's insurance marketplace run by Ohio after she ... made too much money to remain on Medicaid, a campaign spokesman told The Washington Post. Vance also was invoking a cousin in Florida who obtained private insurance for the first time through the state's marketplace.... In Vance's telling, his family members' experience reflects Trump's stewardship of the nation's health-care markets.... But to many health policy experts, Vance's story reveals ... the audacity of Trump&'s attempts to take credit for the work of President Barack Obama and Democrats, who crafted and defended the Affordable Care Act at great political cost...."
~~~ Marie: BTW, what JayDee is proposing now is a targeted ACA designed to price people with the greatest needs out of the healthcare market. So if you're a healthy young person, you can buy affordable insurance, and if you break your leg, your policy will cover it as long as your insurer doesn't try to weasel out of it. But if you're an older person with, say, a pre-existing, chronic condition, you will likely be priced out of the insurance market.
Steve M. has some thoughts on JD Vance's NYT interview, and you will enjoy reading them. MB: They are funny in the way some horror movies have humorous elements: like I saw an ad for the new "Joker" movie where Lady Gaga sings "Get Happy" to River Phoenix, and I thought that was funny, even though it was obvious that the lyric, "Get ready for the judgment day" was an ominous signal. (Also linked yesterday.)
David McAfee of the Raw Story: "Former Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn, the controversial figure Donald Trump named to be his White House national security adviser, stunned observers with his answer to a question about potentially executing political enemies.... 'General Michael Flynn was asked at the Rod of Iron Freedom Festival Friday night if he'd "sit at the head of a military tribunal to not only drain the swamp, but imprison the swamp, and on a few occasions, execute the swamp." General Flynn says "What your sentiment is about is accountability" and that "I definitely believe we need accountability,"' [filmmaker Ford Fischer] reported Saturday."
Meredith McGraw & Hailey Fuchs of Politico: "A conservative think tank that has been laying the groundwork for a possible second Trump administration has been targeted by an apparent cyber attack. The America First Policy Institute contacted federal authorities for assistance after its internal network was breached. The group said in a statement that its systems have since been secured."
Sam Levine of the Guardian: "The far-right website The Gateway Pundit acknowledged for the first time on Saturday that there was not any fraud during ballot counting in Atlanta in 2020 when Donald Trump lost the presidency, a significant concession from one of the most influential conservative sites that plays a key role in spreading election misinformation. The statement, the first acknowledgment from the site that there was no proof of fraud in Atlanta, came days after the site settled a defamation lawsuit with Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Shaye Moss, two local election workers who the site falsely accused of wrongdoing. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed publicly, but the site appears to have removed all mention of the two women." (Also linked yesterday.)
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Israel/Palestine, et al.
The Washington Post's live updates of developments Sunday in Israel's wars is here: "The Israeli military's days-long siege of northern Gaza and relentless bombing has deepened the humanitarian crisis in the region, with no food aid entering since the beginning of this month, aid agencies said. Officials in Gaza said Saturday that at least 19 people were killed in Jabalya, with many others still buried beneath the rubble."
Ronen Bergman, et al., of the New York Times: "For more than two years, Yahya Sinwar huddled with his top Hamas commanders and plotted what they hoped would be the most devastating and destabilizing attack on Israel in the militant group's four-decade history. Minutes of Hamas's secret meetings, seized by the Israeli military and obtained by The New York Times, provide a detailed record of the planning for the Oct. 7 terrorist attack, as well as Mr. Sinwar's determination t persuade Hamas's allies, Iran and Hezbollah, to join the assault or at least commit to a broader fight with Israel if Hamas staged a surprise cross-border raid. The documents, which represent a breakthrough in understanding Hamas, also show extensive efforts to deceive Israel about its intentions as the group laid the groundwork for a bold assault and a regional conflagration that Mr. Sinwar hoped would cause Israel to 'collapse.'"
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Reader Comments (9)
This “Immigrants must die” shtick has zero to do with any attempt, faux or no, to address the actual problem of immigration. It’s pure white supremacy. In MAGA world black and brown people are rapists, lazy, retarded, dangerous, disease ridden, job stealing moochers. That’s it. Oh, you can be tolerated by the MAGA racists if you’re black or brown, as long as you steppinfetchit for the white massas. Open your mouth only to say “Yassa, Massa Trump”, don’t cause problems and don’t complain. But if you’re black or brown and a woman?
Just forget about it.
The Both Sides corporate MSM will never say this, that would be uncouth and not journalisticky. Besides, they can’t say the same thing about Democrats, so just don’t mention it at all. Oh, except to wonder if maybe a black woman needs some proper straightening out so she learns some respect for the fourth estate.
The Trump-Vance white supremacy assault machine, with Trump promising to protect “suburban” (ie, white) women, is just an updated version of “Birth of a Nation” with brave, noble KKK MAGAts riding out to save white ‘mericans from the dirty nee-groe rapists and murderers. .
"The professional obligations of lawyers and the Biden administration after November 5th
...any and all federal and state laws that prohibit post-election fraud and sedition need to be enforced with absolutely no consideration for prudential arguments about not engaging in “lawfare” against one’s political opponents. If Trump and or his allies arguably violate criminal laws while trying to overturn the election they have lost — which they are practically certain to do — they need to be arrested on the spot."
I'm happy for Kamala Harris as to raising that one billion dollars, plus.
Hopefully, that means I won't be getting those 20 or more emails
every day begging for money.
Some of them have been downright nasty, like, we've emailed you
10 times about that $25.00 you should be sending us. What's wrong
with you? Get off your butt and send us some money.
Requests like that kinda turn me off. Besides, I'm living on a fixed
income and eggs are four dollars a dozen now.
"The dwarfs are for the dwarfs, trapped in a prison of their own minds.
If you have wondered, as I have, how in the world some of our neighbors are so determined to spread (and believe) malicious rumors and conspiracy fantasies in the wake of natural disasters, a Sunday sermon."
Forrest,
Right there with you, brother. I want Harris (and other Democrats) to win more than I can say. I’ve sent in what I can afford, but I find it really insulting to get text messages that say “I guess you’re not a real Democrat after all!” or “You’ll probably never hear from me again after I lose the senate race to Bigly J. Hitler, cuz I’ll be locked up in a prison camp and it will be ALL YOUR FAULT!”
Jesus. We want Democrats to be more aggressive and kick some ass, but not ours.
Who knew? When I checked the weather channel, they gave the
forecast for Columbus Day.
According to my calendar, Monday is not a holiday so I Googled it
and found out that Columbus Day is no longer celebrated in a number
of states: Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, N.M.,
Oregon, S.D., Vermont, and Wisconsin.
Will there be a Thanksgiving? Like we learned in school about all
of those Native Americans feeding the newcomers, and later we found
out that the newcomers killed most of them or chased them west.
This morning I saw a come-on for Meet the Press, and Kristen Welker looked positively giddy to announce a new NBC poll that says that the 5-point lead Kamala enjoyed after the "debate" has withered away. She wasn't even sad to report that. AK is right-- it is all about the horse race. No one is even moved to horror when they read or hear what the Orange Moron says in all his deranged glory. It's "just Dump being Dump." Yesterday he called her "retarded," a term from way- back-when before language about people with disabilities changed. He lies and fabricates with every breath he takes-- and no one even gasps a bit anymore. I am wondering if the rubes are now discounting him entirely, like he is simply infotainment, and they are confident that whomever moves into the White House and administration will be fascists also, so it doesn't matter who is on the golden throne.
And yes, I too kept replying to those insulting emails and texts: "We have written you ten times and you still won't tell us ARE YOU A DEMOCRAT now, or not?" I tried replying-- I did try to take their polls but they ALL ended with a plea for money so I gave up and delete them whenever they come. I am fed up too. I support whom I want, and never the DCCC or any of those silly organizations.
It is hard to even remain healthy these days. There is a permanent heaviness in the pit of my stomach and it's hard to enjoy being outside or anywhere, but at the same time, I can't stay away. It is not simply Dump-- it's the cult members. They are terrifying. Can we include the MSM in the cult? I think they have all fallen for this mindless, useless, ugly, unhinged, uneducated, mean-as-a-snake lunatic, who was never a whole person to begin with. Sad and scary times.
Well, Columbus Day a.k.a Indigenous Peoples Day is still a federal holiday so if you plan on ilk and cookies with the mail man you're flat out of luck.
Sometime last month I reached the point where all emails from campaigns get the delete button. I admit to hesitating over local pleas, but I am out of patience with all the pleas from candidates from Colorado and other out of state races.
I've voted early and turned the ballot in personally. I'm through.
Catching up on some reading (so apologies if this was previously posted), Charlie Warzel, writing in The Atlantic, completely depressed me with:
What’s happening in America today is something darker than a misinformation crisis.
and, currently, the Atlantic is allowing unlimited gift links (rather than restricting to 5 per month).