The Conversation -- October 4, 2024
Sam Levine of the Guardian: "The US homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, has warned that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) does not have enough funding to make it through the rest of this hurricane season.... The warning on Thursday underscored how the federal government is being stretched thin as top Republicans have signaled they won't give it more funding.... Donald Trump and other Republicans have seized on the shortfall to criticize [President] Biden and Kamala Harris for spending money assisting migrants.... 'They stole the Fema money just like they stole it from a bank so they could give it to their illegal immigrants that they want to have vote for them this season,' Trump said in a speech in Michigan on Thursday.... Also, on the campaign trail in Michigan on Thursday, Trump said of Helene victims: 'They're dying, and they're getting no help from our federal government because their money has been spent on people that should not be in our country.'" ~~~
~~~ Justine McDaniel of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump will appear Friday in Georgia, one of the states hardest-hit by Hurricane Helene, after spending the week falsely telling voters that the U.S. government is unable to fund the disaster response -- claims the White House slammed in a memo as 'poison.' Without naming Trump, the Biden administration on Friday said Republicans are spreading 'bald-faced lies' about the hurricane response and are 'using Hurricane Helene to lie and divide us.'"
Kevin Dolak of the Hollywood Reporter, republished by Yahoo! News: "In an Instagram post uploaded on Thursday, Bruce Springsteen announced to his fans ... his pick this election cycle.... 'Friends, fans and the press have asked me who I'm supporting in this most important of elections,' Springsteen said.... 'And with full knowledge that my opinions are no more or less important than those of any of my fellow citizens. Here's my answer: I'm supporting Kamala Harris for president and Tim Walz for vice president, and opposing Donald Trump and J.D. Vance.... Donald Trump is the most dangerous candidate for president in my lifetime.... His disdain for the sanctity of our Constitution, the sanctity of democracy, the sanctity of the rule of law and the sanctity of the peaceful transfer of power should disqualify him from the office of president ever again. He doesn't understand the meaning of this country, its history, or what it means to be deeply American,' he added." ~~~
Marie: Tommy Christopher of Mediaite has a take different from Steve M.'s & mine on Melania's stance on abortion rights. Let's hope Christopher's theory is right: "Former First Lady Melania Trump delivered a humiliating repudiation of ... Donald Trump's stated anti-abortion stance in a stunning new video that's a political gift to Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump has been trying to walk a line between bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade and trying to reassure voters he won't sign a national abortion ban -- while refusing to actually say he would veto one....* In an excerpt [of Melania's memoir] obtained by The Guardian, she ... [wrote,] 'It is imperative to guarantee that women have autonomy in deciding their preference of having children, based on their own convictions, free from any intervention or pressure from the government. Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to determine what she does with her own body? A woman's fundamental right of individual liberty, to her own life, grants her the authority to terminate her pregnancy if she wishes.'"
* Trump did finally say he would veto an federal abortion ban. MB: And you know how good his word is.
Marie: Akhilleus & I are not the only conspiracy theories who have turned our suspicious eyes on Bibi. And we're in very good company: ~~~
~~~ Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) says he's worried Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may be trying to influence the U.S. presidential election by showing little interest in striking a peace deal with Hamas and instead escalating the threat of a broader war in the Middle East by aggressively confronting Hezbollah in Lebanon. Murphy acknowledged that the prospect of peace in Gaza before Election Day does not seem likely and that Netanyahu appears to have an eye on domestic U.S. politics as he wages a bombing campaign deep into Lebanon targeting Hezbollah. 'I certainly worry that Prime Minister Netanyahu is watching the American election as he makes decisions about his military campaigns in the north and in Gaza,' Murphy told CNN's Erin Burnett."
There are conspiracy theories and then there are conspiracy theories: ~~~
~~~ Charlie Nash of Mediaite: "After the Hurricane Helene death toll rose to over 200, Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene wrote in a social media post, 'Yes they can control the weather. It's ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can't be done.' Greene also posted a map of the areas most affected by the hurricane overlaid with an electoral map by political party. 'This is a map of hurricane affected areas with an overlay of electoral map by political party shows how hurricane devastation could affect the election,' she warned." MB: Not clear who "they" are, but I have a feeling one of them is the Wicked Witch of the West, Kamala Harris. And yes, the good folks of Georgia will almost certainly be sending the loony Miss Margie back to Congress to be making the laws what govern us all.
Presidential Race
~~~ Erica Green & Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "On Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris and former Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming [a Wisconsin native], the most prominent Republican to endorse her campaign, traveled to Ripon in central Wisconsin where meetings in 1854 helped form the Republican Party. Just a mile away from a one-room schoolhouse where those gatherings were held, the pair tore into ... Donald J. Trump for his role in igniting a riot at the Capitol, and they warned of the threat he poses to democracy should he return to power. Ms. Cheney said that, in November, putting patriotism ahead of partisanship should not merely be an aspiration -- 'it is our duty.' Her remarks ... were as much a public indictment of Mr. Trump as they were an endorsement of Ms. Harris." ~~~
~~~ Marie: The reporters are young women. I don't think they quite get what a remarkable moment this was. ~~~
~~~ AND the story that follows tells us why this extraordinary moment in U.S. presidential campaign history happened: ~~~
~~~ Jess Bidgood of the New York Times: "... [Jack Smith's motion in the election interference case] ... offered new details that paint a chilling picture of the way [Donald Trump] and current candidate seems to think about elections: as an exercise in which the vote total is entirely beside the point. In his world, adverse election results were an obstacle, not an outcome.... The filing sheds new light on the way Trump and his advisers viewed the number of votes he had won as little more than a trifling detail.... Coming at a time when his allies, including his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, have tried to downplay Trump's efforts to hold onto power four years ago, the filing offers a glimpse of Trump's thinking that makes it difficult to imagine him accepting a loss in November.... Reading Smith's court filing now, there are striking parallels between Trump and his allies' actions in 2020 and certain steps they are taking today -- and it's something Democrats and allies of Vice President Kamala Harris are warning about as they make the case that Trump is a danger to democracy." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Say, New York Times, it's refreshing to read a straight-news story where the author does not don Both SidesTM rose-tinted glasses the minute she sits down at her computer. ~~~
~~~ Amy Gardner & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump's effort to overturn his loss four years ago and his role inciting the violent attack on the Capitol roared onto the 2024 campaign stage this week even as he continues to suggest he won't accept a defeat if it happens a second time. On Tuesday, running mate JD Vance declined to say during the vice-presidential debate that Trump lost in 2020. On Wednesday, special counsel Jack Smith filed an explosive new pleading in federal court surfacing new details about Trump's lack of concern about the Capitol riot and his push to reverse his loss even as advisers repeatedly told him Joe Biden had legitimately won. And on Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris made a campaign appearance in the battleground state of Wisconsin with Liz Cheney, the former Republican congresswoman who lost her seat largely because of her condemnation of Trump's actions inciting the riot on Jan. 6, 2021."
Maggie Astor of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump said on Wednesday that, if elected again, he would revoke the legal status of tens of thousands of Haitian immigrants who have been the target of false accusations by the former president and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, over the past month. Mr. Trump's administration tried to do that during his first term, too, but courts temporarily blocked it, and President Biden's administration renewed the immigrants' status after he took office in 2021. The immigrants in question are living and working in the United States legally through the Temporary Protected Status program, which Congress created in 1990 for people from countries experiencing war, natura disasters or other crises. The Department of Homeland Security designates countries for up to 18 months at a time based on the current conditions, and the designation can be renewed indefinitely. Haiti was initially added in 2010, under President Barack Obama, after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake devastated the country. It has since experienced a major hurricane and a cholera epidemic." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Let us hope Trump's cruel announcement helps those dithering "undecideds" understand that nobody is safe when the Nastiest Turdblossom in the USA is president*, so they'd better vote for Harris.
If you scroll way down the page in this NBC News election updates liveblog, you'll find this item by Rebecca Shabad: "Trump said toward the top of his remarks at a rally in Saginaw, Michigan, that if he thought he lost the 2020 presidential election, he wouldn't be running again. 'It was a rigged election. You have to tell Kamala Harris that's why I'm doing it again. If I thought I lost, I wouldn't be doing this again. You know where I'd be? Right down on the beaches of Monte Carlo, baby, or some place having a nice life.'..." ~~~
~~~ Marie: So, among other things, what I take that to mean is that when Trump says he won't run again if he loses next month, what he really means is that he'll keep on running till he's dead because he can never admit he lost an election.
"Sieg Heil." David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Donald Trump's campaign distributed signs with a phrase often used by white supremacists. Before Trump spoke in Saginaw, Michigan, Thursday, campaign staff could be seen handing out pre-printed signs with the words 'Reclaim America.' As CNN noted, white supremacist members of the Patriot Front recently carried a banner with the same slogan while shouting "Sieg Heil" and "Deportation saves the nation" at a rally in Nashville."
You can't only help those in need if they voted for you. It's the most basic part of being president, and this guy [Trump] knows nothing about it. -- President Biden, in a tweet Thursday ~~~
~~~ Scott Waldman & Thomas Frank of Politico's E&E News: "In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene..., Donald Trump has ... accuse[d] Democratic leaders of ignoring the needs of Republican storm victims. But a review of Trump's record by Politico's E&E News and interviews with two former Trump White House officials show that the former president was flagrantly partisan at times in response to disasters and on at least three occasions hesitated to give disaster aid to areas he considered politically hostile or ordered special treatment for pro-Trump states. Mark Harvey, who was Trump's senior director for resilience policy..., told E&E News on Wednesday that Trump initially refused to approve disaster aid for California after deadly wildfires in 2018 because of the state's Democratic leanings. But Harvey said Trump changed his mind after Harvey pulled voting results to show him that heavily damaged Orange County, California, had more Trump supporters than the entire state of Iowa." Read on. See also Akhilleus' commentary at the top of today's thread. ~~~
~~~ Paul Krugman of the New York Times: "... Trump has been trying to exploit the natural disaster [Hurricane Helene] for political gain, claiming he heard that the federal government -- Biden -- and North Carolina's Democratic governor are 'going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas.' This claim has no basis.... Trump's vision of America-as-hellscape seems to be losing its political mojo.... So it must be time to conjure a new fake source of fear and outrage. Where does the insinuation that Biden is denying aid to politically unfriendly disaster areas come from? In part it's projection: Trump was found to have done something akin to that when he was in the White House.... The key to Trump's tall tales is to tell his supporters that terrible things are happening somewhere out there...."
Emily Bazelon & Mattathias Schwartz of the New York Times: "Donald Trump says Kamala Harris should be prosecuted for the Biden administration's border policies. He wants President Biden to be prosecuted for corruption, Nancy Pelosi for her husband's stock trades and Google for its search results about Trump and Harris. His list of targets for investigation also includes state prosecutors, judges and former officials from the F.B.I. and other parts of the Justice Department. If Trump wins, he can use the Justice Department, including the F.B.I., to seek revenge against his political enemies -- even if, as in the cases above, there is little or no evidence of a crime.... We posed that question to 50 former top officials from the Justice Department and the White House Counsel's Office, along with a few retired judges and nonpartisan career D.O.J. lawyers. The former officials, evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, have served seven presidents.Most of them are freaked out about Trump's potential impact on the Justice Department...." ~~~
There is every reason to believe that Donald Trump would seek to use criminal enforcement and the F.B.I. as leverage for his personal and political ends in a second term. We don't know what will happen, but the risk is more concrete, with a higher probability, than in any election in my lifetime. -- Peter Keisler, a Federalist Society founder & Acting AG for Dubya ~~~
⭐ ~~~ Emily Bazelon & Mattathias Schwartz in the New York Times Magazine: "As a candidate for president once again, Donald Trump could not be clearer about his plans to use the Justice Department to seek revenge against his enemies.... Now Trump talks about ordering prosecutions against so many people that his threats have become commonplace.... [The] safeguards [the protect the Justice Department from political interference] are all dependent on voluntary compliance.... During his presidency..., Trump tried to interfere directly [with the DOJ]...." Read on.
Sickly Old Man Running for Prez* Again. Emily Baumgaertner & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "As a presidential candidate in 2015, Donald J. Trump declined to release his medical records, instead offering a four-paragraph letter from his personal doctor proclaiming that he would be 'the healthiest person ever elected to the presidency.' In 2020, when he was hospitalized with Covid and running for re-election, Mr. Trump's doctors gave minimal information about his condition, which, it emerged later, was far more dire than their public descriptions let on. In 2024, days before becoming the official Republican presidential nominee for the third time, he was grazed by a would-be assassin's bullet, yet his campaign did not hold a briefing on his condition, release hospital records or make the emergency physicians who treated him available for interview. Now, just over a month from an election that could make Mr. Trump, 78, the oldest person ever to serve as president (82 years, 7 months and 6 days when his term would end in January 2029), he is refusing to release even the most basic information about his health." (Also linked yesterday.)
Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "Melania Trump ... said in a video on Thursday that there was 'no room for compromise' on a woman's right to 'individual freedom,' a day after a reported excerpt from her coming memoir said she supported abortion rights. Mrs. Trump's comments landed as ... Donald J. Trump and his party are trying to soften their opposition to abortion, a key issue threatening his support with female voters and his attempt to return to the White House. They were released in a promotional video for a new memoir scheduled for release on Tuesday. Her husband, who opposes federal abortion rights and has taken credit for helping overturn Roe v. Wade, did not immediately comment." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Oh, super-duper. The first lady has no role in government, Trump & elected Republican men think of women as child-producing chattel & Melanie is hardly ever home except maybe when designing blood-red decor for the Christmas party. So I hope all you young women are feeling safe and protected now that the future First Lady in Absentia might have said she supports abortion rights. Think she's gonna rush in to the Oval & tear up the national abortion ban bill while Donald is still upstairs fixing his hair? ~~~
~~~ Steve M.: "Some people might think Melania Trump is going rogue, but this looks like strategy to me[.]... I don't think it's a coincidence that this was timed for just after the vice presidential debate -- J.D. Vance has been much more of an anti-abortion zealot than Donald Trump...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Oh, Look, More Strategery. Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "Melania Trump describes in her new memoir how she made her husband ... Donald Trump drop a signature hardline immigration policy under which migrant children were separated from their parents, stoking domestic and international uproar. 'This has to stop,' the former first lady says she told her husband, 'emphasizing the trauma it was causing these families' and seeing him swiftly comply, ending the policy on 20 June 2018." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Hadas Gold & Pamela Brown of CNN: "Nearly two months ago, CNN reached out to Melania Trump's book publisher to request an interview with the former first lady ahead of her upcoming memoir. After several exchanges about a possible interview..., Skyhouse Publishing laid out strict terms for an interview and use of material from the book.... On top of that, the agreement stipulated that 'CNN shall pay a licensing fee of two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000).' CNN did not sign the agreement. Days later, after a separate CNN journalist asked Skyhorse Publishing about the exorbitant interview fee, the publisher said it had sent the payment demand by mistake.... Paying a public figure for an interview, especially the spouse of a political candidate, is highly frowned upon in most newsrooms...." (Also linked yesterday.)
Smooth Operator. Michael Bender of the New York Times: "In his 90-plus minutes on the vice-presidential debate stage, [JD] Vance, 40, delivered a performance that gave Donald J. Trump's words and plans an intellectual and emotional dimension and revealed himself to be a more complicated figure than the caricature portrayed by his critics. Mr. Vance ... fleshed out his ticket's populism in a way Mr. Trump has never been willing or able to do.... But the question remains whether Mr. Vance has laid the cornerstone for a new foundation of Trumpism, or his vision is merely a mirage. In some ways, Mr. Vance has simply rolled a smooth veneer over the harshness of his party's unpopular positions without addressing the underlying policies that Americans find problematic.... Politics is indeed an art, but so is deception. And for his opponents, Mr. Vance is simply whoever his audience wants him to be." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Bender, who seems to admire JayDee's rhetorical skills, does admit that, "On Wednesday, as the campaign moved from the debate stage and back into battleground states, Mr. Vance dropped the air of respect he had shown the night before. During a pair of events in Michigan, he mocked the 'dumbest' comments he heard from ... Tim Walz.... He referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as 'an absolute disgrace,' described her as 'very insecure' and blamed her for 'division and hatred' in American politics." !!!
~~~ Austin Sarat in a Hill op-ed: "JD Vance's performance in this week's vice presidential debate was real slick.... The man who made millions as a corporate lawyer and ruthless venture capitalist used the debate to reinvent himself as a dedicated servant of the downtrodden and dispossessed.... Vance's debate performance was an elaborate ruse, whether he was talking about himself or his running mate. As the Wall Street Journal noted, 'JD Vance's Version of Trump Is Better Than the Real Thing.'... Like his fellow travelers in the con-man trade, Vance pretended to be a person he is not, selling views he does not hold, trying to persuade voters to believe something that is not true -- anything to fuel his own political ambitions. He hoped to capitalize on the well-known penchant of Americans to 'get conned again and again.'"
MEANWHILE, JayDee's not-so-smooth Democratic counterpart poses a problem: ~~~
~~~ Meredith Hill & Mia McCarthy of Politico: "Since being tapped as Kamala Harris' running mate, the folksy, plain-speaking Minnesota governor [Tim Walz] has had to explain a growing number of inaccurate statements -- and at times embellishments -- about his past. They range from comments about his military service to his visit to Hong Kong more than three decades ago to clarifying that his family didn't specifically use in vitro fertilization.... The need to continually clean up those claims could politically hurt Walz and Harris.... Walz's misstatements could contradict the image that the campaign has painted of him as an upstanding, everyday Midwest guy." ~~~
~~~ Marie: To me the crux of the problem is that Harris is trying to present the Democratic ticket as the authentic, all-American antithesis of the perpetually-lying phonies on the GOP ticket, and her partner in this endeavor turns out to be Walter Mitty. (Except Walter had the sense not to share his fantastic heroics with the world.)
Marcy Wheeler: “John Roberts not only rewrote the Constitution to protect Donald Trump. He forced prosecutors to spend 14 pages arguing that it is not among the job duties of the President of the United States to attack Republicans who've crossed him on Twitter.... This is the all-powerful President John Roberts wants to have. Someone who can sit in his dining room siccing mobs on fellow Republicans.... The 14 pages analyzing mean Tweets follows the analysis of two rally speeches, in which prosecutors first show the January 4 Georgia speech was a campaign event, and then (among other things) lay out the similarity between that speech and Trump's January 6 one. Among the things Trump included in both speeches was an attack on the Supreme Court: '... [Georgia...]: 'I'm not happy with the Supreme Court. They are not stepping up to the plate. They're not stepping up.' Ellipse...: 'I'm not happy with the Supreme Court. They love to rule against me.'... The inclusion of Trump's attacks on them also might get these partisan hacks to think more seriously about the nearly identical exhortations Trump made on Truth Social before they decided to rewrite the Constitution in his favor." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: I am convinced that John Roberts' Immunity Ruling for the Ages was his attempt to regain his "relevance." Clarence, Sam & the Three Trump Stooges were going to rule for Trump anyway, so Roberts just wanted to get back in the majority club. He did it with a splash, didn't he? (Maybe a splash of Eau de Roger Taney, oh well.) ~~~
~~~ Update: I see by yesterday's Comments that I was wrong to describe Trump's appointees as the Three Stooges. I should have been more respectful & referred to t hem by proper nicknames: Sleazy, Boozy & Phony, friends of Dopey & Grumpy. Thanks, Akhilleus, for setting me straight.
Everything Is Going Very Smoothly. Robert Faturechi, et al., of ProPublica: "... Donald Trump's media company has forced out executives in recent days after internal allegations that its CEO, former Rep. Devin Nunes, is mismanaging the company, according to interviews and records of communications among former employees. Several people involved with Trump Media believe the ousters are retaliation following what they describe as an anonymous 'whistleblower' complaint regarding Nunes that went to the company's board of directors. The chief operating officer and chief product officer have left the company, along with at least two lower-level staffers, according to interviews, social media posts and communications between former staffers...." ~~~
~~~ Marie: The company's response to an inquiry from ProPublica is classic Trump & completely consistent with Devin Nunes' MO. I suspect the company keeps a standard "Response to Media" at the ready. Trump's company didn't answer ProPublica's questions but it did complain that ProPublica had "utterly fabricates implications of improper and even illegal conduct that have no basis in reality. This story is the fifth consecutive piece in an increasingly absurd campaign by ProPublica, likely at the behest of political interest groups, to damage TMTG based on false and defamatory allegations and vague innuendo.... TMTG strictly adheres to all laws and applicable regulations." The original form letter looks like this: "_____________ utterly fabricates implications of improper and even illegal conduct that have no basis in reality. This story is the _____ piece in an increasingly absurd campaign by __________, likely at the behest of political interest groups, to damage TMTG based on false and defamatory allegations and vague innuendo.... TMTG strictly adheres to all laws and applicable regulations."
Danielle Douglas-Gabriel of the Washington Post: "A federal judge will allow a temporary restraining order that prevented President Joe Biden from discharging student loan debt for more than 25 million Americans to expire Thursday, clearing the way for the administration to move forward with the plan. The decision delivers a small victory in the Biden administration's ongoing fight to alleviate federal student loan debt..." MB: The reasoning behind the order is complicated, as is what may happen next. Here's the NBC News story, which may be a tad clearer than the WashPo report, but the underlying facts are still complicated. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Oh, Wait, Kids. The Trump Team Screwed You Again. Annie Nova of CNBC: "The Biden administration's sweeping student loan forgiveness plan was temporarily blocked again Thursday by a Missouri judge, just one day after a federal judge in Georgia said he would let a restraining order against the relief expire. St-Louis-based U.S. District Judge Matthew Schelp, an appointee of ... Donald Trump, issued the latest preliminary injunction against Biden's relief plan. As a result of the order, the U.S. Department of Education is again barred from forgiving people's student loans until Schelp has a chance to rule on the case."
⭐ On the Waterfront. Peter Eavis of the New York Times: "The International Longshoremen's Association agreed on Thursday to suspend a strike that closed down major ports on the East and Gulf Coasts. The move followed an improved wage offer from port employers. The strike, which the dockworkers' union began on Tuesday, threatened to weigh on the economy five weeks before national elections. Employers, represented by the United States Maritime Alliance, have offered to increase wages by 62 percent over the course of a new six-year contract, according to a person familiar with negotiations who did not want to be identified because the talks were continuing. That increase is lower than what the union had initially asked for, but much higher than the alliance's earlier offer.... The agreement came after the White House pressed both sides to reach a deal to end the strike, the union's first full-scale walkout since 1977. The wage increase is a clear victory for the I.L.A. and its combative president, Harold J. Daggett, a 78-year-old, third-generation dockworker who has led the union since 2011. President Biden, when asked about the tentative deal on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews on Thursday evening, said: 'We've been working hard on it. With the grace of God, it's going to hold.'" CNN's report is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: I'm surprised to learn President Biden was working on a resolution. I thought the arbitrator would have been Donald Trump, who tells us he can solve any disagreement, no matter how contentious or bellicose, in a day. I would have expected Trump to go in into a room filled with burly longshoremen, say "No overtime or you're fired," and that would be the end of it. ~~~
~~~ Alex Gangitano of the Hill: "President Biden on Thursday hailed the agreement made between the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) union and the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX) to end the port strike, arguing that collective bargaining works and is essential to the economy. 'Today's tentative agreement on a record wage and an extension of the collective bargaining process represents critical progress towards a strong contract,' Biden, who has stood behind the striking workers, said in a statement."
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Colorado. Mead Gruver of the AP: "A judge ripped into a Colorado county clerk for her crimes and lies before sentencing her Thursday to nine years behind bars for a data-breach scheme spawned from the rampant false claims about voting machine fraud in the 2020 presidential race. District Judge Matthew Barrett told former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters -- after earlier sparring with her for continuing to press discredited claims about rigged voting machines -- that she never took her job seriously. 'I am convinced you would do it all over again if you could. You're as defiant as any defendant this court has ever seen,' Barrett told her in handing down the sentence. 'You are no hero. You abused your position and you're a charlatan.' Jurors found Peters guilty in August for allowing a man to misuse a security card to access to the Mesa County election system and for being deceptive about that person's identity. The man was affiliated with My Pillow chief executive Mike Lindell, a prominent promoter of false claims that voting machines were manipulated to steal the election from ... Donald Trump. The discredited claims trace back to Trump himself...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ You can hear the judge condemning Peters at the top of this video.
Tennessee. Emily Cochrane & Ben Stanley of the New York Times: "Three former Memphis police officers were found guilty on Thursday of federal witness tampering charges in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man. But all three defendants were acquitted of the more serious charge of violating his civil rights by causing his death. One officer, Demetrius Haley, was convicted on a lesser charge of violating Mr. Nichols's civil rights by causing bodily injury. The three defendants -- Mr. Haley, Tadarrius Bean and Justin Smith -- and two other former officers who pleaded guilty to their role in the violence, still face additional state charges, including second-degree murder."
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Israel/Palestine, et al. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Friday in Israel's wars is here: "The Israel Defense Forces escalated its offensive in Lebanon, with strikes on Thursday hitting soldiers and medics and pummeling Beirut's southern suburbs. The Israeli military also said it had carried out a separate airstrike in the West Bank targeting the regional head of Hamas in Tulkarm. That assault killed at least 18 people, according to Palestinian officials."
U.K./Mauritius. Noah Keate of Politico: "The U.K. agreed to pass sovereignty of the disputed Chagos Islands to Mauritius after decades of campaigning -- with one big caveat. U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his Mauritian counterpart Pravind Jugnauth hailed a 'seminal moment' Thursday as a political agreement was struck on the future of the islands, which have been called Britain's last African colony and are home to a crucial U.S. and U.K. military base in the Indian Ocean.... The chain of islands in the Indian Ocean includes Diego Garcia -- used by the U.S. government as a base for its navy ships and long-range bomber aircraft. Under the agreement struck Thursday, Diego Garcia itself will remain under U.K. and U.S. jurisdiction for at least the next 99 years to allow the base to keep running."
News Lede
CNBC: "The U.S. economy added far more jobs than expected in September, pointing to a vital employment picture as the unemployment rate edged lower, the Labor Department reported Friday. Nonfarm payrolls surged by 254,000 for the month, up from a revised 159,000 in August and better than the 150,000 Dow Jones consensus forecast. The unemployment rate fell to 4.1%, down 0.1 percentage point."
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I'm moving forward this comment by Akhilleus, posted late last night, because it jibes so well with Paul Krugman's column. The link is to a firewalled Rolling Stone article.
By Akhilleus:
Don’t vote for me? You can all die.
You know how Fatty has been lying about the Biden administration denying emergency funding to predominantly Republican areas affected by the hurricane? There’s a good reason he came up with that idea. It’s exactly what he would do.
“According to a Thursday report from E&E News, in 2018 — as wildfires ravaged large swaths of California — Trump initially refused to approve aid to the state because he felt some of the affected regions didn’t like him enough.”
Aides had to show him voting data. Once they proved the affected area was MAGA enough, he approved the funding.
A prick of historic levels of evil.
The revelations in Jack Smith’s filing of how incredibly blasé Trump was about setting the nation on fire for his personal political benefit, indeed, how blatantly sociopathic about the loss of human life as long as he came out on top, coupled with his astonishing transactional approach to doling out taxpayer monies when disaster strikes a region, ie, no money if you didn’t vote for me, provide a stark indication that this guy is much worse than his already horrific public image would have us believe.
The old adage of casual sociopathy, that so and so wouldn’t piss on you if you were on fire doesn’t come close to describing what a horrible fucking monster this guy is. If you were on fire, not only wouldn’t he piss on you, he wouldn’t do it unless you paid him first, proved you voted for him, and agreed to give him a medal for his “greatest ever” bravery in putting out flames that posed no danger to him but would be causing your imminent death unless you came through for him first.
How many other examples of his jaw dropping inhuman nature have been hidden from us by MAGA insiders and complicit Both Sides media accomplices and enablers whose first instinct is to smooth out Fatty’s most vicious instincts and hide his malicious ruthlessness with namby-pamby mitigations.
The Fat Braggart boasts that he can accomplish anything in 24 hours, end wars, create new healthcare systems, fund infrastructure programs, build a walk that Mexico pays fir, probably cure cancer, if he’d put down a Big Mac. The fact is, he has never done anything. But Biden has. His involvement in negations between dock workers and port owners has ended a potentially crippling strike in not much more than 24 hours. (Somehow Trump will take credit for this, you just know he will).
That takes care of one major problem leading up the election, removing one big issue from the table that Fatty could use against Harris. But another problem could make things a lot worse. Netanyahu is ramping up hostility in the Middle East at an alarming rate, likrjy hoping it will help Trump win as well as keep his own ass out of jail. He knows Trump would let him bomb orphanages and not say a word.
The first sentence of the Rogers and Green piece in NYT reads, "It was an exercise in unsubtle and unlikely campaign optics: a Democratic vice president who is running for the presidency." I guess acknowledging a role for personal and political integrity would be a reach too far.
Kudos to that judge in Colorado who put that lying, scheming, election denier in jail. I heard her on the radio this morning whining and crying about how she did nothing wrong and lots of worse criminals don’t get nine years in the slammer.
Yeah. Sorry lady, some kid who steals a TV from Best Buy might not get nine years (although if he’s black he might get more) but he also doesn’t threaten the nation by trying to put a traitor back in the White House. Go get fitted for your DOC jumpsuit. I hear orange is the new black. Traitor.
But then I hear the reporter say “Ohhh…but this lady has powerful friends who don’t agree with her conviction...” Is that right? Who are these big cheese buddies?
“…Mike Lindell and Steve Bannon!”
Oh, right. Those guys. Well see, reporter person, one of those guys is losing his shirt in a defamation lawsuit. He recently got his ass kicked—hard—in a political debate. By a twelve year old. The other is in prison. Both are career liars.
Good luck, lady, with your big influential friends.
Klang! goes the jailhouse door.
Now that the dock workers strike is settled (or, postponed?) will all
of those retailers, who jacked up prices in anticipation of costs
going up, lower those prices to pre-strike anticipation prices?
You bet your ass they won't. Even stuff that doesn't come in through
ports gets the price jacked up. Why is butter suddenly $4.00 or
more per pound? Are the cows in Wisconsin on strike too?
My favorite word of late is 'greedflation'
@Forrest Morris: I probably buy butter once every six months (or less often), so I thought you must be wrong about the price of butter. Nope. In fact, you're getting a bargain at your local market. I'm seeing plain ole Land o' Lakes for $6.79/pound at my market. Even WalMart's store brand is $4.47/pound.
Politico
"DeSantis again skips meeting with Biden after hurricane hits state
Since recovery efforts began, DeSantis has sought to separate Florida’s response from the federal government, saying the state was able to move much faster. And early into his remarks on Thursday, DeSantis brought up the dockworkers strike that’s affecting ports in several states, including Florida, by listing off crucial supplies that would see disruptions — from medical equipment to vehicle parts, lumber and steel. He urged the Biden administration to “stand up for the storm victims” after ticking off actions Florida was taking.
“It really is incumbent upon the Biden-Harris administration to do everything in their power to ensure that these goods are where we need to be,” he said.
Thursday marked the second time DeSantis has opted out of meeting with Biden in Florida after a hurricane struck his state. Last year, he surprised the White House by announcing he would not take a visit with Biden after Hurricane Idalia hit the Big Bend, saying that surrounding security measures would be too disruptive for the recovery."
If someone did this to TFG he would fire up the hurricane machine to hit their state all over again. But Democrats don't need to have their egos stroked in order to do their jobs and help their fellow Americans.
Ego and arrogance rampant on the Right.
DeSantis and others (TFG leading the way, of course) don't hesitate to politicize natural disasters, like hurricanes, floods, wildfires and pandemics, acting as if even natural laws and Pacha Mama are all about them.
Re DeSantis' disdain of federal assistance with hurricane recovery, it is true that FL is really good at that business compared to other states, and needs less help in organizing and managing recovery. They have a lot of experience.
But they still want and need the federal emergency recovery money. DeSantis tries to make FL look "independent" of feds, but without that cash they could not do the fine job they do, and badmouthing the feds is just uncalled for. Everyone in the resilience effort, states, local, tribal, NGOs, regional groups, feds, gets involved as required and you will probably never hear DeSantis badmouth any of those players, except for feds, because his political line relies heavily on badmouthing "Washington" (which I remind is made of of people who are from everywhere except Washington, mostly).
It looks as if Rhonda is setting, um, themself up for a Bartlett debate quote: “Can we have it [that money] back?”
https://youtu.be/VyqzPu5pX6U?si=yQ2k-boivURLQkrV
A few not so random thoughts…
The other day, the AG Times ran a Sky is Falling for Harris piece about all the terrible problems she and Biden have to handle prior to the election, problems that could easily help the Fat Fascist.
The three biggies, the hurricane, the strike, and the increasing hostility in the Middle East, these are aside from the other so-called hot button issues of immigration, abortion, and the economy. The underlying assumption here is that Harris better get going cuz doesn’t she have the ability to fix all these problems? What’s the hold up?
Okay. The hurricane. No. She doesn’t have control over the weather. If you want to point fingers, point them at Republicans who have been fighting every effort to slow global warming at least since Reagan was falling asleep at meetings. But the Biden-Harris administration has been Johnny on the Spot in responding to the crisis, something the Times seems to have missed in favor of regurgitating Fatty’s lies about how no governors can get Biden on the phone.
The strike. Settled, at least for now. Did you guys see the Times headline giving Harris a big thumbs up for that? No? Me neither. If you’re gonna say “She needs to address this, or else!” on Monday, then you should be ready, in all honesty, to say “Hey, it’s fixed! Great job!” on Wednesday,
The Bibi Wars. No one controls this guy. Biden has been in a tough spot with this from the start, and Bibi knows it,
So…the J6 revelations. First of all, it’s important to understand that Jack Smith was forced to excise dozens of other examples of Trump’s criminality because the Trump Court made him a king. What’s left is still more than enough for a 20-30 year stint in federal prison, but there’s a looooot more out there Smith was forced to remove, like plotting with underlings in the Oval Office, phone calls demanding help from governors and Secretaries of State, etc.
This is still such an incredible episode in American history but it’s hardly ever mentioned anymore. Pollsters and Both Sides reporters are more interested in what MAGA voters think about immigrants eating Fluffy or their thoughts on the price of Spam. They also cannot give up their attacks on Harris for not “explaining her policy choices”.
(*sigh*) Yeah. Policy is important. In any other year, I’d say sure, let’s talk policy. But at the expense of keeping front and center what a danger to the nation the Orange Monster is? How he got people killed trying to overthrow the government? How he said “So what?” when told his Vice President was seconds away from being murdered?
Fuck. No.
Here’s the deal. The house is on fire. Choking smoke is coming under the bedroom doors. Flames are licking the ceiling. The attic is on fire. Do you sit down and decide whether to save the family photo album or your 1926 Martin 00-45 guitar? Or do you grab the kids and get the fuck out of the house?
Policy, schmolicy. Figure that shit out after you save your family from the house set ablaze by MAGA madness.
Just my opinion.
I bet Biden is super uneasy and unhappy and hurt and surprised at DeSatan's dissing him the second day in a row. Well, he always proves he has no manners, no gratitude, nothin' that makes him anything but an authoritarian, petty short emperor in go-go boots. In my opinion, FL should get none of my money, to add to the nonmoney they are getting by not ever visiting there again-- been six years now.
In other news, husband and I went downtown to the election office to turn in our completed ballots, and unless we got a parking ticket for parking in an official spot and not feeding the kiosk in the five minutes we were there, it was painless. We voted straight Dem and I knew every name I was voting for except state treasurer. I assume whoever is in that spot will be fine if a Democrat; usually the criminals are repugnican. We had one lady a few years back who lost her marbles, but she was removed. I don't think she stole anything.
On our way home we heard Chris Jansing (name?) trying to get someone to say that Kamala is still not doing enough kissing of the feet of press people...even though she is running against a total lunatic who can't finish a sentence...and Michael Steele, the ex-repug, took her to the cleaners. I was very proud of him.
Have a good weekend. I am trying to recover from more than a week of some unnamed virus that isn't Covid, flu or RSV (we got swabbed yesterday for all--) by coughing 24/7 and so on. I hope some things will get done. So glad we have already voted! Thanks to you all for the solace of good things to read and thus mute the nutzoid who shall remain nameless. And his allies.
Supreme Silence (for now):
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-declines-block-biden-rules-planet-warming-methane-toxic-rcna172289
And anyone who wants to complain about putting in depth policy discussions on the back burner for the nonce, think about this: there are scores of Republicans, many of whom worked in the Trump administration, who are now supporting Kamala Harris.
This includes Darth Cheney himself. Almost to a person, these people have pointed out that while they have differences of opinion with Harris, not a one has demanded, or requested, policy adjustments on her part in exchange for their support, the sort of political bartering that goes back probably to when proto humans were hitting each other over the head for access to the nearest water hole.
They are all scared shitless—ESPECIALLY—anyone who was in a room with him hearing his private thoughts, that this monster might get back into the White House.
The house is on fire. Worry about policy later.
Picking up on Ken’s link to more Supreme Court bullshit, there’s a death penalty case in Oklahoma that will at some point come before the court. It appears clear that prosecutors railroaded the defendant and the state AG wants to give him a new trial even though he is on death row. But if I were this guy, I’d be making out my will, because this court is run by vindictive fuckers.
Even though they demand every consideration for their own criminal missteps and suggest it would be ridiculous not to give them a do over and forget about the whole thing, where others are concerned it’s “Off with their heads!”
Question to Trump: What's the difference between stupidity and
apathy.
Trump's answer: I don't know and I don't care.
Yup, I meant D'Evil dissed Biden several years (not days) in a row. Okay, virushead out...
So MTG (as in “I’ll have one moron to go”) thinks Kamala Harris can control the weather? Exactly how, Marge?
“Oof! Donnerwetter! Mit der Jewish space lasers, ja?”
Media: Yes, there is smoke and flames and the apartment may be on fire. And we already know that the orange guy from next door is tossing gasoline on the fire, but he has been doing that for years now wherever he goes so it's not a big deal. What really matters Mrs Harris and what the whole neighborhood is dying to know is what do you plan to make for dinner tomorrow night? And will you *cough* *cough* stop talking about the building being on fire SO much. It's a real buzzkill.
Okay, Kids, this will really blow your minds.
I just heard a segment on the NPR show Science Friday with a researcher in political science, Dr. Jon Krosnick, director of the Political Psychology Research Group at Stanford University.
This is nuts. According to Dr. Krosnick, a thousand studies have shown that the candidate listed first on a ballot gets an average 2-3% advantage. In 2000, when the Supreme Court stopped voting in Florida to award the presidency to Dumbo Dubya, his name was first on all ballots in Florida. Had he been listed second, Gore could have been the clear winner even though Scalia and company stopped the vote count.
In 2016, in nearly every battleground state that Fatty won, his name was listed first. In some cases the margin of victory was far less than 2%.
This is wild, but it depends on the low information idiots who vote and don’t know or care who they vote for; they’re influenced by the first name they see.
I don’t know if PoT apparatchiks in battleground states are aware of this research, but I’m guessing it would be their choice to put Fatty Hitler Boy’s name first no matter what.
Two to three percent? Fuckin’ hell!
https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/election-campaign-psychology/#segment-transcript
Jeanne,
Take care of yourself. Get better. And vote again. (Only kidding, but don’t be surprised if we both get subpoenaed by Jim&Gym, morons LLC.)
NPR
"Politically charged rumors and conspiracy theories about Helene flourish on X
Twitter was useful for disaster response, X less so"
Thanks, AK-- Advil Cold and Sinus, the magic pill. I read again tonight something you often do: use phrases my mom used, although she was a Wisconsin kid, but born in West Virginia. You said "for the nonce" which she said a lot, and I should have collected those through the years, because you have done that quite a few times! Thank you-- she is long gone and was long gone before she was long gone...