Jeffrey Clark, the former Justice Department attorney who became a central figure in Donald Trump’s bid to seize a second term he didn’t win, should be suspended from practicing law for two years, a Washington, D.C., disciplinary panel ruled Thursday.
It looks like The Infinite Thread reached its quota of 500 comments, and rolled over to start anew with comment #1.
For the convenience of readers, here are a few links back to the previous group of 500 comments:
The U.S. Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against TikTok and its parent company ByteDance on Friday, alleging that the company repeatedly violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.
One of the predictable, yet striking, aspects of the right’s periodic embrace of election denialism is that those who espouse it only see problems when they lose. That dynamic played out again this week.
Election deniers such as former gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and former secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem won big in Arizona’s Republican primaries on Tuesday night, and readily accepted the results of that election. Yet if things don’t go their way in November, experts told TPM, expect to see them unleash another torrent of conspiracy theories questioning the legitimacy and security of the state’s election system.
[…] “It’s quite possible that Arizona will see further efforts to delegitimize their elections if some of these candidates lose,” David Becker, the executive director and founder of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation and Research, told TPM. “We see the former president continuing to spread lies about our elections and election officials all over the country continue to prepare for the possibility that a secure, transparent, independently verified election will be attacked and that supporters of the loser will be incited.”
A number of election deniers won key GOP primary races. Most notably, Lake — who has continually questioned the integrity and legitimacy of the 2020 and 2022 elections and refused to concede her gubernatorial loss — was chosen as the Republican senate nominee. […]
Two days after Vice President Kamala Harris entered the race for the White House, Donald Trump said that he would “absolutely” face her in a debate. In fact, he told reporters he was “willing to do more than one debate actually.”
But that attitude didn’t survive a week in which Harris hit the ground running, raising huge amounts of funds and enthusiastic volunteers. Only two days after Trump said “absolutely,” he produced excuses for why he wouldn’t debate Harris. He wouldn’t, he said, because former President Barack Obama was “holding out for someone ‘better.’” But that excuse came less than a day before both Barack and Michelle Obama gave their full endorsements to Harris.
Harris then challenged Trump again, telling him to “say it to my face” by joining her in a debate. But Trump’s campaign only redrew the line, saying he wouldn’t agree to debate her because she wasn’t the Democratic nominee. It was a ridiculous argument then, and it’s even more ridiculous now that Harris has officially secured the delegates to be the nominee.
But on Friday, Trump went on Fox Business Network to give an excuse so twisted that just reading it may cause brain damage.
Speaking with host Maria Bartiromo, Trump first claimed that he wanted to debate Harris—only that’s when it gets weird.
“Well, I want to. And we’re leading in the polls it seems by quite a bit still,” Trump claimed. “She’s better than he is, but I think ultimately she’ll be worse than him.”
Presumably, this means that Harris is both better and worse than President Joe Biden in some way known only to Trump. But that’s far from the worst of what he had to say. Noting that Biden’s team had challenged him to an earlier debate, Trump made an astute observation.
“If I didn’t do the debate, they’d say, ‘Oh Trump’s not doing the debate.’ It’s the same thing they’ll say now,” Trump said.
When he’s right, he’s right: If he doesn’t do the debate, people will say he’s not doing the debate. You know, because he will not be doing the debate. But Trump at least seems to be done providing any excuse except that he doesn’t think a debate would be good for him.
“I mean right now I say, why should I do a debate?” Trump said. “I’m leading in the polls. And, everybody knows her, everybody knows me.”
He wants to debate. Except … why should he? That might be a valid response for someone miles ahead, but that’s not where things stand now.
The latest Civiqs poll puts Harris ahead of Trump 49% to 45% among registered voters nationwide. A new Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll shows Harris surging to a massive lead in Michigan. Harris has even taken the lead over Trump on the online betting platform PredictIt. And currently, 538’s national polling average has Harris marginally ahead of Trump, with her at 45.0% and him at 43.6%. All the momentum is in her direction.
Whatever polls Trump’s handlers are showing him are no doubt cherry-picked, because out in the real world, he is no longer enjoying a comfortable lead. What’s left when all the excuses are wiped away is the simple truth: Trump is afraid.
As Reuters reports, the Democratic National Committee is launching new ads that are holding Trump’s cowardice up for all to see. Those ads, which launched on Friday, taunt Trump over his refusal to debate. The digital ads are targeted at homepages of news outlets in states where Trump has planned upcoming rallies, so voters in the area will get a fresh reminder that he’s afraid to face off with Harris. They deliver a simple message: “the convicted felon is afraid to debate.”
Former President Donald Trump is still partly barred from speaking about his New York criminal trial after an appeals court decision denied his attempt to lift the gag order.
On Thursday, a New York appeals panel decided to uphold the remainder of the gag order, which bars Trump from speaking about prosecutors, court staff or their families. Trump’s lawyers had requested the gag order be lifted this time in order to campaign against Vice President Harris.
[…]
Trump has spent his time on the campaign trail arguing, without evidence, that the trial and conviction was politically motivated against him. Speaking at rallies across the country, he has criticized Democratic judges like Merchan who have overseen his various lawsuits.
Several Republican allies have followed suit in accusing prosecutors of having political motivations.
On Thursday, House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, sent a letter to Lorena Merchan, Judge Merchan’s daughter, to turn over documents related to her role with the Harris Campaign, communication about the trial and the Biden campaign, and any related communications with her father.
birgerjohanssonsays
KG @ 6
The riots are caused by fake news disseminated by social media. There are already laws in place for stopping violent groups (mainly, football hooligans) from travelling by train and this will be used to stop the fascists from congregating at new targets.
There are also laws in place against spreading lies that result in violence – wether the authorities dare use them remains unknown, as this would mean going after members of Neil Farage’s group, some of them sitting in parliament.
If Farage or Anderson suffer actual consequences they will yell “Help, help, I am being oppressed! and rely on support from ultra-conservative newspapers.
A study in coexistence.
The rottweiler is already familiar with the cat, so they get along great. The panther is very shy around the cat, despite being ten times bigger. If Mericans got along like this 90% of your problems would be solved.
What makes Vance’s transformation so breathtaking an example of the Faustian bargain is how extensively we can document the values he once championed. Perhaps he never actually held them, and only decried racism, homophobia, and Trump because he is a chameleon who assumes the moral colors of the people surrounding him. Yet Vance’s exchanges with Nelson—someone with whom he seems to have once shared a genuinely close and caring friendship—suggest otherwise. A spokesman responding to the New York Times piece (and carefully avoiding using Nelson’s pronouns) insisted, unconvincingly, that Vance wishes Nelson well, but that his values “from a decade ago began to change after becoming a dad and starting a family.” More likely it was the materialization of an orange-skinned emissary at his elbow, offering him a chance at leading the free world. All Vance had to do was sign on the dotted line.
John Moralessays
“At 3.20 a video starts with Trump being his racist self”
Off the rails, of course. :)
Bekenstein Boundsays
Lynna@499 (previous page):
The United States is preparing to send additional combat aircraft to the Middle East in response to threats from Iran and its proxies in Gaza, Lebanon and Yemen to attack Israel in the coming days to avenge the death of Ismail Haniyeh this week, American officials said on Friday.
And tick goes the doomsday clock, several more milliseconds closer to midnight …
In the shallow tropical reefs off Palau lie […] four-foot-long shells […] sparkly blue flesh […] “The fact that nobody could explain why a clam was iridescent really just stuck with me,” […] the animals’ fleshy mantles reflect as little as about 5 percent of the bright sunlight hitting them.
The rest of the incoming light is absorbed, and much of it is channeled to photosynthetic algae that the clams cultivate within their body as a food source. And absorbing around 95 percent of incoming light is a remarkably strong basis for photosynthesis
[…]
Sweeney’s team modeled this system and calculated that its theoretical efficiency at the first step of photosynthesis, during which chlorophyll absorbs a single photon […] 67 percent efficiency.
The riots are caused by fake news disseminated by social media.
Which fake news are you talking about? There were false claims in the immediate aftermath of the three young children being murdered in a mass stabbing that the perpetrator was a Muslim asylum seeker who had entered the country illegally, but it has been widely publicised that the suspect is a British-born 17-year-old of Rwandan heritage (hence almost certainly raised Christian, although of course he could be a Muslim, atheist or anything else), and that there is no evidence of a terrorist motive. So anyone still claiming to believe he’s a Muslim asylum-seeker and illegal immigrant is also claiming the authorities are lying. But in any case, it’s clear that fascists have simply used the murders as a pretext, and that more responsibility lies with the wider fake news and Islamophobic bigotry spread not just by “Tommy Robinson” (Stephen Yaxley-Lennon), Nigel Farage, Laurence Fox and Lee Anderson, but by the previous Tory government, and not just in social media but in the right-wing press and broadcast media, and on the BBC.
There are already laws in place for stopping violent groups (mainly, football hooligans) from travelling by train and this will be used to stop the fascists from congregating at new targets.
There are also laws in place against spreading lies that result in violence
Exactly: the police have all the powers they need, but the riots will be used to justify the widespread use of real-time face recognition technology, and probably the introduction of new laws which can and will be used against peaceful demonstrations and civil disobedience.
KGsays
I’ve been subjecting the Olympics as far as possible to a complete ignoral, as I always do, but I haven’t altogether avoided the kerfuffle over women boxers who have been allowed to compete although previously excluded by the International Boxing Association (IBA) for “failing to meet gender eligibility criteria”. The two boxers concerned are cisgender, assigned female at birth and raised as girls, but this apparently hasn’t stopped scum such as Elon Musk and J.K. Rowling attacking them. There are unconfirmed reports that the two boxers, who have been competing internationally for some time, have high testosteron levels and possibly XY chromosomes. At any rate, the disagreement between the IOC and IBA over their eligibilty indicates that it may not be as easy as transphobes like to think to come up with a simple “biological” definition of “woman”, and that attacks on transgender women will inevitably damage cisgender women who fail to conform to gender stereotypes in appearance or behaviour. Who knew, apart from anyone who was prepared to pay attention to the science of human sexual development?
StevoRsays
@ ^ KG ; TYT has This 20 mins long clip on that – Right-Wingers UNLEASH Misinfo Over Olympic Boxer Imane Khelifm here if that’s what I think it is. Aware of Imane Khelifa’s case at least here – she isn’t even trans altho’ she might be, possibly, intersex? Born and grew up as a ciswoman and from Algeria wher ebing trasn is apparently illegal so this might be putting her life in danger even. Otherwise seems like echoes of Caster Semenya all over again, sigh. Another Olympic nontroversy and deliberately manufactured outrage from the reichwing to go along with the Christianist whiny bulldust about an Opening Ceremony Act that depicted a Greek mythology painting being instead confused mistakenly as being about the Last Supper. .
StevoRsays
@ 19. KG : Ah, hadn’t heard about the Taiwanese boxer – Lin Yu-ting here yet :
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has proposed to debate the US vice-president Kamala Harris in the lead-up to November’s election. In a post on Mr Trump’s social media platform Truth Social late on Friday US time, he said he would debate Ms Harris on Fox News on September 4.Mr Trump said the rules would be similar to the first debate with President Joe Biden, who has since dropped his re-election bid.Although, he said the second debate would have a “full arena audience” and take place in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. The Harris campaign has not confirmed the debate.
Yes, I am aware of the irony of using footage from a pocast belonging to a newspaper that supported a jingoist, lawless government.
.
Non-malign target shooting enthusiasts in Australia (where they have strict gun laws).
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump claimed late Friday night to have struck a deal for a new debate with Vice President Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee.
In a social media post late Friday, Trump claimed he and Harris had agreed to debate on Sept. 4 on Fox News. Trump said his previous commitment to a debate on Sept. 10 hosted by ABC News was “terminated” because Biden dropped out as the Democratic candidate.
Harris’s team was baffled by Trump’s claims. The Harris campaign said Saturday that there is no agreement for a new Fox News debate on Sept. 4. A person familiar with the matter, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning, said the campaign held no negotiations with Trump or Fox about a new debate. Fox representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
[…]
Trump’s post on Friday said the purported deal would feature rules similar to June’s debate with Biden “BUT WITH A FULL ARENA AUDIENCE!”
Great idea. A Fox News crowd can cheer on Trump and shout down Harris.
@4 Lynna, OM & @27 tomh: The whole thing demonstrates just how afraid Trump is to appear to not be in a position of power. He has a perfectly good excuse here, he could say his original agreement was to debate Biden and when Biden stepped down there was no agreement any more. Then Trump could say he sees no reason to debate Kamala because she is already a second place replacement candidate. But to take that line he has to admit he is rejecting Kamala’s call to debate and not taking up her challenge. Given his reaction at the time and what he has done after it fully appears that he just can’t stand taking a position that isn’t him dominating his female opponent.
The world’s richest weirdo, Elon Musk, is reportedly collecting data from prospective swing state voters under the guise of helping them register to vote. CNBC reports that a series of (weird!) digital ads funded by Musk’s America PAC promises to quickly help register people to vote.
However, where the would-be voter lives dictates whether or not they actually get that assistance.
After entering an email address and a zip code, users are redirected to one of two pages. Residents of an electorally non-competitive state (such as California or Iowa) are thanked “for taking the first step” toward becoming a voter and directed to their state’s official voter registration portal.
People from potential swing states—like Michigan, Arizona, or Pennsylvania—are instead presented with an involved questionnaire, asking for personal details such as their address, age, and phone number.
Popular Science staffers filled out the form, and were redirected to “a page that simply reads, ‘Thank you for taking the first step to register to vote … Please complete the form below and we will help you complete your registration.’ At the time of writing, there is no actual form underneath that message.”
As CNBC’s Brian Schwarz puts it, “In the end, they got no help at all registering. But they did hand over priceless personal data to a political operation.” And thanks to the form’s privacy policy, America PAC “can use the data they’ve collected on ‘other activities and/or fundraising campaigns.’”
Musk’s new super PAC is collecting swing state data to be shared, and used later in service of the Trump campaign’s door-to-door canvassing efforts. According to Schwarz, America PAC spent $21 million on canvassing, digital media, text message services, and phone calls since June.
According to The New York Times, a recent Federal Election Commission advisory opinion “makes it legally permissible for super PACs to coordinate directly on field-organizing.”
Of course, Musk isn’t the only sketchy PACman out there these days. As Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas wrote on Wednesday, scammy PACs are out in force this year, and they’re basically legal—so be careful.
And if you, or someone you know, needs to register to vote, go to Vote.org. It’s a government website that does exactly what America PAC promises to do—no matter where you live.
JM @29, yes. Trump is still looking for a way to dominate Kamala Harris. He is failing and flailing.
Trump’s constantly changing demands regarding a potential debate/Trump rally remind me of the ways in which extremist House Republicans insert poison pills into a bill that would otherwise pass. Trump is really just looking for a way out of debating Kamala, a way that will allow him to blame her.
Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has reportedly been skimping on its on-the-ground voter turnout component, because such an operation costs money and his latest check from the Egyptian government is probably going towards Orange Julius’s astounding legal bills anyway.
But that does not mean someone else cannot step up, which is why […] Elon Musk started a super PAC, creatively named The America PAC, to take up some of the slack. Which, as CNBC reports, he is doing through a very weird and scuzzy effort that basically tricks people into turning over personal info, which will then be used later for … something. Voter canvassing? Intimidation campaigns? Prank pizza deliveries? It’s unclear, and we’ll get to why in a minute.
But first, this ad, as described by CNBC:
The ad shows a young man lying in bed late at night when someone else texts him, “Hey you need to vote,” and then sends the man a video of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. The man can hear the gunshots and people screaming in the background.
As Trump is rushed off stage with blood pouring down his face, the man watching the video types in response, “This is out of control. How do I start?”
The ad then displays a website for a group called America PAC.
Damn, we wish someone would text us something that hot when we’re lying in bed late at night.
The ad directs the viewer to the America PAC website, which has a button reading “Register to Vote.” Push the button and you will be directed to enter an email address and your zip code. If your zip code places you in a noncompetitive state like California, you will be automatically directed to that state’s voter registration page. Simple!
But if the zip code is from a battleground state such as Pennsylvania or Michigan, the site directs you to a page that asks for additional basic information (name, address, email, phone number). So you fill in that form, push the giant green “Proceed” button, and …
Nothing. You get taken to a page reading “Thank You.” That’s it.
You might think that you are now registered to vote, but in truth, the America PAC site has not helped you register to vote at all. It has however hoovered up your personal information for unknown purposes. A lawyer on Bluesky put in info for a voter in Georgia; he got back this gobbledygook: [Screen grab at the link]
But of course no info had been submitted to Georgia at all.
The America PAC claims it is focusing on door-to-door canvassing for voters. What it does not do is identify itself as being one giant data harvesting operation for the Trump campaign.
Now the PAC has lists of addresses to which it can send canvassers and door-knockers for Trump. It can inundate them with campaign literature pushing them to vote for Trump. It can coordinate all this activity with the Trump campaign. It is basically an outsourced get-out-the-vote operation that costs the Trump campaign nothing. All while its website specifically says it is “not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.”
Of course the America PAC has not accomplished the one most important step, the one its entire website process allegedly exists to complete: It has not actually registered any of the people at that address to vote. But the voter won’t actually know that until he shows up at his polling place on Election Day. So if he or she is a Democrat-leaning voter who has ignored all Trump canvassers and campaign literature, well, bummer, but the PAC has just made it harder for them to vote.
We are not campaign lawyers, but this sounds awfully fraudy to us.
The Harris campaign was baffled by Trump’s claims that he had struck a deal for a new debate on Fox. Washington Post link
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump claimed late Friday night to have struck a deal for a new debate with Vice President Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee.
But the Harris campaign said Saturday that she never agreed to a new debate deal. Harris is urging Trump to keep the debate date he agreed on with President Biden before Biden withdrew from the race last month.
In a social media post late Friday, Trump claimed he and Harris had agreed to debate on Sept. 4 on Fox News.
Trump said his previous commitment to a debate on Sept. 10 hosted by ABC News was “terminated” because Biden dropped out as the Democratic candidate.
Harris’s team was baffled by Trump’s claims. The Harris campaign said Saturday that there is no agreement for a new Fox News debate on Sept. 4. A person familiar with the matter, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning, said the campaign held no negotiations with Trump or Fox about a new debate.
Harris spokesman Michael Tyler said the campaign would discuss additional debates after the one Trump already agreed to. He said Harris will attend the Sept. 10 forum whether Trump shows up or not.
“Donald Trump is running scared and trying to back out of the debate he already agreed to and running straight to Fox News to bail him out,” Tyler said. “Mr. Anytime, anywhere, anyplace should have no problem with that unless he’s too scared to show up on the 10th,” he added, referring to language Trump previously used to pressure Biden into agreeing to a faceoff. […]
Got up this morning, checked my home page and saw this, in the list of New York Times stories: “Trump Says He Will Debate Harris”
Hmmm…why is this a front-page story? Trump already agreed to a debate — September 10, ABC, no audience, etc. So I went to the NYT home page and clicked on the article:
TRUMP PROPOSES A FOX NEWS DEBATE WITH HARRIS ON SEPTEMBER 4
According to Mr. Trump’s post on social media, the debate would take place in Pennsylvania, a crucial battleground state.
Former President Donald J. Trump said late Friday that he agreed with Fox News to debate Vice President Kamala Harris on Sept. 4, a proposal that has not yet been accepted by the Harris campaign. If it happens, it would be the second presidential debate this election cycle and the first between Mr. Trump and the new Democratic candidate.
According to Mr. Trump’s post on his social media site, Truth Social, the debate would take place at a to-be-determined location in Pennsylvania, one of the most consequential battleground states. Fox News anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum would moderate.
Omigod. I’m no genius. I’ve worked as a journalist, but never at an ‘elite’ publication like the New York Times. But even I know what a wrong-headed, partisan bunch of made-up garbage this story is.
Here’ how any Journalism 1A student would have reported this story:
TRUMP BACKS OUT OF AGREED-TO DEBATE WITH HARRIS
Floats “Poison Pill” Debate with Trump-Friendly Fox News, Knowing Harris Won’t Agree.
Former President and yet-to-be sentenced convicted felon Donald J. Trump decided to break his agreement to debate Democratic nominee Kamala Harris on September 10 on ABC. Without consulting or negotiating with the Harris campaign, Trump and Fox News proposed a debate on September 4 in Pennsylvania.
Sources close to both candidates, speaking on deep background, acknowledged that this proposal was an obvious “poison pill” designed to elicit a quick thumbs-down from the Harris campaign. One Trump insider said, “This does two things for Trump. He doesn’t have to face Harris in the debate he agreed to, and he gets to say that Harris is afraid to debate him.”
[Yes! That’s how I see Trump’s ploy.]
When did the New York Times become a shameless, all-in propaganda bullhorn for the Trump campaign? How could they get a simple story like this so completely wrong? The article mentions the agreed-upon debate in paragraph 12 (of 13). And consider paragraph 3:
It was unclear early Saturday whether Ms. Harris had agreed to the debate and its terms. Representatives of her campaign did not respond to requests for comment. A spokeswoman for Fox News also did not respond to questions.
‘Scuse me?? “It was unclear whether Ms. Harris had agreed to the debate…” Dear New York Times — there’s this thing called ‘reporting.’ Kamala Harris has NOT agreed to this debate, because Don the Con, Aspiring Weirdo-In-Chief, made it up out of whole cloth and got his toadies at Fox News to get on board.
Who is approving these stories? Who is writing them? How can they flip the truth 180 degrees? Do they think none of their readers are noticing? Do they think Trump’s going to win, and, if so, he won’t put the NYT staff and reporters in one of his refugee concentration camps?
Why don’t they just make it official and have a line at the end of the story, “I’m Donald Trump, and I approved this message”?
UPDATE — The NYT, no doubt responding to reader outrage, has changed the story to something resembling reality:
TRUMP BACKS OUT OF ABC DEBATE AND PROPOSES ONE WITH HARRIS ON FOX
According to Mr. Trump’s post on social media, the previously scheduled debate to be hosted by ABC News was “terminated” once President Biden dropped out of the race.
(Paragraph 4) The Harris campaign on Saturday declined to commit to the Fox News debate and said it was still planning on a Sept. 10 debate hosted by ABC.
Josh Marshall:
The Times has a piece on Trump’s unilateral debate ploy which takes the whole thing at face value, says “unclear” if Harris has agreed to it yet barely mentions the ABC debate Trump just pulled out of but follows his line of criticism against it.
It’s been lost in the insane tumult of the past month of politics, but one of the most important questions to be decided in the upcoming election has to do with what it means to be an American citizen. The U.S. stands out by how it defines its people — your ancestry doesn’t matter; as long as you’re born here, you’re a citizen.
Trump, per Project 2025, wants to undo that. The end of birthright citizenship would likely proceed first via an executive order (as Trump has promised), and would then be challenged in the courts. The lawsuit would work its way up to the Supreme Court, whose Republican majority would then be presented with the opportunity to write birthright citizenship out of the 14th Amendment.
I wrote this week about the Claremont Institute and its fervent support for Sen. JD Vance (R-OH). […] Claremont happens to be a hotbed of opposition to birthright citizenship. On Thursday, former Trump NSC official and Claremont fellow Michael Anton published an article about his own advocacy for ending birthright citizenship, and what he regards as unjustified attacks that he’s received from the press for doing so.
For Claremont, these arguments are part of a broader project that regards the past several decades as a radical break with the founding traditions of American government. That belief is what propels Claremont officials to make wild and inflammatory claims, and what underpins proposals that lead critics to describe it as a policy lab for authoritarianism. Birthright citizenship fits in the same vein: shut it all down, and return us to the American mindset of the 19th century.
birgerjohanssonsays
World culture suffers a huge loss: Aerosmith is retiring.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said Saturday that he will no longer appear at a previously scheduled debate on Sept. 10 and will only debate Vice President Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee, if she agrees to his terms: a debate on Sept. 4, hosted by Fox News, with a “full arena audience.”
…But Trump said Saturday that if Harris does not agree to the new format on Fox News, he would refuse to debate altogether…
“It’s interesting how ‘any time, any place’ becomes ‘one specific time, one specific safe space,’” Harris posted on X on Saturday, referring to Trump’s comments during debate negotiations with Biden. “I’ll be there on September 10th, like he agreed to. I hope to see him there.”
the union representing thousands of scientists and engineers at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) signed a new contract that includes protections for government workers who stand up for scientific integrity. A similar provision was included in a union contract at the US Department of Agriculture last year, and negotiators for the union representing more than 5,000 early-career scientists at the National Institutes of Health are following suit.
[…]
Workers at the EPA learnt their lesson during the first Trump administration, which imposed a contract with fewer protections […] In negotiating its contract with the Biden administration, the union secured a clause on scientific integrity for the first time. As it now stands, any disputes about scientific integrity or alleged retaliation against scientists who speak out would be heard by an independent arbiter outside the agency. And if a potential Trump administration tried to repeal the contract, Cantello says, the union would have legal recourse to challenge that decision, too.
tomhsays
More on debate. Trump did not agree to debate Biden as he claims. It would be nice if this were more widely reported.
WaPo:
The qualification terms for the ABC debate that Trump had previously agreed to did not specify the names of the candidates. To be eligible to attend the debate, candidates had to reach at least 15 percent support in four separate national polls of registered or likely voters, ABC said when it released its requirements in May.
How War In Ukraine is De-Rusifying Baltic States
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=MNlWeul1IYA
I can see this is hard on russian-speaking people who were born inside the baltic states but the collective trauma of Soviet occupation makes a backlash towards Russian influence inevitable.
Google DeepMind crushed several Olympiad problems, solving one problem in a mere 19 seconds. But is AI ready to [sic] human mathematicians? Not quite. There are important caveats you need to know.
@13 John Morales wrote about: jd-vance-trump-devil-soul-faust-book.html
I reply: John, you’ve probably seen the tie in with PZ’s new post: https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/08/03/blood-quantum-is-back-baby/
A host on Mike Lindell’s television network called on Vice President Kamala Harris to take a DNA test to prove a demonic spirit wasn’t prompting her to say she was Black.
And, now for a silly break:
I had a friend who mixed Schnapps with rum and called it demonic spirits.
And, thinking about John’s post: the devil you say!
Stay sane people, with the lunacy all around us, I dare you.
President Joe Biden isn’t accepting the idea that he’s a lame duck president. He continues to build on his already impressive record with actions and ideas to help the American people. He’s also setting up Kamala Harris for potential presidential success, which could end up being the most profound part of his legacy.
The most recent incredible success from Biden and his team is securing the release of two Americans detained in Russia, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, a corporate security executive from Michigan. Alsu Kurmasheva, a journalist working for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Washington Post opinions contributor, are also being released as part of the deal. [snipped more details]
At home, Biden is committed to seeing through his student loan debt relief plans. The administration sent out emails to borrowers Wednesday, letting them know that some—or in some cases, all—of their debt will be canceled this fall when his executive order is fully implemented, and explaining how they can benefit. That’s relief for about 30 million borrowers, according to the White House.
“Despite attempts led by Republican elected officials to block our efforts, we won’t stop fighting to provide relief to student loan borrowers, fix the broken student loan system, and help borrowers get out from under the burden of student debt,” Biden said.
Biden also developed a sweeping plan for combatting housing costs and out-of-control rent inflation. It’s an ambitious proposal, giving corporate landlords a choice: “either cap rent increases on existing units at 5% or risk losing current valuable federal tax breaks.” That last part would take Congress’s help. The action he can, and is, taking on his own is ordering agencies to inventory federal lands that can be repurposed “to build tens of thousands of affordable homes.”
Biden’s Department of Housing and Urban Development just announced $325 million in Choice Neighborhoods grants, which will be used to “build over 6,500 units of new housing, support small businesses, build childcare centers and new parks, and will be used to leverage more than $2.65 billion in additional public and private investments in these neighborhoods.” Choice Neighborhoods is a HUD initiative to revitalize struggling neighborhoods into mixed-income housing.
In another family-friendly action, Biden is fighting to keep airlines from price-gouging families. He’s proposing a ban on the extra fees airlines charge parents to sit with their children.
“The idea that parents ought to be seated next to their own children on a flight is common sense and also seems like something that ought to be standard practice,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told reporters in announcing the action.
Biden is also looking to future-proof against the potential dangers of AI technology with an order directing every federal agency and department that could be affected to create standards and regulations overseeing AI—that’s everything from health care to housing to national security.
[…] The Biden administration is also galvanized to step up the fight against fentanyl, with Biden on Wednesday directing all related federal agencies to coordinate actions to stop the flow of the drug.
[…] Biden is not going to rest on his already impressive laurels, and he’s clearing the way for Harris and—voters willing—a future Democratic House and Senate to keep his vision for America alive.
A new study shows that undocumented immigrants paid nearly $100 billion in federal, state and local tax revenue in 2022 while many are shut out of the programs their taxes fund. The findings run counter to anti-immigrant rhetoric that undocumented immigrants are “destroying” social programs.
In 40 states, undocumented immigrants paid higher tax rates than the top 1% of the income scale in those states, according to a study released Tuesday from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning, nonprofit think tank.
The study, which uses estimates of undocumented immigrants’ tax contributions as of 2022, shows those totaled $96.7 billion that year. Study authors also found that undocumented immigrants would contribute $40.2 billion more per year in federal, state and local taxes if all of the undocumented population had access to work authorization. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy reasoned that this boost would come from higher wages associated with employment authorization and easier compliance with income tax laws.
The report also shed further light on the tax revenue provided by undocumented immigrants on the state and local level. Undocumented immigrants are paying 46% of their state and local tax payments through sales and excise taxes. Six states—New Jersey, New York, California, Florida, Texas, and Illinois—were able to raise more than $1 billion each in tax revenue from undocumented immigrants, the nonprofit said.
Undocumented immigrants pay property taxes and sales taxes, and federal payroll taxes taken from their wages, as well as income tax returns using Individual Taxpayer Identification numbers. Despite those payroll taxes funding Medicare, Social Security, and Unemployment Insurance, undocumented immigrants are not eligible to enroll in and receive regular benefits from these social programs. […]
[…] Alexis Tsoukalas, senior policy analyst at Florida Policy Institute, a nonprofit focused on economic mobility for Floridians, told reporters on Monday that she was struck by how much the state collected from undocumented immigrants in taxes compared to the wealthiest in the state. The current tax rate for undocumented immigrants in Florida is 8% compared to the top 1% of the state at 2.7%.
“This means hundreds of thousands of everyday people are contributing more than their share to public services they cannot even access meanwhile those with the most to give and the most to benefit contribute the least,” Tsoukalas said.
[…] Policy experts also pointed to a labor shortage—8.1 million job openings and 6.8 million unemployed workers—as a reason to embrace the economic contributions of undocumented immigrants. South Dakota, North Dakota, Maryland, Vermont, Maine, and South Carolina are some of the states facing the greatest labor shortages, according to a Washington Post analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
“Immigrants are already filling that [labor] gap and if we have mass deportations where millions of immigrants are torn from their family members and the country they have made home, we will not only have the human impact of this but we’ll have a severe effect on the economy and available workforce,” said Vimo of the National Immigration Law Center, a group that focuses on racial, economic and social justice for low-income immigrants.
John Moralessays
shermanj @45, I have indeed.
Similar suspicions (warranted) in Australian news (ABC Australia):
Looks suspiciously like taxation without representation to me.
Here’s a modest proposal: Why not get rid of immigration status and citizenship altogether, in favor of a simple residency rule: if you live full time (or over 50%-time) in a place, and have had for at least six months (or whatever), you get the full benefits of citizenship: you can vote, you can apply for social programs, and so forth. If you life there at all you can work there.
In short, you live somewhere, you get a say in how it’s run. You work there, or you live there and are needy, you get to share in the benefits your neighbors get.
I’m sure there’ll be all sorts of “buh-buh-freeloaders! Wut about terrorism? etc” type responses from the right, and centrists, but I doubt that will end up being much of a problem. People want to contribute. If they can do so without being horrendously exploited they will do so rather than sit idle, for the most part … aside from those raised with giant entitlement chips on their shoulders, who tend to already be freeloaders with massive inherited wealth anyway. Most people just want an honest job (that they’ll do honestly, and that will be honest to them), a roof, and three square meals a day, and as such they add as much to supply as to demand, if there are jobs for them. And if there aren’t, then obviously we’re overproducing, and either can afford to feed a few “freeloaders” or ought to cut back on the overproduction to save the damn planet.
And, of course, who even among those not making money is not typically contributing in some way, to the community fabric or to the local arts scene or straight up unpaid labor like the “second shift”? My guess is that outside of the ranks of the obscenely rich and the most profoundly disabled (and the latter can’t help it) you won’t find a single damn freeloader anywhere.
In July, Tortoise Media released the four-part podcast […] that outlined two women’s allegations against him. On Thursday, a fifth episode […] detailed two more women’s accusations, one of whom allegedly signed a non-disclosure agreement […] Despite the NDA, Wallner came forward after hearing Tortoise’s earlier allegations against Gaiman. “The fact they were the same age as my daughters now was painful to hear,” she said.
[…] A third woman, using the pseudonym Claire, spoke out about her experience with Gaiman on a separate podcast titled “Am I Broken: Survivor Stories,” […] when they spoke on the phone [“]His apology felt so genuine. He told me he had no idea […] He said he was glad that I told him so he could learn.” […] Claire said she felt content with the call until other women spoke up about their alleged experiences with the author, which made her realize that Gaiman’s behavior was not isolated.
(2:42, Host): common for sexualized violations unfortunately is that you approached me in June of 2022 and had been speaking with some reporters at that time about coming forward, and they were basically like, “Yeah it’s gross but it’s not really a story.” Which is kinda fucked up.
[…]
(Claire): That message I got across the board was that what happened to me wasn’t enough to establish a pattern of behavior. […] It broke my heart hearing how one of the victims, Scarlet, had been googling “Neil Gaiman sexual assault” when she was trying to piece together what had happened to her cuz I did the same thing. For years I felt so alone back then, and I don’t want any of his victims to feel that way ever again.
(14:45, Claire): I looked at my notes from the phone call […] He said, “This is why I always kept fans at arms length.” I wrote that down initially because I found it really really reassuring. […] But that was a lie. Because the first woman he had sexually assaulted (well, the first one who’s come forward) had been a fan who met him at a book signing, just like I had.
A key factor in this spread of online disinformation involved Elon Musk’s decision to allow rightwing activists such as Tommy Robinson back on to his social media platform X, said Joe Mulhall, director of research at Hope Not Hate, the anti-fascism organisation. “The initial disinformation and anger was being perpetrated by individuals on Twitter, for example, that have been previously deplatformed,” he said. “And now they’ve been replatformed.”
birgerjohanssonsays
Keanu Reeves will make a Broadway debut opposite Alex Winter in ‘Waiting For Godot”.
They were both in the “Bill And Ted” films, back when I was a millennium years younger.
BTW is the title of the play intended to be interpreted God dot?
birgerjohanssonsays
I could only stomach this for a few seconds but here it is if you want to listen.
“Trump Loses It over Empty Seats at Awful Atlanta Speech”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=X9DeoeNitpY
BTW is the title of the play intended to be interpreted God dot?
No more than it was intended to torture schoolchildren.
(It is the most boring thing ever)
John Moralessays
“Grubby Opportunists Riding On Coattails Of History”
Well, that could hardly be less specific.
(That’s every single person ever born, no?)
John Moralessays
I could only stomach this for a few seconds but here it is if you want to listen.
“Trump Loses It over Empty Seats at Awful Atlanta Speech”
What is it that Trump lost, and why is that only stomachable for a few seconds for you?
(More questions than answers, in your posts)
John Moralessays
Oh, yeah.
Why would I want to listen to Trump allegedly losing something (“it”) that you could only stomach for a few seconds?
(Whatever that might have been)
birgerjohanssonsays
These grubby opportunists are mainly Nigel Farage and the other creeps who emerged in Britain (and USA) around 2015. But their followers still deny any mistakes which is just what I expect.
Crystal Ripolio had tears in her eyes as she walked the produce line at the Good News Outreach food bank in Tallahassee. It was the bags of ripe peaches that did her in.
“We don’t have anything in our fridge,” Ripolio said.
Ripolio and her 8-year-old daughter, Isabella, walked away with paper bags filled with those peaches, other produce, bread and canned goods—grateful for the help she said they desperately need.
Millions of American children are going without extra food this summer, after 13 states declined to participate in a federal program that helps families in need buy groceries.
Thirty-seven states, four U.S. territories and five Native American tribes are benefitting from the program, according to the Department of Agriculture. Qualifying families with children who rely on school meals to get enough to eat are getting an extra $120 per child this summer to help feed their kids.
Ripolio, who has two school-aged daughters, could have received an extra $240 deposited directly onto an electronic benefits transfer or EBT card, but Republican-led Florida isn’t taking part.
She said she has been helping Isabella deal with some challenging medical issues lately and hasn’t been able to work. The extra money would have really helped by allowing her to buy more basics such as bread, milk and cereal, Ripolio said. […]
The federal program known as Summer EBT or SUN Bucks gives money to qualifying families who can then use it to shop at grocery stores and farmers markets. The initiative is designed to help feed children who receive free or reduced-priced meals at school, but who often go hungry during the summer.
According to an analysis by the advocacy group Food Research and Action Center, for every 100 children who received a free or reduced-price meal during the 2021-2022 school year, only 11 got a summer lunch in July 2022.
Layla Santiago, a single mom from Jacksonville, said she’s been piling her five kids—all between the ages of 2 months and 10 years—into an Uber to get to local food pantries this summer, because she lacks consistent access to transportation.
“I know there’s other mothers like me that don’t have transportation, that may need the food but just can’t get to it,” Santiago said.
The states that declined to participate in the program cited reasons such as problems with aging state computer systems, philosophical opposition to welfare programs, and a belief that existing free meal programs are sufficient. All 13 are led by Republican governors.
Under the terms of the Summer EBT program, the federal government covers the cost of the benefits for families, but states must split the administrative costs 50/50.
An estimated 2 million Florida children could have benefited from more than $258 million in aid this summer if state officials hadn’t turned it down. Nationwide, roughly 21 million kids are being fed by the program this year.
[…] “We anticipate that our state’s full approach to serving children will continue to be successful this year without any additional federal programs that inherently always come with some federal strings attached,” spokesperson Mallory McManus said.
[…] Service providers have applauded the work of a state-administered summer meal program that operates out of schools, public libraries and community centers. But such programs only reach a fraction of the children who are eligible.
“There’s a huge gap that we’re not meeting,” said Paco Vélez, the president of the food bank Feeding South Florida. “The easiest way to meet that gap is to fill the EBT card with dollars.” […]
Yep, there’s still lots of infighting in the Republican camp … especially when it comes to the state of Georgia:
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) weighed in Sunday on the feud between Donald Trump and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, urging the Republicans to “repair the damage” and focus on winning the key swing state.
“Georgia is there for the taking. I think Gov. Kemp was a great governor, lowering taxes, less regulation. I think if you voted for Kemp and you want to vote for Harris, that makes no sense,” Graham told host Jacqui Heinrich on “Fox News Sunday.” “If we win, we’re going to go well on our way to winning 270 electoral votes. If we lose Georgia, it could be a very long night.”
On Saturday, Trump launched a series of personal attacks against Kemp on social media and during his campaign rally in Atlanta, calling the popular GOP governor a “bad guy,” “disloyal” and “very average governor.” He accused Kemp of interfering with his efforts to win in Georgia, echoing some of the claims central to his criminal indictment in Fulton County over his attempts to subvert the 2020 election results.
Kemp hit back at Trump in a post on X but stopped short of rescinding his support for the former president, who in 2018 endorsed the then-candidate for governor but in 2022 backed Kemp primary challenger David Perdue.
The weekend exchange revitalized Trump’s long-standing frustrations with Kemp for refusing to cooperate in his efforts to overturn his loss in Georgia and left some Republicans worried about his uncertain prospects in the battleground state.
[…] “Mr. President, this is your election to lose. It’s important you win to reset a broken border and get the world in good order,” Graham said. “Let’s win this election, how about that? Let’s win an election we can’t afford to lose.”
[…] After the 2020 election, Graham called Georgia state officials amid an ongoing recount of votes in the state. He tried to block a subpoena from Atlanta-area prosecutors by taking his challenge to the Supreme Court, although the justices denied his bid and he ended up testifying before the special grand jury. […]
The arrival of F-16 fighter jets in Ukraine marks “a new chapter” for the country’s Air Force, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday as he confirmed for the first time that the combat aircraft are in the country.
Very short on details, how many planes and how many trained pilots is not being revealed. Ukraine will keep the details entirely secret until they are ready to challenge Russia for control of front line air space. Right now Russia controls it but can only erratically take advantage. Russia has a shortage of combat planes and Ukraine has lots of high powered anti-air systems donated by the US and EU.
If Ukraine can force Russian air control back it will be a big step in Ukraine’s favor. It will be harder for Russia to do ground support or bombing from the air and Ukraine will be able to do it some. Like a bunch of other things, Russia can’t get enough of their advanced fighters in the air and depends on older ones. If Ukraine has enough F-16’s and enough trained pilots they should be able to win air control.
Whether or not Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is tapped by Vice President Kamala Harris to be her running mate, he’s made a huge contribution to her campaign as the guy who first called it like it is when it came to Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance.
“These guys are just weird,” Walz said on MSNBC on July 23. With one simple word, he helped redefine the campaign.
And boy, does Trump hate it. He’s so defensive over the tag that he had a meltdown and attacked Democrats while appearing on a right-wing podcast Thursday.
“Well, they’re the weird ones,” he said. “That’s a weird deal going on there. They’re the weird ones. Nobody’s ever called me weird. I’m a lot of things, but weird I’m not. And I’m upfront. And he’s not either, I will tell you. JD is not at all. They are.”
In a desperate bid to slow the presumptive Democratic nominee’s momentum, Trump and the GOP have added the “I’m rubber and you’re glue” strategy to harping on Harris’ laugh and her “love of Venn diagrams and her call to ban plastic straws.” But it’s not working.
[…] “‘Weird’ has “penetrated the zeitgeist,” said Enten [CNN data guru Harry Enten], and he proved it with a look at Google: Searches for “weird” were up 22% in the past week and up 32% in the past three days.
But people aren’t just searching for “weird”—They’re searching “weird” and “MAGA”; “weird” and “GOP”; and “weird” and “Vance.” They’re also searching for “weird” and “Walz,” and those search results will turn up far more entertaining content than Trump and Vance’s latest utterings.
In the end, voters are going to draw their own conclusions about who’s weird. Let’s face it—we all know weird when we see it. [link to video snippets of Trump praising Hannibal Lecter, saluting a North Korean general, telling his electric-boat-versus-battery-versus-shark story, etc.]
In 2021 Carrington was honored as a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master.
The video is 3:44 minutes long. Good history/patriarchy discussion, and good musical excerpts.
More:
When people hear the word “jazz” or think of famed jazz musicians women are rarely included in that category—the exceptions are famed “jazz vocalists.” Some of those vocalists were also instrumentalists, like Nina Simone, who was pressured by the constraints of the industry to sing and not focus on her pianistic skills.
When we now take a deeper look at issues of “jazz and gender” or “jazz and patriarchy” we can be thankful for much of the critical work, discussion, and practice of percussionist and educator Terri Lyne Carrington. Her birthday is today. […]
Re: Lynna, OM @ #69…
Carrington honored? Must have been an electrifying event…
birgerjohanssonsays
‘Trevor Noah Takes a Swing at Trump & He’s Not Holding Back’
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=y7nhkafErCg
Trevor Noah: “Trump has been like a black light for America”
A caller:”I only go to late night comedians to get my news now”
birgerjohanssonsays
Lynna OM @ 69
2021: A Carrington Event.
birgerjohanssonsays
Lynna, OM @ 65
J D Vance; Kamala Harris wants to “take away your ability to eat red meat.”
…and replace it with Soylent Green, produced from dead grannies killed by Obama’s Death Panels!
.
I am surprised they forgot to talk about brainwashing straight kids into being trans. Because we all know how easy it is to change qualities created by embryonic development. Personally I have talked several people into growing an extra pair of ribs. A dude once talked me into growing a vestigal tail!
birger @73, JD Vance’s wife is vegan, I think. She talked about JD learning to cook vegan dinners. That makes what said about Kamala Harris even more strange.
One owns a for-profit insurer, a venture capital company, and for-profit hospitals in Italy and Kazakhstan; it has just acquired its fourth for-profit hospital in Ireland. Another owns one of the largest for-profit hospitals in London, is partnering to build a massive training facility for a professional basketball team, and has launched and financed 80 for-profit start-ups. Another partners with a wellness spa where rooms cost $4,000 a night and co-invests with “leading private equity firms.” [embedded links to original sources are available at the main link]
Do these sound like charities?
These diversified businesses are, in fact, some of the country’s largest nonprofit hospital systems. And they have somehow managed to keep myriad for-profit enterprises under their nonprofit umbrella—a status that means they pay little or no taxes, float bonds at preferred rates, and gain numerous other financial advantages.
Through legal maneuvering, regulatory neglect, and a large dollop of lobbying, they have remained tax-exempt charities, classified as 501(c)(3)s.
“Hospitals are some of the biggest businesses in the U.S.—nonprofit in name only,” said Martin Gaynor, an economics and public policy professor at Carnegie Mellon University. “They realized they could own for-profit businesses and keep their not-for-profit status. So the parking lot is for-profit; the laundry service is for-profit; they open up for-profit entities in other countries that are expressly for making money. Great work if you can get it.” [Sounds like grifting and scamming to me.]
Many universities’ most robust income streams come from their technically nonprofit hospitals. At Stanford University, 62% of operating revenue in fiscal 2023 was from health services; at the University of Chicago, patient services brought in 49% of operating revenue in fiscal 2022.
To be sure, many hospitals’ major source of income is still likely to be pricey patient care. Because they are nonprofit and therefore, by definition, can’t show that thing called “profit,” excess earnings are called “operating surpluses.” Meanwhile, some nonprofit hospitals, particularly in rural areas and inner cities, struggle to stay afloat because they depend heavily on lower payments from Medicaid and Medicare and have no alternative income streams.
But investments are making “a bigger and bigger difference” in the bottom line of many big systems, said Ge Bai, a professor of health care accounting at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. Investment income helped Cleveland Clinic overcome the deficit incurred during the pandemic.
[…] Not-for-profit hospitals merged with one another, pursuing economies of scale, like joint purchasing of linens and surgical supplies. Then, in this century, they also began acquiring parts of the health care systems that had long been for-profit, such as doctors’ groups, as well as imaging and surgery centers. That raised some legal eyebrows—how could a nonprofit simply acquire a for-profit?—but regulators and the IRS let it ride.
And in recent years, partnerships with, and ownership of, profit-making ventures have strayed further and further afield from the purported charitable health care mission in their community.
“When I first encountered it, I was dumbfounded—I said, ‘This not charitable,’” said Michael West, an attorney and senior vice president of the New York Council of Nonprofits. “I’ve long questioned why these institutions get away with it. I just don’t see how it’s compliant with the IRS tax code.” West also pointed out that they don’t act like charities: “I mean, everyone knows someone with an outstanding $15,000 bill they can’t pay.”
Hospitals get their tax breaks for providing “charity care and community benefit.” But how much charity care is enough and, more important, what sort of activities count as “community benefit” and how to value them? IRS guidance released this year remains fuzzy on the issue.
Academics who study the subject have consistently found the value of many hospitals’ good work pales in comparison with the value of their tax breaks. Studies have shown that generally nonprofit and for-profit hospitals spend about the same portion of their expenses on the charity care component.
[…] The truth is that a number of not-for-profit hospitals have become wealthy diversified business organizations. The most visible manifestation of that is outsize executive compensation at many of the country’s big health systems. Seven of the 10 most highly paid nonprofit CEOs in the United States run hospitals and are paid millions, sometimes tens of millions, of dollars annually. The CEOs of the Gates and Ford foundations make far less, just a bit over $1 million.
[…] One obvious reason for the regulatory tolerance is that hospital systems are major employers—the largest in many states (including Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Arizona, and Delaware). They are big-time lobbying forces and major donors in Washington and in state capitals.
But some patients have had enough: In a suit brought by a local school board, a judge last year declared that four Pennsylvania hospitals in the Tower Health system had to pay property taxes because its executive pay was “eye popping” and it demonstrated “profit motives through actions such as charging management fees from its hospitals.”
A 2020 Government Accountability Office report chided the IRS for its lack of vigilance in reviewing nonprofit hospitals’ community benefit and recommended ways to “improve IRS oversight.” […]
Today’s big hospital systems do miraculous, lifesaving stuff. But they are not channeling Mother Teresa. Maybe it’s time to end the community benefit charade for those that exploit it, and have these big businesses pay at least some tax. Communities could then use those dollars in ways that directly benefit residents’ health.
After fleeing her hometown on the front lines of Russia’s invasion, Ukrainian high jumper Yaroslava Mahuchikh has just won gold at the Stade de France.
An almighty roar erupted from the stands when it became clear that Mahuchikh had bested her main rival, Australia’s Nicola Olyslagers. So did it too when she rang the Olympic champions bell inside the stadium, which will be hung inside the rebuilt Notre-Dame Cathedral after the Games.
Aside from her remarkable origin story, Mahuchikh has captured the attention this tournament for her unique routine in between jumps: She swaddles herself in a sleeping bag. Olyslagers, meanwhile, furiously writes in her journal.
After an epic gold-medal battle, the pair embraced as soon as the result was confirmed.
Ukrainian high jumper who fled Russia’s war wins high-jump gold
[…] Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, on Sunday expressed confidence in Georgia’s election security, a contrast with Trump’s recent attacks against Republican state officials Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
During an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Vance was pressed on how comfortable he is with the progress being made by the Republican National Committee and Republican-led states to ensure a fair election in November as Trump continues to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the 2020 election results.
Vance pointed to Georgia’s voter ID requirements, which he said makes the battleground state’s elections “much more secure.”
[…] Vance has repeatedly echoed Trump’s baseless claims about a rigged 2020 election and has argued that lawmakers would have had legitimate reasons to fight the results. At the time, Trump and his allies filed a series of lawsuits in an effort to overturn the 2020 election results, but none succeeded due to a lack of evidence.
Ahead of the 2024 election, the Trump campaign and the RNC have pledged to enlist 100,000 volunteers and attorneys to monitor votes in battleground states.
In a post to his Truth Social platform on Saturday, Trump criticized Kemp and Raffensperger, both of whom fought against Trump’s efforts in 2020 to delegitimize the results of the presidential election. […]
Raffensperger also refuted Trump’s attacks in another post to X saying that the state’s elections were “secure.”
“The winner here in November will reflect the will of the people. History has taught us this type of message doesn’t sell well here in Georgia, sir,” he wrote. […]
whheydtsays
Re: Lynna, OM @ #75….
There is nothing that prevents a “non-profit” organization from making money. The distinction is that a non-profit cannot disburse those funds to whoever controls the organization.
The overall thing about having a non-profit own a for profit subsidiary is legal, so long at the pro-profit subsidiary pay taxes on whatever they retain. In the UK, the not-for-profit Raspberry Pi Foundation (a non-profit educational organization) created the for-profit Raspberry Pi Trading, Ltd to do R&D and licensing of products developed. All of the profit from RPTL went to the Foundation, which used the funds to do things like non-charged teacher training and a large array of other educational work. (RPTL has since been partially sold off and gone through an IPO).
Despite Justice Department scrutiny of the state penitentiary in Parchman, some housed in Unit 29 say conditions are worsening because of the extreme heat.
Inside the sole unit without air conditioning at Mississippi’s largest prison, inmates hang wet sheets from their cell ceilings to dampen the air and lay drenched towels strategically across their bodies.
A temporary reprieve comes from scoops of ice handed out twice a day.
As punishing heat spreads across the Deep South this summer, inmates in Unit 29 at Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman say they are sweltering inside cells where temperatures can easily climb into the triple digits.
The issue drew the scrutiny of the U.S. Justice Department four years ago, but despite efforts to upgrade the only maximum-security prison for men in the state, inmates say the situation has not improved.
“It’s hotter inside the cell,” one inmate in his 30s said by phone recently. “I’d rather be outside on the pavement and no shade. At least you can get a breeze. The heat inside is just stationary.”
Another inmate in his 40s said the showers he’s allowed to take about 10 times a month are equally unrelenting.
“They are too hot,” he said. “They will literally scald you.” [video at the link]
[…] Rappers Jay-Z and Yo Gotti helped to file lawsuits in support of inmates in the state prison system, alleging “inhumane and dangerous conditions of confinement.”
Phone interviews in recent weeks with a correctional officer, a former chaplain and a half-dozen inmates in Unit 29 indicate conditions remain unsanitary and potentially dangerous. The inmates and the correctional officer were granted anonymity because they feared retaliation.
[…] Mississippi began installing air conditioning in some units at Parchman, but not all of them, including Unit 29, because funding ran out, said Department of Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain. He estimated in 2022 that it would cost $650,000 to install air conditioning at Parchman alone.
While federal investigators said they did not focus on inmates’ allegations of “unlivable and unsanitary conditions throughout Parchman,” they noted “egregious environmental conditions” in solitary confinement that could affect inmates’ mental health, according to the report. That included leaking water, “pervasive” mold and inoperable exhaust fans contributing to “poor ventilation and extreme heat.”
“Documentation produced by MDOC confirms numerous reports from incarcerated individuals of extreme heat in Parchman’s restrictive housing units,” some of which are within Unit 29, investigators said in the Justice Department report.
[…] Temperature logs from Unit 29 indicated “temperatures over 100 degrees every day during the timeframe of reported complaints,” the report stated, with the highest temperature recorded “at the dangerously hot 145.1 degrees.”
[…] The Department of Corrections said in July that it had no timetable for installing air conditioning in Unit 29, but that water, ice and industrial floor fans were being utilized, Mississippi Today reported.
Inmates who spoke with NBC News said ice availability can be irregular, water from their sinks has appeared discolored and fans and ventilation are covered in filth.
“It’s so thick with mold, you can snap it,” an inmate in his 30s said about the fans and ventilation.
[…] On top of the stifling temperatures, the inmate and others described receiving their meals on trays with black mold, corroded ceilings and walls, and enduring mice, mosquitoes and other insects year-round.
[…] One longtime correctional officer said workers and inmates in Unit 29 are still suffering, and while some employee salaries have increased in recent years, staffing shortages have led to a depletion in morale.
“It really hasn’t improved,” the correctional officer said. “It’s miserable going to work, and it feels like 200-something degrees.”
[…] At least 13 states in the South and Midwest lack universal air conditioning in their prisons, according to the Prison Policy Initiative, a research and advocacy nonprofit.
A hearing was held last week in federal court in Texas over an inmate’s lawsuit accusing the state of cruel and unusual punishment for not providing air conditioning and seeking to ensure its availability in all state prisons. Heat-related prison deaths in Texas rose from 2001 to 2019 and may be attributable to extreme heat days, according to researchers at Boston, Brown and Harvard universities.
Lawmakers in Texas and other states without universal air conditioning have balked at the cost of installing it. But experts say climate change will only make the problem worse as the U.S. faces more extreme weather and heat.
[…] “The promised reforms remain largely unfulfilled.”
Here is something you can fall asleep to while listening to the program.
It is based on identifying the true claims in otherwise utterly bogus lectures. They pick various Brit /Scot/American comedians for each round.
KGsays
birgerjohansson@81,
I hear Carter is likely to be Harris’s running mate – she needs an experienced white male politician to balance the ticket!
Bekenstein Boundsays
Lynna@76:
Aside from her remarkable origin story, Mahuchikh has captured the attention this tournament for her unique routine in between jumps: She swaddles herself in a sleeping bag.
I guess it beats a cardboard bed?
After an epic gold-medal battle, the pair embraced as soon as the result was confirmed.
I’ve noticed that a lot these games. Lots of hugging, especially among the women but sometimes even among the men, and not just the perfunctory “sportsmanlike handshake”.
Is this just me, or is there more of this going around this year? Could it indicate a general shift of society in a positive direction? Less “winning is the only thing” and more empathy?
“Trump Loses It over Empty Seats at Awful Atlanta Speech” – birgerjohansson@53
What is it that Trump lost… – John Morales@57
John, do you really not understand the “loses it” idiom? You’ve been commenting here for many years and your English has appeared completely fluent and idiomatic.
KGsays
I’ve noticed that a lot these games. Lots of hugging, especially among the women but sometimes even among the men, and not just the perfunctory “sportsmanlike handshake”. – Bekenstein Bound@86
Only a matter of time before hugging becomes an Olympic sport!
John Moralessays
John, do you really not understand the “loses it” idiom?
Yes. And this does not apply.
Destroyed. Slammed. Melted. Etc.
I know the idiom. I don’t know how it supposedly applies.
See, this is how it goes.
Birger posts some bullshit clickbait title thingy, and the naked link.
No context, no anything.
And I go by the one and only thing available: the title.
Which is bullshit.
—
The dynamic is simple.
I can’t respond to those bullshit posts with just a title and a naked link and no context if they aren’t there.
(Right?)
—
(Please, please, don’t do a SoylentBubble and claim I’m being somehow hyperliteralistic!)
John Moralessays
Not like it’s the first time, right?
But somehow it’s always late at night and he’s at a bus stop or something.
(Spam, not my thing)
John Moralessays
Basically, if the only possible way to determine what to the adduced link relates, one has to fucking click on it and spend time seeing what it is.
I’ve been as obvious as I can possibly be including context and other info whenever I care to actually share a link.
I am not lazy.
(Unlike some)
John Moralessays
[look at #59. A bare, rare concession. And how the fuck would anyone ever know the reference without that?]
John Moralessays
I mean, I could lazily just fucking copypaste links and titles in a spammy manner too.
Easy as fuck. Clickety-click, done
No need to add context, details, nothing.
But I respect other readers too much.
(And, to be fair, I reckon Reginald finally got it, to his credit)
John Moralessays
You know.
Does it catch my eye?
(Spam it! Fuck context, fuck sourcing, fuck opinion, just spam it. O joy!)
John Moralessays
KG:
Is RFK even weirder than Trump and Vance?
Depends.
Define ‘weird’ in this context, and I can tell you ‘yay’, ‘nay’, or ‘depends’, depending.
John Moralessays
You’ve been commenting here for many years and your English has appeared completely fluent and idiomatic.
How strange that it appeared so!
<snicker>
If you cared to presume I actually am fluent in idiomatic English, perhaps it could have occurred to you that I am being a tad indirect, if taken literally.
—
I think I have clarified in this little burst of comments.
And please, don’t do that silly thing about imagining multiple comments in a row mean I’m melting down or something. Rather the opposite; I am being even more emphatic.
(Infinite thread, endless comments)
Nah. Thing is, Birger is spamming stuff he happens to come across in about as lazy a manner as could be imagined.
And I note that.
(I could not do that without the actual spamming of bullshit clickbaity things, so there’s that)
John Moralessays
Anyway.
Had you not posted that, KG, I would not have known that there is a headline to the effect that “RFK Jr says he was behind mystery of dead bear [blah]”.
(Remember when this was about ‘political madnessw’?)
Silentbobsays
@ 90
This looney is literally obsessed with me. X-D
This is what it must be like to a celeb who has some weird stalker. “Why is this random idiot I don’t even know referring to me in contexts that have nothing to do with me? Why is he even thinking of me”? It’s super weird and disturbing.
Not for the first time I advise you to see a counsellor you weirdo. I don’t know you and don’t want to. And your ludicrious hyperliteralist trolling is well known and documented. I sure as fuck didn’t invent it.
John Moralessays
Another take:
John, do you really not understand the “loses it” idiom?
What made you imagine I supposedly did not understand the “loses it” idiom?
(All this time, you still don’t get my techniques? So weak!)
John Moralessays
Silentbob, heh heh heh
John Moralessays
Gotta love my hatefan addict popping in.
Not for the first time I advise you to see a counsellor you weirdo.
<snicker>
And your ludicrious hyperliteralist trolling is well known and documented.
@59: [after due prodding’
“These grubby opportunists are mainly Nigel Farage and the other creeps who emerged in Britain (and USA) around 2015. But their followers still deny any mistakes which is just what I expect.”
Now, had that bit been in #54, my comment would have been precluded.
(But, too fucking lazy)
KGsays
What made you imagine I supposedly did not understand the “loses it” idiom? – John Morales@100
Of course I knew you did understand it and were pretending not to. I simply mirrored your technique by pretending not to know that.
Silentbobsays
Morales never even enters my thoughts unless I come across his latest idiot comment.
Can you see how disconcerting it is to come across some random thread that’s nothing to do with you and here’s this psycho talking about “soylentblather” or whatever other schoolyard insult he’s invented.
Does this nutjob lie awake at night dreaming up this shit? Is he plotting some revenge on me for being the 4,278th commenter to point out he’s a troll?
It’s genuinely disturbing. Why is this fucking creep even thinking about me? :-/
Fuck off dude and seek help.
John Moralessays
Why is he even thinking of me”? It’s super weird and disturbing.
Mate!
You are the one who has hounded me for literally three years now across multiple blogs.
Whyever would I think of my obsessive hatefan who has literally posted thousands of comments trying ever so hard to diss me and to object to what I write (with equal lack of success, but hey, desire and competence aren’t necessarily linked) and basically doing their best to harass me?
(So weird!)
Heh
John Moralessays
KG,
Of course I knew you did understand it and were pretending not to. I simply mirrored your technique by pretending not to know that.
Yeah, I knew you were bullshitting.
And no, you did not mirror my technique, you attempted to do so, but without grokking the way.
For you: Basicallly, it has to work on multiple levels: the literal, the metaphorical, and the idiomatic.
(And it has to be unfalsifiable in each)
John Moralessays
KG,
Of course I knew you did understand it and were pretending not to. I simply mirrored your technique by pretending not to know that.
No, you did not mirror my technique, you attempted to do so, but without grokking the way.
Cargo-cult effort.
For you: Basicallly, it has to work on multiple levels: the literal, the metaphorical, and the idiomatic.
(And it has to be unfalsifiable in each)
—
That’s what drives weak sods like the SoddenBog to antipathy; they can’t cope with me.
—
“Oh, they never lie. They dissemble, evade, prevaricate, confound, confuse, distract, obscure, subtly misrepresent and willfully misunderstand with what often appears to be a positively gleeful relish and are generally perfectly capable of contriving to give one an utterly unambiguous impression of their future course of action while in fact intending to do exactly the opposite, but they never lie. Perish the thought.”
― Iain M. Banks, Look to Windward
I use “England” here rather than “the UK”, because that’s where almost all the fascist violence has been, and England flags (the red-on-white cross of “St. George”, the well-known imaginary Cappadocian Greek) have been waved along with Union Flags. An exception is in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where there was the unusual sight of Union Flags and Irish Tricoleurs being waved alongside each other by fascists from “Loyalist” and “Republican” backgrounds. So far no rioting in Scotland – although the fascists are apparently planning a big demonstration in Glasgow on September 7th, very little in Wales.
KGsays
Basicallly, it has to work on multiple levels: the literal, the metaphorical, and the idiomatic.
(And it has to be unfalsifiable in each) That’s what drives weak sods like the SoddenBog to antipathy; they can’t cope with me. – John Morales@110
You have an unjustifiably high opinion of your rhetorical prowess, John. Although as I’ve noted before, Silentbob’s obsession with you is even more irritating than you are yourself.
John Moralessays
You have an unjustifiably high opinion of your rhetorical prowess, John.
Interesting.
The SmellyBog thinks I lack self-esteem.
Anyway.
You do get that your attempts to copy my technique lead to such exchanges as this, no?
(If you had actually used my techniques, you’d not have been subject to my #100 where you–and kudos for integrity–had to fess up)
coffeepottsays
can you just make one long post instead of 20 short ones? some of us come here for the interesting links, not self-righteous spamming.
tia
redwoodsays
It’s a shame about JM, really. He used to put up some interesting bits of information once in a while. I’ll no longer see any of them, however, because I automatically skip over everything he says due to his tiresome quibbling.
@116 redwood wrote: It’s a shame about JM, really. He used to put up some interesting bits of information
I reply: John, please, you do make good contributions to this blog. Ignore all the insults. And, the others that engage in personal insults should STFU, too.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
@KG #89:
Only a matter of time before hugging becomes an Olympic sport!
Nine days into her 2024 candidacy, Vice President Kamala Harris picked a couple of notable Republican endorsements: Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan threw his support behind the Democrat fairly quickly, and John Giles, the mayor of Mesa, Arizona’s third-largest city, endorsed her soon after.
Given the state of the cotemporary GOP, it’s not easy for any Democratic candidate to pick up cross-party backing, so this represented a decent start. But hanging overhead was an obvious question: Would other Republicans soon follow?
The question received a rather emphatic answer over the weekend. NBC News reported:
The Harris campaign on Sunday unveiled more than two dozen endorsements from Republicans, including former governors, members of Congress and Trump administration officials. Many of the endorsements came from politicians who were already openly critical of former President Donald Trump, including former Republican Gov. Bill Weld of Massachusetts; former Rep. Denver Riggleman, R-Va.; and former Trump administration press secretary Stephanie Grisham.
Those names are, of course, just a sampling. According to a press statement from the incumbent vice president’s campaign, Republicans for Harris includes endorsements from former Trump White House officials Stephanie Grisham and Olivia Troye; former Secretaries Chuck Hagel and Ray LaHood; former Governors Jim Edgar, Bill Weld, and Christine Todd Whitman; former U.S. House members Rod Chandler, Tom Coleman, Dave Emery, Wayne Gilchrest, Jim Greenwood, Adam Kinzinger, John LeBoutillier, Susan Molinari, Jack Quinn, Denver Riggleman, Claudine Schneider, Christopher Shays, Peter Smith, Alan Steelman, David Trott, and Joe Walsh; and former GOP State Chair and State Senator Chris Vance, among others. [Yes, that is impressive.]
“As a proud conservative, I never thought I’d be endorsing a Democrat for President,” Kinzinger said in a written statement. “But, I know Vice President Harris will defend our democracy and ensure Donald Trump never returns to the White House. Donald Trump poses a direct threat to fundamental American values. He only cares about himself, and his pursuit of power.
“That’s what we saw on January 6 when he sent a mob to overturn our lawful election, who violently attacked law enforcement and ransacked our nation’s Capitol in the process,” the former member of the Jan. 6 committee added. “There’s too much at stake to sit on the sidelines, which is why I wholeheartedly endorse Kamala Harris for president. Now is the time for us all to unite to save our democracy and defeat Donald Trump one last time.”
What’s more, the “Republicans for Harris” rollout is apparently about more than simply including names on a list. The Associated Press reported that the program will be a “campaign within a campaign,” using well-known Republicans “to activate their networks, with a particular emphasis on primary voters who backed former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. The program will kick off with events this week in Arizona, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Republicans backing Harris will also appear at rallies with the vice president and her soon-to-be-named running mate this coming week, the campaign said.”
The list might also yet grow: NBC News’ report noted that Team Harris is especially interested in targeting former Rep. Liz Cheney and former Sen. Jeff Flake.
I kept a close eye on this dynamic four years ago and found quite a few GOP partisans — former Republican National Committee chairs, former Republican cabinet secretaries, former Republican governors, and former Republican members of Congress — who publicly expressed support for the Biden-led Democratic ticket.
As Election Day 2024 approaches, Harris is well positioned to benefit from similar cross-party support — which Trump will almost certainly lack. Watch this space.
After its ponderous sojourn at the Supreme Court, the Jan. 6 case against Donald Trump was officially returned Friday to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington, D.C., and she immediately picked it back up again and started moving it forward.
Among her initial actions, notably undertaken over the weekend, Chutkan:
– set a Friday, Aug. 9 deadline for the parties to submit a proposed scheduling order for pretrial proceedings;
– set a status conference for next Friday, Aug. 16,
– denied a pending Trump motion to dismiss the case on statutory grounds, but gave him the chance to re-up it once the immunity questions in the case are resolved.
– denied a pending Trump motion to dismiss the case on the grounds of selective and vindictive prosecution.
And just like that, the case was up and running again. But don’t hold your breath that this will go to trial before the election. Time is simply too short at this point.
The elephant in the room is the Supreme Court’s expansive ruling in this very case on presidential immunity, how much that narrows the indictment, what kind of evidentiary hearings Chutkan needs to address presidential immunity, and the still-unknown ways in which the high court’s unprecedented ruling effects this and the other Trump prosecutions.
Hanging over all of that will be at least one more trip to the Supreme Court to give it a chance to weigh in on whether Chutkan properly jumped through all the hoops it has put in her way. Again, there’s no way for all this to happen before Election Day.
In her order denying Trump’s motion to dismiss for selective and vindictive prosecution, Chutkan used some of the same direct and non-nonsense language that had marked her earlier handling of the case:
At the outset, the court must address—as it has before—Defendant’s improper reframing of the allegations against him. … At this stage, the court cannot accept Defendant’s alternate narrative.
Chutkan went on to find that most of Trump’s arguments were speculative or conclusory and that he “proffered no meaningful evidence” that would justify a hearing on his motion to allow him to try to develop a factual record.
Under Chutkan’s scheduling order, we may get legal fireworks right off the bat. Don’t expect the parties to come to any kind of substantive agreement on a pretrial schedule […] But we’ll get our first taste of the legal posture Trump will be taking in this case, knowing the Supreme Court has his back.
Secretaries of state urge Musk to fix AI chatbot spreading false election info.
Grok, the AI search assistant on Musk’s X platform, suggested that Kamala Harris had missed the ballot deadline in nine states. She hasn’t.
Five secretaries of state plan to send an open letter to billionaire Elon Musk on Monday, urging him to “immediately implement changes” to X’s AI chatbot Grok, after it shared with millions of users false information suggesting that Kamala Harris was not eligible to appear on the 2024 presidential ballot.
[…] The secretaries cited a post from Grok that circulated after Biden stepped out of the race: “The ballot deadline has passed for several states for the 2024 election,” the post read, naming nine states: Alabama, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington.
Had the deadlines passed in those states, the vice president would not have been able to replace Biden on the ballot. But the information was false. In all nine states, the ballot deadlines have not passed and upcoming ballot deadlines allow for changes to candidates.
“This latest episode is unfortunate, but it’s also an opportunity to deliver a collective warning about the need for action on behalf of America’s voters,” Simon said in a message to The Washington Post. “We are all united by the goal of ensuring that voters get accurate information — and that they seek out trusted sources for such information.”
[…] Musk launched Grok last year as an anti-“woke” chatbot, professing to be frustrated by what he says is the liberal bias of ChatGPT. In contrast to AI tools built by OpenAI, Microsoft and Google, which are trained to carefully navigate controversial topics, Musk said he wanted Grok to be unfiltered and “answer spicy questions that are rejected by most other AI systems.”
The secretaries of state, who are the chief elections officers in their states, are objecting not to Grok’s tone but its factual inaccuracies and the sluggishness of the company’s move to correct bad information.
Secretaries of state are grappling with an onslaught of AI-driven election misinformation, including deepfakes, ahead of the 2024 election. […]
Another version of Grok’s false information about ballot deadlines included one telling users that ballots for the coming presidential election were already “locked and loaded.”
“So, if you’re planning to run for president in any of these states, you might want to check if you’ve already missed the boat,” the chatbot responded. “But hey, there’s always 2028, right?”
[…] Grok is available only to X Premium and Premium+ subscribers, but the false information about ballot deadlines was “shared repeatedly in multiple posts — reaching millions of people,” the letter read. Grok repeated false information for more than a week until it was corrected on July 31.
Simon expressed disappointment in the way X initially responded to the error. He said that the company’s response was “the equivalent of a shoulder shrug. Dismissive and detached.”
[…] The secretaries noted that this year, OpenAI partnered with the National Association of Secretaries of State to give voters correct election information, and ChatGPT has been programmed to direct users to CanIVote.org — a nonpartisan resource from professional election administrators of both major parties. Grok has entered into no such partnerships.
[…] Simon said that Musk’s AI chatbot cannot make the argument that it is simply facilitating different voices in the modern-day public square.
“This is a case where the owner of the public square (the social media company itself) is the one who introduced and spread the bad information — and then delayed correcting its own mistake after it knew that the information was false,” he said.
Two phony videos seen by tens of millions of users appear to violate X’s own terms of service.
A video known as a “deepfake” that was posted on X on Saturday appears to show Harris repeating herself over and over again, using a crude audio rendering made to seem like Harris is struggling to finish a complete sentence.
[Trump is repeatedly telling audiences at his rallies that Kamala Harris can’t speak, and that she can’t complete a sentence.]
The altered video uses footage from an appearance by Harris and President Joe Biden following Friday’s historic prisoner swap that freed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and others. The video is obviously manipulated and easily debunked by viewing the unaltered footage (you can watch that here at about the 1:30 mark), which shows Harris speaking smoothly, without repeating the same words and phrases as portrayed in the doctored video.
The video, whose origin is unclear, was posted by Trump himself on Truth Social on Saturday, accompanied by a rant in which he calls Harris “DUMB!” and “extremely Low IQ.” The video was soon re-shared on X by an account that posts content verbatim from Trump’s feed on Truth Social. That account on X has more than 800,000 followers, and, as of late Sunday, the post containing the Harris deepfake had drawn more than 620,000 views.
The video appears to be in violation of X’s terms of service, which prohibit the sharing of “synthetic, manipulated, or out-of-context media that may deceive or confuse people and lead to harm.” (It also appears to violate Truth Social’s terms of service, which requires that posts “are not false, inaccurate, or misleading”—a tall order, perhaps, given that platform’s owner.)
This latest deepfake comes after one shared by Musk himself eight days earlier, which doctored a high-profile Harris political ad titled “Freedom.” In that one, the fake audio using Harris’s voice depicted her calling herself “the ultimate diversity hire” and degrading President Biden. “This is amazing,” Musk wrote in his post sharing the video, accompanied by a laughing emoji. Musk’s post, still online, has received more than 134 million views.
When asked for comment about the latest video falsely showing Harris garbling her words, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung doubled down on the content, claiming that the obviously phony video was authentic. (“Your phone or computer must be fucked up,” he said.) […]
Other forms of disinformation targeting Harris, including racist and misogynistic content, have proliferated across social media. But the reach personally enjoyed by Musk and Trump through the platforms they own is bigger than that of most. […]
The VP candidate and other Trump allies keep pushing a narrative that threat experts say will fuel violence.
Campaigning in Atlanta on Saturday, Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance blamed Democrats, without any evidence, for the recent assassination attempt against Donald Trump.
In his brief remarks introducing the former president at a Georgia State University arena, Vance told the crowd: “They couldn’t beat him politically, so they tried to bankrupt him. They failed at that, so they tried to impeach him. They failed at that, so they tried to put him in prison.” Then, gesturing emphatically, Vance declared: “They even tried to kill him.”
After three weeks of intensive FBI investigation, no evidence has emerged supporting that claim. The motive of the deceased 20-year-old gunman, who was registered as a Republican voter but appears not to have been driven by partisanship or political ideology, remains unknown.
[…] top Trump allies repeatedly have promoted unfounded conspiracy theories and blamed Trump’s political opponents without evidence. Multiple threat assessment and law enforcement leaders have told me that this rhetoric is fueling already heightened concerns about political violence heading into the November election. Those concerns, they said, stem foremost from domestic far-right extremist groups and Trump’s MAGA movement. […]
President Biden and Vice President Harris will meet with national security officials in the White House Situation Room on Monday, as Iran reiterates its intention to punish Israel for the apparent assassination of top Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
The meeting will focus on developments in the Middle East, the White House said. Concerns about a wider regional conflict have escalated with the assassination of Haniyeh.
While Israel has not acknowledged the strike in Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed to seek revenge against Israel after Haniyeh’s death.
Attacks by Iran and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group could come as soon as Monday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told leaders with the Group of Seven on a conference call Sunday, Axios reported, citing three sources briefed on the call.
The call was arranged in a last-minute effort to urge Iran and Hezbollah to limit their attacks as much as possible to prevent an all-out war, Axios added.
G7 members have reached out to Iran to minimize the retaliation for the sake of preventing a regional war, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
A spokesperson for Iran’s foreign ministry told reporters Monday that the Islamic Republic does not want to deepen tensions but has the right, within the framework of international law, to punish Israel, according to Bloomberg. […]
Some experts, meanwhile, told The Hill that Tehran most likely does not have the resources to repeat April’s massive attack on Israel and may instead responds through its proxies, including Hezbollah.
Goldman Sachs increased its odds of a recession in the next year Monday following consecutive days of an equity market selloff, though the investment bank sees the risk of a serious downturn as “limited.”
The bank boosted its year-ahead recession probability by 10 percentage points to 25 percent while noting it expects the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates at each of its next three meetings this year.
“We continue to see recession risk as limited because the data look fine overall, we do not see major financial imbalances, and the Fed has 525 [basis points] of room to cut to support the economy,” Goldman Sachs said in an analysis.
Markets opened way down on Monday morning after falling sharply on Friday.
[Looks to me like an overreaction to a weaker-than-expected employment report, a report that was still okay overall. But a bunch of doofuses pushed the panic button anyway. I expect the panic to be short-lived.]
The Dow Jones Industrial Average of major U.S. stocks was down more than 1,000 points or 2.67 percent as of 10:40 a.m. EDT Monday. The S&P 500 fell more than 167 point or 3 percent and the technology-heavy Nasdaq was down more than 580 points or 3.5 percent.
[…] Downward momentum continued through the weekend as international investors sold off stocks on Monday, responding to recent interest rate increases by the Bank of Japan, which have made loans in the Japanese currency less valuable.
The Fed is widely expected to cut interest rates at its next meeting to stimulate economic growth.
Goldman said it expects the Fed to cut rates by a quarter-point at each of its next three meetings in September, November and December.
Investment bankers also said that they now believe wage growth has slowed down to “roughly the 3.5 percent pace compatible with 2 percent inflation.”
Average hourly earnings increased by 0.2 percent in July and by 3.6 percent over the past year, they noted.
When most people heard that JD Vance said that Kamala Harris and many other Democratic politicians are “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made, and so they wanna make the rest of the country miserable, too,” they heard that as him saying that many Democratic politicians, including Kamala Harris are “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made, and so they wanna make the rest of the country miserable, too.”
Most of us didn’t think too deeply on it, or consider for a moment that it might mean something entirely different and practically unrelated to the specific words that came out of his mouth.
In a pre-recorded interview with Fox News’s Ainsley Earhardt that aired on Sunday, Usha Vance helpfully explained that her husband was not, as it seemed to anyone with ears, denigrating women without children. He was simply expressing how sad he is about how tough it is for families these days!
“I took a moment to look and actually see what he had said, and try and understand what the context was in all that, which is something that I really wish people would do a little bit more often,” Usha Vance explained.
Ah yes, well — it must be the toxoplasmosis, causing us to perceive an obvious insult as an obvious insult instead of finding a way to believe he meant something that had absolutely nothing to do with the words that came out of his mouth.
“The reality is, he made a quip in service of making a point that he wanted to make that was substantive, and it had actual meaning,” she added. “And I just wish sometimes that people would talk about those things and that we would spend a lot less time just sort of going through this three-word phrase or that three-word phrase, because what he was really saying is that it can be really hard to be a parent in this country and that sometimes our policies are designed in a way that make it even harder.”
So weird, because it definitely seemed like he was saying that people who don’t have children don’t have an “investment” in our future and therefore should not be political leaders!
“We should be asking ourselves, ‘why is that true?’” she said. “What is it about our leadership and the way that they think about the world that makes it so hard sometimes for parents? And that’s the conversation that I really think we should have, and I understand why he was saying that.”
This would all be very believable, were Vance not from the party that opposes practically any measure that would actually help families and also make it easier on people, economically, to choose to have children. You know, things like an expanded child tax credit, universal school lunches, universal public college, investing in public education, a living wage, universal healthcare (for everyone, because if people go broke from a health emergency, they can’t take care of their children, duh) and so on.
But he is.
When asked what she would say to the women who were offended by his comments, she helpfully explained that he would never do that.
“I think I would say first of all that JD absolutely, at the time and today, would never, ever, ever want to say something to hurt someone who was trying to have a family who really, you know, was struggling with that, and he made that clear at the time and he’s made that clear today,” said Vance, who appeared to be referencing some part of that interview that absolutely didn’t occur anywhere outside of her own imagination. “We have lots of friends who have been in that position, it is challenging, never, ever anything that anyone would want to mock or make fun of.”
“I also understand,” she added, “that there are a lot of other reasons why people may choose not to have families, and many of those reasons are very good.”
Fun fact! Any reason that anyone decides to have or not have children is a good reason, because it’s their reason and their body and their life.
“Let’s try to look at the real conversation that he’s trying to have and engage with it and understand that or those of us who do have families, for the many of us who want to have families and for whom it’s really hard, what can we do to make it better?” she added. “What can we do to make it easier to live in 2024?”
Not vote for Trump and JD Vance, for one.
I would love to hear about the Republican policies that would make it easier on people to have families, because they sure do seem a lot more concerned about parents taking their kids to Drag Queen Story Hours at the library than they do about helping them ensure that their kids have food on the table. They seem far more concerned about plastering schools with the Ten Commandments than they are with properly funding them. And they are far more worried that children will be exposed to the existence of gay and trans people than they are about those children being exposed to lead.
Is there some magic way that enormous tax cuts for giant corporations and very rich people help children? Was that part of the nuance of JD Vance’s “childless cat ladies” comment that only Usha Vance can hear?
Followup to KG’s comment 87, concerning Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the dead bear:
[…] According to Kennedy, this bizarre story of ursine corpse abandonment began when he saw a bear cub hit and killed by a car while he was driving through the Hudson Valley in New York. On Sunday he told his story to washed-up antisemitic former comedian and current lunatic Roseanne Barr in a video on Instagram.
As summarized by The New York Times:
“I pulled over and I picked up the bear and put him in the back of my van because I was going to skin the bear,” he says. “It was very good condition and I was going to put the meat in my refrigerator.”
Mr. Kennedy then details how he had to attend a dinner at Peter Luger Steak House in New York City and then head to the airport, which meant he had to get rid of the bear. He decided to leave the bear in Central Park with an old bicycle to make it look like it had been hit by the bike.
Even this summary manages to make it sound less weird then the way Kennedy described it. He told Roseanne he was out in the Hudson Valley to go falconing with friends when he found the bear and threw it in his car with the intent of skinning it later, “but the day got away from him.” Then he and his friends were having dinner at Peter Luger and his friends were all drunk, but not RFK Jr., he swears he was not drunk. So let he who has ever been the sober and presumably responsible friend and went along with a raging case of drunken ursine corpse abandonment cast the first stone.
RFK’s unnamed friends then came up with the scheme to dump the bear in Central Park and make it look like it had been struck and killed by a biker, because New York had just put in bike lanes and it was controversial because a couple of people had been hit by bikes, so this would be funny for some reason, we guess?
Anyway, that’s what they did. It was apparently a big local story in New York, because duh.
In his video interview with Roseanne, RFK says he was only confessing now because the New Yorker is about to run a profile of him, and its reporter uncovered this bizarre tale of human adults acting like idiot teenagers trying to cover up a murder in a 90s thriller starring Jennifer Love Hewitt and a slumming Helen Mirren. So RFK thought he would get out ahead of it. (This is him getting out ahead of it.)
Of course this still leaves us with so many questions. Was it really someone else who hit and killed the bear? How many hours had that bear been lying in the trunk of RFK’s car? Would it not have started to putrefy long before he was going to be able to skin the poor thing and harvest its meat? Or had he stopped at the nearest 7-Eleven to buy a good-sized cooler and several bags of ice before continuing on his falconing adventure?
We have a lot of other questions, but honestly, this story has occupied far too much of our precious brain already.
And here we thought that whole viral (FAKE NEWS) story about JD Vance’s love of sexing up couches at Meemaw’s was going to be the weirdest story we read this summer. Leave it to RFK to run in screaming “Hold my beer!”
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigns and flees country.
Hasina’s resignation, announced by Gen. Waker-Uz-Zaman, comes after hundreds have been killed in clashes between protesters and security forces in recent weeks.
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country Monday as protesters stormed her residence and set fire to government offices, marking a dramatic end to a 15-year rule that had faced violent opposition in recent months
Bangladeshi army chief Gen. Waker-Uz-Zaman announced Hasina’s resignation in a televised address, adding that an interim government would be formed in the coming days. Weeks of bloody clashes between protesters and Hasina’s security forces had intensified this past weekend, with dozens killed on Sunday alone.
Now, the country of 171 million has been thrust into a level of political turmoil that it has not seen in decades.
“Please trust the armed forces. I am taking full responsibility to protect all lives and property,” Waker-Uz-Zaman said to the nation. […]
Regular life has been upended across Bangladesh. Most of the garment factories that power the country’s economy did not open Monday. Flights into the capital, Dhaka, were canceled as its main airport temporarily shut down operations. Businesses shut their doors as hundreds of thousands of people flooded the streets of major cities, blaring horns, chanting and setting fire to vehicles and buildings.
[…] The protests that have gripped Bangladesh over the past month started in opposition to a government policy that reserves half of civil service jobs for certain groups but evolved into a broad-based opposition movement against Hasina, who has become increasingly authoritarian, say rights groups and security analysts. Since taking office in 2009, she has been accused of manipulating the country’s elections — including by suing and jailing political opponents — to maintain her grip on power.
[…] When a fresh bout of protests took place on Sunday, the government scrambled to impose a nationwide curfew. Protesters defied the order.
[…] Tarique Rahman, the exiled acting chairman of Bangladesh’s opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), urged calm. “Please do not be vengeful. Please don’t take the law into your own hands,” he said in a statement.
Hasina’s Awami League and its allies won an election earlier this year that the United States said was neither free nor fair. The BNP had boycotted the election after thousands of its leaders and supporters were arrested in the run-up to polling day.
[…] “We had an imaginary election in the past. Now we need a real election,” Bangladeshi Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus said in an interview. Yunus, who pioneered microfinance and microcredit, had become one of most prominent targets of Hasina’s government in recent years and faced hundreds of lawsuits for charges that ranged from corruption to forgery. He said he expected these “fake cases” to be dropped now that Hasina had left. “Finally, the monster who was on top of us has left,” he said.
Hasina’s departure is “a new liberation” for Bangladesh, said Badiul Alam Majumdar, secretary of the Citizens for Good Governance, a civil society organization.
“This was the people’s war, and they have won,” he added.
[…] Forecasters have warned of life-threatening storm surges in Florida and major flooding across southeastern states.
Downpours and flooding are hitting Florida’s Gulf Coast hard, with more than 10 inches of rain in some areas and more than 300,000 energy customers without power. […]
Slow-moving Debby is expected to drop immense rainfall. [… forecasters warn of historic storm surge and 20 to 30 inches of rain.
[…] The hurricane center warned: “This is a life-threatening situation” and locals should take necessary actions due to rising water.
[…] Once Debby gets off the Georgia coast tomorrow afternoon, it’s forecast to stall there for at least 24 hours, leading to historic rainfall totals and catastrophic flooding for parts of southeastern Georgia and coastal South Carolina. It’s forecast to then make a second landfall east of Charleston late Thursday or early Friday. […]
Imagine you were an employer looking to hire someone for your workplace team. You’ve collected some resumes, but to help make a decision, you decide it’s best to check with applicants’ references. After all, to get a sense of how someone would perform on the job, it makes sense to ask those who’ve worked with him/her in the recent past.
Then imagine you reach out to an applicant’s former colleagues, and when you ask whether they’d extend their support, nearly half of them hesitate. In fact, some are quite explicit in warning you not to hire the applicant.
Would you hire the person anyway? […]
Keep the question in mind when reading the latest Washington Post report on Donald Trump’s former cabinet officials.
It is rare for Cabinet members to not support the president they served. They are normally some of a president’s most loyal supporters. But in the case of Trump’s Cabinet, these uniquely qualified insiders — spanning from the vice president and chiefs of staff to more than a dozen agencies, such as Agriculture, Commerce, Homeland Security and Transportation — are deeply divided about whether he should return to power.
[…] It’s worth emphasizing that the Post’s assessment is rather generous to the former president: Former White House chief of staff John Kelly, for example, has been brutal in his condemnations of Trump, but the newspaper’s official tally lists the retired general as not having taken a firm stand on the former president’s re-election bid. […]
tomhsays
WaPo: With voting under attack, Arizona schools don’t want to be polling locations
By Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, Clara Ence Morse and Hannah Natanson
August 5, 2024 As false information about elections continues to spread, many school leaders in Maricopa County have closed their doors to the democratic process.
PHOENIX — For the first time in as long as anyone can remember, Arizona’s largest public school district isn’t opening its schools to voters as polling sites…..
In the eight years since Donald Trump was first on the ballot, hundreds of schools throughout this fiercely contested battleground county are no longer willing to assume the risks associated with holding elections….
Heightened school safety protocols and sustained attacks on voting systems and the people who run them — largely by Trump and his supporters — have prompted school leaders across America in both red and blue states to close their doors to the democratic process, according to interviews with nearly 20 school district leaders, county officials, school safety officials and election experts.”
The challenge has been especially acute in Arizona, where Trump’s narrow loss in 2020 inspired ceaseless conspiracies, false assertions that his and other GOP losses were illegitimate and death threats against county leaders who oversee voting and the workers on the front lines of running elections. Trump allies like Kari Lake, a Republican who lost her 2022 race for Arizona governor and is now running for the Senate, have empowered self-styled election-fraud detectors who are critical of both elections and the public school system.
Schools in the state can opt out of elections if principals say they don’t have enough space or if the safety of students is at risk. Administrators say there is little upside to taking part in an exercise that can draw divisiveness and intimidating scenes — creating a crisis for election officials who must provide convenient and accessible voting locations.
“In this environment, where you have people with body cameras and weapons that are being brandished, that is a concern — that is intimidating for many people,” said Scott Menzel, superintendent of the Scottsdale school district. “It just takes one flash point to ignite something that’s catastrophic and I absolutely don’t want that to happen on any one of my campuses.”
Maricopa County has had to scramble to find replacements, often resorting to renting privately owned spaces, including those in shopping malls. Officials have budgeted nearly $1 million to lease voting locations this year, up from $53,000 in 2016.
[…]
Cornel West and his campaign broke campaign finance laws while attempting to qualify for the ballot, a new complaint to the Federal Election Commission alleges.
The complaint, filed by End Citizens United, a progressive group that advocates for campaign finance reform, points at “brazen and clear patterns of activity” of Republican-linked firms providing “millions of dollars” worth of in-kind donations, in the form of paid signature gatherers and other assistance qualifying for the ballot.
NBC News reported earlier this year that Republican-linked firms were paying signature gatherers to try to help West qualify for the ballot in North Carolina and Arizona, key states in the presidential contest where Democrats fear third-party candidates could siphon off votes from Vice President Kamala Harris.
It’s unclear who is footing the bill for the million-dollar signature gathering operation, but the complaint argues it is clearly not the West campaign, which is functionally broke and did not respond to a request for comment.
“The sheer scale of this operation, spanning multiple states, involves millions of dollars being illegally spent to get West on the ballot. This level of collusion sets an incredibly dangerous precedent for election interference,” said End Citizens United President Tiffany Muller. “With less than 100 days until the election, the FEC must immediately investigate Cornel West and every GOP group involved in this scheme and hold them accountable for these egregious violations.”
As Republicans continue to try to help Cornel West’s far-left presidential campaign, a new complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission alleges there’s been illegal coordination between West’s operation and Republican-linked firms.
After ethics questions surrounding Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas have intensified, Senate Democrats began a formal process of seeking more information. The latest reporting from The New York Times suggests they’ve uncovered some relevant new details.
Justice Clarence Thomas failed to publicly disclose additional private travel provided by the wealthy conservative donor Harlan Crow, a top Democratic senator said in a letter on Monday. Customs and Border Protection records revealed that the justice and his wife, Virginia Thomas, took a round trip between Hawaii and New Zealand in November 2010 on Mr. Crow’s private jet, according to the letter. Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, writing to Mr. Crow’s lawyer, demanded that he supply more information about the financial relationship between the two men.
The fact that the underlying issue is several years old doesn’t come as too big of a surprise: I first started writing about Crow and his generosity toward Thomas more than 13 years ago.
But that doesn’t make the apparent revelation any less notable: The Senate Finance Committee appears to have evidence of another instance in which a sitting Supreme Court justice took flights on a Republican megadonor private plane and failed to disclose.
In a detailed letter to Thomas’ attorney, Wyden, who chairs the Finance Committee, wrote, “I am deeply concerned that Mr. Crow may have been showering a public official with extravagant gifts, then writing off those gifts to lower his tax bill. This concern is only heightened by the Committee’s recent discovery of additional undisclosed international travel on Mr. Crow’s private jet by Justice Thomas.
“As I consider legislative solutions to curb potentially abusive deductions, I am offering you one final opportunity to address the tax treatment of yacht and jet trips involving Justice Thomas.” […]
If you look at the 538 national average, Harris went from a .2 percentage point lead on July 28th to a 1.9 percentage point lead today. That is a substantial move over one week.
Nice democracy you got there. Be a shame if Neil Gorsuch happened to it.
Neil Gorsuch on Sunday had a two-word response to Joe Biden’s recent call for Supreme Court reforms: “Be careful.” Which leads to the inevitable question from us: Or what? Which would lead to Gorsuch saying, Or your precious democracy might find itself wearing a pair of cement Crocs. Which would lead to the next inevitable question, Oh yeah? Who’s gonna fit our democracy for those cement Crocs and then dump it in the East River? You, Evil Lurch? To which Gorsuch might reply, Yeah, me and the rest of my friends, the unelected robed high priests of the Supreme Court who have given ourselves the power to rewrite century-old laws however we see fit with no democratic accountability whatsoever!
Which would lead to our next obvious answer, You are already doing that, which is why we’re even having this conversation about court reform, you smarmy motherfucker!
Gorsuch made his comments in an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” droning on with all the condescension that is his only personality trait:
Less than a week after Biden announced he was reversing course and supporting 18-year term limits for justices and legislation to create a binding ethics code for the high court, the first of President Donald Trump’s three Supreme Court appointees encouraged Americans to think long and hard before taking steps that might undermine the independence of the judicial system.
Neil Gorsuch is too smart to pretend he does not understand the concept of the three branches of government checking and balancing each other. He is also too smart to pretend he does not understand that the Supreme Court has been on an unchecked power grab for quite a few years now. And he is certainly too smart to pretend that he does not understand the ethics controversies surrounding his colleagues Sam Alito and Clarence Thomas, and how their whoring themselves out to whichever rich conservative will buy them a luxury RV or a weekend of salmon fishing in the Aleutian Range have inevitably led to a metric fuck-ton of questions and skepticism about the integrity of that supposed judicial independence.
Then again, maybe he isn’t that smart. Maybe excessive levels of smugness have destroyed the rest of his brain’s higher functions.
So it really got under our skin hearing Gorsuch warn the public to “be careful” in calling for court reforms. That is because we remember the shenanigans Republicans engaged in to get this [guy] on the court in the first place. [video at the link]
[Snipped details of how Republicans stole a Supreme Court appointment.]
We don’t recall Gorsuch being careful and turning down the nomination, even though rising anger at the situation probably made a strong response inevitable somewhere down the road, especially after he helped use his power to reverse decades of rights enjoyed by Americans. […] Hardly anyone who gets offered a dream job with lifetime tenure and the ability to remake America in his image […]
Now he’s mad there might be some consequences for the Supreme Cour. Well, reaping, sowing, and so forth.
“If you’re in the majority, you don’t need judges and juries, to hear you, to protect your rights, if you’re popular,” Gorsuch continued. “It’s there for the moments when the spotlight’s on you — when the government’s coming after you. And don’t you want a ferociously independent judge and a jury of your peers to make those decisions?”
Hilarious to listen to this sack of crap cast himself as the defender of minority rights when he has helped make it harder for minorities to vote by gutting the Voting Rights Act, or women to control their own lives by overturning Roe v. Wade. In his addled mind, he’s a giant hero.
Gorsuch was interviewed while taking a break from stripping away a century-plus worth of hard-won rights and protections from the American public to promote his new book, titled Over Ruled, an exploration of how inconvenient it has been for American businesses when the government has made laws telling them they can’t do important business stuff like employing small children in slaughterhouses or dumping spent nuclear fuel rods into America’s water supply. You can watch him whining about government regulations below. Or you can go vomit until you fall into a coma, whichever sounds like a better use of your time. [video at the link]
birgerjohanssonsays
Sabine Hossenfelder debunks a climate change denier.
Also, we learn the meaning of Fremdschämen.*
[A Harvard study of 2019 data found that] of 22.8 million insured American children who sought care, 80% of gender-affirming surgeries were performed on cisgender males.
Approximately 96.4% of these surgeries were chest-related and were restricted to kids between the ages of 15 and 17. No surgeries were done on anyone under the age of 12.
[…]
[Among trans patients] the regret rate of these surgeries is “virtually nonexistent” according to another study […] studies reported by Assigned Media found that these surgeries are safe, with extremely low rates of complications, and “no evidence to support delaying surgery for eligible patients based on age.”
PHOENIX — Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) reached a cooperation agreement Monday with Jenna Ellis, who was a legal adviser to Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign and was one of 18 defendants indicted in April on felony charges related to alleged efforts to try to subvert President Biden’s victory in the state four years ago, according to prosecutors.
The attorney general has agreed to drop nine felony charges against Ellis in exchange for her full cooperation with the investigation into the GOP plan to try to deliver Arizona’s 11 electoral votes to Trump instead of the rightful winner, Biden.
The deal allows Ellis to avoid potential jail time in exchange for providing prosecutors with evidence that could implicate other defendants. She could provide information about former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani’s knowledge and participation in the elector strategy. According to the agreement, Ellis has also agreed to “completely and truthfully” testify in any future trials. She will also provide documents and any other material tied to the elector strategy that could help state prosecutors secure verdicts favorable to them in the high-profile case…
Arizona was one of seven states won by Biden where Republican electors gathered on Dec. 14, 2020, to sign certificates purporting to affirm Trump as the actual winner of each of the states. Trump supporters were preparing to cite the paperwork signed by the GOP electors as a way to challenge Biden’s win when Congress convened on Jan. 6, 2021, according to prosecutors.
[…]
The Arizona case was the second round of charges for Ellis and several others in the case, who were also indicted alongside Trump in Georgia last year. Ellis pleaded guilty in October to illegally conspiring to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia and has been cooperating with prosecutors.
[…]
In the critical time frame after Trump’s loss, Ellis was in touch with figures central to the elector strategy outside of Arizona and within, according to the April indictment and other publicly released records.
Ellis joined Giuliani, then a personal attorney to Trump, in presenting baseless claims of widespread malfeasance in states Trump lost. She accompanied Giuliani to Phoenix for a meeting, where unfounded claims of election fraud were circulated as Trump dialed in to speak to the crowd. Ellis was also by Giuliani’s side during a meeting with then-Arizona House Speaker Russell “Rusty” Bowers (R), who testified before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack that Giuliani repeatedly sought to persuade him to help overturn Trump’s 10,457-vote defeat in the state.
“We’ve got lots of theories, we just don’t have the evidence,” Bowers recalled Giuliani telling him and others present.
birgerjohanssonsays
Trump’s recent speech in Georgia was apparently so bad that Fox cut away from it, and audience started leaving when he entered the second hour of whatever the hell that was.
John Moralessays
redwood: “It’s a shame about JM, really. He used to put up some interesting bits of information once in a while. I’ll no longer see any of them, however, because I automatically skip over everything he says due to his tiresome quibbling.”
Your quibbling is not at all tiresome, of course.
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coffeepott: “can you just make one long post instead of 20 short ones? some of us come here for the interesting links, not self-righteous spamming.
tia”
I could, but it would be the same amount of posting, and this is the endless thread. There is no limit to the number of comments. More to the point, any interesting links are still here, still available.
So, basically, you seek for me to change my posting habits purely for your personal predilection, right?
—
But hey! I’ve just combined two separate comments into only one comment. So, there’s that.
(Shame redwood shan’t be seeing my response, but hey — that’s up to them, not up to me)
birgerjohanssonsays
Supreme court won’t stop Trump sentencing going ahead.
The sentencing will be at September 18, in Manhsttan.
birgerjohanssonsays
-A relatively recent summary of the birth of the Earth and the gradual evolution of the biosphere.
It incorporates the latest discoveries in a easy-to-follow narrative.
Much recommended!
🪐 🪱🌱🐟
The Earliest Years Of Earth’s 4.6 Billion “Year History”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=BYIzRWwT2T8
The only questions that I have is how space dust made the leap from decimeter-scale lumps to planetesimals, and how life survived the “snowball Earth” events.
The stock market took a hit Monday, with the Dow Jones Index closing 612 points lower on the heels of an unexpected jump in the unemployment rate and rising fear of a recession. The unfortunate news was met with glee from the GOP. The gloating started at the top of the Republican ticket, with Donald Trump attempting to pin the blame for the drop on Vice President Kamala Harris, proclaiming a “KAMALA CRASH” on his struggling social media site.
[Cheerleading for economic failure, pure stupidity. Also, I don’t think the tactic will work.]
Conservative media and pundits predictably jumped on the fearmongering bandwagon to predict that Monday’s stock market numbers are a harbinger of recessions to come. But one Fox News personality bucked the trend.
“The Donald Trump thing in the market amazes me,” Fox News’ Neil Cavuto said on his show, Monday. “When they’re up, it’s all because of him, and looking forward to him. When they’re down, it’s all because [of] the Democrats, and how horrific they are. Some of our biggest point falloffs, three of the biggest of the top 10, occurred during his administration.”
While Cavuto has been a target of the MAGA faithful, that didn’t stop him from calling out the confusing and contradictory messaging from the right.
“You either own the markets or you don’t,” Cavuto said. “It does confuse me.” [video at the link]
On Monday morning Trump sought to exploit a decline in the stock market for his personal, political benefit. He posted a comment on his floundering social media scam, Truth Social, whose purpose could only be interpreted as a deliberate attempt to stoke needless panic and turn a small market dip into major disaster. He wrote that…
“Of course there is a massive market downturn. Kamala is even worse than Crooked Joe. Markets will NEVER accept the Radical Left Lunatic that DESTROYED San Francisco and California, as a whole. Next move, THE GREAT DEPRESSION OF 2024! You can’t play games with MARKETS. KAMALA CRASH!!!”
This is just plain weird, as well as flagrantly untrue. First of all, if Trump wants to blame Harris for the wealth and prosperity of San Francisco and California, she probably won’t mind. Secondly, if the performance of the stock market is a reflection of the Biden/Harris administration, then it’s a pretty good reason to vote for Harris and every other Democrat on the ballot. Thirdly, Trump is crawling out onto a pretty weak limb with his fear mongering about a “GREAT DEPRESSION.”
For the record, there was a real stock market crash in late 2008 during the GW Bush term that took the markets down 37%. The S&P index is down only about 2% today, and only 6% from its all time high. That’s a minor and expected correction from the 17% rise in the past year, and the 36% gain since Biden and Harris took office. What’s more, markets worldwide are also down about 2%. Does Trump think that Biden and Harris are also the leaders of every other country on the planet? […]
For a look at what bad management does to a company on the stock exchange, take a look at Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG: ticker DJT) that is the parent corporation of Truth Social. While the broader markets are down about 2% today, DJT is down 8%. Furthermore, it is down a whopping 34% since it went public just four moths ago.
Trump’s fear mongering is not just purposefully dishonest, it’s downright dangerous. He is trying to create a worse outcome by driving people to panic. He actually wants America to fail, and for people to get hurt, in order to prop himself up politically. And his cronies in Congress are playing along. [X post showing GOP view: “The stock market is imploding. A recession is on the horizon. The world stands at the brink of World War III.”]
Trump seems to know that the only way he can win is for the American people to suffer. So he’s doing everything he can to produce that result. […]
From Reuters:
[…] the report was not without its bright spots like a second straight month of hefty workforce growth and came with some fat caveats, including a big debate underway about the weather.
Here are four reasons to take a breath and accept that the report may not signal the end is near.
BIG BAD BERYL [a reference to Hurricane Beryl]
The BLS added a big footnote to the first page of Friday’s release to say Hurricane Beryl – which slammed into Texas during the employment report survey week and left some 2.7 million homes and businesses in the Houston area without power for days – “had no discernible effect” on the month’s data.
A number of economists said: “Whoa!”
For one thing, they said, just look at the number of people who reported not being at work due to bad weather: 436,000 nonfarm workers and 461,000 with agriculture workers included.
That is not just a record for the month of July, it was more than 10 times the July average dating back to 1976 when BLS started tracking the metric. And more than 1 million others could only work part time due to the weather, also a record for the month.
“We are not sure that we absolve Beryl of any responsibility for the weakness in this data,” Jefferies U.S. economist Thomas Simons wrote. [chart showing data from 1980 to present]
TEMPORARY LAYOFFS
The number of people who said their job loss was temporary was the highest in about three years last month and accounted for more than half of the overall increase in the number of unemployed of 352,000.
If their temporary layoffs last only a few weeks or don’t become permanent, economists expect most of those people will report as employed in the report for August that will come out next month.
Again, Beryl may be a culprit here. “We think some of those layoffs may have been related to Hurricane Beryl,” Oxford Economics Lead U.S. Economist Nancy Vanden Houten wrote.
Temporary layoffs surged
The number of people on temporary layoff was the highest in nearly three years in July and accounted for
more than half of the rise in overall unemployment, leading some economists to see the potential for the
unemployment rate to fall when the August data is reported next month. [graph showing data from July 2021 to present]
CONSTRUCTION JOBS STILL HUMMING
Construction work, often a leading indicator of coming shifts in the economy, especially for sectors like home building, continued growing last month at roughly the pace of the last year.
The 25,000 new jobs was also somewhat above the roughly 20,000 construction jobs added on average each month of the five years prior to the pandemic, a period Fed officials often reminisce about.
That could augur for a recovery in housing starts, which have been sluggish for months. […]]
[graph of construction employment from 2021 to present]
[…] Prime-aged worker participation rose
The labor force participation rate among 25-to-54-year-olds – a key labor market demographic – rose to the
highest since 2001 in July. For prime-aged men, it hit 90% for the first time since the 2007-2009 financial crisis.
The women’s rate of 78.1% matched a record high. [graphs at the link]
Donald Trump and his people have lately been trying to put as much distance between the former president and Project 2025 as they can without launching him into space.
The Trump team has been really desperate about this ever since the Democrats started tying Project 2025 to Orange Julius at every opportunity. And no wonder. Polls generally show that many, many, many of the proposals in Project 2025 are about as popular with the public as liver cancer. Conservatives can’t embrace nearly all of the document if they want to win the upcoming elections, even if they agree wholeheartedly with the ideas therein.
[…] of course Project 2025 has not vanished, simply gone underground. And on Monday, Reuters reported that former director of the Office of Management and Budget/galactically brown-nosed Trump lickspittle Russell Vought is working on a super-secret plan to implement the project in the first six months of a new Trump administration:
A chief architect of Project 2025 — the controversial conservative blueprint to remake the federal government — Vought is likely to be appointed to a high-ranking post in a second Trump administration. And he’s been drafting a so-far secret “180-Day Transition Playbook” to speed the plan’s implementation to avoid a repeat of the chaotic start that dogged Trump’s first term.
Oh boy, remember that first week of Trump’s term, in 2017? Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon jerry-rigging a xenophobic executive order keeping brown people out of America while Sean Spicer screamed at reporters about crowd sizes? Well, like Skynet, Trump’s people learned at a geometric rate. And what they learned was that they better be ready to hit the ground running on Inauguration Day, before Congress or the judiciary or activist groups know what hit them.
We already know that Project 2025 called for executing all federal death row inmates in the first 180 days of a new administration, which would require a pace of one execution every four days or so. Lord knows what other craziness is in Vought’s plan, or if Vought is aware that he shares a last name with the evil corporation in The Boys, a factoid he would probably embrace.
“A very determined warrior is how I would see Russ,” said a former Trump administration official who worked with Vought in the White House and requested anonymity to speak candidly about him. “I don’t think he thinks about whether or not he likes Donald Trump as a person. I think he likes what Donald Trump represents in terms of the political forces he’s able to harness.”
See, Donald? Nobody likes you!
So yeah, Project 2025 is about as dead as any other part of the project to bring fascism to America. Which is to say, not remotely dead at all.
how space dust made the leap from decimeter-scale lumps to planetesimals
Wikipedia is behind the times on this.
“Nebular hypothesis” says “How 1cm sized particles coalesce into 1km planetesimals is a mystery.” citing a 2002 paper.
“Accretion (astrophysics)” likewise cites old stuff.
“Pebble accretion” too.
“Streaming Instability” had a recent source overviewing the answers you seek.
Currently, there are two schools of thought for how planetesimals form.
The first relies on pebbles being concentrated somehow to the point where their mutual gravitational attraction overpower competing effects, such as stellar tides and turbulent diffusion […] this approach has provided the largest number of potential mechanisms, which we refer to as “gravitational collapse models”. [“Streaming Instability” is the most well-studied.]
The second school of thought takes the opposing view of bottom-up growth. These models, which we refer to as “coagulation models”, rely on the imperfection of the the various growth barriers […] there are routes toward sticking mm–cm size pebbles together to further grow in size, such as the collision-induced mass transfer from smaller aggregates to larger bodies. [Instead of both bodies shattering, the smaller one shatters and donates fragments to the bigger one.] Thus, coagulation models describe a route to planetesimal formation through purely collisional growth. [However, the behavior of fluffy aggregates is not understood, so these models are built on assumptions awaiting empirical data. They might sidestep growth barriers. They might not.]
Page 26, Concluding Remarks
Less than two decades ago, the formation of planetesimals was one of the biggest unanswered questions in planetary science and astrophysics. While this issue does remain open […] We now have a detailed understanding of how sub-micron grains grow to pebble sizes, backed by both theoretical calculations and laboratory experiments, and we have multiple models to explain how pebbles then reach the next stage and form planetesimals. Of course, there remain issues that must be solved in order to […] determine which mechanisms are responsible
[…]
Even with these outstanding issues, however, there are indications that the gravitational collapse paradigm, and specifically the [Streaming Instability]-induced collapse model, is the correct one.
birgerjohanssonsays
Noah, Heath and Eli travelled to Salt Lake City to do a live episode of ‘God Awful Movies’ in front of an audience of half ex-mormons; dissecting the LDS film “The Oath”.
My comment: the mormons should just hire Mel Gibson when they want to make religious films. Gibson is problematic, but a professional. His films never ended up at that space station where they watched horrible films.
(the episode should pop up at Youtube in a day or two)
birgerjohanssonsays
Tunisia court jails potential presidential candidates and bars them from upcoming election | Tunisia | The Guardian
There is a block of 22 comments above within which 19 are from the same maladjusted attention whore. Bender? Sundowning? Or just desperately bored? Ya gotta wonder.
John Moralessays
Bounded Bekenstein (heh):
Ya gotta wonder.
Just got to! It is ineluctable.
I know. I am wonderful. Thanks!
(You do mean me, doncha, O maladjusted attention fluffer?)
Heh.
Go for it.
Ejaculate when you think about me, that’s the thing!
OK. You are now known to me.
—
… maladjusted attention whore …
Whoredom is a noble calling; they actually get paid for their professional duties.
Besides, that would make you the John, no? Heh.
Maladjusted just means not-complying with the usual social constrictions.
Not beeing sheeplish.
Free-thinking, one could say.
(You imagined you were being insulting? Heh)
—
Gotta love these feebles’ little moans about me.
(Attention, I have no worries getting. Understanding, well… not by the plebs)
John Moralessays
BBs are like bullets, but weaker and smaller and less harmful.
(I do love the counting, but. In an endless thread)
—
And yes, I remember TET, not this TIT. :)
John Moralessays
It’s quite rude and cowardly to ostensibly address the audience whilst actually whining at someone.
I get that a fair bit.
Cowardice, basically.
(Weak, that is. This is what happens to such cowards)
Stephen Colbert reveals that Trump falsely claimed Kamala Harris ‘happened to turn Black”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=WZKBI1BOlxA
.
Also… who are the low-information voters who think Democrats permit infanticide? Are the Qanon crowd big enough to have influence in the election?
John Moralessays
Hey, Bekenstein “maladjusted attention whore” Bound , how’s your essay at sniping going for ya?
(I’m quoting someone’s purple prose, you know. That’s why the quotation marks)
[Lynna, you know how it is. A touch of levity in these troublesome times.
But the Thread endures, and I don’t mistake your light touch for sappiness]
John Moralessays
Used to be political madness, this thread.
Infinite, for sure, that is.
StevoRsays
A religious vilification complaint has been lodged with the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board against federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.
Last month, Mr Dutton was asked about comments made by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese regarding then-Labor senator Fatima Payman’s imminent departure from the party.
In the course of his answer, Mr Dutton said: “The prime minister, if he’s in a minority government in the next term of parliament, it will include the Greens, it’ll include Green-Teals, it’ll include Muslim candidates from Western Sydney. It will be a disaster.”
In a complaint to the anti-discrimination board, the Alliance Against Islamophobia said Mr Dutton’s comment contributed to a “hostile environment for Muslim Australians” and “reinforcing harmful stereotypes about the Muslim community”.
“[The statement] dehumanises and vilifies Muslim candidates based on their religious beliefs, suggesting their inclusion in government would be detrimental to Australian society,” the advocacy group said in its complaint.
Dutton is a blatant bigot and a truly horrible human.
Yes, and no.
You are O so very judgemental, StevoR.
And that complaint is about as weak-arse (‘weak-ass for USAnians) as it can get.
FFS.
I hope the Alliance Against Islamophobia wins here.
You are so clueless!
(Sloganeering and names, these still befuddle you. Look at the substance)
John Moralessays
I mean, you do get Dutton is just red-meating his demographic, right?
Read it for yourself, don’t fucking go by the AAI’s spin.
“[…] it will include the Greens, it’ll include Green-Teals, it’ll include Muslim candidates from Western Sydney. It will be a disaster.”
Get it?
The “Muslim candidates from Western Sydney” are grouped with “the Greens” and the “Green-Teals”.
(What, should there be an Alliance Against Tealphobia formed? Just as bad, no?)
—
In short, please, please, start thinking for yourself.
(Then I could dispute or endorse your opinion, not your sheepish following of press pabulum)
John Moralessays
It amuses me you don’t get how ironic it is you adduce an article about misinformed people, StevoR.
(Oh no! Three comments in a row! I’m using up the thread!)
John Moralessays
One more, maybe I can get through.
In a complaint to the anti-discrimination board, the Alliance Against Islamophobia said Mr Dutton’s comment contributed to a “hostile environment for Muslim Australians” and “reinforcing harmful stereotypes about the Muslim community”.
↓ In a complaint to the anti-discrimination board, the Alliance Against Greenphobia said Mr Dutton’s comment contributed to a “hostile environment for Green Australians” and “reinforcing harmful stereotypes about the Green community”.
Same thing, no?
(Such a horrible person!)
John Moralessays
OK, going to bed, but one last one.
Remember how you got into trouble for your O most enthusiastic cheering-on of Israel?
(You’re kinda doing the same thing, but in reverse, right now. Think about it!)
Silentbobsays
You are O so very judgemental, StevoR
Lol. Seems you have been judged and found wanting, StevoR.
(You should of course ignore Morales – he’s trolling you. It’s his hobby. Rather pathetic really.)
StevoRsays
@ 165.WARNING : Last segment has some pretty gross explict sexual references and languages from the 9 mins 50 seconds mark onwards.
Mainly sharing here for the first two segments (‘Fake news sparks riots’ & ‘Wrong’ flag.’)
“Dutton is a blatant bigot and a truly horrible human.” – SR
Yes, and no. You are O so very judgemental, StevoR.
I think there’s more than ample evidence of Peter Dutton over decades to draw that conclusion based on Dutton’s words and actions from demonising Sudanese youth as criminals, joking about Pacific islands vanishing, opposing equal marriage, needlessly destroying the Indigenous Voice to Parlt by spreading racist misinformation, his utterly heartless treatment of refugees imprisoned in Australia’s racist sadistic Offshore (non)Processing, and so much more. (Eg and part of the wiki-listing of his appalling words and deeds here : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Dutton#Sarah_Hanson-Young_spying_incident )
Frex :
Australian Lawyers for Human Rights (ALHR) condemns the continued attack by certain members of the Federal Government (Notably Dutton – ed) on Victoria’s African communities who are being vilified by the false singling out of African youth as the main perpetrators of youth crime in Victoria.
With whole books written assessing Dutton’s racist and, yes, evil policies and actions eg :
Who is Peter Dutton, and what happened to the Liberal Party? In Bad Cop, Lech Blaine traces the making of a hardman – from Queensland detective to leader of the Opposition, from property investor to minister for Home Affairs. This is a story of ambition, race and power, and a politician with a plan. … (Snip).. His fight with Albanese over parochial voters was always going to drag the political conversation rightwards: on race, immigration, gender and the pace of a transition away from fossil fuels … Dutton’s raison d’être? Make Australia Afraid Again.
..that complaint is about as weak-arse (‘weak-ass for USAnians) as it can get.
Why do you think that?
Dutton is a candidate for future PM with a long history of displaying Islamophobic bigorty – among many other forms of bigotry notably against our First Peoples, Queer people and non-white Africans communities. There is a lot of context and history here and the Gestapotato has form here. Perhaps Dutton’s dogwhistle sounds mild or inaudible to some but to those in the marginalised and demonised community it is more than loud enough to worry them.
To say singling out an entire religious community is the same as singling out a specific political party and set of politicians with pro-Climate Action policies (Teals) seems conflating two different things. Muslims are not a political party.
I hope I have learnt by now NOT to overgeneralise – a previous bad flaw of mine and a trap I try not to fall into anymore. Peter Dutton is a singular individual. (Altho’the leader of a political party – well, coalition of two parties actually.) Peter Dutton’s own specific personal character and history condemn him and expose him ias ablatant bigot and horrid excuse for a human in my view because of all the things already noted and more.
StevoRsays
More examples of why I – and others – consider Dutton a hateful bigot who has earned his Gestapotato nickname :
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton’s recent statements that Australia should open its arms to white farmers in South Africa facing “persecution” at the hands of a black majority government sparked national bemusement, international outrage, and rejection from members of his own government.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has continued his tradition of exploiting racism for political mileage, further degrading the Liberal Party’s tarnished reputation, writes Belinda Jones.
RACISM REARED its ugly head this week when The Australian (Murdoch propaganda rag – ed) misquoted Professor Marcia Langton, representing the “Yes” campaign for the Referendum for a Voice To Parliament. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton jumped on the bandwagon, fanned the flames, posted it on social media and failed to delete it when The Australian corrected its headline.
Again, Dutton failed a test of leadership. This week, in particular, has shown Australians again that Dutton would rather exploit racism for political mileage than act with integrity and act to diffuse the situation. Integrity means rejecting racism.
^ Satirical take from the old SBS The Feed show that is.
.***
Omar has proven adept at parrying presidential attacks, as she did Tuesday night when she replied to Trump with a tweet that declared, “This is my country and I am a member of the House that impeached you. Secondly, I fled civil war when I was 8. An 8-year-old doesn’t run a country even though you run our country like one.”
StevoR,
Dutton would be an unelectable weird nothingburger if Australian media wouldn’t hang on his every word as if it was the gospel of Matthew, and quote and regurgitate it relentlessly, and the ABC is particularly guilty of this.
StevoRsays
@ ^ rorschach : I blame Murdoch for that a lot more and, of course, Dutton is the “alternative PM” albeit they never treated Albo or Bill Shorten etc..before him as kindly or with as much serious attention when the ALP was in opposition. Grrr.. Yeah, our Aussie media has a definite reichwing bias. Even the increasingly undermined and white-anted ABC.
rorschachsays
StevoR,
it’s the Trump playbook, lie without shame, flood the zone with shit, you know the media will lap it up and some of it will stick with (low information) voters. Add to that that the governing Labor party is turning out to be an absolute nightmare, and you can easily see the Liberals in with a chance to win the next election. (Liberals in Australia are the bad guys, think Republicans)
Trump’s press secretary complained about Tim Walz restoring voting rights for formerly incarcerated people — seemingly unaware of Trump’s criminal record.
No matter who Vice President Kamala Harris picked as her 2024 running mate, Donald Trump and his Republican campaign operation was prepared to go after him or her with a vengeance. In fact, it seems awfully likely that the over-the-top press statements and fundraising appeals were already written — and Team Trump was simply waiting for a name to fill in. [JD Vance already stated that Walz wants to send USA manufacturing jobs to China. False.]
It was against this backdrop that the former president’s campaign sent a solicitation to prospective donors this morning, telling them that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz would “unleash hell on Earth” if the Democratic ticket prevails. [Kind of funny. Walz looks like the kind of guy who would not unleash hell anywhere.]
No, seriously, that’s what the fundraising message said.
But as it turns out, that’s not all the GOP nominee and his operation had to say. The Hill highlighted a written statement sent to the media from Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt:
From proposing his own carbon-free agenda, to suggesting stricter emission standards for gas-powered cars, and embracing policies to allow convicted felons to vote, Walz is obsessed with spreading California’s dangerously liberal agenda.
So, a few things.
First, there’s nothing “dangerously liberal” about taking the climate crisis seriously. Second, it’s true that the Democratic governor restored voting rights for formerly incarcerated people, but that’s a popular and just position for officials to take.
But stepping back for a moment, is Donald Trump’s press secretary seriously prepared to make the case against convicted felons participating in our democracy? Because if so, Leavitt might be surprised to discover that in recent months, a jury found her boss guilty of 34 felonies in his hush money case. This is not to be confused with a different jury finding Trump liable for sexual abuse, or the case in which a court found that Trump oversaw a business that engaged in systemic fraud.
Indeed, it often seems as if the Republican Party is wholly unaware of the fact that it has a criminal leading its 2024 ticket. Trump himself recently declared with confidence, “You’re not going to teach a criminal not to be a criminal,” as if the maxim were just common sense. A day later, the former president echoed the line at an unrelated event.
“A criminal is a criminal,” the GOP nominee said. “They generally stay a criminal and we do not have time to figure it out.”
A little self-awareness goes a long way. The sooner Team Trump realizes that, the less embarrassing their public statements will be.
Walz served 12 years in Congress. He represented a rural county. That and his governing experience in Minnesota should stand him in good stead as far as preparation for the Vice Presidency.
ActBlue, the online donation processor used by the Harris campaign and most other Democratic groups, erupted with new contributions after Walz’s selection as running mate was announced. According to the live donation ticker on ActBlue’s homepage, the service processed more than $2.5 million in donations from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. ET after Harris’ campaign told supporters her pick.
That’s a good sign.
Also, both Bernie Sanders and Joe Manchin praised Minnesota Governor Tim Walz this morning.
It was just a few days after President Joe Biden ended his re-election bid when former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan did something unusual: He became the first Republican to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 candidacy. This did not go unnoticed by the state GOP.
On the contrary, the Georgia Republican Party responded to the news by launching an effort to expel Duncan from the party and ban him from ever again running as a GOP candidate. State party Chairman Josh McKoon added that Duncan will be “treated as a trespasser” if he seeks to attend any Georgia GOP event.
Donald Trump — the one Sen. JD Vance said is not a “vengeful guy” — celebrated the Georgia Republican Party’s moves against Duncan, adding in an online message, “We have to purge the Party of people that go against our Candidates, and make it harder for a popular Republican President to beat the Radical Left Lunatics. Geoff Duncan is a loser who is disintegrating on his own. Congratulations to Josh McKoon for purging our Party of Misfits and people that don’t want to see us succeed!”
As it turns out, Duncan isn’t the only Republican that the former president is eager to “purge” from the party. Politico reported on one of today’s most notable congressional primaries:
Donald Trump and his allies have already purged eight of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach him after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. The former president could add a ninth to the list on Tuesday. Rep. Dan Newhouse narrowly survived Trump’s attempt to take him out two years ago but faces perhaps a stiffer challenge this year.
Though Trump usually endorses his favorite candidate in a given race, in this instance, the former president endorsed both of Newhouse’s intraparty challengers: failed Senate candidate Tiffany Smiley and Jerrod Sessler, a former racecar driver. (Technically, he endorsed Sessler four months ago, then told his followers a few days ago that he supports Smiley, too.)
[…] when Trump was impeached for his role in the Jan. 6 attack, it resulted in the most bipartisan impeachment vote in American history. Against a backdrop in which Republicans seemed eager to move on from their failed, defeated president, 10 GOP House members voted with the Democratic majority in favor of the impeachment resolution, and they had every reason to believe they’d be vindicated by history.
[…] As the defeated, scandal-plagued, failed former president reclaimed control over the party, and party leaders such as former Speaker Kevin McCarthy scurried to Mar-a-Lago to bend the knee, members of the Impeachment 10 came to realize that it didn’t matter that they were right. What mattered was that much of their radicalized political party wouldn’t tolerate their heresy, which would overshadow other parts of their careers in public service.
Some saw the direction in the prevailing winds and decided to avoid the indignity of defeat. It’s why four members of the contingent — Ohio’s Anthony Gonzalez, New York’s John Katko, Illinois’ Adam Kinzinger, and Michigan’s Fred Upton — announced their retirements before the 2022 primary season even began in earnest.
Four more thought they could maintain the trust of the voters who’d elected them in the first place:
– In South Carolina, Rep. Tom Rice was crushed in a primary, losing by more than 26 points to a Republican primary rival who insisted that the 2020 election was “rigged.” (It was not rigged.)
– In Michigan, Rep. Peter Meijer suffered a relatively narrow loss in a GOP primary to John Gibbs, perhaps best known for his “inflammatory, conspiratorial tweets.”
– In the state of Washington, Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler lost her primary race to Joe Kent, who, according to an Associated Press report, has “connections to right-wing extremists, including a campaign consultant who was a member of the Proud Boys.”
– In Wyoming, Rep. Liz Cheney suffered a lopsided defeat to a Trump-backed lawyer who embraced the Big Lie.
It’s worth emphasizing for context that two of these four — Gibbs and Kent — ended up losing in the 2022 general elections, allowing Democrats to flip the seats from “red” to “blue.”
As for the other two members of the Impeachment 10, California’s David Valadao narrowly won his re-election bid in 2022, while Washington’s Dan Newhouse cruised to a landslide victory two years ago.
Trump has largely left Valadao alone, but the former president apparently believes Newhouse’s Washington district is conservative enough that he can help oust Newhouse, hand the nomination to an even more conservative rival, and the GOP can keep the seat. Watch this space.
[…] Walz enlisted in the National Guard as a teenager and served for more than two decades, including overseas deployments. He was a high school social studies teacher and football coach. When he ran for Congress, Walz was expected to struggle in a rural district that rarely voted Democratic, but he prevailed anyway and held the seat for 12 years.
He then ran two successful gubernatorial campaigns and racked up some impressive progressive policy wins.
As Clarissa-Jan’s report added, “Since 2022, when Democrats won control of the state Legislature, Walz has passed billions in funding for schools, including free school lunches; shored up abortion rights; secured stricter gun violence prevention laws; expanded legal protections for transgender youth; and restored voting rights for formerly incarcerated people.”
NBC News’ report went on to note that Walz also “enacted laws expanding paid family leave, banned most non-compete agreements … and capped the price of insulin in Minnesota (three years before Biden did it nationally).” […]
Vice President Kamala Harris tapped Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate on Tuesday, a decision that could usher in a new era of leadership in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.
Democratic Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan would become Minnesota’s new chief executive should the Harris-Walz ticket prevail in November, an ascension that would make her the first woman to lead the state. Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, would also be the first Native American woman to serve as governor of any state. No matter what, though, this office will next be on the ballot in 2026 for a full four-year term. […]
Back in June, the state of Louisiana passed a law (HB71) requiring that every classroom in every public and private school across the state put up ginormous posters of the King James version of the Ten Commandments, we can assume for the explicit purpose of trolling non-Christian (and non-Protestant Christian) children and making them feel unwelcome at the schools their parents taxes pay for.
Prior to signing the bill, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry actually told attendees at a Republican fundraiser, “I can’t wait to be sued.”
And that is just what happened. The parents of these children and fans of civil liberties immediately filed a lawsuit in hopes of keeping the blatantly unconstitutional posters the hell out of school classrooms.
But Landry and Louisiana AG Liz Merrill were prepared! Sort of! Because they came up with a whole bunch of trollish loopholes they think will make their obviously unconstitutional law constitutional — and held a press conference to explain. [video at the link]
Merrill explained that the brief she filed against the lawsuit states that the plaintiffs have no case because they haven’t actually seen any of their religious displays and therefore cannot say they are unconstitutional.
The brief itself reads:
Plaintiffs allege that they “object to, and will be harmed by, the religious displays mandated by [the law].” Across more than 100 paragraphs of “Factual Allegations,” however, the Complaint never mentions a single Defendant or a single H.B. 71 display. […] For good reason: No Plaintiff or their child has seen an H.B. 71 display. In fact, no one knows how any given school or official—including Defendants—will implement H.B. 71, what any given H.B. 71 display will look like, or whether any given H.B. 71 display will pose a potential constitutional issue. As a result, the most Plaintiffs can speculate is that, by “implementing H.B. 71,” the named Defendants “will” violate Plaintiffs’ constitutional rights.
Again, we all know what the Ten Commandments are and that the goal of this law is the establishment of religion by the state.
If that argument falls through, Merrill explained that her next argument is that, in order to say that the law is unconstitutional, the defendants would have to prove that every possible way the Ten Commandments could hypothetically be displayed would be unconstitutional — which, of course, makes no goddamn sense.
To illustrate her point, Merrill pointed to a bunch of workups of posters that she thinks could be constitutional, but which make no sense and take a variety of statements from a variety of people and Broadway shows out of context.
One particularly absurd poster places the Ten Commandments and a picture of Charlton Heston next to a summary of the song “Ten Duel Commandments” from Hamilton. [video at the link]
So, look — I am obviously a very big fan of Hamilton, but even aside from the “It’s still not constitutional!” of it all, I’m not sure this is a very good idea. You know, what with our whole mass shooting problem and all. Like, these people really want to put the rules for a gun fight on the walls of a school, literally next to the Ten Commandments? What the hell are they thinking?
Another poster featured in the conference has already brought the ire of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s family, as it presents a quote from a paper she wrote in the 8th grade as though it were something she wrote as an adult Supreme Court Justice. [Image at the link]
“The use of my grandmother’s image in Louisiana’s unconstitutional effort to display the Ten Commandments in public schools is misleading and an affront to her well-documented First Amendment jurisprudence,” Clara Spera told Rolling Stone. “By placing the quote next to an official Supreme Court portrait of her in judicial robes and a jabot, Louisiana is misleading the public by suggesting that Justice Ginsburg made the statement about the Ten Commandments being among the world’s ‘four great documents’ while serving as a Supreme Court Justice.”
Another poster highlighted “Legal Non-Profits In Action” and described the ACLU’s opposition to putting the Ten Commandments up in classrooms — which, obviously they’re busting balls here, because the ACLU is one of the groups suing their asses. [image at the link]
Another tried to compare the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.’s rules for non-violence to the Ten Commandments, because Moses was the first guy to do a top ten list and therefore every list of ten things inspired by him. [image at the link]
[…] Another was just like “Hey! You know who does laws? Moses! Also, Congress! That is how these things are related. Also there is a marble relief portrait of Moses (supposedly, because no one knows what Moses looked like, you absolute weirdos) in Congress!” [image at the link]
So constitutional!
Still another poster includes out-of-context quotes from the Supreme Court about the Ten Commandments. [image at the link]
One quote — “This Court has subscribed to the view that the Ten Commandments influenced the development of Western legal thought” — comes from Justice John Paul Stevens’ dissent in Van Order v. Perry, in which he writes the exact opposite of what is implied here.
Though this Court has subscribed to the view that the Ten Commandments influenced the development of Western legal thought, it has not officially endorsed the far more specific claim that the Ten Commandments played a significant role in the development of our Nation’s foundational documents (and the subsidiary implication that it has special relevance to Texas). Although it is perhaps an overstatement to characterize this latter proposition as “idiotic,” […] as one Member of the plurality has done, at the very least the question is a matter of intense scholarly debate. […] Whatever the historical accuracy of the proposition, the District Court categorically rejected respondents’ suggestion that the State’s actual purpose in displaying the Decalogue was to signify its influence on secular law and Texas institutions.
[…] Landry, for his part, argued that the law is just democracy in action, that it is what the majority of people in Louisiana want and therefore is constitutional — which is not actually how things work in this country.
[…] while we have democracy, we also have laws that protect minorities of all kinds, including religious minorities, from having their rights infringed upon by the majority.
[…] He also proposed a solution for those who don’t like the posters — tell their kids not to look at them.
The Russian defence ministry said on Tuesday a Ukrainian “sabotage group” that tried to attack Russia’s Kursk region has retreated in defeat.
Russia earlier accused Ukraine of mounting an attack on its southern border and said it had moved in reserves to help repel hundreds of fighters backed by tanks.
All of the information available so far is from Russia so it’s all highly questionable. This would be a significant move if Ukrainian forces directly attacked Russian territory. Previous attacks have been small special forces and/or drone strikes, with the exception of 2 raids by forces of unclear/deniable origin.
@187 Lynna, OM wrote about how: Back in June, the state of Louisiana passed a law (HB71) requiring that every classroom in every public and private school across the state put up ginormous posters of the King James version of the Ten Commandments,
and Lynna commented: Landry, for his part, argued that the law is just democracy in action, that it is what the majority of people in Louisiana want and therefore is constitutional — which is not actually how things work in this country.
I agree! Turning the laws of this chaotic nation into a popularity contest makes it an even greater farce. Also, the commandments REQUIRED BY THAT LAW are not from any xtian sect or version of their bible, they are the MOVIE version use by Cecil B. DeMille in the 1950’s. It would be so funny if it weren’t so scary: these stupid, lying, bigoted religious zealots are are the kind that would kill you by hitting you with a metal cross to prove how peaceful they are.
shermanj @190, thanks for the additional information about the Cecil B. DeMille movie. That makes Louisiana’s law (HB71) even more laughable.
birger @192, yep. And Trump lackeys are repeating that attack against Walz.
Also, as Steve Benen noted:
Donald Trump picked one of the least experienced running mates in history, and Kamala Harris picked one of the most experienced running mates in history.
There is one area in which Trump himself has more experience … being convicted of crimes.
“Kamala Harris and Tim Walz will lead America into a brighter future for everyone,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) wrote on social media.
“Tim Walz is wonderful. He served in the House. To characterize him as left is so unreal. He’s right down the middle. He’s a Heartland of America Democrat,” former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said.
Walz is also a big union guy — a crucial credential for the Democratic ticket in 2024, especially given Harris’ position in the Biden admin, which has been dubbed one of, if not the most pro-labor administration ever. As a teacher, Walz was a member of the American Federation of Teachers, one of two large unions that represent public school teachers in the U.S. And just last year, he signed a package of bills into law considered to be one of the most sweeping pro-worker reforms seen in the U.S. in decades, according to Axios.
The Minnesota governor was also one of the United Auto Workers’ (UAW) top picks to serve as Harris’ VP before the announcement even came.
“Tim Walz doesn’t just talk the talk, he walks the walk,” the UAW said in a post, soon after Walz was announced the winner of the Harris veepstakes. “From delivering for working-class Americans to standing with the UAW on our picket line last year, we know which side he’s on.” […]
Everywhere Vice President Kamala Harris goes this week, GOP vice presidential candidate JD Vance is following. It’s not unusual for presidential contenders and their running mates to shadow their opponents, but in this case the strategy might not play out the way Republicans want it to—especially with women voters.
Vance is not hosting traditional rallies in the same cities on the same days as Harris, instead opting for “press appearances” nearby. The first will take place in Philadelphia on Tuesday. Vance will then follow Harris to: Detroit, Michigan; Eau Claire, Wisconsin; and Raleigh, North Carolina. After Donald Trump’s rally size failure in Atlanta over the weekend (it was filled to capacity for Harris just days before), it’s no wonder the GOP ticket is not trying to compete on crowd size.
[Vance] will appear at a South Philadelphia venue that “regularly hosts fights and wrestling events, a perfect fit as Vance and the Trump campaign work to court young men with an interest in combat sports.” Yeah, kind of creepy.
It’s pretty clear Vance has a problem with women, in more than one sense.
He has displayed overt hostility with his “childless cat ladies” rant and his belief that women should be trapped in “even violent” marriages. That’s not even getting into how he wants the government to control women’s bodies.
How badly is he playing among women? The usually apolitical movie star Jennifer Aniston went after him for his casual and callous disregard for childless women. Even Republican Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski has blasted Vance.
“If the Republican Party is trying to improve its image with women, I don’t think that this is working,” Murkowski told Politico. “To be so derogatory in this way is offensive to me as a woman.”
Faux hillbilly Vance is even garnering bad headlines in the usually bland People Magazine for his inflammatory comments about women and their place in society.
That leads to Vance’s other problem with women—or more to the point, among women. He’s not just the least liked vice presidential pick in decades, he’s in a huge hole with women in particular. Check out the crosstabs on Vance’s approval in July’s Civiqs poll for Daily Kos: He is 31 points underwater with women, with a 59% disapproval rating compared to a 28% approval rating.
Not that he’s popular overall. He has a dismal 34% approval rating among all voters, with 51% disapproving. It doesn’t seem far-fetched to guess that the 8% of Republican voters who don’t like him are primarily women.
That makes the success of his stalker’s tour of Harris unlikely, at best.
A presidential race that at one point seemed like it was becoming former President Trump’s to lose increasingly looks like a toss-up as Vice President Harris gains momentum and a new running mate.
The extent to which Harris’s pick of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) helps her is up in the air, but there’s no question the vice president has been riding an upward swing in the polls since President Biden ended his reelection bid late last month and endorsed her.
Harris and Trump are nearly tied in the national polling average tracked by The Hill/Decision Desk HQ, with Trump winning 47.1 percent in the average of polls, and Harris is at 47 percent. Trump initially was up by more than 6 points when Harris declared her candidacy following Biden’s decision to leave the race.
The Hill/Decision Desk HQ model polling average isn’t the only place giving Harris and Democrats new hope, either.
Harris also led Trump in pollster Nate Silver’s electoral forecast for the first time in recent days after Trump had the advantage against first Biden and then Harris for weeks. The vice president’s chance of winning the election also surpassed Trump’s.
[…] DDHQ has tracked a shift in the Democrats’ favor in nine of 10 key states in addition to the national polling. The largest shift in the polling average from before Biden dropped out has been in North Carolina, which shifted from a Trump lead of 10 points to just 3 points.
[…] Eight polls for Pennsylvania and five polls each from Georgia and Michigan have revealed shifts toward Harris of 2 points, 4 points and 3 points, respectively.
[…] A Morning Consult poll released Monday showed Harris leading Trump by 4 points, which is the largest lead for the Democratic presidential candidate in almost a year. Harris also led Trump by 5 points among independents and 9 points among voters 18 to 35 years old […]
All the polls point to a tight race, suggesting both candidates will have to work hard to turn out their supporters. […]
Bangladeshi officials meet student demand to name Nobel laureate as leader.
The selection of Muhammad Yunus by the president, security chiefs and student leaders represents an initial step to restoring order after Sheikh Hasina’s ouster.
[…] Nahid Islam, the coordinator of the protests, told reporters that his organization recommended names of students and civil society members to form the rest of the government. “Only an interim government proposed by students who led the upsurge will be an acceptable one. That is the promise we received from Bangabhaban,” Islam said, referring to the president’s palace.
Islam added that student organizers will consult with political parties about who else to name to the interim government.
Gen. Waker-Uz-Zaman, the army chief, had said Monday that the army would work with political parties and Shahabuddin to form a temporary government — only for Islam to issue a message on social media that day rejecting “any army-supported or army-led government.”
Weeks of bloody clashes between protesters and security forces culminated in the storming of Hasina’s residence and the Parliament building as well as the burning of government offices Monday. Even as Waker-Uz-Zaman called for calm, 99 people were killed in clashes on Monday and Tuesday, according to a Washington Post tally following interviews with seven hospital authorities and doctors across Bangladesh — bringing the estimated death toll to at least 400 on both sides in the past month.
With a government curfew lifted Tuesday, schools and some businesses were open, and the streets were still packed with people celebrating Hasina’s ouster, though in fewer numbers. Police and the security forces with which protesters have clashed in recent weeks were absent. Even traffic police were a rare sight in the capital.
Volunteers guarded buildings and historical monuments that were vandalized or damaged as the protests boiled over. Small fires continued to burn in official establishments. Hundreds of people continued to occupy the Parliament, some even showering in the bathrooms, while army personnel in the lobby turned a blind eye.
[…] This is not the first time Hasina has sought refuge in India. She was forced into exile there in 1975 after her father and other family members were killed in a military coup — the first of many in Bangladesh after independence from Pakistan in 1971. […]
Right-wing media figures responded to Vice President Kamala Harris choosing Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate by launching desperate, bigoted attacks on him.
As governor, Walz has pursued a robust pro-worker and pro-child agenda, two public policy areas where conservatives have attempted to make superficial inroads. While some conservative pundits attempted to level attacks on Walz for his progressive record as governor, many of their initial reactions to the news have been strange, bizarre, and — some might even say — weird.
Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro mocked Walz’s appearance on X (formerly Twitter), comparing him to Matt Foley, a fictional character played by the late (and beloved) Chris Farley. [X post available at the link.]
Right-wing radio show host and former NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch took aim at Walz’s folksy presentation, comparing him to fictional character Boss Hogg from The Dukes of Hazzard. [X post available at the link]
[…] Right-wing commentator and failed anti-trans Republican politician Robby Starbuck’s approach was uglier. After referencing comments Walz made that were sympathetic to Black Lives Matter — highlighted by far-right account End Wokeness — Starbuck wrote that “Kamala/Waltz is the DEI Presidential ticket.” (Attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs are a common and racist trope among right-wing media figures.) [X post available at the link]
Other right-wing figures leveled similarly bigoted charges at Walz. Former Trump adviser Stephen Miller highlighted a post about a pro-immigrant and pro-refugee program in Minnesota, commenting: “Together, Walz and Harris will turn the Midwest into the Middle East. Rapidly.” [Typical of Stephen Miller! Sheesh. X post available at the link.]
Self-identified “proud Islamophobe” Laura Loomer issued a long screed that absurdly asserted “Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is tied to ISIS.” [LOL and Sheesh]
Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk also wrote a lengthy post about Walz, which claimed in part: “Minneapolis is a war zone because of you.” (Crime rates were down in every major category in Minneapolis in 2023.)
TPUSA contributor Graham Allen also responded to Walz’s selection with anti-Black, anti-Muslim rhetoric, posting: “THROWBACK: Tim Walz is the governor who just changed the Minnesota flag to resemble the Somalian flag.” (Several right-wing figures made similar accusations late last year, often deploying racist rhetoric of the white nationalist “great replacement” conspiracy theory.) [PZ liked the new flag. It is an improvement over the old flag.]
The MAGA War Room account posted a screenshot of a headline describing a Minnesota program to support trans youth and added “This Tim Walz guy sounds weird…”
Daniel Baldwin, the national political correspondent at far-right One America News, also pushed a transphobic attack on Walz, writing: “Tim Walz signed a bill making Minnesota a ‘Trans Refugee State.’ No age limits for minors who could receive ‘gender affirming care.’ Truly radical.”
One of Walz’s signature achievements as governor was signing legislation that provided every child at public and charter schools in the state with free lunch. “We will feed our children,” he said at the time, according to the Star Tribune.
So much of this is not my area, but the everything of poly glycine and poly alanine, serine, and cysteine are in my thoughts when it comes to evolution.
The polypeptide backbone and acetate going into it is something that isn’t hard to find in vent chemistry. The questions involve what gets concentrated, where, and how.
And how the concentrated things influence everything else, and are influenced.
Conceptually with membrane chemistry here you just get the fatty acid and 1-3 of those get assembled into modern membranes with glycerol phosphate.
“Generation of long-chain fatty acids by hydrogen-driven bicarbonate reduction in ancient alkaline hydrothermal vents” https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-023-01196-4
Otherwise I have magmatic and alkaline hydrothermal systems in mind for planetary chemistry and molecular habitats.
The magmatic vents fill water with things and the planetary crust contains the minerals that serpentize. Both things would have been more common back then.
I recall that one of the first decisions of Margaret Thatcher was to abolish free milk for schoolchildren. This Walz feller seems like the opposite of that which is a good thing. 🌻💐
Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus will be the chief adviser of an interim government in Bangladesh, the president’s office has announced.
The decision was made at a meeting between President Mohammed Shahabuddin, military leaders, and the heads of the Students Against Discrimination group, the presidency said.
It comes a day after prime minister Sheikh Hasina was forced from power and fled the country, following weeks of student-led protests that spiralled into deadly unrest.
Student leaders had been clear they would not accept a military-led government and had pushed for Mr Yunus to lead the interim administration.
Mr Yunus, who agreed to take up the role, said: “When the students who sacrificed so much are requesting me to step in at this difficult juncture, how can I refuse?”
He is returning to Dhaka from Paris, where he is undergoing a minor medical procedure, according to his spokesperson.
“The president has asked the people to help ride out the crisis. Quick formation of an interim government is necessary to overcome the crisis,” the president’s office said in a statement.
John Moralessays
[I missed #199]
StevoRsays
@183. Lynna, OM :
Though Trump usually endorses his favorite candidate in a given race, in this instance, the former president endorsed both of Newhouse’s intraparty challengers: failed Senate candidate Tiffany Smiley and Jerrod Sessler, a former racecar driver. (Technically, he endorsed Sessler four months ago, then told his followers a few days ago that he supports Smiley, too.)
Well, that got me curious over which motorsport is this Sessler drove in so I looked – NASCAR of course (Sorry NASCAR) :
Sessler was in Washington, D.C. when the attack on the Capitol occurred, and subsequently stated that he did not breach into the Capitol. Sessler has made unsubstantiated claims that the riot was a “setup” perpetrated by paid “agitators” and the FBI meant to discredit Donald Trump and his supporters. … (snip)… In 2022, Sessler was accused of making threats towards a Benton County code enforcement officer when he visited Sessler’s property to investigate a claim that someone on his property was living in a house under construction. As reported by AOL, Sessler told the officer that he would get his gun and “deal with him” if the officer returned to the property.
Chyaaarrming! Another one of hypocrites for the self-proclaimed party of law’n’ordure.
Tethyssays
Wow, Harris and Walz make their first appearance together in Philadelphia, and the crowd is ecstatic.
What energy!!
More inane ramblings. And earlier, two little lines from me prompted multiple full paragraphs of foam from you … and you think you’re the one trolling. :)
Lynna@183:
Though Trump usually endorses his favorite candidate in a given race, in this instance, the former president endorsed both of Newhouse’s intraparty challengers: failed Senate candidate Tiffany Smiley and Jerrod Sessler, a former racecar driver.
What an idjit. That will split the MAGA vote between Newhouse’s opponents, handing Newhouse an easy victory in the primary. You’d think even a senile old coot like the Orange One would have just endorsed one of them, likely Sessler to avoid getting gurl cooties all over his endorser …
StevoRsays
@ 207. Tethys : “Wow, Harris and Walz make their first appearance together in Philadelphia, and the crowd is ecstatic.
What energy!!”
Good energy. Good human emotional and political kinetic energy! Delighted to hear,, well, technically read.
@ # 206
Dóh! Meant to include the link to the source there – here :
@#166-167-168. John Morales : What makes you think Dutton is NOT as evil or horrid a human individual as I think we know him to be? What valid evidence is there to suggest he isn’t? Do you believe Duitton is evil or not, horrid or not and why?
John Moralessays
What makes you think Dutton is NOT as evil or horrid a human individual as I think we know him to be?
Sheesh, you’d think you’d know me by now.
What you quoted, mate.
You quoted something, then made various claims you now attempt to sustain as longstanding thingies.
(Why even bother to quote, if your opinion is not based on the quotation?)
What valid evidence is there to suggest he isn’t
(sigh)
No more and no less “is” than all the other leaders in the Coalition.
Again: if you’re gonna quote and opine, then make it clear when your opinion is not based on the quotation.
Do you believe Duitton is evil or not, horrid or not and why?
Well, of course he’s a piece of shit. A conservative authoritarian ex-copper. A leader in the Coalition.
That’s not the point.
Maybe re-read my response to your claim after that quotation.
My parenthetical was apparently too obscure for you, too.
Again: (What, should there be an Alliance Against Tealphobia formed? Just as bad, no?)
John Moralessays
Basically, don’t be the “headline guy”.
Slogans are just that.
Think for yourself, StevoR.
John Moralessays
Seriously.
Care to try to give me a response about how it’s Islamophobic but not Greenphobic?
Or how one is worse than the other, conceptually?
—
Don’t do the Birger thing, and just go by the headlines.
I hope the Alliance Against Islamophobia wins here., you wrote.
So.
If it’s Islamophobic, then it’s also Tealphobic and Greenphobic, no?
(Look at what you quoted! Think for yourself!)
birgerjohanssonsays
The Daily Show:
“Kamala Harris Picks Minn. Governor & Midwestern Dad Tim Walz as Running Mate”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ah4KTtOg_28
The most Midwestern man ever.
John Moralessays
The most Midwestern man ever.
A bold claim.
(A bullshit claim, actually. Care to attempt to proovide a basis for that claim?)
John Moralessays
I suppose he’s mostly bald, so that’s almost bold.
Silentbobsays
Anyone else remember this blog when 90% of the comments weren’t from the same decrepit troll? Those were the days.
John Moralessays
Anyone else remember this blog when 90% of the comments weren’t from the same decrepit troll?
You are so feeble, bobiferator.
Those were the days.
Oh yeah.
When I got an OM, and you got… well, what you deserve.
Nothing.
(So spiteful, so sad, you are!)
John Moralessays
Remember the Endless Thread?
The Thunderdome?
The various iterations?
(I do; I was here all along, bobisculous one)
John Moralessays
Basically, O bobiferative wanker, I was here before you were.
(So yeah, I remember the times before your insipid remoraish neediness)
—
This is what it must be like to a celeb who has some weird stalker.
Whereby an anti-Islamophobia group made a legal complaint against Peter Dutton. I then gave my opinion / assertion / specification / elaboration that :
Dutton (3) is a blatant bigot and a truly horrible human. (1) I hope the Alliance Against Islamophobia wins here. (2)
Numbers added for clarity / ease of reference. So :
.(1) Opinion / assertion / statement of fact based on evidence see #175-176 above*.
.(2) My wish that the anti-Islamophobia group succeeds and Dutton faces consequences for his bigotry.
.(3) My noting who Dutton is for those who may not be familar with him given most here aren’t Aussies.
“Longstanding thingies” I guess? I mean I’ve hated Dutton since years ago, decades even and so ____? (Sustatined?*)
Which has somehow caused John Morales some issue and confusion because ____________ ?
I’m not sure I get why that is or why its so important or what his whole deal besides some very nitpicky pedantry is here even though he’s tried to explain it upthread multiple times. Perhaps I’m just tired.
(One factor in at least my posting repeatedly in a row is that i often comment when its late night / early morn in my timezone and thus I’m tired, so liable to make more errors, need to then correct / clarify those errors becoz we can’t edit comemnts here and not many others are also awake and commenting so intervals between comments and number of people commenting is going to be less than during busier times when a lot of people are posting, quickly together and, presumably, are less tired and more awake becoz Circadian rhythmns, non-insomniacs, etc..)
Anyhow, seems its because my quoted article doesn’t prove my ‘Dutton is evil’ line that John Morales actually agrees with (#212) which is based on so much more* as well as that? Which, to me, seems pretty inadequate justification for all he’s being saying above but then scroll up a few paragraphs here.
(Why even bother to quote, if your opinion is not based on the quotation?)
Because in this case (& oft others) I wanted to provide a short excerpt for ppl to see if they were intrested before clicking. Plus similarly so that ppl could get the main point of the link without necessarily having to read the entire thing or click on a link if they didnt want to do so.
All very meta and not sure what all this adds here but … (Shrugs.)
Meanewhile I’m half asleep and need towork tomorrow but staying up towatch skateboard finals becoz Olympics..
Yeah. Theer is an Aussie in the final.. Weird how that works huh?
StevoRsays
A 700,000-year-old fragment of arm bone has shed light on the origins of the early human species known as the “hobbit”.
The tiny piece of bone is from an early hobbit (Homo floresiensis) individual, which researchers estimate was just 100 centimetres tall.This was 6cm smaller than its descendants, which lived 60,000 years ago. While this change in height was unexpected to archaeologists, the discovery of the bone and some new teeth do solve the long-standing question of where H. floresiensis came from.The study, published in Nature Communications, found distinctive features of the teeth connect the hobbit’s lineage to a taller Javanese Homo erectus ancestor, rather than the shorter African Australopithecus — also known as Lucy — or Homo habilis.
In an appearance on Fox News early Wednesday morning, former President Donald J. Trump called the Democratic ticket of Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota “communist” and suggested he was willing to debate Ms. Harris anywhere, despite having pulled out of a scheduled debate.
[…]
In the interview, on “Fox & Friends,” Mr. Trump repeated an attack that he has made many times before and that has been criticized as antisemitic, saying any Jewish person who voted for Democrats “should have their head examined.”
[…]
“….But there has never been a ticket like this. This is a ticket that would want this country to go communist immediately, if not sooner. We want no security. We want no anything. He’s heavy into transgender.”
He then suggested that he planned to debate Ms. Harris, a few days after he wrote in a social media post that he would drop out of a scheduled debate on ABC News and suggested one on Fox News instead.
“I don’t know how she debates. I heard she’s sort of a nasty person,” he said, repeating an insult that he has used against several women, including Hillary Clinton, the former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly and the ABC News correspondent Rachel Scott. “But not a good debater. But we’ll see, because we’ll be debating her, I guess, in the pretty near future. It’s going to be announced fairly soon.”
“I’d love to see it on Fox, but, you know, it takes two to tango,” he added after referring to the ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos as “Slopadopoulos.” “Look, she doesn’t want to debate.”
[…]
The Fox News hosts also asked Mr. Trump to respond to a criticism Mr. Walz made at his and Ms. Harris’s rally on Tuesday night. Mr. Trump “never sat at that kitchen table like the one I grew up at, wondering how we were going to pay the bills,” Mr. Walz said. “He sat at his country club in Mar-a-Lago wondering how he could cut taxes for his rich friends.”
Mr. Trump said he had built businesses and created jobs, claimed falsely that his administration was “the most successful administration from the economy standpoint there ever was,” and pointed to inflation under President Biden.
“I was not always sitting at Mar-a-Lago, either,” he added. “I was sitting at lots of other places.”
In developments that are likely to have lingering consequences, the Republican-controlled Georgia State Election Board yesterday approved a plan that could empower local officials to refuse or delay certification of local election results.
Here are some more details, s reported by The New York Times:
The Republican-controlled Georgia State Election Board approved on Tuesday a measure that could empower local officials to refuse or delay certification of a county’s election results, creating the potential for another disputed and contentious post-election period in November.
The new rule states that before certifying results, local officials may conduct “reasonable inquiry” that “the results are a true and accurate accounting of all votes cast in that election.”
Though seemingly innocuous, the language implies that local election officials are awarded a level of discretion in the certification process, a suggestion that runs counter to decades of settled Georgia law delineating how results are officially certified. State law dictates that officials “shall” certify an election, making the process effectively ministerial; disputes over alleged fraud or major errors are typically left to recounts and courts […]
Across the country, conservative organizations and allies of Mr. Trump have sought to create new laws or win court rulings granting local officials more authority over the certification process. In Arizona, conservatives are targeting the state’s election manual with several lawsuits. In Nevada, an official in the state’s second-largest county refused to certify a recent election, setting up a legal test at the State Supreme Court.
[…] The legal effort to remake election certification has been accompanied by a surge in local officials’ voting against certification, despite state and federal law dictating differently. Since the 2020 election, members of state and local boards have voted against certification more than 20 times across eight states, according to a list compiled by Protect Democracy, a nonpartisan group that tracks antidemocratic trends in the United States.
[…] At a campaign rally on Saturday, Mr. Trump called out the three Republican members of the board by name. “I don’t know if you’ve heard, but the Georgia State Election Board is in a very positive way,” Mr. Trump told the crowd to loud applause. Characterizing the Republican members as “on fire,” he said they were “three pit bulls fighting for honesty, transparency and victory.” […]
I would have thought it perfectly legitimate to want to avoid stinky bad sites that might alienate a business’s customers. I guess I don’t understand the finer points of free speech absolutism.
The new lawsuit filed by Elon Musk’s social media platform is controversial for a variety of reasons — including the court in which it was filed.
Elon Musk’s social media platform filed a curious federal lawsuit yesterday, targeting a group of advertisers for allegedly organizing a boycott of the company formerly known as Twitter. NBC News reported:
The company formerly known as Twitter filed the lawsuit Tuesday in a federal court in Texas against the World Federation of Advertisers and member companies Unilever, Mars, CVS Health and Orsted. It accused the advertising group’s initiative, called the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, of helping to coordinate a pause in advertising after Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in late 2022 and overhauled its staff and policies.
As my MSNBC colleague Ja’han Jones noted, the conspiratorial billionaire also declared “war” against a coalition of advertisers known as the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM).
There are legal experts who can speak to this with more authority than I can, but from a layperson’s perspective, the litigation seems rather odd. People are free to ask advertisers not to support a media company. Advertisers are similarly free to buy space, or not, on the platforms of their choosing. For a social media company to sue private entities for choosing not to give it money seems like a tough sell.
But as the case advances, there was one detail in the reporting that deserves a closer look. Reuters noted, “The case was filed in the Northern District of Texas and assigned to U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor.”
And who is Judge Reed O’Connor? I’m glad you asked.
The week before Christmas in 2018, for example, it was O’Connor who agreed to strike down the entirety of the Affordable Care Act, root and branch. Even many conservatives and ACA critics agreed that the ruling was indefensible, and reactions tended to include words and phrases such as “pretty bananas,” “embarrassingly bad,” and “absurd.”
[…] In 2022, the same judge, nominated by George W. Bush, also undermined the Navy’s vaccine requirements, ignoring generations’ worth of precedent. A year later, O’Connor took steps to undermine the Affordable Care Act again.
Last month, O’Connor made headlines again, this time by blocking President Joe Biden’s administration from enforcing new anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ students.
It’s against this backdrop that the lawyers for Musk’s platform filed their new case in a specific Texas district where they knew the case would almost certainly be assigned to O’Connor.
[…] I don’t know for certain whether X’s legal team tried to game the system, but it seems like quite a coincidence that they took their case to a judge who’s notorious for telling the right want it wants to hear.
In April, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes advanced the larger fake electors scandal in dramatic fashion: The Democrat worked with a grand jury to indict 18 people: 11 fake electors and seven Donald Trump aides. Nearly four months later, the larger case is advancing in some unexpected directions.
On Monday, for example, former Trump attorney Jenna Ellis flipped and signed a cooperation agreement with prosecutors, who in turn agreed to drop the pending criminal charges against her. The good news for Ellis was that she no longer had to worry about ending up behind bars, while the good news for prosecutors was that they suddenly had a cooperating witness with key insights to share about the underlying scheme.
But as we discussed soon after, the question then became whether others might soon follow Ellis’ lead. Evidently, we didn’t have to wait too long for an answer. Politico reported:
An Arizona Republican who falsely claimed to be a legitimate presidential elector for former President Donald Trump — part of a sweeping effort by Trump and his allies to subvert the 2020 election — has pleaded guilty for her role in the scheme. Lorraine Pellegrino, one of 11 Arizona Republicans who falsely posed as Trump’s electors that year, accepted a guilty plea to a single charge for filing a “false instrument” — the fraudulent Electoral College certificate.
[That is the new development in this case.]
While the fake electors scandal has generated several dozen indictments across multiple states — a total unseen in a political scandal since the days of Watergate and Iran-Contra — the Politico report noted that Pellegrino “is the first participant in the elector scheme to accept criminal responsibility for signing the false documents.”
And as dramatic a development as this is, it turns out there’s a related revelation from the same investigation that’s also raised some eyebrows. The Washington Post reported:
An Arizona grand jury that indicted 18 Donald Trump allies this spring for their role in efforts to overturn the 2020 election had expressed interest in possible charges against the former president, according to a legal motion filed this week by state prosecutors. … The interest prompted the Arizona case’s lead prosecutor to give a PowerPoint presentation and request that jurors not indict Trump, according to the motion.
Oh. So if this report […] is correct, the former president would be facing five criminal indictments — instead of four — if members of an Arizona grand jury had their say.
[…] local prosecutors weren’t inclined to indict Ellis and Republican lawyer Christina Bobb, but “the grand jury indicted them anyway.”
In the indictment that reached the public in April, Trump was described as “Unindicted Coconspirator 1.” If the Post’s reporting is accurate, at least some of the grand jury was inclined to go even further.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday described a Ukrainian incursion into the country’s southwestern Kursk region as a “large-scale provocation” as his officials asserted that they were fighting off cross-border raids for a second day. Ukrainian officials remained silent about the scope of the operation.
Russia claimed yesterday to have driven off the attack but today fighting continues. Ukraine has said nothing and Russia has not provided any trustworthy details. It’s clear that something is happening now though as this would have been denied by Ukraine or other parties if there wasn’t fighting in the region.
There are several possibilities. There are a couple of strategic targets in the area that Ukraine could be going after or they could just be disrupting supplies to the front in general. They could be making the point that Ukraine will strike into Russia. This will force Russia to defend their border better and using up troops and support to do so.
KGsays
Care to try to give me a response about how it’s Islamophobic but not Greenphobic?
Or how one is worse than the other, conceptually? – John Morales@214
It is worse, conceptually and in its actual effects, because Islamophobia is aimed at a particularly vulnerable minority, often immediately recognisable by racial characteristics or costume and physically attacked on that basis. Indeed, people who are not Muslims but who “look Muslim” (as Sam Harris put it) are quite frequently insulted or assaulted on that basis. Simple, really, John.
The video snippets include:
– Walz signed a bill providing free breakfast and lunch to Minnesota schoolchildren.
– Walz celebrated National Reading Month by setting up a Little Free Library at the state Capitol.
– Walz giving away some Minnesota-made Sweet Martha cookies to the GOP booth at the Minnesota State Fair.
– Walz and his daughter, Hope, trying scary rides at the Minnesota State Fair.
– Walz and his daughter in a PSA promoting Minnesota’s new “hands free” bill, making it illegal to hold a cell phone while driving.
– The governor’s dog, Scout, also seems to be interested in civics.
– Walz gave a pro tip on saving money and fixing parts on your vehicle (with an encouragement to vote, of course).
– He’s also tried to explain how the archaic 8-track players of antiquity worked.
– Along with his Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, the two ate their way through the Minnesota State Fair.
– They also took on the sometimes divisive debate of which is better: the corn dog or the pup dog
– Walz took time to promote a small Ukrainian-owned business as well as support the community
– Walz was an educator for decades and that comes across clearly in his interactions with kids.
– like his running mate, he’s got a great laugh
Arizona’s rules aimed at preventing specific types of voter intimidation and harassment near polling places and drop boxes are too broad and violate free speech rights, a Maricopa County judge ruled.
The rules, some of which have been in place for years, prohibit anyone from following, photographing, videotaping, or yelling at voters outside drop boxes or polling places, along with other activities that Secretary of State Adrian Fontes had declared were intimidating. Tuesday’s injunction from Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Jennifer Ryan-Touhill temporarily prohibits Arizona officials from enforcing the rules, until the court can issue a final ruling in the matter.
The ruling comes just two months before early voting begins for the presidential election, and as Republican groups pledge to watch over the polls. The Republican National Committee, for example, launched a “Protect the Vote” tour in June to recruit poll watchers, poll workers, and lawyers to “ensure it is easy to vote and hard to cheat.”
Fontes’s office said in a statement Tuesday that it will appeal the order.
[…]
Many of the voter intimidation rules that the judge called problematic, such as those on yelling at voters, were in the state’s election procedures manual before Fontes’ update. The 2019 manual, for example, prohibited yelling at or confronting voters in an intimidating manner as they went to vote.
In December, Fontes added new rules in response to conservative groups that were monitoring drop boxes during the 2022 midterm election in search of proof of fraud. More than a dozen voters filed complaints of intimidation, stating that the groups were taking photos and videos of them and confronting them. In one instance, drop box watchers were spotted with guns and body armor.
As Fontes’s office drafted the manual, it also added rules prohibiting taking photos and videos of voters, impersonating a law enforcement officer, or otherwise wearing clothing or uniforms intended to intimidate voters….
Republican groups filed three separate lawsuits. The order on Tuesday came in a case filed by the Arizona Free Enterprise Club, the America First Policy Institute, and a resident.
Scot Mussi, president and executive director of the Arizona Free Enterprise Club, told the judge in a hearing last week that the restrictions on activity outside of polling places were “vague and ambiguous,” and he worried that the organization’s workers or volunteers would be prosecuted for activity they did not see as threatening, according to the judge’s order.
“We use the wrong word on a [flyer], they might think that it’s threatening or harassing and would give an election official the ability to force us to have to leave or can lead to other consequences,” Mussi told the judge, according to her order.
The announcement of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate has only increased the enthusiasm around the Democratic presidential campaign. Thousands of people are lining up to see the two at rallies.
It’s another story for Republicans. “The Daily Show” correspondent Jordan Klepper filmed a field piece at a MAGA rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, this weekend. Having covered numerous MAGA events over the years, Klepper wanted to check in on a group that has spent a lot of time attacking President Joe Biden, only to find out he is no longer running against convicted felon Donald Trump.
What Klepper ran into in Harrisburg didn’t feel particularly exciting, but it sure was full of insults, finger pointing, and conspiracy theories.
“Do you think Kamala is qualified to be president?” Klepper asked one MAGA-clad man who responded, “somebody that cackles all the time, and laughs at everything under the sun? Are you kidding me?”
“A woman experiencing joy, not your thing,” Klepper replied.
When one MAGA attendee explained that his big problem with Harris was that, “she’s backpedaling on all her previous comments,” and that he believed Ohio Sen. JD Vance would “stand up for Trump,” Klepper wanted to be clear on what.
Klepper: He’ll stand up to the people who compare Donald Trump to Hitler.
Man: Yeah.
Klepper: What happens if those people are also JD Vance?
Finally, it wouldn’t be a MAGA event if it wasn’t chock full of conspiracy theories around the attempt on Trump’s life. Everyone from former president Barack Obama to the “deep state” is a suspect according to the people Klepper interviewed.
“Does it surprise you to hear that it was a disgruntled white guy? A Republican gun nut?” Klepper asked one woman.
“No,” she responds, “because you know what? We’ll never know why he was picked.”
“Disgruntled white guy who’s into guns at a Trump rally.” Klepper follows the blunted logic of the conspiracy theory. “It’s like a ‘Where’s Waldo?’ situation. It’s like, oh my God, who doesn’t fit that profile?”
“Exactly,” she agrees.
Most of Trump’s time has been spent either in a court of law, or asking billionaires for money. But the aggrieved MAGA movement continues to hold rallies and sometimes you just have to take the air out of their balloon.
Trump fails again when he tries to label Kamala Harris with a nickname:
It was late Monday when Donald Trump first referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as “Kamabla” on his social media platform. Soon after, the former president repeated the nickname.
A day later, Trump wrote it again. And then again. And then again. And then again. [Embedded links to sources are available at the main link.]
At this point, readers might be asking, “What in the world does ‘Kamabla’ actually mean?” That’s certainly a common question this week, and no one seems to know the answer.
That includes Team Trump surrogates. CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked Gov. Doug Burgum last night, “This is something I’m personally curious about. … Do you know where [‘Kamabla’] came from, and what that nickname means?” The North Dakota Republican replied, “I can’t comment on that.”
On Wednesday afternoon, Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, was asked the same question. The Ohio Republican chuckled, but he didn’t answer the question.
The mystery, in other words, lingers.
I’ve seen a wide variety of guesses — the idea that this might be some kind of Three Dog Night reference is especially amusing — and it’s certainly possible that Trump didn’t even mean to call her “Kamabla,” but once he did, he decided to lean into the typo.
But there’s also a larger context to all of this. As a New York Times report summarized:
He has long mispronounced Harris’s name, and during his primary race he repeatedly butchered the name of Nikki Haley, another woman of Indian heritage.” He hasn’t explained the new nickname, but the mispronunciation fits with his other efforts to cast her as an outsider.
This is compelling, and coming up with a weird, gibberish-like nickname might very well have something to do with the GOP nominee’s desire to define Harris as The Other.
But the whole point of derisive nicknames is to convey an obvious criticism. When Trump called Sen. Marco Rubio “Little Marco,” the phrase was intended to diminish the Floridian’s stature. When he called Sen. Ted Cruz “Lying Ted,” Trump was trying to draw attention to the Texan’s dishonesty.
The meaning and purpose of the nicknames were self-evident. No one thought to wonder why in the world Trump was using these lines.
The fact that the former president’s own surrogates can’t explain his sudden fixation on “Kamabla” is a timely reminder of a politician who clearly no longer has his fastball.
Good news … so far. We don’t know what will happen on appeal:
A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld Maryland’s ban on certain semiautomatic weapons, handing a win to gun control advocates in a closely watched Second Amendment case.
In a 10-5 vote, the full 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that Maryland’s law complies with the Supreme Court’s recent expansion of gun rights.
“We decline to wield the Constitution to declare that military-style armaments which have become primary instruments of mass killing and terrorist attacks in the United States are beyond the reach of our nation’s democratic processes,” Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III wrote for the majority.
One plaintiff has already vowed to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.
Maryland enacted the law in 2013 after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in which 20 children and six adults were killed.
The statute bans possessing or selling assault weapons, defined to cover dozens of weapons like the AR-15, AK-47 and semiautomatic rifles equipped with high-capacity magazines. Violations are a criminal offense that can carry up to three years in prison. […]
“Moreover, the Maryland law fits comfortably within our nation’s tradition of firearms regulation,” the opinion continued. “It is but another example of a state regulating excessively dangerous weapons once their incompatibility with a lawful and safe society becomes apparent, while nonetheless preserving avenues for armed self-defense.”
Wilkinson’s opinion was joined by eight other judges, all appointed by Democrats. One other judge agreed the law was constitutional but declined to join the majority opinion’s reasoning.
Five judges, all appointed by Republican presidents, dissented. Judge Julius Richardson, an appointee of former President Trump, wrote in the nearly 100-page dissent that the majority “disregards the Founders’ wisdom and replaces it with its own.”
[…] Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC), one of the gun rights groups that has challenged Maryland’s law, vowed to bring the case to the Supreme Court.
“FPC will take the Fourth Circuit’s terrible decision to the Supreme Court without delay. Our objective is simple: End all bans on so-called ‘assault weapons’ nationwide. And we look forward to doing just that,” FPC President Brandon Combs said in a statement. […]
Whatever that senile bastard loser Donald Trump is doing, it doesn’t appear to be working or campaigning. He has nothing on his schedule until Friday night.
We don’t know if he watched yesterday’s pitch-perfect, standing-room-only rally in Philly for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, but if he did, we imagine it exacerbated whatever mental health crisis he appeared to be having in the afternoon.
For evidence of that, let’s look at the extended fugue state fear fantasy Trump babble-splooted onto his Truth Social platform yesterday afternoon, as he pleaded with the universe to please let him run against Joe Biden again. But it wasn’t just that. He was coping so hard he was imagining a world where Kamala Harris isn’t currently kicking his ass because everybody loves her and wants her to kick his ass until he can’t see straight.
It was pathetic […] [Screengrab at the link]
We’ll parse below.
What are the chances that Crooked Joe Biden,
Nope.
the WORST President in the history of the U.S., whose Presidency was Unconstitutionally STOLEN
“Unconstitutionally” LOL. Amazing that he spelled “stolen” correctly, though.
from him by Kamabla,
“Kamabla.” Literally nobody knows. For a man who’s an expert at coming up with functionally illiterate nicknames that really aren’t creative (he doesn’t know many words), he’s slipping a lot.
A reporter tried: [Screengrab at the link]
So the brain atrophies at Mar-a-Lago are contagious.
Barrack HUSSEIN Obama, Crazy Nancy Pelosi, Shifty Adam Schiff, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, and others on the Lunatic Left,
“Barrack.” Just the stupidest person ever born. God must be so ashamed.
CRASHES the Democrat National Convention and tries to take back the Nomination,
Oh here comes the crying, […] desperately coping fantasy. He’s dreaming of Joe Biden crashing the DNC — he’ll be there on Monday night, it’s all going to be about him — and saving him from Kamala Harris […]
beginning with challenging me to another DEBATE.
LOL.
He feels that he made a historically tragic mistake by handing over the U.S. Presidency, a COUP, to the people in the World he most hates, and he wants it back, NOW!!!
Cool, he’s deteriorated so much mentally and emotionally […] that he’s writing fan-fiction about Joe Biden. In his fantasy Joe Biden hates Kamala Harris — and fears her — as much as Trump does.
Bless his heart.
So this is what Trump is doing this week, while his campaign fully slips away from him. Not how we’d be spending our days if we were running for president for the sole purpose of escaping prison […]
Black Farmers Finally (FINALLY) Getting Some Cash Money For USDA Discrimination
Last week saw a small, partial victory for Black farmers and others who faced discrimination in farm lending by the US Department of Agriculture during most of the 20th Century. The USDA announced that it had issued payments to more than 43,000 farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners through the Discrimination Financial Assistance Program, a program that was part of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. The total payments came to $2.2 billion, which is just a fraction of the total financial losses resulting from decades of discrimination by the federal government, but it’s a start.
[…] A landmark 2022 study estimated that over the course of the 20th Century, Black farmers lost over $320 billion worth of land, partly as a result of federal discrimination, partly due to spotty title documentation going back to Jim Crow, and often due to outright fraud, theft, intimidation, and lynchings by whites who took the land for themselves.
Addressing that history of discrimination was an early priority of the Biden-Harris administration, as New Orleans Public Radio reports:
Farmers have been waiting on this money for years. The payments were stalled after white farmers and banks sued over the first version of the program in the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act. The plan had a provision that set aside $4 billion for socially disadvantaged farmers, including Black, Native American, Hispanic and Asian farmers.
After courts blocked the first try, the Inflation Reduction Act took a second shot at providing some relief, in the form of $3.1 billion in assistance to economically distressed farmers, and a second tranche of funding that was targeted to farmers who faced any form of discrimination — racial or otherwise — from the USDA prior to 2021. In the insane logic of the Trump/McConnell-era courts, race-conscious compensation for discrimination was unfair even if the discrimination was entirely racial to start with. […]
The USDA notes that payments ranging between $10,000 and $500,000 went to 23,000 people who have or had farming or ranching operations, averaging about $82,000. Another 20,000 people who planned to start agricultural operations but were denied loans received payments between $3,500 and $6,000. Payments went to people in all 50 states as well as people in the District of Columbia and the remnants of the American empire like Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and the US Virgin Islands. […]
USA won the bronze medal on a last-minute breakaway vs. Australia when Alex Sedrick stiff-armed her way past Australia’s defense and placed the ball down in the center of the try for the game-tying score.
Media Matters has obtained a galley copy of Dawn’s Early Light, which decries IVF, abortion, childlessness, and dog parks.
Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts’ book will be published after the November elections, according to a report from Real Clear Politics.
This comes after backlash against the Heritage-led initiative Project 2025, which aims to provide policy and personnel to the next Republican presidential administration and is backed by an advisory board of more than 100 conservative groups. Project 2025 has deep ties to former President Donald Trump and his running mate Sen. JD Vance (R-OH). Vance wrote the foreword to the now-delayed Dawn’s Early Light: Taking Back Washington to Save America, calling Roberts’ ideas an “essential weapon” in the “fights that lay ahead.”
The effort to hide the ball is futile, as Media Matters has obtained a galley copy of the book.
A review found Roberts rails against birth control, in vitro fertilization, abortion, and dog parks. He says that having children should not be considered an “optional individual choice” but “a social expectation or a transcendent gift,” and describes “contraceptive technologies” as “revolutionary inventions that shape American culture away from abundance, marriage, and family.” He labels reproductive choice methods as a “snake strangling the American family.”
From page 63:
We need to understand what could be called contraceptive technologies—revolutionary inventions that shape American culture away from abundance, marriage, and family—in the same vein. They shift norms, incentives, and choices, often invisibly and involuntarily. Conservatives inveigh against no-fault divorce, the Sexual Revolution, and the destruction of a culture of hope without recognizing that these cultural changes are all downstream of technological ones.
“If you change a culture on a profound level, you can break the most basic functioning elements of civilization,” Roberts continues. “In the case of contraceptives, we are a society remade according to a research agenda set by the Party of Destruction.”
Roberts also attacks in vitro fertilization. From page 64:
Once you understand this pattern (individual choice masking cultural upheaval), you will see it everywhere. In vitro fertilization (IVF) seems to assist fertility but has the added effect of incentivizing women to delay trying to start a family, often leading to added problems when the time comes.
Roberts blames contraception for a rise in abortion rates. Also from page 64:
As other kinds of contraceptive technologies spread, abortion rates went up, not down. Why? Because technological change made having a child seem like an optional and not natural result of having sex and destroyed a whole series of institutions and cultural norms that had protected women and forced men to take responsibility for their actions.
He condemns childlessness as well, recalling the broader political problem sparked by Vance’s unearthed comments attacking “childless cat ladies.”
A culture of childlessness is, in the final analysis, a culture of despair.
Getting married and having kids, on the other hand, gives you skin in the game for the future of your country. It forces you to grow up, give up childish things, and live in the real world. It grounds you, gives you a sense of purpose in life, and helps generate community, gratitude, and joy. A culture of children is a culture of hope.
On page 69, Roberts targets the Swampoodle dog park in Washington, D.C., for having too much room for dogs to play and not enough for children, blaming this on “the antifamily culture shaping legislation, regulation, and enforcement throughout our sprawling government.”
The publication delay reflects a political crisis in the MAGA movement, as the worldview outlined by Roberts and Vance in Dawn’s Early Light has proven to be deeply unpopular with the public. Trump has attempted to distance himself from Heritage and Project 2025, especially after Kevin Roberts appeared on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast and declared that “we are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”
But as the Trump campaign has deliberately refused to provide a detailed policy platform, instead putting forth only a barebones platform both on his campaign site and through the Republican National Committee, Project 2025 has effectively filled in the blanks of what a second Trump term might look like. The initiative includes a more than 900-page policy book titled Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, which outlines extreme positions on virtually every major political issue and includes plans to restrict abortion access, eviscerate tools to fight climate change, and turn the Department of Justice into an unaccountable weapon for Trump to enact his retribution agenda against political enemies, among others. An analysis by CNN found “nearly 240 people with ties to both Project 2025 and to Trump,” and many of its authors and contributors worked directly in his administration.
Project 2025 has also recently attempted to downplay its own significance after years of aggrandizement. Trump administration alum Paul Dans recently resigned from his position as president of Project 2025, and now Roberts’ book is delayed. But it’s proving impossible to wash Project 2025’s stench off the campaign.
Roberts himself has admitted that the artificial attempt to shield Trump from Project 2025 backlash is disingenuous. “No hard feelings from any of us at Project 2025,” he told conservative radio host Vince Coglianese in July, “We understand Trump is the standard bearer and he’s making a political tactical decision there.”
John Moralessays
tomh: “Trump, going off the rails again on Fox.”
To go off the rails again means he must have gone on the rails again.
Which means that at least some of the time Trump is on the rails.
(heh)
Rob Grigjanissays
John @248: I await the day you stop pretending you don’t know what ‘idiom’ means, with little hope of it actually happening.
birgerjohanssonsays
Lynna, OM
Thank you for digging through online material that must be no fun at all.
Just the spelling errors…
Rob, there is history there.
Remember, I tailor my responses.
tomh is passive-aggressively repeating the rail thing, and I’m happy to accommodate that.
There is no pretence.
Just because something is an idiom doesn’t mean its use is always appropriate, or that it has no meaning.
And going off the rails over and over and over is not a thing.
The repetition vitiates the initial impact.
—
See, my original point to tomh was that Trump was playing to his base; he was actually on the rails.
J.D. Vance briskly marched up to Air Force 2, Kamala Harris’ plane, planning to give political reporters a show as he confronted the vice president uninvited on Wednesday. His power play dreams, like most of his chaotic veep run, were immediately thwarted once he realized Harris was not present…
In this Texas school, wearing an all-black outfit will result in a dress code violation.
Charles Middle School, part of the El Paso Independent School District, is prohibiting students from wearing black clothing, citing mental health concerns.
Principal Nick DeSantis wrote to parents that a “look” had “taken over on campus with students wearing black tops and black bottoms”, according to local media outlets.
The look, he wrote, “has become more associated with depression and mental health issues and/or criminality than with happy and health kids ready to learn”.
BBC News has requested comment from the school district.
The new dress code rule does allow students to wear some black pieces of clothing or full black outfits on specific free dress days, Norma De La Rosa, president of the El Paso Teachers Association, told local media.
Ms De La Rosa added that teachers saw a change in how students dress when they become stressed or depressed.
“The dress code changes were a response to concerns and recommendations brought forward by the stakeholders of Charles Middle School,” the school said in a statement to local media.
However, the new policy drew mixed opinions from parents and others in the community.
“Maybe concentrate on bullying! That’s more of a mental health concern,” one Facebook user commented on a social media post about the policy.
Some said the school’s change did not address the root causes of teen mental health issues and would only punish struggling students.
“Ah yes, ’cause it’s the clothes and not what they’re facing inside that’s the problem. Give them counselling instead of banning them from wearing what makes them comfortable,” one comment read.
Wonder what they’re going to do about Goths and those in mourning.
John Moralessays
Navy blue is not black. :)
KGsays
Thousands of anti-racism protesters take to streets across England to counter far-right rallies. For the most part, the fascists did not show up, or did so in such small numbers they were greatly outnumbered both by police and by the counter-demonstrations. There was some violence in Belfast (Northern Ireland). Again, worth noting that the fascist riots have not occurred in Scotland or (with I think one exception) in Wales.
This is really the baseline for how people should deal with an audience member collapsing. The fact that this makes the news implies most politicians ignore what goes on in the crowd.
birgerjohanssonsays
A comment to the development in Ukraine. By making an unexpected incursion (>15 km) into Russian territory the russian army has been forced to scramble reserves and move units from other parts of the front. This is not the end of the war but by wrong-footing the Russian colossus the Ukrainans show the narrative of inevitable Russian dominance is false.
Ukraine has captured Sudzja, a town with a large natural gas facility used to export gas to western Europe.
Since Ukraine has passed two defence lines it will be hard for Russia to regain the initiative in the region. The defenders must have been caught napping, assuming Ukraine would not enter Russian territory.
Bekenstein Boundsays
How many times can one jump the shark?
68 …
Navy blue is not black. :)
69 …
<snicker>
StevoR@224:
an Aussie in the final
One won a pole vault event yesterday.
John Moralessays
Bekenstein Bound, you reckon one can jump trhe shark 68 times?
Heh.
You are wrongity-wrong.
‘Jumping the shark’ is an idiom, and once it’s happened, it’s happened.
(A bit like losing one’s virginity)
69 …
No. Not mutual oral pleasuring.
See, here’s the thing.
Navy Blue is close as damn to black.
Gotta love these poseurs.
(Well, I suppose being aped is better than being derided)
—
One won a pole vault event yesterday.
And another got arrested for buying cocaine.
StevoRsays
@262. Bekenstein Bound :
StevoR@224: “an Aussie in the final”
One won a pole vault event yesterday.
Yup. Four Gold medals won in a day by Aussies and our best games ever as a nation :
It is remarkable, fun and spectacular to see what Olympians can do sometimes.
@263. John Morales : “And another got arrested for buying cocaine.”
Not quite. He was trying to buy cocaine but got arrested without getting it. Yeah, still not great.
@234. KG :
“Care to try to give me a response about how it’s Islamophobic but not Greenphobic?
Or how one is worse than the other, conceptually? – John Morales@214
It is worse, conceptually and in its actual effects, because Islamophobia is aimed at a particularly vulnerable minority, often immediately recognisable by racial characteristics or costume and physically attacked on that basis. Indeed, people who are not Muslims but who “look Muslim” (as Sam Harris put it) are quite frequently insulted or assaulted on that basis. Simple, really, John.
(italics added for clarity.)
Exactly. Quoted for truth.
John Moralessays
Oh dear, StevoR.
Tsk.
Exactly. Quoted for truth.
Which makes you just as stupid. There is no truth there. Only opinion, and weak at that.
If it’s Islamophobic, it has to be Teal and Green-phobic too, since they were all equated.
Basically, there’s no merit to that stupid complaint, and you are going by the headlines.
Whether or not Dutton is Islamophobic (obs he is), that was not Islamophobic.
It was plain politics. Just that.
—
First, you were all about Antisemitism. Now, you’re all about Islamophobia.
(Blowin’ in the wind, you are. Think for yourself!)
Anyway, I like you try to ride on the coat-tails of the Goat that Knocks.
(Shows your character)
coffeepottsays
@241 surely it’s a failed portmanteau of ‘kamala’ and ‘blah’? of course ‘blah’ clearly doesn’t apply to her when you look at how much she has energized the dems and the more-chill leftists, but this is trump we’re talking about.
Silentbobsays
@ 264 StevoR
It’s claimed (by those who know more about things than I do) Australia has the most medals per capita.
Polls in Britain show the public strongly reject the racist rioters. This sentiment extends even into the Reform UK voter demographic. There are plenty of counter-demonstrations that outnumber would-be rioters.
Kambala is racism here, and I think messing with names in general is a form of defacement.
I’ve seen enough bigots descend into mocking gibberish in response to foreign sounding words and names that I think the urge to replace part of the name like that is in racism.
My own modification of DeSantis to De fascist is also defacement. But there is an element of punching up since he’s got power and is making racism worse. And the background difference between us is more along European lines which also affects things.
tomhsays
Re: #228 “Georgia State Election Board yesterday approved a plan that could empower local officials to refuse or delay certification of local election results.”
In addition, that same Election Board has re-opened an investigation of Fulton County’s 2020 count.
Atlanta Journal Constitution
By Mark Niesse / August 7, 2024
Since the appointment of a new right-wing Republican, the board’s majority has sought to renew the case because of evidence suggesting that over 3,000 ballots were counted twice during the recount. Prior investigations have blamed disorganization and human errors.
Claims of widespread fraud have never been proved despite numerous investigations and court cases, and the double-counted votes wouldn’t have changed the outcome of the race…..
“I’m not interested in who got more votes. That’s not the point of this investigation. It’s about the proper counting of votes,” said Janice Johnston, the Republican board member who pursued revisiting the case.
The State Election Board previously voted to issue a reprimand against Fulton and require election monitors in May, but the board’s new majority said that action was inadequate.
Fulton Election Board Chairwoman Sherri Allen said the case has already been investigated and resolved.
“We will not engage in any further discussions, investigations or other action related to this case. To do so would be a waste of taxpayer dollars and time that is best spent preparing for the upcoming general election,” Allen said.
Board Chairman John Fervier, who was appointed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, opposed the move to further investigate Fulton, saying it exposes the board to lawsuits over a case that he believes was already decided and closed…..
Fervier said reopening the case would be illegal after it was already resolved, citing guidance from Carr’s office. But Johnston said a lawyer from the Georgia Republican Party advised her that the board could legally move forward.
[…]
The double-counted ballots appeared to have been scanned once in one tabulator, then divided up and moved to various other tabulators, according to Republican researchers collaborating with Rossi.
But their research doesn’t indicate that the double-counting benefited Biden in Fulton, where he received 73% of the votes. Among the double-counted ballots, Biden received votes at a lower rate, 56%, and overall in the recount, Trump gained 939 net votes in Fulton.
Previous investigations haven’t proved wrongdoing in Fulton, including allegations of illegal “ballot suitcases” at State Farm Arena, and two Fulton election workers won big defamation lawsuits against Trump supporters. A performance review confirmed disorganization and mistakes but said the county had made improvements since 2020.
If the attorney general’s office is unable or unwilling to investigate Fulton further, Johnston’s motion called for outside attorneys or investigators to be hired.
The effort to reinvestigate sets up a heated debate over election security and allegations of fraud in the weeks leading up to Election Day on Nov. 5, when Georgia is expected to again be a closely contested state.
I made myself make it a political position instead of just sounds.
I’ve considered calling Trump TROMP and talking like the HULK when mimicking his need to lash out and hurt people instead of address anything real. His followers TROMPS, but I’m still thinking about it.
Maybe labeling that a “fashy fit” like I have saved up is better.
Summarized from an NBC News article: In the 24 hours following Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz joining the Democratic ticket, Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 campaign said it raised $36 million.
Polling and campaign news, as posted by Steve Benen:
The latest national poll from Marquette Law School found Harris leading Trump among likely voters, 53% to 47%, in a head-to-head match-up. The same survey found the Democratic vice president’s lead over the Republican expanding to 50% to 42% when third-party candidates are added to the mix.
The news was better for the GOP, however, in the latest national poll from CNBC, which found Trump narrowly leading Harris, 48% to 46%
In Wisconsin, one of the nation’s most closely watched battleground states, the latest statewide poll from Marquette Law School found Harris narrowly leading the former president in the Badger State, 50% to 49%, among likely voters.
On a related note, the same Wisconsin survey showed incumbent Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin ahead of her Republican challenger, Eric Hovde, 52% to 47%, among likely voters.
[…] in Arizona’s closely watched U.S. Senate race, two former state directors for the late former Sen. John McCain endorsed Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego’s candidacy this week. Gallego will face Republican election denier Kari Lake in November.
After Gov. Tim Walz joined the Democrats’ 2024 ticket this week, Donald Trump’s campaign team wasted little time in targeting the Minnesotan with attacks that appeared pre-packaged. One part of the offensive, however, stood out.
Walz, Team Trump told voters, has a record of “embracing policies to allow convicted felons to vote.”
Putting aside the fact that the governor did, in fact, restore voting rights for formerly incarcerated people — a popular and just position — the line of attack flunked a rather obvious test of self-awareness: A jury recently found the former president guilty of 34 felonies. The press release from Team Trump was intended to make it seem as if Walz has somehow been soft on criminals, which might’ve been more sensible if Trump weren’t already a criminal.
Thursday morning — just two days after extensive coverage of his campaign’s misstep on Monday — the former president made the same self-defeating mistake. In a message published to his social media platform, Trump wrote:
“We are living in a Pro Criminal Atmosphere. It will end on November 5th.”
This was not an isolated comment. The GOP candidate recently declared with confidence at a public event, “You’re not going to teach a criminal not to be a criminal,” as if the maxim were just common sense. A day later, the former president echoed the line at an unrelated event.
“A criminal is a criminal,” the Republican nominee said. “They generally stay a criminal, and we do not have time to figure it out.”
This need not be complicated. A jury recently found Trump guilty of 34 felonies. This is not to be confused with a different jury finding Trump liable for sexual abuse, or the case in which a court found that Trump oversaw a business that engaged in systemic fraud.
He’s also still facing several dozen other pending felony counts, across multiple jurisdictions.
If it’s effectively impossible to “teach a criminal not to be a criminal,” he should probably drop out of the 2024 race immediately.
What’s more, the former president has also surrounded himself with other criminals. “With Lincoln, they had a team of rivals,” presidential historian recently noted. “With Trump, you have a team of felons.”
In case that weren’t quite enough, during his failed presidency, Trump had a habit of issuing scandalous pardons to politically aligned criminals, and if elected to a second term, the Republican has promised to issue even more pardons to politically aligned criminals — including those who violently clashed with police officers.
If Trump is looking for evidence of an actual “pro-criminal atmosphere,” he can apparently find one in his own political operation.
Donald Trump recently thought it would be a good idea to go after Vice President Kamala Harris’ racial identity and start promoting messages related to the Democrat’s birth certificate. For those familiar with the Republican’s record of racist antics, the strategy was painfully familiar: Axios described it as “Trump’s new birtherism.”
But as it turns out, that’s not the only ugly tactic from the GOP’s recent past that the party’s 2024 ticket is eager to recycle.
In 2004, a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, bankrolled in part by a Republican megadonor and Justice Clarence Thomas benefactor, smeared then-Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry’s military service. The deceptive operation was guided in part by a GOP consultant named Chris LaCivita.
Twenty years later, LaCivita is a top member of Trump’s 2024 operation, and wouldn’t you know it, Swift-boating, like birtherism, is making a sudden comeback. NBC News reported:
Donald Trump’s presidential campaign is homing in on what advisers see as a potential liability for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz: his departure from the Army National Guard two decades ago. Walz, introduced Tuesday as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, ended his 24-year military career to run for public office in 2005 — just before the unit he led deployed to Iraq.
“What bothers me about Tim Walz is this stolen valor garbage,” Sen. JD Vance told reporters on Wednesday.
The Ohio Republican’s use of the word “garbage” rang true, but not for the reasons the vice presidential nominee probably intended.
Based on all of the available evidence, this line of attack appears utterly baseless. Walz enlisted in the Army National Guard as a teenager, and his military service spanned nearly a quarter of a century. The Minnesotan served honorably, rose to the rank of command sergeant major, and retired in 2005.
Months after his retirement, Walz’s unit was deployed, which is apparently of interest to the Republican attack machine, but which does not appear to be controversial.
In fact, Vote Vets, a progressive veterans group, published a brief summary, fact-checking the anti-Walz smear, and helping set the record straight. [The X post is available at the link. Excerpts: “Bullshit. Tim submitted his retirement request to the U.S. Army National Guard months prior to notification of his unit’s deployment. […] It is entirely accurate to describe Tim as having been a Command Sergeant Major – the rank under which he served – and the Minnesota National Guard has emphasized in public statements that he can be referred to as such.”]
Alexander Vindman, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, had a related, similarly pointed message, making the case that Vance probably shouldn’t be too eager to compare his service record against Walz’s.
Vance enlisted & served 4 yrs, including 6 months in Iraq in 2005 as a reporter w/ a Public Affairs section of a Marine Aircraft Wing 👍🏻
Walz served 24 yrs earning 8 promotions & ending as a Command Sergeant Major, the highest NCO position. I don’t think JD wants to compare records but if he insists…
But if the far-right senator was a poor messenger for this message, Trump was worse.
The former president called Walz a “DISGRACE” by way of his social media platform, and added some related online attacks overnight.
Not to put too fine a point on this, but this is a fight Cadet Bone Spurs should probably avoid. Not only did Trump avoid military service when many in his generation served, but members of his own team have told the public that the Republican has denigrated those who serve in the military and condemned fallen American heroes as “suckers” and “losers.”
Trump has also complained bitterly about American military leaders, disparaged wounded veterans, referred to soldiers missing in action as “losers,” blamed military leaders for failed missions he approved, downplayed the importance of troops with traumatic brain injuries, and famously declared in reference to American prisoners of war, “I like people that weren’t captured, okay?”
If the GOP candidate thinks he can be a credible critic of Walz’s lengthy and honorable military service, he’s mistaken.
birgerjohanssonsays
I usually don’t forward weapon tech stuff but this was kind of cool. And it might be relevant for Ukraine.
Henry at ‘9-Hole Reviews’ has a look at the main weapon of Stargate SG-1.
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=n0WrHbTzJ2o
(But then again all weapons on film or TV are subjected to hype)
With trench warfare coming back in Eastern Ukraine, equipment like this might come back which is why I am forwarding this link. I don’t see Putin’s rusty soviet era guns hold up well in the kind of short range engagements this stuff was designed for.
(The Russian conscripts mostly lack working protective vests anyway- the officers stole the expensive armor plate inserts and sold them!)
JD Vance launched a spurious and baseless attack on Tim Walz’s military service reminiscent of the Swift Boat attacks in 2004 that targeted one of John Kerry’s key political strengths: his heroism and valor in Vietnam. But instead of using the last 20 years to reflect and reconsider the familiar coverage patterns, some political editors still get played like a fiddle when it comes to covering GOP attack lines.
The WaPo was probably the worst culprit, with this headline: “Tim Walz’s military record, National Guard departure get new scrutiny.” It happily launders the Vance attack line without self-awareness or historical understanding of the last two decades of American politics. “New scrutiny” – like its weasel-word compadres “raises questions about” and “is said to” – confers a miraculous virgin birth to scurrilous political attacks even if they’re launched right out in the open.
To its credit, Politico is much more direct and puts the attack in the broader context with a story headlined: “Vance runs a Swift Boat attack against Walz’s military service.” You might quibble with Politico’s handling of it, but it’s clearly not the same laundering operation the WaPo ran on this one.
The irony of the Vance attack and the media coverage of it is that the originator of the Swift Boat attack against Kerry back in the day was Chris LaCivita, who is now a senior Trump campaign adviser.
Lara Trump, who ascended to being co-chair of the Republican National Committee due to her proximity to her father-in-law, Donald Trump, is claiming Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris did not earn her political career.
On her web show “The Right View with Lara Trump” Wednesday, she complained that Harris, who has held elected office for over 20 years, was chosen by President Joe Biden “based on how she looked, based on the fact that this is a woman, based on the fact that she was a minority woman.”
“That’s really gross as far as I’m concerned,” she continued. “I’m a woman. Do me a favor: Don’t ever give me a position based on the fact that I’m a woman. Either I earned it, or I didn’t—and that’s it. That’s all I need.” [video at the link]
This is an exquisitely racist and sexist take from a person who got to her position of power after her father-in-law, who has led the Republican Party for the past eight years, decided he wanted more control over the RNC’s purse strings so that he could pay his mounting legal fees. He then called for a shake-up of the leadership in the RNC and pushed his son’s wife in as co-chair.
It isn’t the first time that Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law has projected her own meritless career onto others. During the annual Conservative Political Action Conference this past February, she attacked transgender student athletes by saying she wanted her own daughter to “understand that in the United States of America, we get ahead and succeed by merit and merit alone.”
Spewing misinformation and bigotry against your opponent, however, is the Trump family way of showing one’s “merit.”
Austrian police foil a plot for mass-murder of Swifties
Taylor Swift concerts bring people together in a spirit of happiness, love and joy, and some haters apparently really fucking hate that, to a mass-murdering degree.
Now Swift’s been forced to cancel three sold-out shows at Vienna, Austria’s Ernst-Happel-Stadion, which were supposed to start tonight and go over the weekend, because some fucking teenagers who got radicalized online by ISIS put together a whole fucking suicide plot to kill as many people as possible.
According to Austria’s director-general for public safety Franz Ruf, a 19-year-old (who Austrian papers identify as “Beren A.”), stole a bunch of chemicals from his job at a metal-processing company, quit the job declaring he had “big plans,” and “significantly changed his appearance,” growing an ISIS-style beard.
He collaborated with a 17-year-old, who reportedly had a job as a guard with the company that provided security services at the venue. A 15-year-old was also involved, though it’s unclear at this point if he was a participant or a witness.
Their plan was to load up a vehicle full of explosives, with a fake police siren on top of it, drive into as many people as possible, and then start stabbing people and swinging at them with machetes, and detonate the explosives.
Somehow, THANK GOD, American authorities got wind of the plot and notified Viennese authorities, and the Bundespolizei busted the 19-year-old at his home in Ternitz, where he lived with his parents. There they found a whole kitchen full of chemicals to produce the explosive triacetone triperoxide, bomb-making materials, plus counterfeit currency for some reason. And though the plot was seemingly foiled, this weekend’s concerts were canceled out of an abundance of caution.
For what it’s worth, all three of the plotters are Austrian citizens, with North Macedonian, Turkish, and Croatian backgrounds.
This comes after 10 days ago, another teenage-male attacker in England killed three girls and wounded 10 people in a knife attack during a Taylor Swift-themed dance and yoga class, leading to far-right types in the UK rioting and burning cars for almost an entire week, because even though the accused killer was born in the UK, they were very mad about immigrants anyway.
Swift is due to close out the European leg of her Eras tour at London’s Wembley stadium for five nights between August 15 and 20, which are still on, as of now.
It’s fucking horrible. Though it could have been much worse!
I’m sorry, Swifties. Take comfort in the fact that your joy makes ISIS chuds fucking miserable.
Here’s a video of her neato performance at the Eras tour of my personal favorite song of the moment, “Willow.” It’s so Stevie Nicks-y! Dig the orbs! [video at the link]
Also did you know she did a whole video as a drag king? Fucking love everything about it. [video at the link]
Some of them have to attack things like Taylor Swift concerts. They the microaggressions aren’t working so well so macroaggressions.
And all the other misogynistic mass killings prove they have to create group differences through force, maintain them. And occasionally destroy someone as an object lesson to keep the rest in line.
The intention, say US and Ukrainian officials, is multifaceted, in part to disrupt and demoralize Russian forces and in part to divert Russian forces away from other parts of the eastern front. US officials do not believe Ukraine intends to hold Russian territory for the long-term.
Clashes erupted on Tuesday in the region bordering Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region. While anti-Kremlin militia groups have previously carried out surprise raids into the border region of Belgorod, this incursion increasingly appears to be on a different scale, reportedly involving multiple Ukrainian units and armored convoys.
While Russia’s defence ministry said on Wednesday that the attack was being neutralised, intense fighting continues in multiple locations. Meanwhile, Russian war analysts and the “z-blogger” community have grown increasingly frustrated with and furious at Putin military’s response to the attack.
JMsays
Hit post button before I added comments.
Fighting continues into 3rd day in Kursk. Russia is continuing to claim to have stopped the attack but they have claimed to have won through all of the fighting. Russian civilians seem surprised that there isn’t a quick massive response but Russia already has all of it’s easily available forces in Ukraine.
The size of the Ukrainian forces remains unclear but is obviously significant, this isn’t a small quick raid. Reports indicate that supplies are being run into Kursk to resupply Ukrainian forces in the field. Ukraine doesn’t seem to be doing the sort of digging in that would be expected if they intended to occupy this territory. Likely they intend to remain until Russia does gather a large force and then they will retreat to the defensive lines in Ukraine.
For the first time the US has talked about what Ukraine is doing. This attack may have caught the US by surprise also, suggesting that making it clear the Ukraine was an independent force to the US may have been part of the point. The US surprise can’t be trusted, it could easily have been fake to some degree.
JMsays
NBC Trump says he wants to face Harris in 3 debates in September
Trump is trying to play games with the debates again. He is unilaterally trying to setup 3 debates now, but the Fox debate is still first under terms that Trump makes, with ABC second and NBC at the end of the month. He is trying to flip the script and get Harris called the coward for not debating Trump.
Harris needs to respond quickly but she has a lot of options depending on how many debates she wants. What she needs to avoid is letting Fox go first with terms set entirely by Trump. Trump could easily do that debate and then back out of the rest. Even if he doesn’t the first debate will matter the most, it needs to be reasonably fair.
Donald Trump proved Thursday that his size obsession has grown, as Kamala Harris’ massive crowds seem to be getting under his skin.
“Oh, give me a break,” Trump said when a reporter at a Mar-a-Lago press conference asked about the number of supporters Harris has recently drawn. “Listen, I had 107,000 people in New Jersey, you didn’t report it. I’m so glad you asked. What did she have yesterday, 2,000 people? If I ever had 2,000 people, you’d say my campaign was finished.”
He rattled off a litany of numbers in an effort to prove his rallies are bigger and better: 25,000 in Michigan; 20,000 to 25,000 in Harrisburg; 88,000 in South Carolina; 68,000 in Alabama. The numbers he reported were much larger than the 12,000 people who the Harris campaign said showed up for her Wisconsin rally on Wednesday.
“I have 10 times, 20 times, 30 times the crowd size, and they never say the crowd is big,” Trump said. “That’s why I always say, ‘Turn around the cameras.’”
Trump repeatedly referred to Harris as “incompetent” and predicted her star power will fade once the “honeymoon” phase of her candidacy ends.
He talked about his rally in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, right before his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
“The biggest crowd I’ve ever spoken before was that day,” he said. “And I’ll tell you, it’s very hard to find a picture of that crowd. You see the picture of a small number of people, relatively, going to the Capitol, but you never see the picture of the crowd. The biggest crowd I’ve ever spoken—I’ve spoken to the biggest crowds, nobody’s spoken to crowds bigger than me.”
As he has in the past, Trump compared his crowd sizes to Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington.
“If you look at Martin Luther King, when he did his speech, his great speech, and you look at ours, same real estate, same everything, same number of people, if not, we had more,” he continued. “And they said he had a million people, but I had 25,000 people.”
[…] Trump’s claims about his crowd sizes widely been proven false, according to photographic evidence showing side-by-side comparisons.
Listening to Trump was really difficult for me. I tried to pay attention in order to report here, but man, what a mind-numbing stream of lies and barely-controlled anger.
I’m not sure how many times Trump characterized Kamala Harris as “incompetent” but it was a lot. He accompanied that claim with statements like, “She destroyed California,” and “She destroyed San Francisco.”
Trump also made repeated references to Kamala Harris’ intellect, apparently he intended to persuade listeners that Harris is stupid. Trump claimed that she can’t hold press conferences like he does because she can’t answer questions.
Trump’s gushing sewer of lies was not just lies … it was lies framed in the most obnoxiously misogynistic manner.
As JM notes in comment 288, Trump proposed three debates, with Fox News first. He frames that as “I have agreed …” and then goes on to claim that Harris is afraid or weak or unable to agree to debates due to her supposed incompetence. Disgusting. It’s going to take me some time to recover from watching that.
Tethyssays
The biggest crowd drawn by Trump was the 2017 Women’s March, which he also hated because of their cat-hats. According to wiki:
Estimated over 200,000 people in Washington, D.C. In Washington, D.C., it was the largest protest since the anti-Vietnam War protests.
Estimated 3,300,000–4,600,000 in the United States.
Estimated up to 5 million worldwide.
Here are some excerpts from Talking Point Memo’s live coverage of Trump’s press conference:
[…] former White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham, who has become a vocal critic of the former president, posted on X that Trump is “panicking.”
“I’ve seen this play many times. He thinks his team is failing him & no one can speak better/’save’ his campaign/defend him but him,” she wrote. “He hates the coverage Harris is getting & thinks only he can fix it.” [Yes. I agree.]
Trump started his news conference with a familiar line of attack, calling the U.S. a nation in decline and claiming that “we’re very close to a World War.”
“We have a lot of bad things coming up,” Trump said with no real explanation of what that means.
This is how Trump tends to begin his public appearances ever since he left the White House, harping on unspecific threats the U.S. faces as a nation, and the world overall, without him as the leader of the free world.
“We were given Joe Biden and now we are given somebody else,” Trump said. “I think frankly I would rather be running against somebody else but that was their choice.”
Trump focused his summary of his legal troubles on praising Aileen Cannon, the federal judge in Florida who dismissed his classified documents case, saying that special counsel Jack Smith could not bring the charges. [Trump also said that Aileen Cannon is really smart. Not exactly true. See What Could Happen in Trump’s Florida Classified Documents Case? Excerpt from that link: The best outcome for the government would be to get the case to the Eleventh Circuit quickly and obtain a ruling reversing Judge Cannon. The icing on the cake would be to have the circuit order that the case be reassigned on remand to a new judge. As we discussed, that’s a possibility here where a judge has been reversed repeatedly in a matter, and Judge Cannon’s behavior certainly has cast the integrity of the courts into question. Clearing the air by assigning a new judge would be the institutionally sound move here.
But appeals involve delay. […]
Whichever side loses in the court of appeals will likely try to go to the Supreme Court. […]
If the case does end up in a posture where the only option is for a U.S attorney to obtain a new indictment from a grand jury and the case is reassigned to Judge Cannon, the special counsel will have to decide whether to seek her recusal immediately this time. […]]
Trump claimed that he actually cherishes the Constitution more than than Democrats, as he griped about Joe Biden dropping out of the race and Kamala Harris becoming the Democratic nominee in what he claimed was done in a “horrible” way.
You don’t need me to tell you how rich this cherishing is coming from the man who attempted to do a coup to cling to power when he lost four years ago.
” […] the presidency was taken away from Joe Biden. And I’m no Biden fan,” Trump said. “People were saying he lost after the debate … Well I don’t know that that’s true necessarily. But whether he could win or he couldn’t win, he had the right to run and they took it away.” [Disingenuous, and meant to obscure the fact that he would rather run against Biden than Harris.]
Trump has quickly slid into election denial, saying he won Alabama by a lot and South Carolina by a lot and, thus, it is simply impossible that he did not win Georgia.
Trump is resurrecting one of his old reliables — complaining about how he supposedly has the biggest crowd sizes and no one talks about it.
“You don’t report it,” Trump says to reporters as he claims his crowd size is bigger then Harris campaign’s crowd sizes.
And when asked about his claim that there had indeed previously been a peaceful transfer of power, Trump said that the people who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 were “treated very harshly,” and that “nobody was killed on January 6” — obviously, that is a lie.
“I said peacefully and patriotically with no one wants to say but I said peacefully and patriotically,” he said. [He said a whole lot of other stuff too … and all of it encouraged violence.]
We have once again circled back to how the big, bad Democrats took away Biden’s shot at another term in the White House.
“I hate defending him but he did not want to leave,” Trump said. “After the debate, they said you’re not going to win, you can’t, you’re out.” [Strange how much Trump repeatedly returned to that.]
Fielding a question about abortion, Trump claimed, repeatedly, that the issue was, in fact, not an issue anymore. [He wishes.]
His answer featured a detour into an insane lie that he has leaned heavily on during this campaign — that Democrats are killing babies and calling it abortion. Seemingly forgetting Tim Walz name, he says “the Minnesota gentleman” is in favor of the baby murder.
Trump Seems To Suggest It’s ‘Disrespectful’ Harris Identifies As Biracial
“To me it doesn’t matter,” Trump said. “But from her stand point I think it’s very disrespectful to both, really. Whether it’s Indian or Black, I think it’s very disrespectful to both. To me it doesn’t matter.”
It’s not entirely clear what point he is trying to make here, but it appears he is doubling down on his racist remarks about people with biracial identities.
Trump Darkly Describes ‘Largest Mass Deportation’ In History, Falsely Claims Non-Citizens Are Voting
“We are going to start the largest mass deportation in the history of our country because we have no choice, it’s not sustainable,” he said, responding to a request for specifics on how this all would work.
He then moved into Great Replacement-adjacent territory, wondering why “the other side,” in his telling, “is allowing” immigrants to come in, and landing on the conclusion that “they’re trying to sign them up to vote.”
“And they have to stop,” he added. “They cannot let illegal immigrants vote in this upcoming election.”
This is, of course, not true — non-citizens cannot and do not vote in U.S. federal elections. Nonetheless, many Republicans and far-right activists have leaned hard into this claim in recent months, even going so far as to champion new legislation to make illegal non-citizen voting which, again, is already illegal. […]
Trump did get some news coverage, but I doubt it will do him any good.
birgerjohanssonsays
“Conservatives Upset that Seven of Nine Hates Them”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=rAY-ugaHLNI
A commenter in the thread was at the event and noted thst Jeri Ryan was not as confrontational as claimed, she certainly did not tell any one to fuck off.
BTW Star Trek exists in a post-scarcity society. Unlike the Ferenghis, they are post-capitalism.
Also, it took conservatives four seasons to realise “The Boys” does not like them.
John Moralessays
A bit of calm in a mad world.
I found it quite relaxing.
Etiquette expert William Hanson joins WIRED to answer the internet’s burning questions about proper manners and polite behavior. Why is “no elbows on the table” a rule? Is there a proper way to stir tea? Or cut a piece of cheese from a charcuterie board? Who decides what proper table etiquette is? Why should we even care about etiquette in the first place? Etiquette expert William Hanson answers these questions and many more on Etiquette Support.
0:00 Etiquette Time
0:15 Why no elbows on the table?
0:51 The proper way to stir tea
1:14 Cheese for charcuterie
1:50 How do you eat your peas?
2:22 Cheers?
2:44 Why does etiquette matter?
3:12 Coded silverware
4:00 Mind if I interrupt?
4:25 Sending back opened wine
4:51 Burgers
5:14 Difference between US/Britain
6:04 Proper spaghetti
6:42 The ultimate no-no
7:02 Fashionably late, oui?
7:57 The great reclining seat debate
8:40 Exit the conversation
9:05 Check please!
9:34 Your majesty
10:00 Offer your seat if you like
10:27 Hold the door!
10:58 Unwanted house guests
chigau (違う)says
John Morales #298
I’ve ordered his latest book.
JMsays
ABC Trump and Harris agree to ABC Debate
Trump and Harris have both confirmed they have agreed to the ABC Debate on Sept 10. Harris has not agreed to other debates yet but said she was open to talking about it.
Expect a complex verbal dance where neither side wants to appear to be refusing but both sides want to set the terms. Hopefully Harris is not foolish enough to agree to a debate where Trump has set all of the terms.
US-made Abrams are better than Russia’s best tanks in the war, Ukrainian commander says, and it’s not even close
This is obviously a propaganda piece put together for the US market. Covering for the loss of M1 tanks in Ukraine. Ukraine has lost something like 10 M1 tanks, which is bad when you realize that only something like 30-40 have made it to Ukraine so far. This is dwarfed by the number of Russian tanks and other armored vehicles taken out by missile and drone strikes, which run into the thousands. The M1s have done well in situations where it was an armor vs armor fight but this is secondary in Ukraine where fighting is mostly infantry vs infantry and both sides have equipped the infantry with drones.
The war in Ukraine is demonstrating that the older designs of armored vehicles are all obsolete. They need armor better balanced across the vehicle and they all need spaced armor. Anti-drone systems need to be standard on any vehicle expected to stand on the front line.
Tethyssays
The only reason the felon is now agreeing to the previous scheduled debate is because the #3 tag on his own social media platform was “Trumpisacoward”.
Today he attempts to control the narrative by announced that all the networks have already agreed to his newly invented plan for 3 debates.
I think Walz should go debate Shady for a warmup, before Harris mops the floor with him on the 10th.
—-
I just watched an entire Trump ad on a news video on youtube that was just unhinged. The orange bigot lies through the whole thing, but he most disgustingly repeats the false claim that the Olympic Boxer from Algeria is a man, and is the greatest threat to humanity ever from which only he can save America.
( that’s a paraphrase but the whole 1:25 ad is really that bonkers)
I hope there is some way to get such obvious hate speech removed from the platform? Didn’t we pass some laws about it since the whole facilitating an insurrection thing happened?
Ukrainian troops battled Russian forces Thursday for a third day in Russia’s Kursk region, occupying villages and part of a town, in what has become Ukraine’s largest incursion into Russia since Russia’s invasion in 2022. Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have confirmed the cross-border Ukrainian attack, which stunned Moscow and appeared to involve the use of Western-donated infantry fighting vehicles.
Lots going on with Ukraine’s Kursk …. what shall we call it? … Offensive? Operation? Incursion? Raid?
Ukraine’s Kursk operation is still on the move, reportedly taking the town of Sudzha, which is an important rail hub on the line that supplies Belgorod. Some reports say there are still pockets of Russian resistance in Sudzha.
More than 300 Russian soldiers have surrendered to Ukraine.
Whatever Ukraine’s goal is and however long they plan to stay in Kursk, it is obvious that this is more than a raid or an incursion.
It is difficult to tell exactly how far Ukraine has gone because Ukraine’s military isn’t saying anything. But here are two attempts at a map: [maps at the link]
This map shows Ukraine headed in the general direction of the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant. An earlier report said some male workers at the plant were scooped up to be sent to the front.
There are signs that Ukraine might be organizing another drive into the Kursk region north of where they are now. The small city of Hlukhiv is just across the border in Ukraine and Rylsk is a Russian town on the other side of the border. The highway that connects them leads straight to the city of Kursk. [map at the link]
Here is a view from a skeptical Ukrainian. […]
5/ So far, there is no evidence of Russian forces slowing down their offensive operations in Donetsk Oblast, nor is there evidence that Russia is moving any reserves or units from the “Center” grouping of forces. This can change, but not at the moment, hence my skepticism.
6/ It’s hard to gauge the moral blow to Russian society. Social media posts and influencers show they are unpleasantly shocked and clearly upset. However, it’s uncertain how long this will last, as they quickly moved on from the losses of Kherson and the retreat from Kyiv Oblast
7/ Russia failed to identify this assault, showing a significant improvement in Ukrainian counterintelligence measures. Despite advanced ISR capabilities, Russian forces failed to interpret the concentration of Ukrainian forces as an offensive maneuver.
8/ I currently have serious reservations about the logistical capabilities needed to sustain deep advancements into Russian territory, as well as the ability to continuously support these forces with AD and EW. However, I will refrain from drawing conclusions at this moment.
[…] Even if Ukraine withdrew all forces right now, this is a devastating blow to Putin.
[…] But these Russians from Sudzha haven’t learned anything yet. They think they can make a video appeal and Putin will ride to their rescue. [Video at the link]
These residents of the Kursk region are SHOCKED 😱 that Russian TV would lie to them. [video at the link]
The Defense Department on Thursday said Ukraine’s attack into a region of Russia this week is not escalatory and is consistent with U.S. policy.
Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters that Ukraine is “taking action to protect themselves” in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops entered Tuesday night and are continuing to fight, putting enormous pressure on Russia.
“We have supported Ukraine from the very beginning to defend themselves against attacks that are coming across the border and for the need for crossfires,” she said.
The U.S. has a policy of allowing Ukraine to makes strikes in Russia with American-made weapons as long as it is related to a cross-border attack from Russian forces, and Singh said the Kursk attack, even though it involves troops instead of missiles or drones, is consistent with that policy.
“We don’t support long-range attacks into Russia,” she said. “These are more for crossfire [and …] they are aware of U.S. policy and what we are supportive of.”
Ukraine has not attacked directly inside of Russia before with troops, though Kyiv-allied anti-Kremlin Russian fighters have mounted attacks on Russian regions before.
Ukraine has pressed at least 6 miles into Kursk, which neighbors the northeastern Ukrainian region of Sumy, taking several settlements and capturing dozens of Russian border guards.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said it has repelled most of the attacks but that fighting is ongoing, while Russian military bloggers wrote that Ukraine had captured a gas measuring station and were surrounding the city of Sudzha.
Ukrainian officials have not commented on the attacks. But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday night it was important to keep the pressure on Russia, while his adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, said in a cryptic post on the social platform X that the “mythical Russian brutality and boundlessness has turned against Russia itself.”
A United Nations spokesperson said Thursday the Kursk attack was a “real concern” and called for the protection of civilians.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who called it a “major provocation,” met with key government officials Wednesday and ordered his troops to counter the Ukrainian advance.
The stock market surged Thursday following better-than-expected jobless claims that soothed recession fears sparked by last week’s weaker-than-expected jobs report. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed with a gain of 683 points, or 1.8 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite was up 2.9 percent. The S&P 500 gained 2.3 percent, its best day since November 2022, according to CNBC.
So much for the doofus-inspired panic. It lasted all of two days.
0:00 A “What the heck” moment
1:14 More than a raid
3:27 Why are they doing it?
4:58 A diversion and denying Russia a break
5:49 Moving the war into Russia
6:55 Limitations of U.S. escalation management
7:39 Putin’s conscription dilemma
10:07 Summary
“We noticed that, compared with natural ecosystems, tree leaves in most urban ecosystems generally show little sign of insect damage. […] In two of the most common tree species in Beijing, artificial light at night led to increased leaf toughness and decreased levels of leaf herbivory.”
[…]
tough and contained tannins or other chemical defences […] they had allocated their energy to defend themselves. […] trees exposed to artificial light could extend their photosynthesis duration.
[…]
a bad sign for the ecosystem. […] Lower levels of herbivory imply lower abundances of herbivorous insects, which could in turn result in lower abundances of predatory insects, insect-eating birds, and so on.
John Moralessays
Lower levels of herbivory is not inedibility.
(That would mean zero levels of herbivory)
Bekenstein Boundsays
Greenland Fossil Discovery Reveals Increased Risk of Sea-Level Catastrophe
The orange bigot lies through the whole thing, but he most disgustingly repeats the false claim that the Olympic Boxer from Algeria is a man, and is the greatest threat to humanity ever from which only he can save America. – Tethys@302
A shame for him that J.K. Rowling is not an American citizen, and so can’t legally contribute the odd £bn she has lying around to his campaign.
KGsays
The Defense Department on Thursday said Ukraine’s attack into a region of Russia this week is not escalatory – Lynna, OM@303 quoting DailyKos
It clearly is escalatory, and why the fuck not? It seems like the Ukrainian high command has decided that unexpected counter-attack is the best form of defence against an enemy with far greater resources but limited strategic imagination. In addition to this Kursk incursion, there have been reports of Ukrainian-inspired attacks on Russian troops or bases in Mali and Syria.
KGsays
Well, that’s what can happen when you try to interject yourself into an existing exchange, but miss the point. – John Morales@292
Well, that’s the kind of response someone makes when they realise they have no substantive point to make. And by the way, John, this is an open forum for discussion – anyone who has not been banned is entitled to respond to anyone else’s comment.
John Moralessays
Well, that’s the kind of response someone makes when they realise they have no substantive point to make.
Nah.
It’s the kind of response someone makes when they realise their very point has been missed.
To a kibitzer.
And by the way, John, this is an open forum for discussion – anyone who has not been banned is entitled to respond to anyone else’s comment.
And by the way, KG, this is an open forum for discussion – anyone who has not been banned is entitled to respond to anyone else’s comment as they see fit.
That was not Islamophobia any more than it was Tealphobia or Greenphobia.
That was my point.
I quoted the relevant bit.
(Political opponents being grouped together, oh my!)
You decided to try to white-knight StevoR, who happily lapped that up.
(How’s that working for you?)
StevoRsays
Imane Khelif will be boxing for her Olympic gold medal in under 8 hours time :
Automatic voter registering is standard in most European countries. The only ones who would benefit from the current archaic systems are those who benefit from suppressing voter turnout.
StevoRsays
@312. John Morales : Islamophobia is a real thing.
Tealphobia or Greens phobia not so much. The Greens and teals are political groups – not religious and ethnic communities. As KG noted Muslims are usually visibly different and targeted in ways that Greens and Teals are not.
@ 265 Also John Morales :
Oh dear, StevoR.
Tsk. “Exactly. Quoted ( #234 KG) for truth.”
Which makes you just as stupid. There is no truth there. Only opinion, and weak at that.
Minor edit for clarity, italics mine.
I disagree.
KG observed that :
It is worse, conceptually and in its actual effects, because Islamophobia is aimed at a particularly vulnerable minority, often immediately recognisable by racial characteristics or costume and physically attacked on that basis. Indeed, people who are not Muslims but who “look Muslim” (as Sam Harris put it) are quite frequently insulted or assaulted on that basis. Simple, really, John.
That seems pretty factual and obvs to me. What part of it is either opinion or untrue? What partof that dio you disagree with and why?
If it’s Islamophobic, it has to be Teal and Green-phobic too, since they were all equated.
Perhaps Dutton wanted tomake them sound equivalent. They are not forthe reaosns KG among others has noted. Its fair to say the LNP and their base like the Repugs and their base loathes enviornmentalists and is also Islamophobic but still. I think there is a difference here.
Basically, there’s no merit to that stupid complaint, and you are going by the headlines.
Merit is intehye of teh beholder and a matter of opinion. But if therere really wasn’t any merit in the claim I doubt they’d risk making a legal case of it. I don’t think the Islamophobia case here is merit-less or stupid especially given Dutton’s history of bigotry and attacking Muslim -Sudanese and Lebanese communities & his fear-mongering lies about the Voice among other things.
Whether or not Dutton is Islamophobic (obs he is), that was not Islamophobic.
It was plain politics. Just that.
A group that studies and is affected buy and focuses on islamophobia says otherwise.
First, you were all about Antisemitism. Now, you’re all about Islamophobia.
(Blowin’ in the wind, you are. Think for yourself!)
I oppose both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
I do try to think for myself. Ihave no delusions about being the smaretst perosn here – I’m not. I deeply regret many of the things I said in the past. I hope I’ve learned better and will always try to do better than that now.
Anyway, I like you try to ride on the coat-tails of the Goat that Knocks. (Shows your character)
Who? KG I guess you mean? I think they made a relevant comment that summed things up well on this topic. I cited it and said that. Those are metaphorical “coat tails” that show my character? I should’ve, what, just ignored and not cited KG when they posted something that I think put it better I could just becoz you and they have metaphorical beef? Still baffles me what your big problem with that one news item and brief line of my take on it is.. (Shrugs.)
Lower levels of herbivory is not inedibility. (That would mean zero levels of herbivory)
Headline: All-night streetlights make leaves inedible to insects
“In the areas lit the brightest at night, the leaves were extremely tough and showed no sign of insects munching on them.”
At his Mar-a-Lago press conference, Donald Trump insisted that his MAGA base represents “75% of the country.” In reality, the Republican didn’t quite reach 47% of the popular vote in 2020, and while in office, he spent four years struggling to get his approval rating up to 50%.
The list of lies Donald Trump told during his long and meandering Mar-a-Lago press conference isn’t short, but NBC News highlighted one of the most striking: the former president’s rhetoric about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
“You know, with Hillary Clinton, I could have done things to her that would have made your head spin. I thought it was a very bad thing. Take the wife of a president of the United States and put her in jail,” he said. Trump said he was “very protective” of Hillary Clinton and falsely suggested that he would tamp down chants by his supporters to have her locked up.
[JFC]
As part of the same remarks, the Republican nominee said Clinton — who, as a former senator and Cabinet secretary, was more than simply the wife of a former president — was “pretty evil,” but in Trump’s version of events, he nevertheless responded to “lock her up” chants by telling his followers, “Just relax, please. We won the election.”
For now, let’s not dwell on the fact that it was rather creepy to hear Trump declare that he could have “done things” to Clinton “that would have made your head spin.” Instead, let’s consider the underlying point of the rhetoric. [video at the link]
[…] Trump is rewriting history with a specific goal in mind. In the GOP candidate’s counternarrative, he was “very protective” of his 2016 rival after the election, in part because of his deep commitment to propriety, and in part because he believed it was wrong to use the levers of governmental power to pursue a political rival.
As part of the same story — a counternarrative he’s pushed before — voters are also supposed to believe that those rascally Democrats, however, abandoned these principles and prosecuted him after his 2020 defeat, failing to follow the magnanimous example he established a few years earlier.
There’s just one fairly obvious problem: Trump’s version of reality is utterly bonkers.
As regular readers know, Trump publicly and privately begged prosecutors to charge Clinton. Ahead of Election Day 2020 — nearly four years after Clinton’s defeat — the then-Republican president again publicly called for the Democrat’s incarceration and lobbied then-Attorney General Barr to prosecute the former secretary of state for reasons unknown.
None of this was kept secret. It happened out in the open. We all saw it play out in public — all of which makes it a strange thing for the GOP presidential nominee to keep lying about.
As for the idea that Trump was uncomfortable with his followers’ “lock her up” chants, and he graciously told them to “just relax,” reality tells a very different story. He not only spent four years in the White House trying to prosecute Clinton — the opposite of “relaxing” — a recent Washington Post report noted, there are “several instances in which Trump called explicitly for Clinton’s jailing and others in which he agreed with his supporters’ chants.”
What’s more, it’s also worth emphasizing for context that Clinton didn’t deserve to be prosecuted, because there was no evidence of her committing any crimes. A jury, on the other hand, recently examined evidence and found Trump guilty of 34 felonies.
[…] Trump now wants the public to believe he took the high road against his former rivals, unlike those Democratic meanies who insist on holding him accountable.
In reality, however, Trump desperately tried to weaponize federal law enforcement against his perceived foes — especially Clinton.
Remember when John Kerry was Swiftboated by Chris LaCivita who is doing it to Tim Walz now? Guess who funded it? Harlan Crow, the billionaire who has been lavishing freebies on Clarence Thomas.
The differences between the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates are stark, and the official campaign websites for Vice President Kamala Harris and convicted felon Donald Trump illustrate these distinctions in red, white, and blue pixels.
Let’s take a look!
The Harris-Walz website’s homepage is bright, positive, and highlights both people on the Democratic ticket. Vice presidential candidate and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is prominently featured. [Image at the link]
Now enjoy the dark and foreboding image that greets you at the Trump-Vance website. [image at the link]
It’s all about Trump and Trump’s persecution complex. If it wasn’t for the tiny placard in the corner, you might not realize his vice presidential pick, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, even exists. In fact, with the exception of a few posters and a hat in the Trump campaign’s extensive MAGA merch store, Trump’s running mate is conspicuously absent from the website.
The store is extensive because Trump has been campaigning nonstop since 2015. On the day of his inauguration in January 2017, he announced his intention to run for office in 2020. This created an unprecedented permanent campaign that allowed him to continue fundraising while he was supposed to be working for the American people—and his website shows it. The store’s selection is huge, and there are tons of tacky MAGA-branded things you can buy. [image at the link]
On the other hand, Harris and Walz’s store, which is clearly brand new, has a modest selection. Of course, neither Harris nor Walz face dozens of indictments and serious legal cases that they have to pay legions of lawyers to manage. And there’s even a first gentleman Doug Emhoff mug! [Made in America, and “proudly union printed”]
Harris officially received the presidential nomination on Tuesday and, in lieu of a policy page, her website offers biography pages detailing her and Walz’s legislative accomplishments. [images at the link]
Trump’s website, on the other hand, has a link to his “platform.” Titled “Agenda 47,” it is a series of 20 frightening bullet points that read like a fascist propaganda manifesto. It includes policy ideas like:
CARRY OUT THE LARGEST DEPORTATION OPERATION IN AMERICAN HISTORY
[…]
PREVENT WORLD WAR THREE, RESTORE PEACE IN EUROPE AND IN THE MIDDLE EAST, AND BUILD A GREAT IRON DOME MISSILE DEFENSE SHIELD OVER OUR ENTIRE COUNTRY — ALL MADE IN AMERICA
[Screengrab and full list available at the link.]
Finally, if you want to attend a campaign event or get involved, the candidates’ websites have pages offering information. The Harris-Walz campaign’s offerings continue well past the screenshot below. [Screenshot at the link]
An angry, rambling, and defensive Donald Trump finally emerged from hiding on Thursday to give his stump speech to a bunch of reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. The GOP’s presidential nominee insisted he had the biggest rally crowds ever and attempted to make news by finally agreeing to debate Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. But all reporters wanted to talk about was his floundering campaign.
One reporter mentioned that Trump has just one public event scheduled this week.
“Some of your allies have expressed concern that you’re not taking this race seriously,” the reporter said, which set Trump off on one of several tirades about recent polls.
“I’m leading by a lot,” Trump claimed, after calling it a “stupid question.”
He returned to that topic in this riff about his “good polls” where he’s “substantially leading.”
“Fortunately, we’ve had some very good polls over the last fairly short period of time,” Trump said. “Rasmussen came out today with substantially leading,” he continued.
That’s true: Rasmussen Reports does have a new poll giving Trump a 5-point lead. But Rasmussen Reports is the notoriously conservative and inaccurate pollster that 538 dropped from its polling averages and forecasts earlier this year. Meanwhile, the separate and more credible RMG Research, run by Scott Rasmussen, had Harris leading by 5 points as recently as six days ago.
But Trump was on a roll.
“Others came out today that we’re leading and in some cases substantially,” he boasted. “CNBC came out also with a poll that has us leading, and leading fairly big in swing states.”
Trump’s lead in the head-to-head with Harris in the CNBC poll is 2 points. It is a national poll and does not provide data from swing states. Never mind—in his head, it’s true.
“Some polls I’m leading very big in swing states,” Trump insisted.
In reality, no, he is not. On Thursday, the Cook Political Report shifted its ratings for three swing states, changing them from “Lean Republican” to “Toss Up”: [X post at the link]
According to 538’s poll aggregates, Harris has an edge over Trump in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and she’s running neck and neck with Trump in North Carolina.
At the end of last week, Harris had the lead in a dozen separate national polls. [X post and list of polls is available at the link]
The surge Harris experienced after President Joe Biden stepped aside and endorsed her as the Democratic candidate wasn’t a blip or a bounce, either. It’s sustained, and it has changed this race.
Trump’s press conference featured a tale about riding in a helicopter with California politician Willie Brown feeding him dirt about Kamala Harris, whom he formerly dated. Trump said, “Well, I know Willie Brown very well. In fact, I went down in a helicopter with him.” and went on to say this about that helicopter ride:
We thought maybe this was the end. We were in a helicopter, going to a certain location together, and there was an emergency landing. This was not a pleasant landing. And Willie was — he was a little concerned. So I know him, but I know him pretty well. I mean, I haven’t seen him in years. But he told me terrible things about her. But this is what you’re telling me, anyway, I guess. But he had a big part in what happened with Kamala. But he — he, I don’t know, maybe he’s changed his tune. But he — he was not a fan of hers very much, at that point.
Now you know Trump — even without checking the story, it’s gotta be false. (Of course no reporters challenged him about it while he was telling it.) But the New York Times’s Heather Knight and Shawn Hubler have the goods on Trump’s lies.
– Trump never rode in a helicopter with Willie Brown. He rode with then-governor Jerry Brown. That is, Trump confused the two Browns. Knight and Hubler contacted both Browns to confirm this.
– There was no emergency landing. Jerry Brown has confirmed this.
– Nobody on the flight discussed Kamala Harris. This has been confirmed by both Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom, who also was on the flight.
– Willie Brown was and remains a big fan of Kamala Harris. Knight and Hubler confirmed this with WIllie Brown.
– During the flight Trump “repeatedly brought up the possibility of crashing”, according to Gavin Newsom.
Yes, the Great and Powerful President Trump apparently is not a big fan of helicopters.
It was just after his helicopter flight to inspect the results of wildfires in Paradise, CA, that Trump, inspired by his visit, said that the way to solve California’s wildfire problems was to rake the forest floors — an idea he also promoted in his losing 2020 presidential campaign.
he Harris-Walz campaign has received the first-ever presidential endorsement from the League of United Latin American Citizens, the oldest and largest Latino civil rights group in the country.
The endorsement breaks from the 95-year-old group’s practice of not endorsing in presidential races, and LULAC leaders are expected to make an appearance at a campaign rally in Las Vegas on Saturday.
[…] The endorsement was made through the group’s political action committee, the LULAC Adelante PAC. LULAC said in its statement that its local chapters, or councils, will work to rally support for the Democratic ticket, especially in key swing states. The organization has 535 councils and 140,000 members, 86 percent of which are registered to vote, it said. […]
FRONTLINE tells the inside story of Joe Biden’s rise to the presidency, and the personal and political forces that shaped him and led to his fateful decision to step aside.
President Biden’s decision to end his bid for reelection less than four months before the 2024 election was the latest dramatic and difficult moment in what has been a lifetime of challenges and controversies, triumphs and tragedies.
In the documentary “Biden’s Decision,” FRONTLINE offers a sweeping look at Biden’s life and legacy and examines his five decades in U.S. politics. From his childhood battle with stuttering and then the death of his wife and young child, through his decades as a U.S. senator, his failed presidential bids, his eight years as vice president in the Obama administration, and then finally taking office as president himself in a time of cascading national crises, Biden was always one to pick himself back up after challenging moments, those who know him told FRONTLINE.
The film explores the fraught days after Biden gave a halting debate performance against former President Donald Trump — a man he was determined to beat a second time in November — and examines why he made the choice to stand down and, in his words, “pass the torch to a new generation.”
The description is misleading – the period after the debate occupies like the last few minutes of the program and isn’t really in depth at all. It’s about his life story and experiences and how they’ve shaped his personality and decision-making. I think the vast majority of the interviews were recorded before this summer. It sometimes seems overly generous towards him and sometimes unfairly critical, and the interviewees are a mixed bag. But it’s very good in general.
My last question, the one we ask everybody on this film, on both sides, which is, what is the choice? What’s the choice facing American voters in November, as you see it?
I think the choice facing American voters in November is really, is about whether or not America can survive as an optimistic democracy. Can it survive as a country which, for all its faults, believes that the democracy that was so unusual when it was founded here is a system which has a future in America and in the world? Because it can make people’s lives better, ultimately, make them feel proud of themselves, give them a sense of dignity, give them a sense of purpose? Or does it become a country which is founded on despair, and on hatred, on a loss of faith, on an idea that everything has gone to hell in a handcart, and that it can only be confronted with anger, with division, with at least implicit authoritarianism?
There really is a kind of dividing line here, which is not just about policies—policies matter hugely—but is really ultimately about what do Americans think of themselves. Do they still have trust in the idea that the American experiment, which is one of believing that it’s possible to have a democratic system that transcends divisions of race, class, gender ethnicity, religion, that there’s something beyond all of that which is potent enough to keep us together and to make us think that we have common purpose, and we can achieve great things? Is that still viable?
I think probably more so than at any time since the 1860s, there’s a real question mark over whether Americans really believe that. Do they really think that’s the case? As an outsider coming here—and I’ve been lucky to spend a lot of time in America—you’re really struck by the desire for Americans to think well of themselves. And that’s a really good thing. It’s not just sort of all this kind of hubris of exceptionalism. There’s a sort of decency in thinking we want to be good people.
johnson catmansays
re Lynna @324: How long will it be before The Orange Liar claims that all of those members of LULAC who are registered to vote are 1) illegals, and 2) not allowed to vote?
Also, there’s a scene in “Biden’s Decision” showing Trump at a rally gleefully repeating “Where’s Hunter?” and telling the crowd someone should make t-shirts that say “Where’s Hunter?” It’s atrocious and despicable. It’s side-by-side with a loving voicemail Joe Biden left for Hunter when the latter was in the worst depths of his addiction.
Debby was downgraded to a tropical depression Thursday but it still poses a risk of extreme weather.
Mid-Atlantic and northeastern states are set to be inundated with rain and severe weather from the remnants of Debby on Friday and into the weekend, bringing dangerous flash flooding and the threat of tornadoes.
Flood warnings and watches are in place from the Carolinas up to New England, the National Weather Service warned in an update early Friday, with rainfall reaching 15 to 25 inches in places.
At least 530 flights within, into or out of the United States were canceled Friday because of the weather, according to FlightAware. Nearly 4,000 flights were delayed.
LaGuardia Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York urged travelers to check with their airline for status updates.
Downed trees caused train delays Friday morning, Amtrak Northeast said in a post on X, telling riders that service between New York’s Penn Station and Stamford, Connecticut, was delayed “due to rail congestion incurred from downed trees blocking the tracks in the area.”
Service between Union Station in Washington, D.C., and Richmond Staples Mill Station in Virginia was also delayed. […]
Its main threat still remains to be the sheer amount of rain it can produce. […]
[…] Trump said that a rally in South Carolina was attended by 88,000, although in truth, he had actually appeared for a few minutes at this year’s Clemson-South Carolina foot-the-ball game, an annual spectacle that did in fact draw 88,000 fans. Of football. But he did walk out onto the field with Gov. Henry McMaster for a few minutes, and he waved to the crowd without speaking. […]
Yesterday, Trump lied that there were more people at that January 6 rally than at the 1963 March on Washington, where Martin Luther King gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.
“I’ve spoken to the biggest crowds, nobody spoken to bigger crowds than me. If you look at Martin Luther King when he did his speech, his great speech, and you look at ours. Same real estate, same everything, the same number of people. If not, we had more.”
[…] We won’t get into the comparison of historical photos of the 1963 march and the 2021 mob the way several media outlets did (King’s quarter of a million person audience was easily five times the highest estimates of Trump’s crowd), but we do want to applaud Buzzfeed for its angle on the story, headlined “These Pictures Show The Huge Difference Between Donald Trump And Martin Luther King Jr.’s Crowds.” The article had contrasting photos of the crowds, all right, showing King’s was far larger, but it mostly showed the two events from closer angles: people in 1963 holding signs calling for jobs and voting rights, and people in 2001 attacking cops. 1963: a multiracial crowd singing and smiling; 2021: Screaming and rage.
[…] He once again insisted that any Jews who vote for Democrats “should have their head examined,” that “nobody died” on January 6, and even that there was a “peaceful transfer of power” following the 2020 election. He once more insisted that he never ever agreed with the crowds chanting “lock her up!” about Hillary Clinton (of course he did, and he said it several times, in both 2016 and 2020), although he did add a new take on Clinton, suggesting that he respected her more than Kamala, who’s dumb.
In conclusion, Trump lied a lot more but we’re done, enough, not worth our time.
Quoted in CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain’s #139:
[A Harvard study of 2019 data found that] of 22.8 million insured American children who sought care, 80% of gender-affirming surgeries were performed on cisgender males.
Approximately 96.4% of these surgeries were chest-related and were restricted to kids between the ages of 15 and 17.
From the article at the link: “Gynecomastia is the term used in the medical field to describe unwanted breast tissue development in cisgender males. However, teenage gynecomastia—unlike gender dysphoria—is something that can resolve itself over time.”
I wonder how many of these were caused by the J&J “antipsychotic” drug Risperdal. As I understand it, gynecomastia caused by the drug is unlikely to resolve on its own even after it’s stopped. (I’m sparing everyone my rants about the “on-label” uses of this drug, psychiatric “diagnoses,” psychiatry in general, people pushing this drug onto 4-year-old autistic kids, and how J&J handled this litigation. You’re welcome!)
Re #s 195 and 254, it’s super stalkerish and creepy!
Another of Vance’s investments, the defense and security contractor Anduril Industries, showcases both the peculiar preoccupation with The Lord of the Rings in the network around venture capitalist, rightwing ideologue and intermittently active political donor Peter Thiel.
Vance’s own investment partnership, Narya, shares a name with one of the rings of power in JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. For two years from 2016, Vance worked alongside his mentor Thiel at Mithril Capital, itself named after a precious metal in The Lord of the Rings. Palantir, the surveillance company founded by Thiel, is named after a magical seeing stone in the books.
Another Lord of the Rings reference is contained in the name of the defense startup Anduril Industries, which shares its name with a magic sword in the series.
In the fictional Elvish language of the story, “Anduril” translates to “flame of the west”, which the company’s co-founder Palmer Luckey has connected with the company’s self-appointed mission to “save western civilization” through weapons manufacturing.
For his part, Vance has reportedly named Tolkien as his favorite author; one of his friends, the conservative writer Rod Dreher, told Politico last month in connection with Tolkien that Vance is “is thinking broadly about how all must join in the great struggle against darkness”.
Fantasy aside, Vance’s ethics declaration indicates that he has between $1,000 and $15,000 invested in the defense startup, which has raised $3.7bn in 10 funding rounds to date, according to media reports and startup reporting service Crunchbase.
Weird, weird, weird.
Re Lynna’s #247 and Roberts on “the culture of children” vs. “the antifamily culture shaping legislation, regulation, and enforcement throughout our sprawling government.” I mean, I know this has been said by many people, but Republican policies, and those supported by Vance in particular, are monstrously anti-child and anti-family and expose children to all manner of violence and harm.
On the Nelk Boys Fullsend podcast, JD Vance told the story of getting the call to become Trump’s VP. Vance said “the crazy thing” was his 7 year-old son, who Vance said is into Pokémon cards and is going through “a Pokémon phase,” was trying to tell him about Pikachu during the call.
Vance said he told his son:
Shut the hell up for 30 seconds about Pikachu. This is the most important phone call of my life. Please, just let me take this phone call.
The comments were denounced on Twitter by parents and Pokémon fans. Now, as discovered by MeidasTouch, the Trump campaign also promoted the child scolding video.
The official Trump War Room Twitter account promoted the video of Vance talking about the phone call with Trump and telling his kid to “shut the hell up …about Pikachu.” Trump’s campaign tried to spin the video as a positive interaction between Vance and his son about Pokémon:…
This wasn’t a wholesome interaction. The disasterous Trump campaign listened to this video and then decided to post it and attempted to sell it as a positive. Gross.
StevoR @ #264:
@263. John Morales : “And another got arrested for buying cocaine.”
Not quite. He was trying to buy cocaine but got arrested without getting it. Yeah, still not great.
…How did we get to this point, where far-right, Islamophobic racist violence is seen across the country and fear grips British Muslims and people of colour?
The fuse may have been set alight by online disinformation and secretive social media channels, but this explosion of far-right violence has been decades in the making. And while Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (AKA Tommy Robinson) and his mob of far-right agitators are its immediate instigators, much of Britain’s political and media class is complicit in laying the groundwork for this eruption of hate.
This truth of how we reached this point flips the normal classist narrative about racism in Britain. The reality is that racism isn’t a bottom-up expression of popular discontent, but a top-down project propagated by people in positions of power….
…Jason Wilson’s death was raised in testimony in a four-day hearing last week in federal court in Austin, Texas, where the state’s department of criminal justice is being sued for subjecting inmates to cruel and unusual punishment banned under the US constitution. The opening line of the complaint bluntly claims: “Texas prisoners are being cooked to death.”
With Texas reaching its summer temperature peak over the next few days, the complaint says that prisoners suffer 100F-plus heat on a daily basis. On average, 14 people die of extreme heat in their cells annually, the plaintiffs say – a figure the state disputes.
The legal action aims to force the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) to air condition all its prisons, about two-thirds of which currently lack AC. As a result, about 85,000 prisoners across dozens of correctional institutions are estimated to be at risk of heat stroke, exhaustion, nausea and other heat-related conditions, even to the point of death….
Volunteers are helping save baby sea turtles as the endangered species’ favourite nesting spots come under pressure from development, poaching and tourists…
…While it’s easy to laugh at Trump’s interview with [Adin] Ross, I don’t want to appear dismissive of the livestream, which, at its peak, was watched by around 580,000 people; clips from it will be viewed by millions more on TikTok and YouTube. The interview was part of a broader strategy to stir up support among young men, who are a key component in Trump’s path to the White House. Trump seems to have settled on a strategy of focusing his energy on appealing to men in extremely online, heavily masculine spaces rather than broadening his appeal via mainstream media. Interviews with people like Ross and Logan Paul cover off the youngest, more UFC- and video-games-focused end of this spectrum, while his June interview with the All-In podcast (run by a bunch of tech bros), help him stir up support in Silicon Valley and amongst the crypto crowd. His next big interview will be on Monday with Elon Musk: the crown prince of angry young men.
Of course, appealing to young men doesn’t mean anything if those men don’t get up off the couch and actually vote. Which is why, last week, a group of Trump allies launched a $20m initiative called Send the Vote aiming to increase voter registration and turnout among young men. Per the Wall Street Journal, “plans include voter-registration drives at major sporting events, and parties in which admission is proof of voter registration”.
Trump’s strategy to woo men under 30 has been fairly successful so far. For decades, young men have leaned left, but their support for Trump has grown since 2020….
This needs more media attention. Of course, they’re offering these men nothing real and just exploiting them emotionally. I’m reminded once again of Hans Miklas. (Update to that 2016 post: a kind commenter here provided a link a while back so I could watch the film, so I’ve now seen it! But speaking of Criterion, they just came out with a new “Vacation Noir” collection that looks fantastic.)
“They said in the video that ‘everything is calm in the town’ and that a strategic facility of Russian gas giant Gazprom is controlled by the 99th Mechanized Battalion of Ukraine’s 61st Mechanized Brigade.”
China Daily: China launches emergency response to flooding in Beijing, neighboring regions
Flooding continues in China. The emergency response in Beijing is low level but this is significant in that the government is activating emergency teams in the capital. Much of China’s flood response is aimed at directing floods around Beijing even if it means flooding other areas. National level emergency response in Beijing means the CCCP thinks it can’t control the situation any more.
JMsays
@337 SC (Salty Current): The attack in Russian territory caught Russia off guard but it did so for obvious reasons. Until this point Ukraine had be limiting it’s direct attacks on Russian territory at the direction of the US/EU because it risked escalating the war. Russia was likely aware that Ukraine was gathering forces but dismissed the idea that Ukraine would strike into Russian territory with ground forces.
The question of who actually allowed/ordered this attack is interesting but that won’t be made public for years, if not decades. Ukraine may have decided to do this on their own, feeling that the US/EU wouldn’t back out. It may also have been approved by the US/EU. Remotely it may have been suggested by the US/EU despite the publicly states risks.
…Fain then attacked the wealthy for attempting to divide the working class, leading to one of the most memorable moments from his speech, saying, “They try to divide us by gender. They try to divide us by nationality. They try to divide us by race. They talk about who you love, where you’re from, or how you look. The working class has been left behind, and I don’t know how you feel, but I’m fucking angry!”
He ended his speech after about 20 minutes with the line, “This is our generation’s dividing [defining?] moment, and this election is our opportunity to take our lives back. So Michigan, let’s get to work.”
If anyone thought the UAW not immediately endorsing Harris was a sign the union didn’t fully support her presidential nomination, last night proved that couldn’t be further from the truth. The UAW isn’t just anti-Trump and anti-Vance. It’s fully pro-Kamala-Walz, the only candidates in the election who actually give a damn about the working class.
StevoR @315, “But if therere really wasn’t any merit in the claim I doubt they’d risk making a legal case of it.”
First of all, it’s not a legal case.
You linked to the story!
Here: “A religious vilification complaint has been lodged with the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board against federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.”
It’s not a lawsuit.
Secondly, it’s their raisin date (heh).
You know the Catholic League in the USA?
Same sort of thing.
John Moralessays
“I should’ve, what, just ignored and not cited KG when they posted something that I think put it better I could just becoz you and they have metaphorical beef? Still baffles me what your big problem with that one news item and brief line of my take on it is.. (Shrugs.)”
You “quoted for truth” something I did not address, which was what I actually quoted.
There is no big problem; I stated my opinion and baffled you and irritated KG thereby.
John Moralessays
CompulsoryAccount7746 @317:
“Headline: All-night streetlights make leaves inedible to insects”
I know what the headline was, and I know what you quoted:
“Lower levels of herbivory”.
If it’s inedible, it cannot be eaten; if it cannot be eaten, there is zero level of herbivory.
If they meant zero level, then why did they write lower level?
If they meant zero level, then why did they write lower level?
Zero is the worst degree of lower. The process causing lowering, in general, is the concern. They used broadly applicable language.
If it’s inedible, it cannot be eaten
Inedible means unfit to be eaten—whether too hard, poisonous, or unpleasant. Eating may be possible but inadvisable. The leaves become increasingly difficult to physically degrade, and the tannins interfere with nutrition absorption or act as pesticide. Even toxins have LD50.
birgerjohanssonsays
Anton Petrov;
“A Strange Planet That May Have Formed Inside a Star From Another Star’s Leftovers”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=zLiReB7FZ8U
Other strange binaries are common but this is the first of this kind.
(I think Petrov lives in S Korea but obviously hails from Eastern Europe, meaning he has to juggle three languages. Therefore I do not criticize his command of English)
John Moralessays
“Zero is the worst degree of lower.”
Wow.
A bit like being dead represents a lower quality of life, right? :)
You want to rationalise why the headline differs from the body, go for it.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
@John Morales
#350: “the headline differs from the body”
Headline: All-night streetlights make leaves inedible to insects
#307: “That would mean zero levels of herbivory”
Body: “In the areas lit the brightest at night, the leaves were extremely tough and showed no sign of insects munching on them.”
John Moralessays
Um, “Lower levels of herbivory imply lower abundances of herbivorous insects”.
Lower levels of herbivory is not inedibility.
(That would mean zero levels of herbivory)
Any actual amount greater than zero is lower edibility, not inedibility.
Either something is inedible, or it’s partially edible.
Words mean things.
John Moralessays
Mind you, I’m pretty sure plants that don’t get eaten are happier plants than those who do get eaten.
A zigzag design can maximise how much heat walls radiate into space, while minimising heat absorption from the ground ( 3°C lower without any active cooling).
There was no emergency landing. … During the flight Trump “repeatedly brought up the possibility of crashing”, according to Gavin Newsom. Yes, the Great and Powerful President Trump apparently is not a big fan of helicopters.
Trump is combining the real helicopter ride with Newsom and Brown, with the other Brown, and with a different helicopter ride in 1989 that did end in a crash, killing three executives who managed one of his Atlantic City casinos at the time. Trump was not on that helicopter, but a) that incident might well have given him a healthy fear of flying in one and b) he did subsequently use the 1989 crash to portray himself as a “man of destiny”, claiming he’d nearly been on the ill-fated flight back in the 1990s at times. Which also means his turning his recent near-miss with an assassin’s bullet into messianic fervor is not the first time he’s done that.
History doesn’t repeat itself but it sure does seem to rhyme … especially around Trump. And a certain other megalomaniacal historical figure with ties to Germany.
Um, “Lower levels of herbivory imply lower abundances of herbivorous insects”.
Lower levels of herbivory is not inedibility.
(That would mean zero levels of herbivory)
Any actual amount greater than zero is lower edibility, not inedibility.
Either something is inedible, or it’s partially edible.
Words mean things.
I think you’re confusing levels here. There’s the level of the specific trees:
The scientists tested two common species of street tree in Beijing: Japanese pagoda and green ash trees.
…
They found that the more illuminance there was, the tougher the leaves. In the areas lit the brightest at night, the leaves were extremely tough and showed no sign of insects munching on them.
So they found that leaves on those trees in the brightest-lit sites were inedible to insects. This has implications at another level – that of the larger ecosystem. If those trees are inedible to insects, that contributes to a lower level of herbivory in that ecosystem, which has resonating effects:
Zhang added: “Decreased herbivory can lead to trophic cascading effects in ecology. Lower levels of herbivory imply lower abundances of herbivorous insects, which could in turn result in lower abundances of predatory insects, insect-eating birds, and so on. The decline of insects is a global pattern observed over recent decades. We should pay more attention to this trend.”
It’s like if there were people gathering truffles at five different sites, and changes at two sites meant that no truffles could be gathered there. This could be seen (as the lowest level of truffle availability at those sites or) in terms of a binary: truffles available vs. truffles not available. At the level of the volume of truffles gathered at that constellation of sites, though, it’s not that zero truffles are gathered overall but that the total number has been reduced – decreased truffle-collection.
Followup regarding Putin’s reaction to the Ukrainian incursion into the Kursk region, as reported by the Washington Post:
Russian President Vladimir Putin convened a meeting of his Security Council on Friday and his military commanders rushed to send reinforcements as a stunning Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s western Kursk region presented the biggest challenge to the Russian leader since an uprising by Wagner mercenaries in June 2023. […]
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Friday approved a request from special counsel Jack Smith to allow for more time to propose the next steps in the government’s election interference case against former President Donald Trump. The decision came a day after Smith and fellow prosecutors asked the judge to delay the deadline to offer a new timetable in the case until Aug. 30.
[…] The special counsel’s office said in its filing Thursday that prosecutors are still assessing the “new precedent set forth” in the Trump immunity decision by the Supreme Court.
“Although those consultations are well underway, the Government has not finalized its position on the most appropriate schedule for the parties to brief issues related to the decision,” the special counsel’s office said. “The Government therefore respectfully requests additional time to provide the Court with an informed proposal regarding the schedule for pretrial proceedings moving forward. The defense does not object to the Government’s request for an extension.”
Smith asked Chutkan to give them and Trump’s lawyers until Aug. 30 to submit the joint status report and to schedule the status conference after that. Friday’s order granted that deadline extension and rescheduled the status conference to Sept. 5. […]
A Donald Trump supporter, David Dempsey, who stood in front of a gallows and spoke of his desire to hang Democratic politicians before he assaulted numerous police officers during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison Friday. It’s the second-longest sentence handed out in a Jan. 6 case to date.
Leaders of the United States, Egypt and Qatar jointly demanded Israel and Hamas return to stalled talks on the war in Gaza next week, saying Thursday that ‘only the details’ of carrying out a cease-fire and hostage release remain to be negotiated.
Russell Vought sounds like a general marshaling troops for combat when he talks about taming a “woke and weaponized” federal government.
He recently described political opposition as “enemy fire that’s coming over the target,” while urging allies to be “fearless at the point of attack” and calling his policy proposals “battle plans.”
If former President Donald Trump wins a second term in November, Vought may get the opportunity to go on the offensive.
A chief architect of Project 2025 — the controversial conservative blueprint to remake the federal government — Vought is likely to be appointed to a high-ranking post in a second Trump administration. And he’s been drafting a so-far secret “180-Day Transition Playbook” to speed the plan’s implementation to avoid a repeat of the chaotic start that dogged Trump’s first term.
Among the small cadre of Trump advisers who has a mechanic’s understanding of how Washington operates, Vought has advised influential conservative lawmakers on Capitol Hill, held a top post in the Trump White House and later established his own pro-Trump think tank. Now, he’s being mentioned as a candidate to be Trump’s White House chief of staff, one of the most powerful positions in government.
[…] Led by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, Project 2025 is a detailed 920-page handbook for governing under the next Republican administration. A whirlwind of hard-right ambitions, its proposals range from ousting thousands of civil servants and replacing them with Trump loyalists to reversing the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of medications used in abortions. […]
Trump in recent weeks has sought to distance himself from Project 2025. […] More than two dozen authors served in his administration, including Vought, who was director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget.
The Trump campaign did not respond to questions about which Project 2025 proposals the former president opposes […]
[…] Russell Vought graduated in 1998 from Wheaton College, a Christian school in Illinois that counts the famed evangelist Billy Graham among its alumni. He moved to Washington to work for Republicans who championed fiscal austerity and small government.
[…] OMB [Office of Management and Budget] is a typically sedate office that builds the president’s budget and reviews regulations. But with Vought at the helm, OMB was at the center of showdowns between Trump and Congress over federal spending and the legal bounds of presidential power.
After lawmakers refused to give Trump more money for his southern U.S. border wall, the budget office siphoned billions of dollars from the Pentagon and Treasury Department budgets to pay for it.
Under Vought, OMB also withheld military aid to Ukraine as Trump pressured President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate President Joe Biden and his son. Vought refused to comply with a congressional demand to depose him during the subsequent Democrat-led House investigation that led to Trump’s first impeachment. The inquiry, Vought said, was a sham.
Following Trump’s exit from the White House, Vought formed The Center for Renewing America. The organization’s mission is to be “the tip of the America First spear” and “to renew a consensus that America is a nation under God.”
Vought has defended the concept of Christian nationalism, which is a fusion of American and Christian values, symbols and identity. Christian nationalism, he wrote three years ago, “is a commitment to an institutional separation between church and state, but not the separation of Christianity from its influence on government and society.”
[…] Vought’s center was part of a coalition of conservative organizations, organized by the Heritage Foundation, that launched Project 2025 and crafted a detailed plan for governing in the next Republican administration.
[…] In his public comments and in a Project 2025 chapter he wrote, Vought has said that no executive branch department or agency, including the Justice Department, should operate outside the president’s authority.
[…] Vought is expected to be one of Trump’s top field commanders in his campaign to dominate […]
All of the details point to Vought being a dangerous man.
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a New York University history professor and author of “Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present,” criticized Project 2025 as “a recipe for mass chaos, abuses of power, and dysfunction in government.”
In an application for emergency relief filed today (full text), the Republican National Committee and Arizona Republicans are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate an Arizona voter suppression law that is currently blocked. In doing so, state and national Republicans are requesting that certain voters’ registration applications be rejected.
Currently, Arizona’s strict proof of citizenship law, which required voters to provide citizenship or residency proof to vote in presidential elections or vote early by mail for any office, is blocked. This means that people are able to register to vote — using either the state or federal form — without some of the restrictions state law previously imposed. Regardless of if voters use a state or federal form to register to vote, they do attest that they are citizens.
Due to legal challenges to the state’s documentary proof of citizenship law, Arizona voters who register using a state voter registration form and have documentary proof of citizenship on file at the DMV will be fully registered, even if they do not provide citizenship proof with their registration form. In addition, voters who register using the state form who have not provided documentary proof of citizenship on file will be registered for federal elections only. Previously, voters in either of these groups would have had their registrations rejected.
Now, just months before voters are set to cast their ballots in the 2024 general election, national and state Republicans are asking the nation’s highest court to reject some voters’ registration forms. Specifically, Republicans ask the Supreme Court to reject state voter registration forms if the voter did not provide documentary proof of citizenship with their application and block voters who have not provided documentary proof of citizenship from voting by mail or casting votes for president.
Republicans are asking for the court to rule on this issue by Aug. 22.
Vladimir Putin fixed the commander in chief of Russia’s military, General Valery Gerasimov, with a cold stare and a look of exasperation. The video, released Wednesday by the Kremlin, showed the Russian president was not happy with news from the southern region of Kursk.
If I was Gerasimov I would stay on the first floor. Keep in mind though this is what Russia released, somebody has to take the blame publicly and the head of the military is the obvious choice.
The Ukrainians continue to push into Kursk, now some 12 miles deep. A lot of Russian soldiers are surrendering but in this area it would be a lot of conscripts doing their year of service with little or no training or gear. That they don’t want to fight isn’t a surprise. That the Russian command can’t get the situation under control after several days is a surprise. Russia isn’t pulling troops out of Ukraine, they are continuing their offense there. And there doesn’t seem to be anything else that Russia can use that can stop the experienced Ukrainian units. All of the experienced and well equipped units are in Ukraine or outside Russia serving as mercenaries.
Ukrainian troops have apparently entered Russia’s Belgorod Oblast during the ongoing incursion into Kursk oblast, Ukrainian media reported based on a video published on the morning of Aug. 10.
In the video, posted by Ukrainian media, five uniformed men with blue tape armbands are standing outside the building as one of them says: “I wish you health, the 252nd battalion is in the village of Poroz, Belgorod Oblast. Glory to Ukraine!”
The soldiers in the video held the battalion’s flag and a Georgian flag, and the sign on the building behind them reads “Porozovsky Village Club.”
According to the Ukrainian media outlet Suspilne, the Ukrainian-based fact-checking project VoxCheck confirmed the video as filmed in Poroz, three kilometers away from the Ukrainian border.
The date of the video’s filming is unknown. It is also unknown whether it was a raid or an expansion of the ongoing cross-border incursion into Russia, Suspilne said.
While Ukrainian officials and military command have so far not officially commented on the operation in Kursk Oblast, media are forced to rely on limited and questionable information circulated by Russian Telegram channels and videos of Ukrainian forces that often surface anonymously.
Russian authorities on Aug. 9 introduced a so-called “counter-terrorism operation” in bordering Kursk, Bryansk, and Belgorod oblasts in response to Ukraine’s incursion.
Earlier on Aug. 9, Russia’s Defense Ministry said it was sending additional military equipment to Kursk Oblast’s Sudzha district, 10 kilometers (6 miles) east of the Ukrainian border.
However, Russia “may be resisting” the pressure to redeploy troops from the other frontline directions to Kursk, as it could disrupt Russian offensive operations in Ukraine’s east, according to the report by the Institute for the Study of War on Aug. 9….
Russia has evacuated over 76,000 citizens from the Russian-Ukrainian border in Kursk Oblast as Ukraine continues its incursion in the region, Russian-state-controlled media Tass reported.
Evacuated civilians have been moved to temporary residence centers that have opened across western Russia, including Moscow Oblast. So far, 60 centers, including 26 in Kursk Oblast, are accommodating 4,400 people, according to the head of Russia’s Emergency Ministry Artem Sharov….
At least 219 civilians were killed and 1,018 injured in Ukraine in July, making it “the deadliest month for civilians” since October 2022, the U.N. human rights office said in a report on Aug. 9.
“The high number of casualties in July continues a trend of increasing civilian casualties since March 2024,” reads the report….
Lynna @ #281 and shermanj @ #359, they really haven’t improved. I remember this episode of TPM’s Belaboring the Point podcast with Heather Cox Richardson from back in December. Around the 23-minute mark she talks about Joe McCarthy and how he played the press (also described in Ellen Schrecker’s Many Are the Crimes). She’s very clear that, then, the Republicans managed to deal with McCarthy, but the press never figured out how to cover him; and now, the press still hasn’t learned a thing and the Republicans are completely behind Trump.
The media have fallen right back into their old patterns: headlines/chyrons like “Trump:_____,” “Trump Claims _____,” “_______, Trump Alleges.” Half of MSNBC’s coverage today has been about Trump’s ramblings. And then they have Republican strategists on to endlessly repeat how other Republicans are frustrated with Trump for distracting from the “real” criticisms of Harris’s record he should be talking about, which they then proceed to list inaccurately and misleadingly with no pushback, thus getting in both Trump’s lies and the standard Republican lies in one blow. Often, they’ll ask guests “What do you think the Trump campaign has to do to fix their problems?” eliciting similar responses. Just now, an MSNBC host herself suggested a helpful talking point Trump should be using in Pennsylvania instead of what he’s talking about! WTF are they even doing? It’s infuriating. Here’s Charlemagne Tha God on the Daily Show with more (YT link).
If I was Gerasimov I would stay on the first floor.
Seriously. And out of garages, pools, cars, planes, boats, helicopters,…
birgerjohanssonsays
The American media briefly showed signs of improvement in the 1970s. Then Reagan came along. 2 decades later Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch set up Fox News and now your uncles are saying things that even Reagan would have considered crude.
Next step: Sinclair is buying up all local TV stations and making them ‘vertically integrated’ into their Ministry of Truth project.
Late yesterday in “The other Black politician who says he was with Trump in that near-fatal chopper crash”, Politico’s Christopher Cadelago tracked down the helicopter ride and the politician that inspired Trump’s tall tale about Willie Brown dishing dirt on Harris. And today in “Yes, Trump Was in a Scary Helicopter Ride. But Not With That Politician”, the New York Time’s Shawn Hubler, Maggie Haberman and Heather Knight have also tracked things down. Trump’s story was bogus of course; the only suspense was in exactly how bogus it was.
First, the ride wasn’t with Willie Brown; it was with former Los Angeles city councilmember Nate Holden. They’re not that easy to confuse: Brown is about 5 foot 5; Holden is 6 foot 1. Trump has met both men: in 1997, Willie Brown and Trump both appeared as themselves, in Suddenly Susan, season 1, episode 22, and Nate Holden’s helicopter ride with Trump was around 1990, in Holden’s recollection. At the time Trump was trying to get Holden to back Trump’s plan to develop the Ambassador Hotel in LA, and to impress Holden, Trump took him on a helicopter ride from Manhattan to Atlantic City.
This was on a Trump helicopter. In March 1988 Trump bought three Sikorsky S-61 helicopters from Merv Griffin’s Resorts International Airlines, painted them with the Trump Air logo, and used them to carry passengers — presumably mostly gamblers — between the West 30th Street Heliport in Manhattan to the Steeplechase Pier in Atlantic City.
During the flight with Holden, the Trump helicopter reportedly had a hydraulic failure. […]
Here’s how the flight went, according to the Times’s interview of Holden:
“… we start flying to Atlantic City. He’s talking about how great things are. And about 15, 20 minutes in, the pilot yells, ‘Shut up! Shut up!’”
The hydraulic system had failed, he said. “Donald turned white as snow,” Mr. Holden recalled. “He was shaking.”
The Times confirmed the flight emergency with Trump’s executive vice president of construction and development, Barbara Res, who was also on the flight. Res previously wrote about the flight in her 2013 memoir All Alone on the 68th Floor, and, as the Times story says, Res:
recalled that Mr. Trump liked to say that Mr. Holden had “turned white” from fear, but that it was actually Mr. Trump whose face was ashen.
Eventually the Trump helicopter landed safely. […]
So, to summarize the issues with the helicopter story by the elderly Republican nominee:
– Trump never rode in a helicopter with Willie Brown. He rode with then-governor Jerry Brown, and in an earlier flight he rode with Nate Holden.
– Trump did not discuss Kamala Harris with any of these helicopter passengers. This has been confirmed by Willie Brown. Also, Holden confirmed to Cadelago that Trump and Holden didn’t discuss Kamala Harris either.
– Willie Brown was and remains a big fan of Kamala Harris. Knight and Hubler confirmed this with WIllie Brown.
– During the California flight Trump “repeatedly brought up the possibility of crashing”, according to Gavin Newsom.
– Trump did ride in a Trump helicopter that had a hydraulic failure forcing an emergency landing, and during which he understandably shook with fear.
One more thing. Daily Kos user dlsamson commented about the maintenance of Trump’s helicopters yesterday, writing:
I’ve worked as an air traffic controller, primarily in the NE US for 32 years. I have a friend who was a flight engineer for IBM for many years & he has a friend who, as a helicopter mechanic, worked for the Trump organization. Now, according to my friend, this fellow quit his job with the Trump organization after being shorted on wages (none of us are surprised, are we?). Apparently, word got around pretty quickly because a few months later they tried to hire him back after failing to find a replacement. He was smart enough to decline.
For those of you that don’t know, helicopters are very complicated pieces of machinery with lots of moving parts that can fail. The number touted is at least two hours of maintenance for every hour of flight. Given the importance of having a reliable mechanic maintaining your helicopters, what sort of morons would short change that mechanic? I think we know the answer!
In 2022, Arizona pioneered the largest school voucher program in the history of education. Under a new law, any parent in the state, no matter how affluent, could get a taxpayer-funded voucher worth up to tens of thousands of dollars to spend on private school tuition, extracurricular programs or homeschooling supplies.
In just the past two years, nearly a dozen states have enacted sweeping voucher programs similar to Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Account system, with many using it as a model.
Yet in a lesson for these other states, Arizona’s voucher experiment has since precipitated a budget meltdown. The state this year faced a $1.4 billion budget shortfall, much of which was a result of the new voucher spending, according to the Grand Canyon Institute, a local nonpartisan fiscal and economic policy think tank. Last fiscal year alone, the price tag of universal vouchers in Arizona skyrocketed from an original official estimate of just under $65 million to roughly $332 million, the Grand Canyon analysis found; another $429 million in costs is expected this year.
As a result of all this unexpected spending, alongside some recent revenue losses, Arizona is now having to make deep cuts to a wide swath of critical state programs and projects, the pain of which will be felt by average Arizonans who may or may not have school-aged children.
Among the funding slashed: $333 million for water infrastructure projects, in a state where water scarcity will shape the future, and tens of millions of dollars for highway expansions and repairs in congested areas of one of the nation’s fastest-growing metropolises — Phoenix and its suburbs. Also nixed were improvements to the air conditioning in state prisons, where temperatures can soar above 100 degrees. Arizona’s community colleges, too, are seeing their budgets cut by $54 million.
Still, Arizona-style universal school voucher programs — available to all, including the wealthiest parents — continue to sweep the nation, from Florida to Utah.
In Florida, one lawmaker pointed out last year that Arizona’s program seemed to be having a negative budgetary impact. “This is what Arizona did not anticipate,” said Florida Democratic Rep. Robin Bartleman, during a floor debate. “What is our backup plan to fill that budget hole?”
[…] the public wasn’t paying for private school kids’ tuition before.
Chris Kotterman, director of governmental relations for the Arizona School Boards Association, says that Arizona making vouchers available to children who had never gone to public school before wasn’t realistically going to save the state money. […]
Inspiring a “National Movement”
[…] Arizona’s program “set the standard nationally” and “inspired a national movement,” according to leading voucher advocacy groups; it is “the nation’s school-choice leader,” per the longtime conservative columnist George Will.
For decades, voucher initiatives, including in Arizona, had only served small subsets of students. […]
Universal voucher efforts, beginning with Arizona’s universal Empowerment Scholarship Account program in 2022, allow parents to spend public money not just on private school tuition but also on recreational programs for their kids […]
In a statement to ProPublica, a spokesperson for Arizona’s former Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, who signed the universal voucher program into law, said that “not only does Gov. Ducey have no regrets about ESA expansion, he considers it one of his finest achievements and a legacy accomplishment. And what he’s most thrilled about is that Arizona’s ESA expansion was followed by 11 other states doing essentially the same thing. Arizona helped set off an earthquake.”
Voucher proponents have long pointed out that private school parents have a right to and could be sending their children to public school at taxpayers’ expense. So providing them with what is often a smaller amount of taxpayer money in the form of a voucher to help them pay their private school tuition is, the argument goes, a net savings for the public.
This is similar to arguing that the public should help pay for car drivers’ gas because if they didn’t drive, they might use public transportation instead, which would be a cost to taxpayers.
[…] Dave Wells, research director at the Grand Canyon Institute, said that none of the competing budget trends that Ducey and the Goldwater Institute pointed to mean that Arizona can actually afford universal vouchers, at least not without making severe, harmful budget cuts. […]
“It Isn’t Funded”
[…] only a small amount of the new spending on private schools and homeschooling is going toward poor children, which means that already-extreme educational inequality in Arizona is being exacerbated. […]
[…] It’s funding that’s not going to the public schools, keeping them from becoming what they could and should be.
This issue was discussed previously in The Infinite Thread. I repeated some points made in the past, and added more details from ProPublica’s research. The Republican plan outlined in Project 2025 includes changes to educational systems that mirror the failing system in Arizona, including shifting a lot of funds to private schools.
[…] Trump has repeatedly interacted with the Truth Social account “Patriot4Life,” including thanking them and “retruthing” them. Patriot4Life has repeatedly promoted calls for political killings, including recently retruthing an image calling for Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz to be killed.
Trump has interacted with Patriot4Life (“@1776WeThePeople1776”) in at least 70 instances on his social media platform. Those interactions include thanking the account for a pro-Trump message, retruthing the account’s call to jail lawmakers, retruthing what seemed to be an AI image of Trump praying with six fingers, promoting the account’s claim that “God has chosen” Trump, and retruthing the account’s attacks on Harris and Walz, including an image portraying Harris with a dung beetle body and a darkened face.
Trump also recently retruthed QAnon-themed posts from Patriot4Life. (Media Matters has documented how Trump has promoted QAnon material on Truth Social dozens of times.)
Any Trump follower that sees Trump’s repeat promotions and then visits that account would likely see exhortations for political violence against Trump’s opponents.
Patriot4Life recently retruthed a call to murder Harris and Walz in a woodchipper: [Screengrab at the link]
Patriot4Life posted an image of numerous political figures, including former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and former Attorneys General Loretta Lynch and Eric Holder. Text stated that “Our Founding Fathers would have hung them for Treason” along with an image of a noose. [Screengrab at the link]
The account retruthed someone saying “HANG ALL TRAITORS” alongside an image of Congress. [screengrab at the link]
The account also posted a meme portraying Rep. Ilham Omar (D-MN) as one of “the enemies” and then retruthed someone suggesting that she be executed. [screengrab at the link]
Additionally, Patriot4Life has posted numerous misogynistic attacks on Harris.
[…] Trump’s campaign said Saturday that some of its internal communications had been hacked.
The acknowledgment came after POLITICO began receiving emails from an anonymous account with documents from inside Trump’s operation.
[…] On July 22, POLITICO began receiving emails from an anonymous account. Over the course of the past few weeks, the person — who used an AOL email account and identified themselves only as “Robert” — relayed what appeared to be internal communications from a senior Trump campaign official. A research dossier the campaign had apparently done on Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, which was dated Feb. 23, was included in the documents. The documents are authentic, according to two people familiar with them and granted anonymity to describe internal communications. One of the people described the dossier as a preliminary version of Vance’s vetting file. […]
The Trump campaign is blaming Iran.
POLITICO has not independently verified the identity of the hacker or their motivation, and a Trump campaign spokesperson, Steven Cheung, declined to say if they had further information substantiating the campaigns’ suggestion that it was targeted by Iran.
So…Venezuela. As I said earlier, it’s hard to find reliable information about what’s happening there. The reporting in the mainstream media here is largely boilerplate and has no real connection to what’s happening on the ground.
These are some of the tropes in US and allied media (NYT, WaPo, CNN, MSNBC, AP, Reuters, Guardian, DW,…) that run straight through the coverage of elections in Venezuela and elsewhere in the region. I can’t emphasize enough how irrelevant the actual facts are to the repetition of these tropes. They could be entirely accurate or wildly inaccurate in any given episode; they vary almost not at all:
Leaders the US doesn’t like are always illegitimate, are always authoritarian, always corrupt, always mismanaging everything, always responsible for every problem in the country, always unpopular, always want to be dictators and remain in power forever, never come to power democratically, and never hold free or fair elections. They are never recognized as legitimate.
The opposition is always democratic and pro-freedom, always nonviolent, always oppressed, always the popular and legitimate rulers of the country and the voice of the people. Protests over election results the US doesn’t like are always peaceful (deaths and injuries are always presumed to be among them and never caused by them), always growing, always (somehow for the first time) coming to include poor people who previously supported the government. They, their parties, and the organizations around them are never connected to the US or funded by the US or oligarchical interests, and they’re never involved in coup-plotting. Pro-government demonstrations don’t exist, are solely violent paramilitaries, or are entirely staged.
Governments the US doesn’t like have always shut down all independent and oppositional media (you might think you see independent and oppositional media, but it doesn’t exist). In the wake of an election or amid disruption, these governments are always increasingly isolated at home and abroad and need other governments to negotiate a “transition” to a rightwing government. The US State Department is always a disinterested third party and observer that just wants democracy.
Anyway, here are a few articles about the situation. Venezuelanalysis is billed as somewhat critical of the government, but it’s…quite pro-government. But it has some factual information other outlets won’t provide because it doesn’t fit with the standard tropes.
A special podcast episode sees VA members José Luis Granados Ceja and Andreína Chávez Alava discuss soft power, cultural imperialism and corporate media propaganda ahead of Venezuela’s presidential elections….
In Venezuela, tensions are rising over the contested results of last Sunday’s presidential election. In the latest developments, opposition candidate Edmundo González published a count of thousands of vote tally sheets alleging that he received more votes than sitting President Nicolás Maduro, who is claiming to have secured a third term fairly. Protesters from both sides have taken to the streets; more than a dozen have been killed by Venezuelan armed forces. Maduro has called for a “new revolution” if the U.S. and other foreign actors continue to back his opposition and dispute the integrity of the election. We hear opinions from both camps on the show today. “There’s no doubt that Maduro lost these elections,” says Venezuelan sociologist Edgardo Lander, who contends that sufficient evidence of Maduro’s win “that’s expected and established by the law is completely absent,” while legal scholar Nina Farnia, who served as electoral observer in this year’s election, says she witnessed a “free and fair election process” and supports the Electoral Council’s decision….
Lander says at one point:
The conflict in Venezuela has not been in this election a conflict between left and right. It’s a conflict between a repressive government and a whole spread of positions in Venezuelan society that go from far right to left, that includes social democrats, that includes progressives, that includes liberals. It includes a whole spread of people who want to recover democracy, who want to recover the Constitution in Venezuela, which is completely violated by this increasingly authoritarian government.
(The idea that the Venezuelan far right wants to “recover democracy” is patently ridiculous, so make of that what you will.)
As I said, the media tropes in Venezuela coverage don’t have any real relationship with the real situation, so no one can say that because they claim one thing the opposite is true. So don’t take this as a pro-Maduro comment or a statement on the freeness or fairness of the elections (the voting processes themselves are very sound, but they’re not the whole of the process) or their real outcome. I just wanted to point to the tropes in the standard coverage and offer a little more information and context.
…The hardline opposition campaign has not commented on the latest TSJ developments, though González did not appear when the court opened its case on Friday.
Instead, González and Machado issued a statement Monday unilaterally declaring the former as “president-elect” and calling on the police and armed forces to follow his orders.
That position seemed at odds, however, with the updated stance from the US Department of State that appeared to walk back its earlier recognition of González as the victor of the presidential election.
In response to a question, US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said that the Biden administration had not recognized González as president, a departure from the position assumed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken who declared González as the “winner” of the election.
Miller instead pointed to ongoing mediation efforts by Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia. He further emphasized the need for Venezuela to “transition back to democratic norms”, stopping short of calling for González to take office.
Leftist presidents Lula da Silva (Brazil), Petro (Colombia) and López Obrador (Mexico) have rejected foreign interference and emphasized Venezuelan sovereignty, as well as the need for all parties to pursue a Venezuelan-led solution to the dispute. At the same time, they have demanded greater transparency regarding the results.
In response to González’s and Machado’s statement, Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab said his office had opened a criminal investigation into both for charges including usurpation of official functions and instigation of insurrection. In Venezuela, only the CNE is constitutionally authorized to declare a winner in electoral contests….
It’s an interesting walkback, given that Blinken had claimed the evidence was “overwhelming” that González had won and his statements were presented everywhere in the media last Wednesday, with apparently no pushback, as recognizing him as the winner.
Introducing Cited’s returning season: the Rationality Wars. The Rationality Wars tells stories about the political and intellectual battles to define rationality and irrationality. Behind every definition of rationality, somebody benefits, and somebody is harmed. We ask: what does it mean to be rational?; what does it mean to be irrational?; and most of all, who gets to decide?
Akira MacKenziesays
379-380
Forgive my ignorance, but is there an actual democratic socialist party in Venezuela that values human rights and free speech, or is it authoritarians of one political stripe or another all the way down?
Introducing Cited’s returning season: the Rationality Wars. The Rationality Wars tells stories about the political and intellectual battles to define rationality and irrationality. Behind every definition of rationality, somebody benefits, and somebody is harmed. We ask: what does it mean to be rational?; what does it mean to be irrational?; and most of all, who gets to decide?
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Oh, 5 links is okay here. Good to know.
Bekenstein Boundsays
Lynna@378:
On July 22, POLITICO began receiving emails from an anonymous account. Over the course of the past few weeks, the person — who used an AOL email account and identified themselves only as “Robert” — relayed what appeared to be internal communications from a senior Trump campaign official.
AOL?
AOL??
AOL is still around??!
birgerjohanssonsays
For those who wish to unwind with a bit of non-election fun, here are a bunch of Brits making outrageous claims. Like Trump, but more benign.
“The Unbelievable Truth – Season 24- Unbelievable Truth”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=znF9RjKi0Qs
This story relates to the far right social media (mainly Telegram) groups that incited and organized the recent far right protests/riots/vandalism parties in Britain. Apparently, one of the influential admins in these groups was known to be a Finnish neonazi guy. Other foreign actors have been active in the groups, and some Russians in particular have been suspected of systematically spreading inflammatory misinformation. The story linked above has embedded some links to English language sources on the general background of this.
The Finnish national broadcaster Yle tracked down the Finnish guy’s identity and went to his home door for an interview. He (a 20 year old guy) opened the door, surprised, and then reluctantly but meekly exchanged some words with the reporter. He admitted being a member of the Telegram group in question, but nothing beyond that. His name is not published, because he’s apparently not (yet) officially suspected of crimes in either UK or Finland.
He does have a long history of far right activism on several social media platforms, including half dozen Twitter accounts (either sockpuppets or banned accounts – and we all know how much it takes for nazis to get themselves banned on Twitter). His account was seen posting usual nazi stuff on the Telegram group very shortly before and after the interview.
A very big kitty waking up dad
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=HjB1cb6f8Wg
This was a sickly rescue animal that was nursed to health. Despite the size, not as big as average.
birgerjohanssonsays
“Aircraft Lift Explained: Bernoulli vs. Newton’s Equations”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=d4w1Iy4vVMg
To make it simple: Airfoils exist to reduce drag. Lift is generated only by deflection of air or fluid (angle of attack).
beholdersays
@379 SC
These are some of the tropes in US and allied media (NYT, WaPo, CNN, MSNBC, AP, Reuters, Guardian, DW,…) that run straight through the coverage of elections in Venezuela and elsewhere in the region. I can’t emphasize enough how irrelevant the actual facts are to the repetition of these tropes. They could be entirely accurate or wildly inaccurate in any given episode; they vary almost not at all:
Leaders the US doesn’t like are always illegitimate, are always authoritarian, always corrupt, always mismanaging everything, always responsible for every problem in the country, always unpopular, always want to be dictators and remain in power forever, never come to power democratically, and never hold free or fair elections. They are never recognized as legitimate.
The opposition is always democratic and pro-freedom, always nonviolent, always oppressed, always the popular and legitimate rulers of the country and the voice of the people. Protests over election results the US doesn’t like are always peaceful (deaths and injuries are always presumed to be among them and never caused by them), always growing, always (somehow for the first time) coming to include poor people who previously supported the government. They, their parties, and the organizations around them are never connected to the US or funded by the US or oligarchical interests, and they’re never involved in coup-plotting. Pro-government demonstrations don’t exist, are solely violent paramilitaries, or are entirely staged.
Governments the US doesn’t like have always shut down all independent and oppositional media (you might think you see independent and oppositional media, but it doesn’t exist). In the wake of an election or amid disruption, these governments are always increasingly isolated at home and abroad and need other governments to negotiate a “transition” to a rightwing government. The US State Department is always a disinterested third party and observer that just wants democracy.
Insight into imperial narrative management? In the Infinite Thread? I am pleasantly surprised.
When you don’t have any dirt on your adversary, just make shit up. Is your ally doing a genocide? Deny, dispute, and distort the facts beyond recognition.
@381 Akira
Forgive my ignorance, but is there an actual democratic socialist party in Venezuela that values human rights and free speech, or is it authoritarians of one political stripe or another all the way down?
Yes.
KGsays
birgerjohansson@386,
Are you related to the producer of The Unbelievable Truth or something? I don’t find it particularly amusing myself, but of course tastes in humour differ.
KGsays
The [Venezuelan] high court will review information submitted by electoral authorities and political parties to clarify the presidential election results…. – SC@379
The independence of the high court is itself contested, so it’s unlikely that (if as expected it finds in favour of Maduro) its verdict will be accepted by the opposition or its foreign supporters. It will be interesting to see which side the governments of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico (all leftish and with good democratic credentials) come down. Myself I find it hard to believe either that Maduro or the opposition would accept electoral defeat if in fact they lost. Or that beholder actually gives a shit about who really won more votes.
Michigan progressives gathered enough signatures in 2018 to put two labor measures on the ballot: one to raise the minimum wage, another to mandate paid sick time for employees. Republican lawmakers, who ran the state at that time, thwarted the proposals with a brazen two-step maneuver. Before the measures were put before voters, they adopted legislation that enacted both into law exactly as organizers had drafted them; this eliminated them from the ballot. But once Election Day passed, lawmakers reconvened and gutted the laws they had just passed, all but erasing organizers’ work.
[Explanation: This section of the Michigan constitution was drafted in 1913…Once organizers gather enough signatures to place a proposal on the ballot, the legislature has two basic options. It can either adopt the proposal as is, which means it becomes law without needing to go on the ballot. Or it can reject the statute; at that point, the measure goes to voters who can force its adoption.]
The Michigan Supreme Court struck back on Wednesday, finding that the legislature’s scheme to bypass the citizen initiatives was unconstitutional.
Michigan workers will soon reap major benefits from the ruling. In February, the minimum wage will increase by $2, and employers will be required to provide paid sick leave for all employees.
But the decision also provides a robust affirmation of direct democracy. The court’s Democratic majority stepped in to protect a process that has come under heavy assault in Michigan and elsewhere.
The legislature’s actions “violated the people’s constitutionally guaranteed right to propose and enact laws through the initiative process,” Justice Elizabeth Welch wrote for the majority….
Welch added, “Allowing the Legislature to bypass the voters and repeal the very same law it just passed in the same legislative session thwarts the voters’ ability to participate in the lawmaking process.”
Welch in her opinion snapped at lawmakers’ attempt to thwart their constituents, writing, “The people bestow power unto the branches of government, not the other way around.”
[…]
Within Michigan, though, the future of this new commitment to direct democracy is uncertain.
The supreme court split along party lines to issue this 4-3 decision. The four Democratic justices formed the majority and the three Republican justices dissented.
But the court could flip this November when two seats are up for grabs. Democratic Justice Kyra Harris Bolden, who was appointed last year by Governor Gretchen Whitmer, is running to stay on the court. Voters will also fill the seat of a retiring Republican, Justice David Viviano.
The GOP would capture control of the court if it sweeps both seats this fall. And while there’s no guarantee how new justices would rule on a similar case in the future, the divide last week signals that a GOP majority would severely threaten this precedent.
[…]
In the two years since Roe v. Wade’s overturn, states have increased public funding for anti-abortion centers—the non-medical facilities meant to dissuade people from terminating their pregnancies—by close to $500 million, according to a new analysis published today.
The analysis was compiled by Equity Forward, a research organization that supports abortion rights and specifically tracks anti-abortion centers, which are also known as crisis pregnancy centers. Researchers used state budget documents and legislation to track how much money has been invested in these centers since 1995, the first year they could verify public funding for them.
These facilities […] typically offer free pregnancy tests and sonograms, and some also provide parenting classes or diapers. But they are not regulated under the same standards as medical facilities and do not always employ staff health professionals.
That means those ultrasounds can be inaccurate and they can come with counseling meant to dissuade people from terminating their pregnancies. Still, in some states with abortions bans, pregnant patients—including those seeking terminations—have said such centers offer the only affordable option in their region for getting an ultrasound.
Even before the fall of Roe, these centers outnumbered abortion clinics three-to-one […]
Measures expanding funding for these centers were the most common form of anti-abortion legislation promoted in state governments this year […] [sneaky way to fund anti-abortion policies]
[…] From 1995 to 2024, researchers found, states collectively put more than $1 billion into backing these centers. Some solely used state funds while others also repurposed federal funds allocated through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. Specifically since Roe’s fall in 2022, state funding has risen: $489 million was allocated in the last two years, as 19 states poured funding into anti-abortion centers. [Yikes!]
[…] According to the report, Tennessee’s publicly funded anti-abortion program, which launched in 2021, has increased funding by more than $23 million in the past two years. North Carolina has spent about $49 million since 2013 to support anti-abortion centers; more than $33 million of that was allocated after the summer of 2022. And Texas, the largest state to ban abortion, has spent about $438 million on supporting anti-abortion centers since 2005, with close to half of that money allocated in the past two years, researchers found.
“It’s really alarming. States have chosen to take millions of dollars from comprehensive maternal health, and instead funnel money into anti-abortion centers without much oversight or accountability,” said Ashley Underwood, Equity Forward’s director.
[…] “They are actively, aggressively coming up on the first page, always after doing the first search for ‘abortion pill,’ or ‘abortion clinic’—anything,” she [Kathy Kleinfeld, who runs a reproductive health clinic in Houston] said. “Anytime you’re searching any of those major keywords, there’s at least three to four anti-abortion centers.”
[…] Kleinfeld said that even prior to Roe’s overturn, she often saw patients come to her clinic with inaccurate ultrasound readings they got from one of those centers. In one case, before Texas outlawed abortion, a young woman believed she was 8 weeks pregnant—but when Kleinfeld and her staff viewed the ultrasound, they learned she was actually 20 weeks along. At the time, the state had banned abortions for anyone 20 weeks or more pregnant.
[…] “What kind of training do these people have? And who’s overseeing them?”
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who has just been tapped as Kamala Harris’ running mate, has quietly become one of the country’s most aggressive advocates for taking action on climate change. Under his leadership, Minnesota has adopted some of the most ambitious climate policies in the nation — including a law he signed in 2023 that requires the state to generate all of its electricity from renewable sources by 2040. During that legislative session, Walz and state lawmakers pushed through at least 40 other climate-related initiatives.
[…] Under the clean-electricity law, Minnesota is on track to transition to clean-energy sources even faster than California, which is often seen as America’s trailblazer when it comes to climate action. It’s also more ambitious than a requirement that President Biden tried to include in his landmark Inflation Reduction Act.
Walz’s selection by Harris was hailed by leading environmental groups. “In his time serving in Congress and as Governor, he has worked to protect clean air and water, grow our clean energy economy, and see to it that we do all we can to avoid the very worst of the climate crisis,” said Sierra Club Executive Director Ben Jealous in a statement. […]
tomh @395, that’s some particularly sneaky politics being practiced by Republicans in Michigan. I agree with this: “Allowing the Legislature to bypass the voters and repeal the very same law it just passed in the same legislative session thwarts the voters’ ability to participate in the lawmaking process.”
lumipuna @388, it’s amazing that a 20-year-old Finnish guy is wielding that much influence. That nazi-wannabe is helping to incite riots in Britain? He should be checked for Russian connections.
I think this is just one part of the explanation for why Trump isn’t holding more rallies, but it is an important reminder:
[…] Trump’s 2016 run was a [con] […] he stiffed his rally venues from coast to coast for security, clean up, and other costs[…]
That’s why Trump is not holding as many rallies in 2024: he’s a deadbeat and unwelcome in towns and cities across America. That’s why his rally in Montana this week was held in Bozeman rather than Billings. He’s unwelcome in Billings. Wary towns now want him to pay in advance and guess who’s falling behind on fundraising while paying hundreds of millions of campaign dollars on legal bills?
According to the Center for Public Integrity, he stiffed venues in
Lebanon, OH
Mesa, AZ
Erie, PA
Green Bay, WI
Eau Claire, WI
Tucson, AZ
Burlington, VT
Spokane, WA
El Paso, TX (over $500,000)
Billings, MT
Albuquerque, NM had to send Trump’s overdue bill of $211,000 to a collection agency in 2021. As of 2020, La Crosse, WI is still waiting for over $13,000 for multiple visits. […]
Children who don’t receive adequate nutrition will grow up to be less healthy and less productive adults than those who do, hurting society as a whole. So spending on child nutrition is arguably as much an investment in the future as building roads and bridges. […]
There’s a strong case that in general child nutrition programs more than pay for themselves by creating a healthier, higher-earning future work force. In other words, this is one area where there really is a free lunch.
[…] trying to save money by limiting which children you feed turns out to be expensive and cumbersome; it requires that school districts deal with reams of paperwork as they try to determine which children are eligible. It also imposes a burden on parents, requiring that they demonstrate their neediness.
Excerpted from an article written by Paul Krugman for The New York Times.
David Lien of Colorado’s The Journal reviews Project 2025’s plans for public lands.
Former Trump administration Bureau of Land Management Acting Director William Perry Pendley wrote the Department of Interior section of Project 2025. That’s a very bad sign. A July 19 High Country News story (“Project 2025’s extreme vision for the West”) noted that Pendley is “a vociferous opponent of protections for public lands and wildlife.”
[…] Restoring mining claims and oil and gas leases in Colorado’s Thompson Divide (p. 523); reviewing national monument designations with an eye to reducing their size (p. 532); seeking repeal of the Antiquities Act of 1906 (p. 532); putting states in charge of managing the greater sage grouse (p. 534), etc. And that’s just the tip of a very rotten iceberg that would decimate public lands habitat.
[…] Trump has already had numerous companies fail, including his egomaniacally self-branded meat, vodka, airline, university, and four (count ’em 4!) casinos.
[…] On Friday the Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG, parent company of of Truth Social), reported its earning for the second quarter of 2024. And it was not a pretty sight. As reported by Investor’s Business Daily…
“Trump Media reported net sales of $836,000, down 30% vs. a year earlier. It was the third straight quarter of roughly $800,000 in revenue, up slightly from Q1’s $770,500. Operating costs soared to $19.5 million vs. $4.9 million a year earlier.”
[…] Its stock (DJT) has dropped a whopping 63% since its late March high when it went public. It has a wildly unworthy valuation of about $5 billion, despite having no revenue to speak of, and massive losses. So it has a lot of room to fall even farther.
The weakness of Trump’s stock makes it less useful as a vessel to funnel laundered funds to him by his political allies, which include foreign interests. There was speculation that such illegal tactics were being used to buy influence with Trump should he be reelected. And those weren’t the only legal shenanigans associated with TMTG. There has been a rash of civil and criminal charges that plagued the enterprise and its principles from its inception, including disclosures of alleged funding from Russia.
Trump’s personal stake in the company could net him a hefty windfall. But he can’t cash out until late September. The stock is likely to have lost significantly more value by then. And if he does sell, it will trigger a crushing rush to the exits that could cripple the company and its future prospects as a going concern. Not that he cares. Trump’s modus operandi has been to run companies into the ground, skim off the cream at the top, and let everyone else suffer from the financial catastrophe that he created. This will be just be more of the same.
Kamala Harris Is Making Progressive Politics Fun Again, And Wingnuts Are FURIOUS
A few weeks ago, the entire conservative mediasphere was mad that Democrats, at the instigation of eventual veep nominee Tim Walz, had started calling them “weird.” Boy oh boy, that made them mad, and they all brought out their skull calipers and obsessions with other people’s genitals to prove that they were not weird.
They’ve since found something new to be mad and resentful about: They really don’t like that Kamala Harris has made “joy” a campaign theme. As the New York Times noted Friday, Harris was, early in her term, acutely worried about the Right’s criticism of her laugh, and “privately wondered to confidants whether she should laugh, or show a sense of humor, at all.” But they told her, nah, be yourself, even as she took on serious issues like abortion rights, gun control, and foreign policy. In the last year, Harris has also been touring to reach out to young voters, especially at historically Black colleges and universities, where the tone could be more high energy, too. As the Times put it,
So it is no accident that joy — a battle-tested version of it — has become the backbone of Harris’ campaign in recent days.
“The thing we like about hard work is we have fun doing hard work,” she said at a campaign event with autoworkers Thursday in Wayne, Michigan. “Because we know what we stand for. When you know what you stand for, you know what you fight for.”
Sounds a hell of a lot like Saint Molly Ivins’s call for progressives to
[Keep] fightin’ for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don’t you forget to have fun doin’ it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin’ ass and celebratin’ the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.
[…] Walz, who has a knack for these things, recently extended his critique of Republican weirdness to make the related point that all the Right’s constant culture warring has Made America Mean, and we should all say the hell with that. From the Times story:
“The one thing I will not forgive them for is they try to steal the joy from this country,” Walz, who has presented himself as something of a walking bear hug, said Wednesday in Detroit. “But you know what? Our next president brings the joy. She emanates the joy.”
Not surprisingly, many on the Right are not having it, which makes them look even weirder as they get angry about joy. Here’s Fox News host Julie Banderas in an excerpt from Thursday’s edition of “Outnumbered,” explaining that joy is bad, and probably even dangerous, when everything is so terrible right now, so knock it off! [video at the link]
BANDERAS: I just have to call her out on using the word joy.
How weird is that for the vice president to come out of this presidential mess for the last four years and refer to it as joy? Okay, the American people are not joyful about their checkbooks. They are not joyful about inflation. They’re certainly not joyful about the economy.
So what in the world is she talking — what is there to be joyful about? Our borders? [makes buzzer sound] No there. Like there is nothing to be joyful about other than getting a president in here to clean up the mess.
Of course, the country is only completely joyless in the rightwing imagination; in reality, the economy is literally the envy of the world and inflation has dropped considerably since its high point of two years ago.
More generally, rightwing discourse is almost never about joy. Hell, even rightwing comedy, such as it is, tends to be bereft of joy. It’s about winking while being racist […]
There’s also the grievance trope where righties get mad that someone else is happy when they shouldn’t be. How dare Chelsea Handler say she enjoys not having kids? How dare a pop song celebrate women getting aroused? And drag queens! Oh god, the drag queens are having fun when they should be ashamed and hiding in a closet, and possibly seeking conversion therapy. And of course those “childless cat ladies” should be having babies for the Fatherland, but instead think they’re allowed to live as they wish.
It makes perfect sense, then, that conservatives simply don’t know what to do with a candidate who says she’s having fun while pursuing policies that will help Americans. Here’s Sean Hannity mocking Harris on his Thursday show for that quote we started with, where she said “we have fun doing hard work — because we know what we stand for.” [video at the link]
Prior to the bit in the clip, Hannity complained that Harris “hasn’t lifted a finger to reduce violent crime, gas prices through the roof … she barely does one event per day.”
Pretty funny stuff in a week where Trump did just one campaign rally, in Montana, plus one lie-filled televised meltdown at his home. But worse, Harris laughs, and even claims she enjoys hard work, which can’t possibly be true because she’s so stupid and lazy and laughing:
The rest of the day she’s hiding in the equivalent of Joe Biden’s basement and they’re covering for her like they did for Biden in 2020. And yet for some reason grinning from ear to ear, and when she has a moment, giggling. And announcing today that she was just, she just loves “hard work.” Loves hard work, loves it.
Hannity very graciously refrained from calling Harris “shiftless,” but it was certainly implied.
So far, then, the “joy” thing seems to be having its intended effect: On the positive side, like “weird,” it’s drawing a sharp contrast with the joyless meaniepants Trumpers and Bible-thumpers who want to close libraries and interfere in your life. […]
It also has the salutary effect of driving Righties into weird rants about how joy itself is bad, maybe even dangerous.
Campaigning is srs bns. Governing, even moreso. But hell yes, it can also be fun, because the work is worth doing.
birgerjohanssonsays
This Week’s Sky at a Glance, August 9 – 18 – Sky & Telescope
And a new land based on Disney villains is planned for the Magic Kingdom in Orlando. Not many details were released on Saturday, but the land will have all the Disney villains whom you “know and that you loathe,” D’Amaro said.
They’ll need to find a way to work deSantis into area.
birgerjohanssonsays
Researcher designs robot to help children cross streets safely
If Rosalind Franklin had had one of these, she could have sorted out the DNA structure early enough to be alive for the Nobel Prize.
“PhAI—an AI system that figures out the phase of x-rays that crystals have diffracted” https://phys.org/news/2024-08-phai-ai-figures-phase-rays.html
This looks promidong for learning the structure of small molecules faster. Great for finding new medicines.
The Ukrainians are digging trenches. Anticipating static warfare along or near the existing front line, the Russians are digging in, too.
Spending the time to build an extensive trench network is a sign Ukraine plans to stay. It could still be a diversion but not likely. It also becomes harder for Russia to get the Ukrainians out. If Ukraine has the time to build a full trench system it will become very difficult to get them out. Forcing Ukraine out of trench networks in Ukraine has taken months of bombardment and thousands of Russian lives. Ukraine would probably pull back from Kursk faster but it would still be painful.
I think anyone who has spent a long time with horses knows they can be pretty smart for a herbivore.
Bekenstein Boundsays
Lynna@396:
From 1995 to 2024, researchers found, states collectively put more than $1 billion into backing these [anti-abortion] centers. Some solely used state funds while others also repurposed federal funds allocated through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.
What?! States are allowed to divert food stamps money into bullshit like this that has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with provisioning food stamps?!
Lynna@403:
Trump’s modus operandi has been to run companies into the ground, skim off the cream at the top, and let everyone else suffer from the financial catastrophe that he created. This will be just be more of the same.
Sounds like he’s a one-person private equity firm …
The photo is from a Halloween party. Dark blouse & skirt, circle link necklace, and bad blonde wig. A bit more eyeliner than 2024. Unshaved beard stubble.
birgerjohanssonsays
Last Week Tonight with Jihn Oliver
S11 E20: Hawaii, J.D. Vance & Tim Walz: 8/11/24
Ukrainian forces have begun “to push the war out into the aggressor’s territory,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening address on Aug. 10.
The statement marks Zelensky’s most public acknowledgement of Ukraine’s cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk Oblast, which began on Aug. 6.
“Today, Commander-in-Chief (Oleksandr) Syrskyi has already reported several times, on the front-line situation and on our actions to push the war out into the aggressor’s territory,” Zelensky said.
“I thank every unit of our Defense Forces that makes this happen.”…
Missile strikes against Ukraine launched from Russian border regions deserve “a fair response,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address on Aug. 11.
Russian forces launched over 50 drones and four missiles at Ukraine overnight on Aug. 10-11. One missile strike in Kyiv Oblast killed a father and his four-year-old son.
“Russians launched them from Voronezh Oblast,” Zelensky said, referring to the ballistic missiles.
“We are recording all the places from which the Russian army strikes, including Belgorod Oblast, Kursk Oblast, and other areas. … We record every missile strike. And each of these strikes deserves a fair response.”…
The Russian Defense Ministry published videos claiming to show successful strikes against Ukrainian forces in Kursk Oblast, but the videos were filmed in other locations and at other times, the Russian independent news outlet the Insider reported on Aug. 10.
The Ukrainian military launched a surprise incursion across the border on Aug. 6, bringing regular Ukrainian forces into Russia for the first time. Ukraine has continued to advance, triggering a state of emergency and “counter-terrorism operation” in Russia.
The Russian Defense Ministry and state-controlled media circulated videos that they alleged show Russian forces defeating Ukrainian troops in the region. A video published Aug. 9 claimed to show Russian troops carrying out strikes against the Ukrainian military in bordering Sumy Oblast in response to the Kursk incursion.
The video was in fact first posted weeks before the offensive, the Insider reported. The Russian state media outlet TASS published the video on July 14.
Another video published Aug. 10 by the Russian state outlet RIA Novosti claimed to show Russian helicopters striking Ukrainian personnel and armored vehicles in Kursk Oblast with S-13 airborne missiles.
The problem with this claim is that the video was filmed in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, according to the Insider. Screenshots of the defense ministry’s videos show facilities and territories that recognizably belong to Chasiv Yar and Kreminna.
The day after Ukraine launched its offensive, Valery Gerasimov, Russia’s commander of the war against Ukraine, said that Kyiv’s attempts to push deep into Kursk Oblast were “stopped,” and that “the operation will end with the rout of the enemy and the return to the state border.”
While the Russian Defense Ministry has tried to downplay the effectiveness of Ukraine’s incursion, it also admitted on Aug. 11 that Ukrainian forces had reached the villages Tolpino and Obshchy Kolodez, which are around 25 and 30 kilometers from the Russia-Ukraine border.
Belgorod Oblast Governor Viacheslav Gladkov announced on Aug. 12 that residents of the Krasnoyaruzhsky District, located on the border with Ukraine, would be evacuated due to reported activity of the Ukrainian army in the area.
…
“It has been an alarming morning,” Gladkov said on Aug. 12. “(There has been) enemy activity on the border of Krasnoyaruzhsky District.” According to a 2021 census, the district’s population is about 14,000 people.
Gladkov said that he believed Russian soldiers would be able to “cope with the threat that has arisen, but in order to protect the lives and health of our population, we are starting to move people who live in Krasnoyaruzhsky District to safer places.”…
birgerjohanssonsays
‘The young offenders system worked for me’: the ex-convict turned chef | The Guardian
Krasnoyaruzhsky district head Andrei Miskov said around 11,000 people were evacuated from the area after Belgorod region Governor Vyachelsav Gladkov earlier ordered residents to leave the district.
“Everyone who wanted to leave with their own vehicles did so — signs were installed along the roads showing where to find the nearest temporary shelters,” Miskov said, adding that around 500 people remained in the Krasnoyaruzhsky district, including government officials.
A Russian court sentenced the head of an Uzbek diaspora group to four years in prison for “inciting hatred” after he earlier posted a meme spoofing the country’s rising inflation and mobilization for the war in Ukraine, media reported Monday.
Usman Baratov, a naturalized Russian citizen who heads an Uzbek diaspora association called Vatandosh, was arrested in January after Russian war correspondents complained to the police about one of his social media posts.
In the post, Baratov attached a meme showing a hen in a chicken coop and the caption: “Screw you and your eggs! Bring the cocks back from the front.”
The meme was an apparent reference to the rising cost of eggs and the growing chorus of families calling for the return of mobilized soldiers from Ukraine.
The Moscow region’s Stupinsky City Court on Monday found Baratov guilty of inciting hatred toward soldiers deployed as part of Russia’s “special military operation” — the Kremlin’s preferred term for the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Prosecutors had asked for a maximum prison sentence of six years.
The independent RusNews media outlet, which first reported the verdict, published a video of bailiffs escorting Baratov as he criticized his trial as illegal.
“This is not a verdict. It’s a disgrace to justice,” he said from behind a metal cage inside the courtroom.
Russia’s human rights group Memorial has recognized Baratov as a political prisoner.
In February, Russian authorities included Baratov in the country’s registry of “terrorists and extremists,” allowing the authorities to freeze his bank accounts before a court verdict.
Firefighters are battling to contain a massive blaze moving “like lightning” on the outskirts of Athens, with authorities evacuating people from towns, villages and hospitals as flames rip through trees, homes and cars.
Propelled by gale-force winds, the wildfire had formed a 12-mile (20km) front by Monday despite “superhuman” efforts by forest commandos and volunteers overnight.
Greece’s climate crisis and civil protection minister said firefighters were struggling in “dramatic conditions” which had been exacerbated by terrain that had been turned into a tinderbox because of prolonged drought. On the frontline of the climate emergency, the Mediterranean nation has experienced an exceptionally hot and dry year.
“Its an extremely dangerous fire that we’ve been battling for over 20 hours in dramatic conditions because of the very strong winds and prolonged dryness,” the minister, Vassilis Kikilias, told reporters.
…
With the strong winds showing no sign of abating, meteorologists predicted the days ahead would be critical.
Health officials urged residents in the region to limit their movements and stay inside, saying the thick smoke had seriously affected air quality across the Attica basin. By mid-afternoon Sunday, within hours of the blaze erupting, the skies above the Greek parliament in central Syntagma Square had turned a yellowish brown as ash clouds were blown southward. Greek media reported people being taken to hospital with respiratory problems.
Unprecedented temperatures – June and July were the hottest on record – after the warmest winter on record has resulted in wildfires becoming increasingly common and intense in Greece. In a first, this summer the country registered a week-long heatwave before mid-June, a sign of the accelerated pace at which climate is breaking down, environmentalists said.
Meteorologists believe 2024 will be the hottest Greek summer on record.
At least 10 tourists, including the British TV presenter Michael Mosley, died earlier this summer from heat exhaustion after walking in blistering temperatures. Mosley is believed to have succumbed to the heat two hours after he set off on a walk from a beach on the remote island of Symi in temperatures topping 40C.
The actress Prunella Scales -married to Timothy West for half a century- is sadly in poor health, suffering from severe Alzheimer’s disease. Among many other roles she played Sybil in ‘Fawlty Towers’.
At the end of the millennium I had hoped science would have abolished horrors like Alzheimer’s and cancer by now. But it went the way of flying cars.
Ukraine is in control of 28 settlements in Kursk Oblast, one week after launching a surprise attack into Russian territory, regional authorities said on Aug. 12.
Speaking in a video call with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the ongoing situation in the region, Alexey Smirnov, the acting governor of Kursk Oblast, described it as “difficult.”
“Today, 28 settlements are under enemy control,” he said, in comments reported by Russian state media, adding the incursion was up to 12 kilometres deep along a 40km front.
The Ukrainian military launched a surprise incursion across the border into Kursk Oblast on Aug. 6, bringing regular Ukrainian forces into Russia for the first time.
Smirnov’s statement is the first official comment from either side on the status of territorial control in the region.
…
Although reinforcements sent by Moscow have begun to arrive on the battlefield, Ukraine has reportedly continued to advance farther into Kursk Oblast.
Russian authorities have been forced to announce widening civilian evacuation measures in a number of districts bordering Ukraine.
Smirnov told Putin that 121,000 people had so far been evacuated and another 59,000 needed to leave.
Earlier on Aug. 12, Smirnov said those living in the Belovsky district located on the border with Ukraine were being advised to evacuate.
“I instructed the regional Ministry of Transport to prepare additional transport; buses are already on duty in safe areas,” he said.
“The main thing now is to promptly notify residents of populated areas about the opportunity to leave the area.”
Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance groups reportedly entered the territory of the Belovsky district overnight on Aug. 11.
According to head of the district, Nikolai Volobuev, the group’s appearance created “a lot of panic” in the Belovsky district.
He described the current situation as “stable, but very tense.”
A few hours before the evacuation in Belovsky district was announced, Belgorod Oblast Governor Viacheslav Gladkov said residents of the neighboring Krasnoyaruzhsky District would be evacuated due to reported activity of the Ukrainian army in the area.
Russian authorities on Aug. 9 introduced a so-called “counter-terrorism operation” in Kursk, Bryansk, and Belgorod oblasts, located on the Ukrainian border, in response to Ukraine’s incursion.
Earlier on Aug. 9, Russia’s Defense Ministry said it was sending additional military equipment to Kursk Oblast’s Sudzha district, 10 kilometers (6 miles) east of the Ukrainian border.
…
At the same time, some have taken to social media to complain about the inadequate efforts from authorities to help residents evacuate and a lack of resources for those who have already done so.
Ukraine’s 225th Separate Assault Battalion published on Aug. 12 a video showing Ukrainian soldiers removing a Russian flag in the village of Darino in Russia’s Kursk Oblast as Kyiv’s offensive continues into the seventh day.
…
Previously, videos of Ukrainian soldiers on Russian soil, including those from the town of Sudzha in Kursk Oblast and Belgorod Oblast, were shared on Telegram channels. The video published by the 225th battalion is the first footage from the Russian region published by the Ukrainian military officially.
“Darino. Fighters from the 225th Separate Assault Battalion are removing a rag from the administrative building after clearing it,” the caption reads.
The Kyiv Independent could not verify the location.
Darino is located some 4 kilometers (2 miles) from the border with Ukraine. Russian pro-war Telegram channels claimed that Ukrainian forces reached it on Aug. 7….
tomhsays
Lawndale News Chicagoland’s Largest Hispanic Bilingual Newspaper
Gov. Pritzker Signs Landmark Legislation Further Expanding Reproductive Rights in Illinois
By: Ashmar Mandou / Aug 8, 2024
On Wednesday, Governor JB Pritzker, joined by legislators and civil rights leaders, signed multiple bills designed to further protect reproductive rights in Illinois. The bills signed includes HB581 [full text], which ensures that pregnant women can access needed emergency medical care, HB5239 [full text], which expands Illinois’ shield laws, and HB4867 [full text], which clarifies and expands the Illinois Human Rights Act to prohibit discrimination based on reproductive health decisions.
“It is no longer enough to legislate for the current moment. We sadly have to anticipate a future when the Supreme Court and other bad actors further restrict and punish women seeking to exercise their medical rights and control over their bodies. These new laws will ensure that women in Illinois and those travelling from out of state can avoid persecution and discrimination on every level,” said Governor JB Pritzker.
HB5239 further expands these protections. Under the law, state and local jurisdictions cannot provide any information or expend any resources to help an out of state entity investigate legal healthcare, including abortions or gender affirming care, provided in Illinois.
[…]
Hot weather inflamed by carbon pollution killed nearly 50,000 people in Europe last year, with the continent warming at a much faster rate than other parts of the world, research has found.
The findings come as wildfires tore through forests outside Athens, as France issued excessive heat warnings for large swathes of the country, and the UK baked through what the Met Office expects will be its hottest day of the year.
Doctors call heat a “silent killer” because it claims far more lives than most people realise. The devastating mortality rate in 2023 would have been 80% higher if people had not adapted to rising temperatures over the past two decades, according to the study published in Nature.
Elisa Gallo, an environmental epidemiologist at ISGlobal and lead author of the study, said the results showed that efforts taken to adapt societies to heatwaves had been effective.
“But the number of heat-related deaths is still too high,” she warned. “Europe is warming at twice the rate of the global average – we can’t rest on our laurels.”
Heatwaves have grown hotter, longer and more common as people have burned fossil fuels and destroyed nature – clogging the atmosphere with gases that act like a greenhouse and heat the planet. Globally, 2023 was the hottest year on record, and scientists expect 2024 to soon take its place.
Researchers have found that cooler countries in Europe such as the UK, Norway and Switzerland will face the greatest relative rise in the number of uncomfortably hot days. But the absolute death toll will continue to be greatest in southern Europe, which is better adapted to hot weather but more exposed to scorching temperatures.
The scientists found heat-related mortality in 2023 was highest in Greece, with 393 deaths per million people, followed by Italy with 209 deaths per million and Spain with 175 deaths per million.
…
In 2003, a heatwave killed 70,000 people across the continent and sent officials scrambling to save lives by setting up early warning systems and prevention plans. But nearly two decades later, the death toll from the record-breaking heat in 2022, which claimed more than 60,000 lives, left researchers wondering how effective the measures had been.
…
Scientists say that governments can keep people safe from heatwaves by designing cool cities with more parks and less concrete, setting up early warning systems to alert people to imminent danger, and strengthening healthcare systems so doctors and nurses are not pushed into overdrive when temperatures soar.
But individual actions like staying indoors and drinking water also have powerful effects on death tolls. Checking in on older neighbours and relatives who live alone can spell the difference between life and death.
Dr Santi Di Pietro, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at the University of Pavia, said his colleagues were treating more patients a day than they did in early January during the flu season.
Heatwaves must be tackled at all levels, he said, but people could take “simple measures” to protect themselves and their loved ones. These included avoiding the sun during the hottest hours of the day, seeking shade when outside and swapping alcohol for water.
“As obvious as it may sound, drinking water is paramount to prevent dehydration,” he said. “Elderly people often do not perceive thirst, so we should keep an extra eye on them.”
More work is needed to adapt to climate change and mitigate the rise in temperatures, said Gallo. “Climate change needs to be considered as a health issue.”
Text quoted by SC in comment 436: “Elderly people often do not perceive thirst, so we should keep an extra eye on them.”
True. In addition, many elderly people take medications that sort of strip fluids out of the body. Kidneys might be working overtime as a result of various prescription medications. Intake of water has to be increased.
StevoRsays
Yuk and expletive sand well, not buying this mag :
A decision by popular Australian science magazine Cosmos to publish articles generated by artificial intelligence (AI) has drawn criticism from its own contributors and former editors, including two co-founders. The CSIRO, which publishes Cosmos, says it backs the “experimental project”, which is designed to investigate the “opportunities and risks of using AI”, and scheduled to run until February 2025. But critics say the AI service undermines journalism and was built without proper consent.
…(Snip)… The controversy is an example of growing anxieties around the role of AI in journalism as publishers experiment with new productivity tools. Hundreds of journalists employed by Nine Entertainment went on strike last week, partly over AI protections. Cosmos ran into financial difficulties and lost half its staff earlier this year, having won dozens of journalism and industry awards over 20 years of publishing. National science agency CSIRO took over the publication in June.
A fast-moving wildfire outside Athens has burnt trees, houses and cars, drawn residents from their homes and sent smoke clouds over the Greek capital.The fire broke out at 3pm local time on Sunday in the sparsely-populated Varnavas area, about 35 kilometres from Athens. Strong winds quickly drove it out of control, fanning a 30-kilometre-long front line of fire towards the capital, the ERT public broadcaster reported. Almost 700 firefighters, supported by 33 water-bombing aircraft and 190 fire engines, have been battling the flames.
At the same time, some have taken to social media to complain about the inadequate efforts from authorities to help residents evacuate and a lack of resources for those who have already done so.
So predictable. Of course the Russian government would also be incompetent when it came to planning and executing evacuations.
Geolocated footage and Russian and Ukrainian reporting from August 10 and 11 indicate that Ukrainian forces advanced westward and northwestward in Kursk Oblast, although Russian sources largely claimed that Russian forces have stabilized the situation.
The operation has been ongoing for a almost a week. During the last days, Ukraine has not made very significant progress, but they have started solidifying their positions in the newly captured areas. […]
StevoRsays
Aussies are being played for absolute suckers here i reckon :
It is a side agreement, between the US, the UK and Australia that is of considerable concern: a non-legally binding “understanding” that includes “additional related political commitments”. What are these? Well, they are secret.
The AUKUS saga moves on without much scrutiny (sub-heading – ed.)
Critics argue that the “understanding” and “additional related political commitments” could include how and where these vessels are used. That is, what conflicts Australia would be expected to show up for, and how. Some speculate on the possibility that it involves Australia agreeing to accept nuclear waste from the US and the UK, something the government has denied. The idea that any of these such undertakings may have been made, but we aren’t allowed to know, is simply outrageous.
We’ve entered the mean season for the dark arts: foreign influence, computer hacks, and disinformation.
The question is whether we’re any better prepared to withstand them than we were in 2016. The outlook isn’t promising.
Let me pull together and try to bring into focus what’s happened in recent weeks, and especially over the past few days, that harkens back to the Russian influence scheme of 2016 but with the focus this time on Iran:
June 2024: “Mint Sandstorm—a group run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) intelligence unit—sent a spear-phishing email to a high-ranking official of a presidential campaign from a compromised email account of a former senior advisor,” Microsoft would later reveal in a report on Iran’s malign activities.
July 9: In a briefing with reporters, U.S. intel officials declare Russia the “preeminent threat” to U.S. election security in 2024 and characterize Iran as a “chaos agent” without a specific preference in this election.
July 22: Politico begins receiving emails from an anonymous AOL account that a user, identified only as “Robert,” uses over the following weeks to provide “internal communications from a senior Trump campaign official.”
July 29: In second briefing with reporters, U.S. intel officials change their tune and declare that Iran now prefers that Trump lose and is engaged in covert online influence operations toward that end.
Aug. 8: The WaPo also receives material from an anonymous AOL user going by the name “Robert,” but the newspaper doesn’t immediately report on it.
Aug. 9: Microsoft issues a new warning that Iran has ramped up its cyber-enabled influence campaign to include fakes news sites and hacking attempts. For the first time, Microsoft publicly reveals the June phishing incident targeting a high-ranking official in a U.S. presidential campaign.
Aug 10: Politico reports on internal Trump campaign documents, revealing for the first time the communications with “Robert” that began July 22. Among the hacked materials was a 271-page research dossier used in the vetting of vice presidential nominee JD Vance. The Trump campaign confirms that some of its internal communications were hacked and blames Iran, pointing to the Microsoft report.
Aug. 11: While neither the U.S. government nor Microsoft have confirmed that the documents sent to news outlets were the product of an Iranian hack or identified which U.S. presidential campaign was the target of the Iranian phishing incident, the WaPo reports that “a person familiar with Microsoft’s work confirmed that the report’s reference was to the Trump campaign.” For the first time, the WaPo reveals that it, too, received the 271-page dossier marked as “privileged & confidential.”
Aug 12: The NYT reveals that it received “what appears to be a similar if not identical trove of data from an anonymous tipster purporting to be the same person who emailed the documents to Politico,” but the newspaper doesn’t pinpoint when it received the trove.
It’s only August. There’s a long way until November.
“Buckle up,” warned Chris Krebs, the former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency who was fired by Trump after the 2020 election for debunking Trump’s Big Lie.
2024 Ephemera
NYT battleground state polls show Harris shoring up the Blue Wall that had been threatening to crumble on Biden: She now leads Trump among likely voters by the identical 50%-46% margin in each of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
Crazytown: The weekend insanity on the right, embraced by Donald Trump himself, was that the images of big crowds at Kamala Harris’ rallies are AI-generated fakes.
NBC News: “False or misleading claims about the U.S. election that Elon Musk has posted to X this year have generated nearly 1.2 billion views, according to an analysis published Thursday by the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate.”
What In The World?
Every time I’m ready to move on from the tedium of NYT headline scrutiny, stuff like this happens: The revised version currently still live is “Biden Promised Peace, but Will Leave His Successor a Nation Entangled in War.”
The cartoon includes a panel showing Stephen Miller:
Senior Trump advisor Stephen Miller does his part for Team Normal in a TV interview! “Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are the number one traffickers of children, girls, into sex slavery on planet earth!” (Actual quote, from The Beat with Ari Melber, 8/7/24)
Former President Donald Trump intends to sue the Justice Department for $100 million in punitive damages over the execution of a search warrant at his Mar-a-Lago estate in 2022, accusing Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray of having engaged in “malicious political prosecution aimed at affecting an electoral outcome to prevent President Trump from being re-elected.”
This is pure political maneuvering. Nothing will be done until after the election. If Trump does win he might try to force the DOJ to settle with himself to get the cash. If Trump loses this will be dropped because it would be a bad idea for Trump to go through discovery. As a case it makes no sense and several of the claims are simply wrong. The raid on Mar-a-Lago was only done after Trump said he didn’t have secret documents when the DOJ got information that he did, and the raid proved he did.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Aug. 12 accused Ukraine of trying to “destabilize” his country, and vowed a “worthy riposte” to Kyiv’s ongoing incursion into Kursk Oblast.
“One of the obvious goals of the enemy is to sow discord, strife, intimidate people, destroy the unity and cohesion of Russian society,” Putin said during a televised meeting with government officials.
“The main task is, of course, for the defense ministry to dislodge the enemy from our territories.”
…
During the same meeting, Alexey Smirnov, the acting governor of Kursk Oblast, described the current situation as “difficult,” and told Putin that Ukraine is in control of 28 settlements, adding the incursion was up to 12 kilometers deep along a 40 kilometer front.
Putin said in response to the incursion, there had been an increase in the number of men signing up to fight.
“The enemy will receive a worthy riposte,” he said….
A “worthy riposte” sounds so antiquated. Will he slap them with his glove?
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Aug. 12 that Kyiv’s operation in Russia’s Kursk Oblast is a “catastrophe” for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his full-scale war against Ukraine.
Zelensky’s evening address came after Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi reported that Ukrainian forces control abound 1,000 square kilometers in Kursk Oblast as their incursion continues into its seventh day.
The Kyiv Independent couldn’t independently verify Syrskyi’s claim.
According to Zelensky, this area covers the territories from which Moscow launched attacks on Ukraine’s Sumy Oblast, the region that has been experiencing daily strikes from across the border.
“Therefore, our operations are solely a security issue for Ukraine: liberating the border from the Russian military,” the president said.
Zelensky said he had tasked the officials and diplomats to present a list of necessary actions for Kyiv to obtain permission from its partners to use long-range weapons to protect Ukraine’s territory.
“We see how Russia under (President Vladimir) Putin is actually moving: 24 years ago, there was the Kursk (submarine) disaster, which was the symbolic beginning of his rule. Now we can see what is the end for him. And it’s Kursk, too. The catastrophe of his war,” Zelensky added.
In August 2000, the Russian submarine Kursk sank in the Barents Sea while on a naval exercise. All 118 people aboard died. When asked what had happened to the submarine, Putin smiled and made his now infamous remark — “it sank.”
“This always happens to those who despise people and any rules. Russia brought war to others, and now it’s coming home. Ukraine has always wanted only peace, and we will definitely ensure peace,” Zelensky said….
JM @445, I think that was not even Trump’s cash that was spent on legal fees. That cash came from donors through Trump’s PAC.
Bekenstein Bound @418: “Sounds like he’s a one-person private equity firm …”
LOL. Yep. That’s a good description of this: “Trump’s modus operandi has been to run companies into the ground, skim off the cream at the top, and let everyone else suffer from the financial catastrophe that he created. “
Trump Keeps Stealing Music, Artists Keep Telling Him To F*ck Off
How are things going with Donald Trump’s continued unauthorized use of popular music to warm up the crowds of feral Übermenschen that flock to his election rallies like birds flying too close to the engine of a jumbo jet? Well, right now the Trump campaign is being threatened with lawsuits by both Celine Dion and the estate of Isaac Hayes. So, not great!
First up is Hayes, whose family has been telling Trump for two years to not use the singer’s “Hold On, I’m Comin’” — words we guarantee Donald Trump has never heard in his life — at his rallies.
Then Trump’s campaign apparently played the song before his rally in Montana this past Friday night, and the Hayes family finally hit its limit. A lawyer for the family sent Trump a cease-and-desist letter demanding that he stop using the song and also pay Hayes’s estate for all the times he has played the song since 2022 and may use it in the future without permission, fuck you very much:
Walker alleges that the song has been used so frequently that the $3m figure is “heavily discounted”. The letter also states that if a resolution is not made and a lawsuit is then issued, the Hayes family will demand damages of $150,000 per use of the song.
They should add an addition $10 trillion for the emotional trauma suffered by anyone who has ever seen video of Trump dancing to “Hold On, I’m Comin’. ” Like so: [video at the link]
[…] You’d think Trump would have the sense to stop after the Hayes family criticized him for playing the song after his speech at a National Rifle Association convention less than a week after the Uvalde school shooting. Then you would remember that Donald Trump does not have the humanity or self-awareness that God gave a cantaloupe.
The other musician now threatening Trump with unauthorized use of her music is Céline Dion, who is both mad and a little befuddled about the Trump campaign’s musical choices. Which, join the club: [Screengrab at the link]
It is the “…AND REALLY, THAT SONG?” at the end that makes this art.
“My Heart Will Go On” was, of course, the Oscar-winning theme song of James Cameron’s 1997 movie about the sinking of the Titanic. Which makes a good metaphor for Trump’s presidential campaign, really. The ship was a giant juggernaut powered by the hubris of its builders and its captain, launched to great fanfare and intending to successfully navigate rough seas with aplomb, only to recklessly charge full speed into an ice field, crash into a berg, and quickly sink to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
The Guardian notes that Trump has pissed off enough musicians through his unauthorized use of their music at his rallies that there is an entire list on Wikipedia dedicated to the phenomenon. It is an extensive list! We had never even heard of Yoann Lemoine. At this rate the Gregorian monks will be filing preemptive warning letters.
It’s sad and ungrateful how Trump insists on using unauthorized music. He has such a wealth of Kid Rock and Lee Greenwood to choose from.
Elon Musk’s aerospace company violated environmental regulations by releasing pollutants into or near bodies of water in Texas, a state environmental agency said in a notice.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX violated environmental regulations by repeatedly releasing pollutants into or near bodies of water in Texas, a state agency said in a notice of violation focused on the company’s water deluge system at its Starbase launch facility.
The notice from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) last week came five months after the Environmental Protection Agency Region 6 office, which covers Texas and surrounding states, had also informed SpaceX that it violated the Clean Water Act with the same type of activity.
The notices and related investigative records, obtained by CNBC, have not been previously reported.
TCEQ said its agency’s office in the South Texas city of Harlingen, near Starbase in Boca Chica, received a complaint on Aug. 6, 2023, alleging that SpaceX “was discharging deluge water without TCEQ authorization.”
“In total, the Harlingen region received 14 complaints alleging environmental impacts from the Facility’s deluge system,” the regulator said in the document.
Aerospace companies, including SpaceX, generally need to be in compliance with state and federal laws to gain approval from the Federal Aviation Administration for future launches. SpaceX was seeking permission to conduct up to 25 annual launches and landings of its Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket at its Boca Chica facility. Notices of violation could delay those approvals and result in civil monetary penalties for SpaceX, further probes and criminal charges. […]
On July 25, 2024, an environmental investigator with TCEQ “conducted an in-house compliance record review” to determine SpaceX’s compliance with wastewater regulations. The investigation found that SpaceX discharged industrial wastewater without a permit four times between March and July of this year.
Water deluge systems with flame deflectors diffuse heat, sound and energy generated by orbital test flights and rocket launches. But SpaceX didn’t build that system into its launch site at Boca Chica before it began test flights of the largest rocket ever, Starship.
[…] Kenneth Teague, a coastal ecologist based outside of Austin, evaluated the 483-page SpaceX permit application. Teague, who has more than three decades of water quality and coastal planning experience, told CNBC the application was full of holes, missing basic details about water discharge volumes, the temperature of the effluent and outfall locations.
Teague said he’s especially concerned about the concentration of mercury in the wastewater from the SpaceX water deluge system. The levels disclosed in the document represent “very large exceedances of the mercury water quality criteria,” Teague said.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, mercury is “one of the most serious contaminants threatening our nation’s waters because it is a potent neurological poison in fish, wildlife, and humans.”
Teague said high temperature discharges, and pollutants like mercury in high concentrations, could cause “significant negative impacts,” like killing off the “little critters” that make up seabirds’ diet. […]
lumipunasays
The peak opportunity for watching the Perseids in Europe is just beginning (see birgerjohansson at 409).
A Guardian story on the topic ends with this, featuring Royal Observatory senior astronomer Ed Bloomer:
While Bloomer said it can be fun to watch with others, he noted the fleeting appearance of the Perseids makes for a personal experience. He recommends laying on the grass and gazing up.
“It’s not fireworks,” he said. “But you’re sort of seeing the mechanics of the solar system at work, which is quite an interesting thing.”
Spoken like a true astronomy nerd, and I know what I’m talking about.
Incidentally, I just saw literal fireworks over central Helsinki (almost 10 km away) when I was out in the local park shortly after sunset to appreciate the twilight, the pinkish clouds and the setting moon. I barely got a glimpse of the moon between the clouds, though most of the sky was clear. I have no idea who was shooting the fireworks at this time, or why. It was the first time I’ve seen fireworks from that far away, or in near full daylight. The noise was just barely audible in the calm, quiet summer evening.
Now, out to look for the stars, Perseids and auroras.
A pair of same-sex flamingos has successfully hatched an egg at a zoo in Devon, staff say.
The chick is one of several new additions from Chilean flamingo couples at Paignton zoo, marking the zoo’s first successful hatching of the species since 2018.
The bird curator, Pete Smallbones, said he was not entirely sure how the same-sex pair, Curtis and Arthur, acquired the chick but this was a “known phenomenon in Chilean flamingos as well as other bird flocks”.
Smallbones said: “The most likely scenario is that the egg was abandoned by another couple, so this pair have adopted it. We have had several all-male pairings over the years, but this is the first season that an egg has been successfully hatched by a same-sex pair.”
“The bird department aren’t surprised that the same-sex pair have successfully hatched an egg and are now rearing a chick, but for other departments it has been a bit of a surprise,” Smallbones added.
The curator said Curtis and Arthur are a new couple at the lagoon and are raising the chick together.
“[Same sex-coupling] has been documented in species ranging from adelie penguins to zebra finches.
birgerjohanssonsays
Fun for history/technology nerds like myself near the edge of Aspbergers.
Some military history podcasters on Youtube got together for two and a half hours to design the absolutely worst military possible.
Rules: If the Generalissimo is not impressed with your suggestion of a new weapon for the glory of the nation you will get shot.
If the weapon system is too good the resistance will assassinate you. So the suggested weapon/vehicle must be flashy enough for a North Korean dictator yet completely impractical.
A large wooden cross edged with a string of Christmas lights stands proudly on the clean-cut lawn of a Noble, Oklahoma, home.
Surrounding houses are similar: Metal and glass crosses decorate gardens and hang from porches next to twinkling wind chimes; you’d be hard-pressed to find a home without an American flag waving out front, too.
It’s the definitive rural American city. Noble is deep in the Bible Belt and home to about 7,700 people; its residents are statistically more likely to be Republican, attend church, and own a gun.
So it’s fitting that this city was one of the first to see the installation of a one-of-a-kind gun ammunition vending machine in its local grocery store. The machines, sold by a company called American Rounds, sell ammo for handguns, rifles, and shotguns, and use artificial intelligence technology to verify the identity and age of each customer.
A bullet vending machine in a grocery store
Courtesy of Maddy Keyes
Just seven miles south of Norman—one of Oklahoma’s largest and most liberal cities (relatively)—the Noble Super C Mart is one of four stores in the state to have the 2,000-pound machine plopped down inside its entrance. Alabama and neighboring Texas also have the machines—and American Rounds CEO Grant Magers told me this is just the beginning.
“What situation are you in where you’re like, ‘Oh, I need to get eggs and I need to get ammo?’ ”
Immediately upon their installation, people from either side of the Second Amendment debate voiced their appreciation or skepticism for the bullets-made-convenient hunk of metal. And not just in the states where the machines are located.
The New York Times, CNN, USA Today, and NPR were all quick to report on the ammo machines, highlighting widespread concerns for safety and regulation. And if you scroll the Facebook comment section of just about any article on American Rounds, you’ll find a flood of polarizing opinions.
“Well this is a step in the wrong direction,” one user wrote under a Facebook post from Oklahoma broadcast station KOCO.
“WTF are these guys thinking?” My thoughts exactly, at first.
And perhaps most revealingly: “Hell yeah that’s the most American thing I’ve seen and I love it.”
I decided to see what all the fuss was about.
My relationship with guns is a complex one. Living in Oklahoma, I’m used to seeing crossed-gun Second Amendment bumper stickers on the backs of trucks and gun holsters displayed proudly on people’s waists. I have family members who are in the military and law enforcement—I was taught to respect guns, not to fear them.
But here’s the thing: I do fear them. How could I not when there have been over 300 mass shootings across the country just this year? So I didn’t know what to expect—or how I would feel—when I drove to a grocery store in Noble to visit one of the ammo machines.
The machines, as many familiar with the ammunition-buying world were quick to point out, aren’t all that different from other ammo purchasing methods. In fact, in some ways, it’s more regulated. The A.I. scans your face and compares the image to your ID to verify its validity and your age, similar to what you see in an airport. Magers, the CEO, said it can detect a fake ID or if a person is using an ID that isn’t theirs. Federal law prohibits dealers from selling handgun ammunition to anyone under 21 and long gun ammunition to anyone under 18, so the company set an across-the-board 21-year age requirement.
Magers told me American Rounds doesn’t store customer information, but some people are still concerned. Face-scanning technology, such as the kind American Rounds’ machines use, is one way companies can gather biometric data, or data that identifies a person’s physical or behavioral characteristics. Theoretically, this information could be used by companies or agencies to track who is purchasing ammunition to develop marketing or political campaigns targeted to those demographics. There’s no comprehensive federal law regulating the use and distribution of biometric data, though some states have passed measures to protect the privacy of individuals.
“We are the only company in America that requires an identification check at every single transaction,” Magers said. With brick-and-mortar and online ammunition sales, there’s no guarantee IDs are always checked or verified, he argued. The heavy and double-walled steel structure of the machine is also less likely to be pilfered from than stores with ammunition sitting on an open shelf. There’s no cap on how much ammunition a single customer can purchase, though the amount is limited by the machine’s capacity.
birgerjohanssonsays
NB
Scientists find oceans of water on Mars. It’s just too deep to tap.
Back to Venezuela. I’ll maybe respond to the main question in a bit, but I don’t have much to say. I’m quite ignorant about what’s happening within Venezuela, and can find very little online that isn’t propaganda.
But I did want to say more about the leading figures of the opposition. They’re consistently portrayed in the mainstream media as a sort of brave but beleaguered democratic opposition, pictured in close-ups looking vigorous and smiling and waving to their supporters (Roland Barthes would have a field day with these images). It’s difficult to get information about them, their background, their links to the US, their policies, or their larger agenda. It’s like they’re created in a USAID lab to fit a mold, and the content of their agenda is entirely unimportant.
Chávez’s movement established the idea of the “popular” to critique political and cultural structures ruled by an oligarchic elite that historically held state power and administered oil wealth. María Corina Machado Zuloaga [the leader of the opposition], López explains, comes from the historically richest family in Venezuela, linked to the slave trade and the Guipuzcoana Company, an 18th-century colonial trading company.
Machado, who holds the opposition leadership after winning the primary elections in November 2023 with 93 percent of votes, represents the extreme right wing of the opposition. During the failed coup against Chávez in 2002, she joined other opposition figures in signing the decree that dissolved the constitution and the state. In 2019, she requested that the Organization of American States activate the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance to trigger military intervention in Venezuela. Barred from running for office, Machado is supporting Edmundo González in her stead and is campaigning all over the country for him.
López argues that if González wins the election, Machado will reach power as a national leader in the shadows. He suggests that, in this scenario, Chavista forces could clash with extreme right forces and lead to a civil war. To build a solid government and national peace, a Machado-backed González government should pursue positions that are moderate and tolerant.
(This last hyper-credulous sentence makes me question the judgment of the writer of the book or the article or both. This is not a thing that would happen, and to call for it like it’s a genuine possibility is mindnumbingly stupid.)
A drastic privatization program is at the top of the opposition’s campaign.
Here’s a surprisingly substantive (little to none of the substance has made it into their election coverage) CNN interview with Machado from a few weeks ago (I fully encourage you to check out the photos!) – “The woman behind Venezuela’s upstart [LOL] opposition movement”:
… On Sunday, once again, Machado will not be on the ballot – but not for lack of popularity. An avowed capitalist who has promised privatization of several state industries, Machado won more than 90% of the opposition primary vote last year, but has been barred from running for office following allegations that she didn’t include some food vouchers on her assets declaration. Machado has described the decision to bar her – upheld by Venezuela’s Supreme Court – as illegitimate, unjustified and unconstitutional.
The current opposition candidate for president, Edmundo González, is backed by Machado, who has campaigned on his behalf to mobilize voters.Experts say that their efforts may now pose the most significant threat to Maduro’s grip on power in years, as he fights to claim a third term.
…
CNN: In the economy, your plan is to privatize most Venezuelan public assets, especially in terms of health, oil and education. Do you think private education is a better response to the challenges that Venezuela youth faces?
Machado: I am committed to giving every single Venezuelan the opportunity to have the education they need to be independent and take hold of their future.
I do believe in public education, but I do believe that you have to create incentives so the public education can be as competitive and with the same degree of excellence that you have in private education.
You must have the rules of the market. It’s the system, and that works as well with the health system. I am convinced that education is a right.
CNN: So the rules of the market applies to the education sector?
Machado: As a society and as a state, you have the duty to guarantee that every single Venezuelan has access to it. But we have to change all the way around.
What do I promote? For instance, in the case of education, I believe in coupons that you can give directly to the parents so that parents can choose the kind of education they want for their children, either public or private. And this is a true revolution in Venezuela.
In the case of the energy sector or other, industries. Venezuela has a huge potential that requires enormous investments. That we don’t have the resources for. This country was sacked: we need to open markets.
And we need to create conditions that are so competitive, so attractive that international resources will be invested in a country, despite what happened in the previous regime.
One of the things we need to do is totally transform our judiciary system and come back from being the last place globally in rule of law to one of the most respected countries.
CNN: Back to the energy sector, what are the best possible conditions for private investors? Does that mean taking away the public ownership of crude oil that has been part of the Venezuelan constitution for decades?
Machado: We need tens or hundreds of billions of dollars that could be invested in energy, not just oil and gas. Also, renewable resources.
The Venezuelan government doesn’t have the resources to do that. The resources we need to invest in infrastructure, in health, in education and so on.
We definitely need to open markets in order to take advantage of that huge potential and turn Venezuela into truly the energy hub of the Americas.
How the how the country will benefit from that? We will have fiscal flows, and other resources, mechanisms through which the state will get taxes.
But you don’t need to own the companies directly for the country to benefit from it.
If we don’t do that, the window of opportunity for oil and gas will close soon. And that will be unforgivable.
CNN: What do you really think is going to happen on the night of July 28 [when the result of the presidential vote is expected to be announced]?
Machado: The regime will try to steal the election. But I have trust, full confidence in what the Venezuelan people voted for. We have built a platform to defend our votes; it’s unprecedented.
Today, Venezuelans realize that it is a personal responsibility. They don’t expect others to defend their vote. Right? They are going to do it themselves. And you will see people coming out with their families together, willing to stay as long as it takes.
(This doesn’t appear to be happening.) They call her the “Iron Lady” of Venezuela due to the obvious resemblance. She’s a market fundamentalist who would work to turn Venezuela into the sort of Latin American country the US propped up in the twentieth century. She doesn’t give a flying fuck about democracy or the material well-being or sovereignty of the Venezuelan people. She wants power to return to the oligarchs and their patron, the US. Venezuela is tragically still a petro-state, but these people are hardly ecological warriors.
Campaigning on a platform of what she calls, ‘Popular Capitalism’, – the same term used by Chilean Dictator Augusto Pinochet and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher – Machado is widely expected to lose the opposition’s pre-presidential primaries since even those who oppose Chavez’s socialism understand the lack of popular support for speeches promising “more capitalism”.
…
Closely tied to the world of “non governmental organizations” (NGOs), specifically those funded by the US State Department, the wealthy US-educated Maria Corina Machado first made a name for herself as Vice President and later Director of the Atenea Foundation (1994-2000), as Founder and Director of the Opportunities Foundation (1998-2002), and later as Co- Founder, Financial Secretary, Vice President and Director of Sumate (2003 – 2010), an NGO financed by the US National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI), all three of which are known across Latin America for their attempts to destabilize progressive governments under the guise of “democracy promotion”.
Machado’s defense of “democracy” was tested in 2002 when anti-Chavez forces attempted to forcefully remove democratically-elected Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez from office. On April 11th, unidentified snipers stationed on top of Caracas highrises, fired upon pro- and anti-government demonstrators in a pre-orchestrated operation designed to justify a military coup d’état against Venezuela’s Chavez.
Coup Involvement
As popular forces from poor and working neighborhoods across the country took to the streets, demanding the return of their President, Machado made her way to Miraflores Presidential Palace where she joined her opposition allies in signing the Carmona Decree, an act that suspended all democratic rights, revoked the Constitution (1999) approved by a majority of voters just three years earlier, and installed business leader Pedro Carmona as the interim “president”.
Machado denies any wrongdoing, and says she was only at the presidential palace responding to an invitation by her mother, Corina de Machado, who also signed the dictatorial decree. [LOL]
In 2004, the NGO Machado operated was the driving force behind the failed recall referendum against the Venezuelan President and in May 2005, Machado had her own private meeting with then US President George W. Bush in the White House Oval Office.
Though the anti-Chavez initiative failed, Machado improved her position and name recognition within the Venezuelan opposition. In mid 2009, Machado visited Bolivia to speak with members of the NED-financed New Democracy Foundation. Speaking alongside her Bolivian counterparts, who oppose the popular government of Evo Morales, Machado declared, “21st Century Socialism seeks to destroy democracy”, though she failed to explain how participatory democracy and community-based development is “anti-democratic”.
The pre-presidential candidate spent the second half of 2009 in the United States, participating in the Yale University World Fellows Program. A year later, with the financial support of the International Republican Institute, NED, Usaid and the political backing of the opposition’s MUD coalition, Machado was elected to the Venezuelan National Assembly.
She joined the legislatura in January 2011 alongside a pro-Chavez majority, and has since used her position to oppose any and all policy initiatives of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV)….
“Popular Capitalism for All”
During a recent series of campaign events, including a televised debate between the opposition’s pre-presidential candidates, Machado proudly pushed forward her slogan of ‘Popular Capitalism’. “What’s yours is yours and no one can take it from you”, Machado affirmed, over and over again at each of her numerous private campaign events.
“Popular Capitalism is the bringing together of market efficiency and the market’s capacity to produce goods and services”, she explained to the anti-Chavez newspaper El Universal [which doesn’t exist]. “It’s a proposal based on a new alliance between businessmen and workers, in absolute brotherhood looking after each others interests”, she said.
The Bolivarian Revolution and the dramatic reductions in social inequality associated with the Chavez government “need people living in poverty so as to generate dependence”, Machado claims. Instead, she says, Venezuela should be converted into “an ownership society, a society of entrepreneurs” and the national stateowned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa), should be opened up to the “stock market and all its marvels”.
In a recent article, the US-based Cato Institute’s Juan Carlos Hidalgo wrote that Machado’s “commitment to free market ideas is a welcome departure from the other opposition candidates who seem interested in perpetuating Venezuela’s entitlement culture”.
The neo-liberal writer expressed great satisfaction with Machado’s rejection of public spending and her argument that government should focus on providing “the legal framework that stimulates entrepreneurship and eliminates regulatory obstacles”. Hidalgo also praised Machado’s “strong defense of private property” and quoted her as saying, “if you can’t own the fruit of your labor, then you don’t own your labor and thus you aren’t free”.
Machado, wrote the Cato Institute’s Hidalgo, “is a breath of fresh air from the usual Venezuelan political discourse that stresses the government’s central role in redistributing the country’s oil riches”.
Maria Corina Machado comes from one of Venezuela’s wealthiest families, the Machado Zuloagas, who form part of the nation’s elite class that coveted most of the country’s oil wealth throughout the twentieth century.
birgerjohanssonsays
I keep hearing Trump’s rally in Montana went bad as he apparently had little energy and the audience got bored.
Now I hope we will see some additional polls from the ‘swing states’ maybe getting better statistical certainty.
Vladimir Putin has decided that the operation to push Ukrainians out of the Kursk region will be managed not by General Staff Chief Valery Gerasimov but by Federal Security Service Chief Alexander Bortnikov, also known as “Putin’s successor.”
Claims are that Gerasimov is largely to blame for the Russians be unready for the attack, which is very bad for Gerasimov’s job, status and health. No telling if this is true, this could easily be dumping all the blame on one target before removing them. Bortnikov is intelligence not military and this indicates that Putin is losing trust in the military, which is bad for Russia.
Russia continues to try and grind forward in Ukraine with human wave attacks but this has had little success. Russia had trouble making progress over the summer when Ukrainian supplies were held up. Now that has been resolved and artillery ammunition and drones are making their way to the front Russian progress has stopped. Because Russia has been doing this they have not been able to turn any of their front line units against Ukrainian forces in Kursk. What Russia will use against Ukrainian forces is unknown but Russia is certainly talking about an offense soon.
Donald Trump took several trips over the weekend on a private jet once owned by Jeffrey Epstein.
His campaign took several flights in a Gulfstream G550 plane, emblazoned with the code N550GP on its tail.
That Gulfstream jet also once carried Jeffrey Epstein, who used the tail number N212JE while he owned it, up until his death in 2019.
The plane is now owned by a Republican donor who is letting the Trump campaign use it. This is the sort of stupid mistake a better organized campaign wouldn’t make. This isn’t actually a big deal now that somebody else owns the plane but Epstein and his history is something that Trump doesn’t want associated with and doesn’t want to talk about.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
@SC #453:
anyone here watch For All Mankind?
I haven’t. Someone I follow shared this review by Jessie Gender and Erin Macdonald (astrophysicist / StarTrek’s science advisor) on why it devastated them.
(10:54, Erin): I got the message that government is bad and the true savior of the working class is capitalism.
(Jessie): Ed is this guy who has always had this sense of entitlement […] always ends up on top, and the show always has this sympathetic, “But he’s just a good guy deep down,” sort of thing
(14:48, Erin): The whole time I was sticking with it, hoping for some reckoning […] Ed’s motivation is purely privilege and personal. He’s using these people who have so much to lose for his own vendetta. There was no criticism of that. There was no comeuppance. There was no lesson learned […] We were supposed to walk away being like, “Aw, he thinks Mars is his home now.”
(42:31, Erin): The men are back in charge, and capitalism and trickle-down economics win. […] I was devastated. A huge cloud descended on me watching this final episode and realizing the story points that they were making
[…]
For a show that started out being so hopeful […] with so many badass women in it, to then turn around and have them be traitors / pro-capitalist / ineffectual crappy leaders who only serve the stories of the men. […] depression for the future of space […] They really put me in my place and reminded me that I don’t belong.
Bekenstein Boundsays
Hidalgo also praised Machado’s “strong defense of private property” and quoted her as saying, “if you can’t own the fruit of your labor, then you don’t own your labor and thus you aren’t free”.
Sounds like an excellent argument for worker-owned cooperatives to me … otherwise the bosses own the fruit of your labor.
The Bolivarian Revolution and the dramatic reductions in social inequality associated with the Chavez government “need people living in poverty so as to generate dependence”, Machado claims.
Pure projection, of course. It’s capitalists who “need people living in poverty so as to generate dependence”. Poor workers are too afraid of being fired to rock the boat, so are easy for bosses to abuse and exploit, and a large poor population depresses wages, making labor cheaper for the same bosses. Capitalists are very pro-poverty, since it both keeps labor inexpensive and comes in handy as a cudgel to beat people down. This, far more than a begrudging of having to pay taxes, is why they hate social spending by governments so much. (You’ll notice the capitalist class not having any complaints at all with tax money being lavished on war spending, or on law enforcement. They never call for cutting the budgetary fat by slashing their own guard labor, or the huge pork projects that go to the giant defense contractors.)
StevoRsays
@458. birgerjohansson : You beat me to it. Aussie ABC also has this news item on that InSight mission discovery :
The findings are based on seismic measurements from NASA’s Mars InSight lander, which detected more than 1,300 marsquakes before shutting down two years ago. This water — believed to be 11.5 kilometres to 20 kilometres down in the Martian crust — most likely would have seeped from the surface billions of years ago when Mars harboured rivers, lakes and possibly oceans. Lead scientist, San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography Vashan Wright, said that just because water still may be sloshing around inside Mars does not mean it holds life.
“Instead, our findings mean that there are environments that could possibly be habitable,” he said.
His team combined computer models with InSight readings including the quakes’ velocity in determining underground water was the most likely explanation.
The results appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
If InSight’s location at Elysium Planitia near Mars’ equator is representative of the rest of the Red Planet, the underground water would be enough to fill a global ocean between one and two kilometres deep, Mr Wright said.
He was gone for three weeks and when he returned, the world was a different place!
🦜🌻🌺
“Seth Meyers Catches Up on the Worst Three Weeks of Donald Trump’s Campaign ”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=owvCF5cnkYI
🍾🍷
Stephen Colbert:
“Harris-Walz Ticket Supercharges Dems | Trump’s Stages Of Grief | Iconic Camo Hat Sells Out”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=gQ8MNuYdI-Q
birgerjohanssonsays
StevoR @ 465
The least energy-demanding way to get an ocean’s worth of water to the Martian surface may be to get ‘new’ water:
Nudge iceteroids in already elliptic orbits outside Neptune to get a gravity assist from that planet, sending them to the inner solar system.
Half the mass will be solids, the other half will be volatiles, a mixture of water, methane, nitrogen ammonia et cetera.
The downside will be the time factor: those objects need centuries to get anywhere.
I like to use 1996TL66 as an example: perihelium at 35 AU aphelium at 130 AU. At 130 AU you need only a tiny nudge to bring it to Neptune at 30 AU (for simplicity I am disregarding the angle to the ecliptic).
Very little delta-v but it takes nearly a millennium.
On the other hand the medieval cathedral builders were willing to commit to very long projects. And Stonehenge got added to for more than a millennium (but in a couple of centuries I hope we will have “Culture”-style AI minds who are not much worried by biological flaws like ageing).
lumipunasays
SC at 454 – My midnight viewing session was indeed amazing!
I saw a bunch of stars – about as many as you can ever see here in the outskirts of Helsinki, with lots of light pollution around. At this time of year, the night gets just barely dark enough for proper viewing. Generally at these latitudes, late summer and early autumn is the best (or least crappy) season for stargazing, because the nights are much darker than in early summer, while the leaves on trees and lack of snow on the ground reduce light pollution, and there’s still a decent chance of clear skies, and the weather isn’t too cold. Now, the sky was cloudless albeit a little misty.
I saw only occasional stray meteors, but at least one of them was unusually big and bright. It might’ve even qualified as a fireball.
I saw some nice auroras. They were faint and pretty colorless, but they lasted long and spread over much of the sky. They were very slow moving, except for a brief moment there was localized rapid twitching and flickering.
I also saw what I think were two planets very close to each other, rising together from the northeastern horizon. I think the bigger one was either Venus or Jupiter. The other, much smaller one looked slightly reddish, so it was probably Mars rather than Mercury or Saturn. In that position, relatively close to Sun’s direction, Mars would be relatively far from Earth and not look anywhere near its brightest.
I also saw several tiny dots that I think were satellites moving rapidly across the sky. I may not have seen or noticed those before. They’re only visible if its dark at ground level but the Sun isn’t very much below horizon, so they can catch sunlight and reflect it. The Sun was in the north, and I literally saw a couple of the satellites disappear into Earth’s shadow as they flew toward south, deeper into the planet’s night side.
Lumipuna @ 468
Helsinki is clearly sufficiently far south to escape the too-bright nights of the summer period we still have in Umeå.
BTW once you have familiarised yourself with the stars you very quickly notice even slow-moving satellites as they disrupt the familiar patterns of stars.
I hope you will be in a position to see the expected nova that will flare up in Corona Borealis.
Palate cleanser as Phil Plait used to call them – just some awe-inspiring atmospheric (& beyond the atmosphere!) astronomical artwork here The Fantastic Space Art of David A. Hardy Part 2 minute under five minutes long.
lumipuna @ #468, I got a vicarious thrill reading your comment!
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain, @ #463, thanks. I’ve saved that link – I can’t watch it yet because I’m still in Season 3 and I think that’s about Season 4. Now I’m not looking forward to watching Season 4 as much as I was, but they are making a Season 5, so maybe that’ll be another shift!
Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk Oblast aims to prevent Moscow from sending additional reinforcements to the front in Donbas and stop Russian cross-border strikes, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said at a press conference on Aug. 13 attended by a Kyiv Independent reporter.
“Unlike Russia, Ukraine does not seek to seize territory. We want to protect the lives of our people,” spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said….
The Ukrainian operation in Russia’s Kursk Oblast is yet to have an impact on the fighting in the Toretsk sector in Donetsk Oblast, a spokesperson of the 32nd Separate Mechanized Brigade said on air on Aug. 13.
Russian forces continue attacking Toretsk, and battles have now reached the outskirts of the town, military spokesperson Oleksandr Bordiian told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Russia keeps sending sabotage groups and increased the frequency of airstrikes, he added.
The statement comes the same day as Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said the cross-border operation in Kursk Oblast aims to divert Russian troops from Donetsk Oblast, among other goals.
“As for the ground attacks, yes, the intensity has dropped a bit… They did not decrease significantly, but they (Russian forces) are trying to compensate for this by increased strikes with guided aerial bombs,” Bordiian said.
The spokesperson also reported battles in the immediate proximity of Toretsk, specifically in the urban area of the Pivnichne-Zalizne agglomeration. Russia deploys small sabotage groups to infiltrate the Ukrainian army’s immediate rear, he said.
The Toretsk sector in Donetsk Oblast has become another hotspot in recent weeks, with Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi reporting that heavy fighting near Toretsk and Pokrovsk has expanded the active Russia-Ukraine front line.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think-tank said on Aug. 5 that Russia had made “significant tactical advances in the Toretsk direction,” pointing to geolocated footage of Russian forces in Druzhba east of Toretsk.
Russia also continues to press against other Donetsk Oblast towns, namely Chasiv Yar and Pokrovsk.
Dmitri tweeted that the Russians have now evacuated the Bolshesoldatsky district.
Polarizing psychologist Jordan Peterson now says he will attend the social media training he was ordered to undergo by his professional body after Canada’s top court refused to hear his appeal, according to his lawyer.
In 2022, the governing body for Ontario’s psychologists told Peterson — who has gained international fame with his views on women, masculinity and gender identity — to undergo a social media training program or risk losing his licence to practise.
The College of Psychologists of Ontario said some of his social media posts may be “degrading,” raise questions about his abilities as a psychologist and risk bringing the profession into disrepute….
In 2007, Chiquita—one of the world’s largest banana producers—admitted that for years it had been knowingly paying a Colombian terrorist organization to protect its operations in the country. The consequence was predictably violent, allegedly resulting in thousands of murders, disappearances, and acts of torture. This week, nearly two decades later, a federal jury in South Florida ordered the company to pay upwards of $38 million in damages in the first of multiple waves of wrongful death and disappearance lawsuits.
This explainer explores the factors that drove the multinational to make these payments, the consequences, and the legal impact….
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog (one bonus of the Kursk incursion/offensive is that this exists again!).
And here’s a link to today’s Guardian US-politics liveblog. From there:
On Monday night, Donald Trump sat down with billionaire Elon Musk for an interview on X that began 45 minutes late, featured the Republican presidential nominee’s greatest hits and biggest lies, in which he denigrated immigrants and attempted to paint Kamala Harris as a “radical” leftist, repeatedly mispronounced her name, and called the Democratic presumptive nominee “beautiful”.
Throughout the conversation, the two men lavished praise and admiration on each other and at the end, Musk told Trump he was “on the right path”. Here are key takeaways from the event.
The Harris campaign condemned the interview as an example of Trump’s “extremism and dangerous Project 2025 agenda”. Joseph Costello, a Harris campaign spokesperson, said:
Trump’s entire campaign is in service of people like Elon Musk and himself – self-obsessed rich guys who will sell out the middle class and who cannot run a live stream in the year 2024.
The interview came as Harris has pulled ahead in polls following the launch of her campaign last month. The Decision Desk HQ and the Hill’s national polling average now shows Harris with a 0.3% lead over Trump, who had a 3.3% advantage over Joe Biden before the president withdrew from the race.
Harris appears to be in an even stronger position in the key battleground states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, which will likely determine the outcome of the election in November. According to a recent set of surveys conducted last week by the New York Times and Siena College, Harris now leads by four points in those three states, while prior polls showed a virtual tie or a slight Trump advantage in those states.
Arizona voters will get to decide in November whether to add the right to an abortion to the state constitution.
The Arizona secretary of state’s office said Monday that it had certified 577,971 signatures — far above the required number that the coalition supporting the ballot measure had to submit in order to put the question before voters.
The coalition, Arizona for Abortion Access, said it is the most signatures validated for a citizens initiative in state history….
Arizona law currently bans abortions after 15 weeks. The ban, which was signed into law in 2022, includes exceptions in cases of medical emergencies but has restrictions on non-surgical abortion. It also requires an ultrasound before an abortion is done, as well as parental consent for minors.
The proposed amendment would allow abortions until a fetus could survive outside the womb, typically around 24 weeks, with exceptions to save the mother’s life or to protect her physical or mental health. It would restrict the state from adopting or enforcing any law that would prohibit access to the procedure.
Tina Peters, the former clerk of Mesa County, Colo., was convicted on Monday of tampering with voting machines under her control in a failed attempt to prove that they had been used to rig the 2020 election against former President Donald J. Trump.
After nearly five hours of deliberations, a jury in Grand Junction found Ms. Peters guilty of seven criminal charges connected to her efforts to breach a machine manufactured by Dominion Voting Systems. The jury determined that Ms. Peters had helped an outsider gain unauthorized access to the machine in May 2021 and obtain information that was later made public at a conspiratorial event held to undermine trust in Mr. Trump’s defeat to Joseph R. Biden Jr.
Ms. Peters is set to be sentenced on Oct. 3 and could face multiple years in prison.
The conviction of Ms. Peters, who has become a celebrity in the world of those who have denied that Mr. Trump lost the last presidential election, is the first time that prosecutors have managed to hold a local election official accountable for a security breach of a voting machine used in 2020. It also suggests the extent to which allies of Mr. Trump, including those in public office, went to discredit his loss.
[…]
Let’s begin by acknowledging the alarming tableau of the world’s richest man inserting himself forcefully into the presidential campaign of a would-be authoritarian and co-opting his potent global information platform to do so.
As ominous as that sounds, it is also buffoonish – and there’s no reason for those two things to be mutually exclusive.
Last evening’s Elon Musk interview with Donald Trump on the occasion of his return to X/Twitter faced the same kind of comical technical snafus that bedeviled Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign launch with Musk.
Musk blamed a denial of service attack, which is to say malign outside actors trying to shut down the Trump interview. But The Verge throws cold water on that claim, reporting:
The rest of X appears to be working normally, however, and a source at the company confirmed to The Verge that there wasn’t actually a denial-of-service attack. Another X staffer said there was a “99 percent” chance Elon was lying about an attack.
Nothing that was said (or mumbled) rose to the same level of newsworthiness as the grotesque symbolism of the moment.
A judge ruled Monday that independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s name should not appear on New York’s ballot, saying that he falsely claimed a New York residence on nominating petitions despite living in California.
The scion of the famed Democratic political dynasty vowed to appeal, dismissing the ruling as partisan. If the judge’s decision is upheld, it would not only keep Kennedy off the ballot in New York but could also lead to challenges in other states where he used an address in New York City’s suburbs to gather signatures.
“The Democrats are showing contempt for democracy,” Kennedy said in a statement, noting the ruling judge is a Democrat. “They aren’t confident they can win at the ballot box, so they are trying to stop voters from having a choice. We will appeal and we will win.”
[…] In New York, Judge Christina Ryba concluded in her 34-page decision that the rented bedroom Kennedy claimed as his residence in New York wasn’t a “bona fide and legitimate residence, but merely a ‘sham’ address that he assumed for the purpose of maintaining his voter registration” and furthering his political candidacy.
“Given the size and appearance of the spare bedroom as shown in the photographs admitted into evidence, the Court finds Kennedy’s testimony that he may return to that bedroom to reside with his wife, family members, multiple pets, and all of his personal belongings to be highly improbable, if not preposterous,” the judge wrote.
Ryba said evidence submitted in trial showed Kennedy had a “long-standing pattern” of borrowing addresses from friends and relatives so he could maintain his voter registration in New York state while actually residing in California, where he has a home with his wife, “Curb Your Enthusiasm” actor Cheryl Hines.
[…] Barbara Moss, who rents the room to Kennedy, testified that he pays her $500 a month. But she acknowledged there is no written lease and that Kennedy’s first payment wasn’t made until after the New York Post published a story casting doubt on Kennedy’s claim that he lived at that address.
The judge also heard from a longtime friend of Kennedy’s who said the candidate had regularly been an overnight guest at his own Westchester home from 2014 through 2017, but was not a tenant there as Kennedy had claimed. […]
Donald Trump’s presidential campaign announced it had been hacked on Friday following a report that Iranian hackers tried to illegally access a campaign official’s account. On Saturday, The Washington Post and Politico reported that they had received unsolicited emails from an anonymous source who purportedly got ahold of Trump campaign documents—and both outlets held off on publishing anything about that until the Trump campaign confirmed it.
And with that, the story has largely faded. The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Politico’s Monday front pages don’t even mention it.
Compare this scenario to Hillary Clinton in 2016, when “But her emails” wasn’t just a meme, but the Beltway media’s raison d’être.
Clinton’s private email server and the Democratic National Committee’s hacked emails were making headlines on a daily basis. Enough so that the Columbia Journalism Review, the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, and the Shorenstein Center at the Harvard Kennedy School analyzed the coverage.
Their conclusion: The Clinton email controversy received more coverage in traditional media outlets than any other topic during the 2016 presidential election.
According to Columbia Journalism Review’s analysis, “in just six days, The New York Times ran as many cover stories about Hillary Clinton’s emails as they did about all policy issues combined in the 69 days leading up to the election (and that does not include the three additional articles on October 18, and November 6 and 7, or the two articles on the emails taken from John Podesta).”
Beyond The New York Times’ coverage, CJR found that “the various Clinton-related email scandals—her use of a private email server while secretary of state, as well as the DNC and John Podesta hacks—accounted for more sentences than all of Trump’s scandals combined (65,000 vs. 40,000) and more than twice as many as were devoted to all of her policy positions.”
[…] Back in 2016, Politico maintained a daily liveblog reporting “the latest Wikileaks dump of emails from Clinton campaign chair John Podesta.” [example at the link]
For now, it seems like Trump’s email hack seems to have come and gone, with the exception of the news that the FBI is investigating it. Both the Post and Politico sat on the story until the Trump campaign confirmed it, and no reporters have published excerpts from the documents they received.
What a difference a candidate makes.
Posted by readers of the article:
Normally I would agree that material hacked and supplied by a foreign agent shouldn’t be used, but this is Donald “Russia, I hope you have her emails” Trump we’re talking about. I do expect that some non-mainstream outlet will release some of the docs and that will give the MSM an excuse to talk about what they published. In the meantime, we keep pointing out the hypocrisy. (I believe MSNBC was doing that last night.) [Yes. Rachel Maddow covered it, and she showed a mashup video of Trump encouraging Russians, the press, and Wikileaks to hack and to expose all of the private Democratic Party/Hillary Clinton information.]
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I’d agree Politico and other news media are technically correct to consider the source and the motive before deciding whether or what to publish.
The problem is this:
The lack of any ethical debate in publishing the Russian hacks greatly benefited one candidate: Donald Trump
Eight years later, the media restraint in not publishing this alleged Iranian hack benefits one candidate: Donald Trump
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pretty much everyone in the TFG administration inner circle used personal cell phones and email accounts.
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…and before anyone suggests the media learned something from 2016, is there any doubt that if Harris/Walz campaign was hacked the media wouldn’t rush to cover every salacious nugget breathlessly and endlessly?
“It’ll be unbelievable” — Trump says one of his first acts will be to “close up the Department of Education” and cites states like Iowa and Idaho as examples of places that are doing well. Elon says he’s making a good point.
TOPEKA, Kan. — A former central Kansas police chief who led a raid last year on a weekly newspaper has been charged with felony obstruction of justice and is accused of persuading a potential witness for an investigation into his conduct of withholding information from authorities.
The single charge against former Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody alleges that he knowingly or intentionally influenced the witness to withhold information on the day of the raid of the Marion County Record and the home of its publisher or sometime within the following six days. The charge was filed Monday in state district court in Marion County and is not more specific about Cody’s alleged conduct.
[…]
Cody justified the raid by saying he had evidence the newspaper, Publisher Eric Meyer and one of its reporters, Phyllis Zorn, had committed identity theft or other computer crimes in verifying the authenticity of a copy of the business owner’s state driving record provided to the newspaper by an acquaintance…..
The prosecutors’ report concluded that no crime was committed by Meyer, Zorn or the newspaper and that Cody reached an erroneous conclusion about their conduct because of a poor investigation….
Police body-camera footage of the August 2023 raid on the publisher’s home shows his 98-year-old mother, Joan Meyer, visibly upset and telling officers, “Get out of my house!” She co-owned the paper, lived with her son and died of a heart attack the next afternoon.
The prosecutors said they could not charge Cody or other officers involved in the raid over her death because there was no evidence they believed the raid posed a risk to her life. Eric Meyer has blamed the stress of the raid for her death.
ProPublica continues to run circles around this nation’s for-profit media companies when it comes to political and issue journalism, not through any great feats on their part but through the novel concept of investigating the politically powerful rather than simply quoting them. When the New York Times, for all its cash, gets caught systemically using local Republican activists as the just folks they present as supposed independent or pro-Trump-but-Democratic voters—when they aren’t being taken in in even more comical ways—you can see how journalists who know how to Google things already have the upper hand in that battle.
The latest ProPublica scoop is their publication of the “vast majority” of Project 2025’s “Presidential Administration Academy” videos. Before we go any farther, let’s have a look at one. As Sarah Posner notes: “Weird? Judge for yourself.” [video at the link]
Oh you’re gonna want to watch that one. I know you don’t want to but just see if you can make it through ten minutes, that’s all I ask. […]
Other than the set dressing, which is clearly Normie Legal Office Filming Location Epsilon-12, this probably doesn’t scan much different from any number of other far-right conspiracy influencer videos. It’s all about identifying the supposed code words that you can use to determine if someone in your orbit is secretly a trans-supportive reverse vampire communist; if one of your office coworkers ever comes up to you and says one of these code words, you can immediately drop what you’re doing, point at them, and let out an unholy insectoid screech like in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
It’s unabashedly loony stuff, to be sure—but here’s the thing. Remember the premise of this and the other videos: this is the Heritage Foundation-led Project 2025, and these are the (hang on, let me copy-paste this) Presidential Administration Academy training videos. These are premised as being the information new hires in Project 2025’s database of vetted, ready-to-go loyal foot soldiers will need to know in order to take over the government positions they’ll be granted when Dear Leader purges the government of his ideological enemies.
[…] the movement is now consumed with rooting out those who would block a future Dear Leader’s wishes, whether it be Department of Justice officials or the scientists at NOAA.
[…] On seizing power, authoritarian movements must either tolerate the existence of career civil servants who they previously declared to be among the movement’s worst enemies or they must purge those enemies while scrambling to staff their new government with whatever loyal-but-grossly-unknowledgeable toadies can be scraped up. The authoritarians always choose option two, and that requires the movement to institute at least some bare level of training so that these new leaders of government have at least some basic premise of what their new job entails.
So pamphlets are written. Notebooks are distributed. “Schools” are opened to train loyalists in What They Need To Know. And, since we are in the modern age, videos are produced.
Once you watch the tapes, you can be Certified as someone capable of taking on a government role. The tapes will teach you how to Government, even if you have never done so before.
So then, what does Project 2025 consider to be the knowledge most necessary to staff up a newly purged government?
“When I think of climate change I immediately think of population control, don’t you? I think about the people who don’t want you to have children because of the [air quotes] impact [close air quotes] on the environment. Perhaps not everyone will make that connection.” bsky.app/…
Katie Sullivan: “the current mass illegal immigration we are seeing as a result of the Biden administration’s intentional actions is not migration and these people are not migrants. It is an orchestrated Invasion being led by the Biden Administration in conjunction with the Mexican cartels.” bsky.app/…
“The Gender Cult” bsky.app/…
So there you go. If you’re heading in to take on a new job in the State Department or Department of Justice you don’t need to know the particulars of the job. You do, however, need to know that would-be immigrants to America are part of an “orchestrated invasion” led by Joe Biden working in partnership with Mexican drug cartels and that the word “gender” signifies membership in a leftist cult. […]
Once again, this is all playing out precisely as it does in other fascist movements. First, knowledge-holders are singled out as special enemies of the movement, whether they be in government, in science, or in education. Vows are made to purge those enemies using the full force of government. The movement then fills the emptied-out government with its own acolytes, people who were specifically attracted to the movement because they have contempt for that sort of expertise and diligence. The movement attempts to train their new loyalists in what they need to know, but it turns out “what you need to know” in a fascist administration consists of nothing but the same paranoias and conspiracy theories that drove the movement all along.
The end result is rampant criminality and corruption, an oligarchy in which praise for Dear Leader is the main currency, and increasingly bleak public conditions as the authoritarian government botches everything from economic policy to social policy, resulting in shortages of goods and services, which leads to further unrest and either new rounds of violence inflicted on the “ungrateful” population or a nice, distracting war in which the government’s many screw-ups are quickly attributed to some new outside conspirator, requiring the mobilization of troops in order to crush that new enemy, and so on.
[…] We know it for a fact; it’s what happens every other time a fascist movement seizes power. Extremist movements premised on contempt for expertise do not suddenly find it, when it comes time to make training videos teaching their acolytes know How To Run A Government.
I took the ‘ten minute challenge’ Hunter and frankly, now I feel like drinking. That’s the first of those tapes I’ve listened to, but will have to listen to more.
Those two are a couple of true Hand Maids.
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A shortened condensed version could be a Saturday Night skit, but they are deadly serious which is the real disturbing part.
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ProPublica has 14 of those ‘training’ vids
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Project 2025 should’ve been named: “Goosestepping into Gilead”
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These “training vids” are informercials for hate.
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Hi, I’m Katie Sullivan and just a normal American woman…
And we’re off. That’s… quite a thing to say when starting out.
The United Auto Workers (UAW) said Tuesday that it filed federal labor charges alleging former President Trump and Elon Musk attempted to “intimidate and threaten” workers during their Monday evening interview on the social platform X.
“I mean, I look at what you do,” Trump told Musk. “You walk in, you say, ‘You want to quit?’ They go on strike, I won’t mention the name of the company, but they go on strike, and you say, ‘That’s OK, you’re all gone. You’re all gone. So, every one of you is gone.’”
Federal law protects workers who go on strike from being fired, and it is illegal to threaten to do so, the UAW argued.
“When we say Donald Trump is a scab, this is what we mean. When we say Trump stands against everything our union stands for, this is what we mean,” UAW President Shawn Fain said.
[…] Following allegations of unfair labor practices, Musk’s SpaceX has directly challenged the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board in a move experts warned could hobble the agency charged with investigating allegations brought by employees, unions and employers.
“Donald Trump will always side against workers standing up for themselves, and he will always side with billionaires like Elon Musk, who is contributing $45 million a month to a Super PAC to get him elected,” Fain said.
“Both Trump and Musk want working class people to sit down and shut up, and they laugh about it openly. It’s disgusting, illegal, and totally predictable from these two clowns.” […]
Tens of thousands of anti-racist counter-protesters, plus some prison sentences, chased them off.
The far-Right riots in the United Kingdom that targeted immigrants with racism and violence for nearly two weeks largely died down by this weekend, thanks both to huge anti-racist / anti-fascist counter-protests and the deployment of police to areas where far-Right gatherings were planned online. Quick prosecutions of rioters were credited with discouraging further violent mobs as well. The Guardian reports:
Planned far-right action in towns and cities such as Newcastle, Liverpool, Basildon, Wakefield and Shrewsbury did not happen, while a handful of small rallies resulted in swift arrests.
In Yeovil, a small anti-immigration gathering was dispersed by police, with four arrests for offences including racially aggravated public disorderly behaviour and possession of a knife.
Reform UK party’s central London offices were targeted by anti-racism protesters in a peaceful march involving 5,000 people and in Belfast 15,000 people turned up to one of the city’s biggest ever anti-racism gatherings.
[…] attacks on mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers burst out as racist mobs targeted immigrants and British people of color.
The violence was in part encouraged and organized by a network of far-Right online creeps, Reuters reports.
According to Logically, a company which works with governments and other organizations to reduce the harm of misinformation, the planned disorder had been coordinated by an international network of extreme right-wing Telegram channels with links to banned groups.
Former members of banned neo-Nazi groups Atomwaffen Division and National Action had joined U.S.-founded Active Club networks of white supremacist groups, neo-Nazis, and those of nationalist soccer hooligans to stoke tension and provoke clashes. They were among the first to share a list of targets […]
The Guardian points out that online hate groups were involved from the start, according to online hate monitors at the Community Security Trust (CST):
One forum, which was key to organising the first protest that turned into a riot last Tuesday in Southport, is allegedly jointly run by a suspected neo-Nazi. He is believed to be based overseas. […]
No, it wasn’t Elon Musk, although he’s been quite awful enough, predicting the rioting meant “civil war is inevitable” and expressing support for anti-immigrant rhetoric under the guise of free speech.
After Musk bought Twitter, he reinstated most of the neo-Nazis and bog standard racists who had previously been banned, including British far-Right leader Tommy Robinson, who went right back to inciting hatred against immigrants, as CNN reports:
Almost every one of his tweets is an anti-migrant tirade, frequently using dehumanizing and othering language to describe the high rate of legal and illegal migration to the UK.
Those themes are echoed by other high-profile Twitter users, like provocateur Laurence Fox, who hosted a show on the right-wing GB News TV channel until he was fired last October for demeaning the appearance of a female journalist on air. Amid the weekend’s riots, Fox told his followers: “Islam needs to be removed from Britain. Completely and entirely.”
[…] Once again, courts are prosecuting cases 24/7 and getting the word out about heavy sentences. CNN explains:
There have been hundreds of arrests, and already dozens of rioters have been charged and sent to begin hefty prison terms, ranging from several months to nearly three years. Their ages, so far, span from 16 to 69. Some judges’ sentencing remarks have been broadcast live, a novel tactic in a country where courtroom cameras are a recent and heavily restricted phenomenon.
Here’s a BBC report from a few days ago on the successful anti-racist protests to express solidarity with immigrants and people of color; we loved the woman with the goofy sign “No immigrants, no kebabs.” In Brighton, we learn, a small racist rally was so overshadowed by counter-protesters that police had to protect the fascists. [video at the link]
Also too, here’s the other video screenshot we considered using as our top image, from a Guardian video, because doggos are also anti-racist. (Not sure about the location of the protest.) [image at the link]
In a side note, lots of people online are also voting against the creepy owner of Twitter by using their mouse buttons to switch from Twitter to Bluesky. […] Reuters reports that Bluesky has “seen a 60% jump in general activity from accounts in the UK, with several Members of Parliament also joining the platform recently, the company said in an emailed statement on Monday.”
Neener, Elon, neener. I’ll add that one of the few things keeping me on Twitter, the group “Historians at the Movies,” which watches a streaming movie every Sunday and comments on it (historian Kevin Kruse calls it “History Science Theater 3000”), moved to Bluesky this weekend and isn’t going back.
Our takeaway is that the international far Right is very goddamn dangerous, but also that when people organize against fascist creeps, the creeps don’t win. […]
The forces of hate and division have had a terrible run, and can be expected to keep harming people and making America and other countries shittier — but only if the majority of non-shitty people remain silent. […]
Disease was spreading in Gaza. Now there’s polio in the sewage.
Israel’s war in Gaza has destroyed its water and sanitation infrastructure, leaving sewage in the streets as a breeding ground for infectious diseases.
Adel Abu Obeida stays awake at night trying to protect his six children from the sewage, insects and rodents that creep into their family tent in the central Gaza Strip. At sunrise, he lines up at a nearby distribution point for a gallon of water he fears is contaminated.
Last month, his toddler Mohammed caught what doctors said was chickenpox, a highly contagious disease that, in normal times, could be prevented with a simple vaccine.
It is a “health disaster,” Abu Obeida, 43, said by phone from Deir al-Balah, where his family is displaced. “We literally live in a large swamp of sewage.”
Packed into squalid tent camps and apartment buildings in Gaza, where Israel’s war against Hamas has leveled key health and sanitation infrastructure, Palestinians are being overwhelmed by sickness.
A lack of soap, potable water, clean clothes and access to toilets among the displaced means Hepatitis A and other communicable diseases are on the rise. Doctors have also recorded likely cases of scabies, mumps, as well as measles and meningitis, according to health care workers and a United Nations disease surveillance database.
[…] “The detection of polio in wastewater in Gaza is a tell-tale sign that the virus has been circulating in the community, putting unvaccinated children at risk,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday on X. […]
The vast majority of the protesters, though, appear to be U.S. citizens. Biden has not terminated any academic student visas due to participation in protests.
Since the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, Donald Trump and other senior GOP leaders have repeatedly called for the Biden administration to revoke the visas of foreign nationals in the U.S. who openly support Hamas or other U.S. designated terrorist organizations.
Last month, one of the 20 promises in the preamble of the platform adopted at the Republican National Convention was to “deport pro-Hamas radicals and make our college campuses safe and patriotic again.”
But protest organizers contend that Trump and other Republicans are ignoring key facts. The overwhelming majority of demonstrators are U.S. citizens who, under the First Amendment and current U.S. law, have the right to express pro-Hamas, antisemitic or anti-Israel views as long as they don’t break the law.
And Muslim American civil rights organizations say the vast majority of pro-Palestinian protests have been peaceful and showed no public displays of support for Hamas.
The protests, which spread across American college campuses and took over streets in some cities this spring, are expected to flare up again at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next week.
GOP officials and pro-Israel groups told NBC News that they have so far identified only four foreign students on academic visas who were reportedly arrested, barred from graduation or expelled for participating in unauthorized campus protests.
Former Trump administration officials argue that more foreign students are involved in the campus protests and accuse the Biden administration and universities of withholding such information.
Biden administration immigration officials told NBC News that, as of July, they had not terminated any student, or F-1, visas based on protest activity related to the Israel-Gaza war.
[…] Ben Wizner, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, argued that foreign nationals who are visa holders are also protected by the First Amendment. He contended that it would be unconstitutional for authorities to try to deport them based solely on their expressing support for Hamas at protests.
[…] An NBC News investigation this year found no clear evidence financially linking Hamas or any foreign governments to the protests in the U.S.
[…] pro-Palestinian protest movement, overall, appears to be grassroots, with localized efforts that coordinate primarily through social media. Protests are expected to resume at universities in a few weeks when students return to campus.
[…] America First Legal, the Washington-based public policy law firm founded by former Trump aides, sued the Biden administration in April. It argued that the Education Department is purposely protecting “pro-Hamas foreign extremists on American college campuses” and failing to provide records on foreign students, or pro-Hamas activities, at schools.
[…] In federal court papers filed in June, the Education Department denied the allegations and said it was still working on the group’s request for documents.
[…] Civil rights groups and advocates for Palestinian rights say they are prepared to face Trump’s deportation threats if he is re-elected. And former federal prosecutors say that winning convictions for speech-related crimes will be challenging.
Columbia Law School professor Daniel Richman, a former federal prosecutor, said a successful prosecution for a speech-related crime would require federal investigators to prove that a visa holder was knowingly in communication with a member of a terrorist group. And that member would have to instruct the visa holder to express support for Hamas or another terrorist organization.
[…] Mitchell stressed, though, that most pro-Palestinian demonstrations haven’t involved violence or featured displays of support for Hamas.
“When Mr. Trump threatens to deport people, he could try,” Mitchell said. “But if he’s trying to deport people solely based on speech, it’s not going to be a cakewalk.”
When JD Vance returned to Ohio from California in 2016, he created a “nonprofit” that was supposedly dedicated to addressing the Appalachian region’s issues with drugs and chronic unemployment. Our Ohio Renewal was supposed to “make it easier for disadvantaged children to achieve their dreams.” But the nonprofit closed its doors just two years later with no significant achievements other than paying a political consultant to help Vance launch his run for the Senate.
That wasn’t Vance’s only big failure in the area where he grew up. There was also the high-tech agriculture startup, AppHarvest, where Vance was an early investor, board member, and spokesperson.
As Grist reported in 2023, AppHarvest promised to tackle the same issues that Vance’s shuttered nonprofit failed to address. It promised good salaries, big bonuses, and opportunities for promotion. Workers would get 100% employer-paid health care, stock options, and boxes of their own fresh vegetables to take home. Those who had previously been incarcerated for issues related to opioid addiction were welcomed.
That was the promise. What AppHarvest delivered was a “grueling hell on earth.”
As Capital and Main reported in July, Vance has taken a long trek from green energy investor to fossil fuel promoter over the course of his move from California banker to Donald Trump’s running mate. That includes a flip-flop on providing protection to coal-based power plants.
But AppHarvest looked like a company where Vance really could have it both ways. As West Virginia Public Broadcasting reported in February, the idea was to create 18 massive greenhouses that would be used to raise vegetables on an industrial scale and “help replace the fading coal industry.” Workers in the area would get a chance at all those good-paying, bonus-laden jobs, while power for the greenhouses would come mostly from local power plants that were still burning coal.
AppHarvest would be “green” in the sense that it was producing vegetables, but it wouldn’t directly compete with coal and would use it for power. A win-win … so long as everyone agreed to keep ignoring the climate crisis.
With the backing of Vance’s Narya Ventures and other investment firms, AppHarvest managed to raise an astounding $800 million dollars before it had built its first greenhouse. By 2021, Vance was on Fox Business to cheer on AppHarvest’s Wall Street debut. Fox talked about how the company would use recycled rainwater for its crops, avoid pesticides, and how its board also included Martha Stewart. Vance complained that the average supermarket tomato was grown “south of the border” by “people who don’t have great lives.”
[…] as CNN reports, what was incredible is the actual conditions that met workers when they stepped into AppHarvest’s first greenhouse. One worker, Anthony Morgan, reported that temperatures in the greenhouse could regularly reach 128 degrees. “A couple days a week, you’d have an ambulance show up and you see people leaving on gurneys to go to the hospital,” Morgan told CNN. […]
Another worker, Shelby Hester, reported to CNN that she was having to bring her own N95 masks into the hot, humid warehouse. Not as a protection against COVID-19, but because she was getting sick from “the amount of mold and just nasty stuff that was in there.”
According to Grist, the heat index in the greenhouses could reach the 140s or even the 150s. One corporate worker told them that AppHarvest had been sold to people in the area as a “beautiful pipe dream” but was really “a f—ing nightmare.” Another reported on how they had hidden all the Spanish-speaking “contract laborers” before a tour of a greenhouse by Sen. Mitch McConnell.
Just two years after Vance was on Fox promoting the company’s stock, AppHarvest was in ruins, leaving behind hundreds of millions in debt. Rather than helping the Kentuckians Vance had vowed to help, AppHarvest provided a “grim” experience of poor safety and grueling work where those inside the heat were denied even regular water breaks.
Vance’s book, “Hillbilly Elegy,” showed his disdain for the people in the region where he grew up. His fake nonprofit and his failed, abusive company show that his attitude toward “hillbillies” hasn’t changed.
So … Vance fails as a businessman, and Vance backs near-criminal enterprises … just like Trump.
Since Kamala Harris launched her presidential campaign on July 21, Donald Trump has been wandering in the media wilderness, unable to find his way back into the warm glow of pundits’ attention. Even a horrifically racist appearance in front of the National Association of Black Journalists in late July wasn’t enough to put the media back into the outrage-of-the-day groove. Trump has been relegated to the sidelines, fuming about the size of Harris’ crowds.
On Monday night, arguably the biggest investor in getting Trump back into the White House put his $44 billion purchase of Twitter (now X) to work by conducting a more than two-hour “conversation.” As our own Kos noted, the event swiftly spiraled into a disaster plagued by technical glitches and showcasing little more than Trump’s inability to complete a sentence.
On Tuesday morning, Musk was bragging about the level of X activity that the event had generated. What he didn’t note was that a great deal of that activity was mocking Trump and Musk for their feeble performances. [LOL]
Here’s how major news outlets are covering the conversation:
CNN: Was clear on how the event was an attempt by Musk to throw a lifeline to the foundering Trump, writing, “Tech titan Elon Musk threw open his X platform on Monday night, offering Donald Trump a pipeline free of fact checks for his falsehoods, conspiracy theories and extremism as he tries to slow the rise of Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.” Even when Trump predicted that “60 million” immigrants were waiting to invade America if he lost, Musk only agreed.
The Washington Post: Found the event to be “two ideological allies touring the right-wing rhetorical bubble and, like new best friends in fourth grade, scrambling over each other to point out their favorite parts.” You know, where the good parts were repeats of lies Trump has been telling for years.
The Guardian: Pronounced the event “surprisingly dull” and called it “a display of two planet-sized egos, toxic masculinity and breathtaking mendacity” before noting that “Musk and Trump’s banal chatter about subjects such as radioactive vegetables and the defeat of Napoleon” made listeners crave the 40 minutes of “wallpaper music” that had filled an earlier technical delay. [LOL]
Reuters: Seemed surprised that in an evening “marred by tech issues,” Trump lavished praise on Musk for firing tech workers. “‘You’re the greatest cutter,’ Trump said. ‘I mean, I look at what you do. You walk in, you just say: ‘You want to quit?’ They go on strike—I won’t mention the name of the company—but they go on strike. And you say: ‘That’s okay, you’re all gone.’”
NPR: Agreed with many outlets in saying that for all its length, there wasn’t much substance. “Former President Donald Trump and billionaire X owner Elon Musk said a lot but made little news in a meandering interview marred by a lengthy technical delay on Monday night,” the outlet wrote.
USA Today: Columnist Rex Huppke called it “an unmitigated disaster” and said that “For a fascism-curious billionaire who loves cuddling up to right-wing loons, Elon Musk sure is good at making right-wing politicians look stupid.”
X: Even Musk’s own platform has a less than flattering comment on the big event. Asked to provide a summary, X’s AI assistant “Grok” said the event’s “engagement was low.” It also noted that those who attended found it “lackluster and dominated by oversized egos.”
Musk blamed the technical issues on a distributed denial-of-service attack—which works by flooding web servers with junk traffic to overwhelm their resources and knock them offline—rather than his having fired almost everyone at X who is technically competent. But as many sources noted, this isn’t the first time this has happened.
Politico: “The swirl of posts about technical difficulties echoed Musk’s previous X Live event with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who launched his Republican presidential primary campaign on an X live interview with Musk. As appeared to happen with Trump’s event, the site’s livestream portal, which is audio only, crashed.”
Which is a good reminder that before Musk threw his support behind Trump, he was all in for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential bid. And see how well that went?
In the UK, we have an expression for benchmark incompetence: we say someone couldn’t organise a piss-up in a brewery. But a tech boss being unable to organise a tech event on a tech platform feels like a new industry standard: the brewery’s head of piss-ups being unable to launch a piss-up in his brewery.
United Auto Workers files labor charge over Trump comments on strikes
The United Auto Workers labor union, which is trying to organize workers at Tesla, has filed a federal labor charge over comments Donald Trump made last night in his interview with Elon Musk.
The union, which has endorsed Kamala Harris’s bid for the White House, said this comment from Trump to Musk ran afoul of federal law against threatening to fire workers who go on strike: “You walk in, you say, You want to quit? They go on strike, I won’t mention the name of the company, but they go on strike and you say, ‘That’s OK, you’re all gone. You’re all gone. So, every one of you is gone.’”
Here’s more, from UAW president Shawn Fain:
Donald Trump will always side against workers standing up for themselves, and he will always side with billionaires like Elon Musk, who is contributing $45m a month to a Super Pac to get him elected. Both Trump and Musk want working-class people to sit down and shut up, and they laugh about it openly. It’s disgusting, illegal and totally predictable from these two clowns.
As the Guardian’s Michael Sainato reported earlier this year, Elon Musk is part of a group of powerful business interests that have turned to the courts to blunt efforts to organize workers nationwide. Here’s more:
A multi-pronged legal attack under way by Elon Musk, large corporations, business groups and anti-union litigators threatens to “raise havoc” with US labor law and hobble a resurgent labor movement, according to experts.
So far efforts to scale back or undermine workers’ rights through the US courts have centered on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) – the US top workplace watchdog and overseer of union elections. But other laws – including trademark and property rights statutes – are also being used.
Both Musk and Starbucks are pursuing cases that would undermine the NLRB.
Musk’s company SpaceX filed a lawsuit championed by the Federalist Society and other conservative groups against the NLRB in January. The lawsuit claims the board is unconstitutional because its members can only be removed for cause, not at will, and claims the board violates due process protections. The suit was filed in Texas by Musk’s attorneys with the union avoidance law firm Morgan Lewis in response to a board complaint that SpaceX fired workers in retaliation for writing a letter over concerns about Musk’s behavior.
The United Auto Workers union (UAW) leadership is going all in against Donald Trump for this presidential election.
In addition to the statement from the union president, Shawn Fain, the association has posted on X: “He’s for the billionaires. Not for you. Donald Trump is a scab.”
And, with a skeptical inquiring face emoji, the union re-posted the message from Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign X account, @KamalaHQ, that: “Trump praises billionaire Elon Musk for firing workers who were striking for better pay and working conditions.”
The UAW has endorsed Harris for president, as the presumptive Democratic nominee against Trump, the Republican nominee. It is also trying to unionize workers at Tesla, Musk’s electric vehicle company.
Wilma Liebman, chair of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) under former US president Barack Obama, said that the fact that Elon Musk chuckled but did not respond to Donald Trump’s comments about firing strike workers, during their online conversation last night, makes it harder for the NLRB to find the electric vehicle entrepreneur liable for making illegal threats to workers at his companies, Reuters reports.
Under federal law, workers cannot be fired for going on strike, and threatening to do so is illegal under the National Labor Relations Act, the UAW auto workers union said in a statement. Trump called Musk “the greatest cutter” for his swathing job losses.
The NLRB has limited power to punish unlawful labor practices. In cases involving illegal threats, the board can order employers to cease and desist from such conduct and to post notices in the workplace informing workers of their rights. Unions can also use favorable rulings from the NLRB to engage workers they are trying to organize.
“It’s trying to expose more than anything politically what Donald Trump is about in terms of workers, and Musk as well. Everyone knows the NLRB remedies are toothless to start with, but it’s not so much for the remedy as for sending both a political message and an organizing message,” Liebman said.
The UAW has filed separate complaints against Musk and Trump with the NLRB.
Politico:
It looks like The Infinite Thread reached its quota of 500 comments, and rolled over to start anew with comment #1.
For the convenience of readers, here are a few links back to the previous group of 500 comments:
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/07/06/infinite-thread-xxxii/comment-page-3/#comment-2230597
The United States is preparing to send additional combat aircraft to the Middle East in response to threats from Iran and its proxies.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/07/06/infinite-thread-xxxii/comment-page-3/#comment-2230594
Trees Reveal Climate Surprise: Bark Removes Methane from the Atmosphere
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/07/06/infinite-thread-xxxii/comment-page-3/#comment-2230590
US solar production soars by 25 percent in just one year.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/07/06/infinite-thread-xxxii/comment-page-3/#comment-2230588
JD Vance has had a six-figure stake in Rumble, an online video platform. The company has played host to Russian propaganda and to far-right personalities.
NBC News:
Link
Trump is still afraid to debate Harris—and his excuse is hilarious
Anton Petrov:
Did Complex Life on Earth Begin But Fail 2.1 Billion Years Ago?
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=pzGhU6e33lE
Many of you have probably read the news from other sources but I include this link just in case.
There appears to be something in the nature of a minor fascist uprising going on in the UK. I’ve no doubt it will (a) be put down and (b) be used as an excuse for further state surveillance and curbs on peaceful protest.
The Crazy Bunch: Starring Donald Trump & J.D. Vance
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=1jDrMe5YQck
The song Venus is 55 years old!
.https://youtube.com/shorts/KOGPJ861csI
birgerjohansson@5,
It’s not actually news that structures generally called “the Francevillian biota” existed. There is still some doubt that they are actually fossils, and if they are, it is not known what they are fossils of.
NPR:
Trump loses bid to lift New York gag order in response to Harris’ campaigning
KG @ 6
The riots are caused by fake news disseminated by social media. There are already laws in place for stopping violent groups (mainly, football hooligans) from travelling by train and this will be used to stop the fascists from congregating at new targets.
There are also laws in place against spreading lies that result in violence – wether the authorities dare use them remains unknown, as this would mean going after members of Neil Farage’s group, some of them sitting in parliament.
If Farage or Anderson suffer actual consequences they will yell “Help, help, I am being oppressed! and rely on support from ultra-conservative newspapers.
At 3.20 a video starts with Trump being his racist self (about American Indians this time)
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=7VVDJWNRkkw
Panther Luna’s reaction to a new cat 😳(ENG SUB)
A study in coexistence.
The rottweiler is already familiar with the cat, so they get along great. The panther is very shy around the cat, despite being ten times bigger. If Mericans got along like this 90% of your problems would be solved.
A slightly different take:
https://slate.com/culture/2024/08/jd-vance-trump-devil-soul-faust-book.html
Closing paragraph:
“At 3.20 a video starts with Trump being his racist self”
Off the rails, of course. :)
Lynna@499 (previous page):
And tick goes the doomsday clock, several more milliseconds closer to midnight …
That’s the whole point of it: doomishness.
https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/timeline/
Giant, sparkly clams hide the most efficient solar panels ever found
A photo of Tridacna gigas.
birgerjohansson@10,
Which fake news are you talking about? There were false claims in the immediate aftermath of the three young children being murdered in a mass stabbing that the perpetrator was a Muslim asylum seeker who had entered the country illegally, but it has been widely publicised that the suspect is a British-born 17-year-old of Rwandan heritage (hence almost certainly raised Christian, although of course he could be a Muslim, atheist or anything else), and that there is no evidence of a terrorist motive. So anyone still claiming to believe he’s a Muslim asylum-seeker and illegal immigrant is also claiming the authorities are lying. But in any case, it’s clear that fascists have simply used the murders as a pretext, and that more responsibility lies with the wider fake news and Islamophobic bigotry spread not just by “Tommy Robinson” (Stephen Yaxley-Lennon), Nigel Farage, Laurence Fox and Lee Anderson, but by the previous Tory government, and not just in social media but in the right-wing press and broadcast media, and on the BBC.
Exactly: the police have all the powers they need, but the riots will be used to justify the widespread use of real-time face recognition technology, and probably the introduction of new laws which can and will be used against peaceful demonstrations and civil disobedience.
I’ve been subjecting the Olympics as far as possible to a complete ignoral, as I always do, but I haven’t altogether avoided the kerfuffle over women boxers who have been allowed to compete although previously excluded by the International Boxing Association (IBA) for “failing to meet gender eligibility criteria”. The two boxers concerned are cisgender, assigned female at birth and raised as girls, but this apparently hasn’t stopped scum such as Elon Musk and J.K. Rowling attacking them. There are unconfirmed reports that the two boxers, who have been competing internationally for some time, have high testosteron levels and possibly XY chromosomes. At any rate, the disagreement between the IOC and IBA over their eligibilty indicates that it may not be as easy as transphobes like to think to come up with a simple “biological” definition of “woman”, and that attacks on transgender women will inevitably damage cisgender women who fail to conform to gender stereotypes in appearance or behaviour. Who knew, apart from anyone who was prepared to pay attention to the science of human sexual development?
@ ^ KG ; TYT has This 20 mins long clip on that – Right-Wingers UNLEASH Misinfo Over Olympic Boxer Imane Khelifm here if that’s what I think it is. Aware of Imane Khelifa’s case at least here – she isn’t even trans altho’ she might be, possibly, intersex? Born and grew up as a ciswoman and from Algeria wher ebing trasn is apparently illegal so this might be putting her life in danger even. Otherwise seems like echoes of Caster Semenya all over again, sigh. Another Olympic nontroversy and deliberately manufactured outrage from the reichwing to go along with the Christianist whiny bulldust about an Opening Ceremony Act that depicted a Greek mythology painting being instead confused mistakenly as being about the Last Supper. .
@ 19. KG : Ah, hadn’t heard about the Taiwanese boxer – Lin Yu-ting here yet :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lin_Yu-ting
Thanks.
Seems meteors aren’t just good at getting rid of dinosaurs* they can also create an atmosphere too! :
Source : https://www.space.com/moon-atmosphere-meteorite-impacts
Too soon? 😉
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-04/donald-trump-says-he-will-debate-kamala-harris-on-fox-news/104180448
Some good news
Far-Right Beaten Back in Liverpool
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=vbrpghxTLXw
The Ironman actor and his rescued dogs.
.https://www.facebook.com/share/x3Mz9LMXi2RUtqih/
Sabine Hossenfelder
“How could we tell whether AI has become conscious?”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=CSTfgYynziw
Jon Stewart & Ronny Chieng on Dems Calling GOP “Weird” & Trump’s Racist Rebuttal
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=KcMzNiPYlLo
Here is footage from the riots in Britain a few days ago.
“Rioters torch police station, burn cars & injure cops in Sunderland days after Southport stabbing ”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=TP4wnAEG3tk
Yes, I am aware of the irony of using footage from a pocast belonging to a newspaper that supported a jingoist, lawless government.
.
Non-malign target shooting enthusiasts in Australia (where they have strict gun laws).
“30-06 at 3000yards”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=2a9M3sfwTqI
Nearly 2 miles. Not even Jack Reacher can top that.
WaPo:
Trump claims new debate deal as Harris urges sticking to existing date
Great idea. A Fox News crowd can cheer on Trump and shout down Harris.
Epic rant from Kyle Kulinski here – Trump REVEALS Plan To Steal 2024 Election – 21 mins long.
@4 Lynna, OM & @27 tomh: The whole thing demonstrates just how afraid Trump is to appear to not be in a position of power. He has a perfectly good excuse here, he could say his original agreement was to debate Biden and when Biden stepped down there was no agreement any more. Then Trump could say he sees no reason to debate Kamala because she is already a second place replacement candidate. But to take that line he has to admit he is rejecting Kamala’s call to debate and not taking up her challenge. Given his reaction at the time and what he has done after it fully appears that he just can’t stand taking a position that isn’t him dominating his female opponent.
Yep, this is weirdness on the part of Elon Musk:
Link
Elon Musk’s PAC is practicing deception in the service of the Trump campaign.
Cartoon: Too weird
JM @29, yes. Trump is still looking for a way to dominate Kamala Harris. He is failing and flailing.
Trump’s constantly changing demands regarding a potential debate/Trump rally remind me of the ways in which extremist House Republicans insert poison pills into a bill that would otherwise pass. Trump is really just looking for a way out of debating Kamala, a way that will allow him to blame her.
Followup to comment 30.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/scammy-elon-musk-voter-reg-site-wont
Followup to comments 29 and 32.
The Harris campaign was baffled by Trump’s claims that he had struck a deal for a new debate on Fox.
Washington Post link
Trump is trying to make his own reality.
Is the New York Times PURPOSELY Getting Sh*t Wrong?
Josh Marshall:
Link
World culture suffers a huge loss: Aerosmith is retiring.
WaPo:
Trump backs out of ABC debate, says he will only debate Harris on Fox
“I’ll see her September 4th, or I won’t see her at all,” Trump posted on his social network.
By Isaac Arnsdorf, Michael Scherer and Abbie Cheeseman
Updated August 3, 2024 at 3:02 p.m. EDT
Effort to ‘Trump-proof’ US science grows
More on debate. Trump did not agree to debate Biden as he claims. It would be nice if this were more widely reported.
WaPo:
Electrical Canoe (Donald Trump / Electric Avenue song parody)
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=x_RjAdQpLMM
How War In Ukraine is De-Rusifying Baltic States
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=MNlWeul1IYA
I can see this is hard on russian-speaking people who were born inside the baltic states but the collective trauma of Soviet occupation makes a backlash towards Russian influence inevitable.
Interesting video from a reputable channel:
That was not typed by an AI! ;)
Guide dog helping blind member of parliament.
How Jennie the golden retriever is taking Westminster by storm
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=BsZZu9t6g_Q
@13 John Morales wrote about: jd-vance-trump-devil-soul-faust-book.html
I reply: John, you’ve probably seen the tie in with PZ’s new post:
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/08/03/blood-quantum-is-back-baby/
A host on Mike Lindell’s television network called on Vice President Kamala Harris to take a DNA test to prove a demonic spirit wasn’t prompting her to say she was Black.
And, now for a silly break:
I had a friend who mixed Schnapps with rum and called it demonic spirits.
And, thinking about John’s post: the devil you say!
Stay sane people, with the lunacy all around us, I dare you.
Biden stepped aside but he’s still fighting for Americans—and Harris
Study says undocumented immigrants paid almost $100 billion in taxes, by Casey Quinlan, Ohio Capital Journal
shermanj @45, I have indeed.
Similar suspicions (warranted) in Australian news (ABC Australia):
[I’ve cued the timestamp]
Donald Trump ramps up his attacks on Kamala | Planet America
Looks suspiciously like taxation without representation to me.
Here’s a modest proposal: Why not get rid of immigration status and citizenship altogether, in favor of a simple residency rule: if you live full time (or over 50%-time) in a place, and have had for at least six months (or whatever), you get the full benefits of citizenship: you can vote, you can apply for social programs, and so forth. If you life there at all you can work there.
In short, you live somewhere, you get a say in how it’s run. You work there, or you live there and are needy, you get to share in the benefits your neighbors get.
I’m sure there’ll be all sorts of “buh-buh-freeloaders! Wut about terrorism? etc” type responses from the right, and centrists, but I doubt that will end up being much of a problem. People want to contribute. If they can do so without being horrendously exploited they will do so rather than sit idle, for the most part … aside from those raised with giant entitlement chips on their shoulders, who tend to already be freeloaders with massive inherited wealth anyway. Most people just want an honest job (that they’ll do honestly, and that will be honest to them), a roof, and three square meals a day, and as such they add as much to supply as to demand, if there are jobs for them. And if there aren’t, then obviously we’re overproducing, and either can afford to feed a few “freeloaders” or ought to cut back on the overproduction to save the damn planet.
And, of course, who even among those not making money is not typically contributing in some way, to the community fabric or to the local arts scene or straight up unpaid labor like the “second shift”? My guess is that outside of the ranks of the obscenely rich and the most profoundly disabled (and the latter can’t help it) you won’t find a single damn freeloader anywhere.
Follow-up to xxxii p3 #232:
RollingStone – Neil Gaiman: Three women accuse author of sexual assault
Am I Broken Podcast – S4E2 Claire (1:20:21)
Fascist riots continue in the UK. Xitter should be banned in the UK (see 0911 BST at the link):
Keanu Reeves will make a Broadway debut opposite Alex Winter in ‘Waiting For Godot”.
They were both in the “Bill And Ted” films, back when I was a millennium years younger.
BTW is the title of the play intended to be interpreted God dot?
I could only stomach this for a few seconds but here it is if you want to listen.
“Trump Loses It over Empty Seats at Awful Atlanta Speech”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=X9DeoeNitpY
“Grubby Opportunists Riding On Coattails Of History”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Go6cY-4K45Q
No more than it was intended to torture schoolchildren.
(It is the most boring thing ever)
“Grubby Opportunists Riding On Coattails Of History”
Well, that could hardly be less specific.
(That’s every single person ever born, no?)
What is it that Trump lost, and why is that only stomachable for a few seconds for you?
(More questions than answers, in your posts)
Oh, yeah.
Why would I want to listen to Trump allegedly losing something (“it”) that you could only stomach for a few seconds?
(Whatever that might have been)
These grubby opportunists are mainly Nigel Farage and the other creeps who emerged in Britain (and USA) around 2015. But their followers still deny any mistakes which is just what I expect.
Cancer: Researchers devise novel solution to preventing relapse after CAR T-cell therapy
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-07-solution-relapse-car-cell-therapy.html
ChatGPT still not very good at diagnosing human ailments
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-08-chatgpt-good-human-ailments.html
Britain catching up with tory backlog in EU relations:
“What Does EU’s Tough Line on Agreements Mean?”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=TjMEFN-ti7c
A fifth of medicines in Africa may be sub-par or fake, research finds | Africa | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/04/fifth-of-medicines-africa-substandard-fake-research
O dear, it is as if the absence of regulations and effective controls do not translate into an optimal system. /s.
Britain: Nigel Farage Changed His Tune on Rioting #shorts
.https://youtube.com/shorts/DuRQF6LTowY
Families struggle to eat in Republican-led states that denied federal aid
Followup to birger @53.
Here is a summary:
JD Vance was also there. He claimed that Kamala Harris wants to “take away your ability to eat red meat.”
Yep, there’s still lots of infighting in the Republican camp … especially when it comes to the state of Georgia:
Link
CNN: F-16s arrive in Ukraine
Very short on details, how many planes and how many trained pilots is not being revealed. Ukraine will keep the details entirely secret until they are ready to challenge Russia for control of front line air space. Right now Russia controls it but can only erratically take advantage. Russia has a shortage of combat planes and Ukraine has lots of high powered anti-air systems donated by the US and EU.
If Ukraine can force Russian air control back it will be a big step in Ukraine’s favor. It will be harder for Russia to do ground support or bombing from the air and Ukraine will be able to do it some. Like a bunch of other things, Russia can’t get enough of their advanced fighters in the air and depends on older ones. If Ukraine has enough F-16’s and enough trained pilots they should be able to win air control.
‘They’re the weird ones’: Trump’s angry retort is just weird
YouTube link:
The video is 3:44 minutes long. Good history/patriarchy discussion, and good musical excerpts.
More:
Black Music Sunday link
Re: Lynna, OM @ #69…
Carrington honored? Must have been an electrifying event…
‘Trevor Noah Takes a Swing at Trump & He’s Not Holding Back’
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=y7nhkafErCg
Trevor Noah: “Trump has been like a black light for America”
A caller:”I only go to late night comedians to get my news now”
Lynna OM @ 69
2021: A Carrington Event.
Lynna, OM @ 65
J D Vance; Kamala Harris wants to “take away your ability to eat red meat.”
…and replace it with Soylent Green, produced from dead grannies killed by Obama’s Death Panels!
.
I am surprised they forgot to talk about brainwashing straight kids into being trans. Because we all know how easy it is to change qualities created by embryonic development. Personally I have talked several people into growing an extra pair of ribs. A dude once talked me into growing a vestigal tail!
birger @73, JD Vance’s wife is vegan, I think. She talked about JD learning to cook vegan dinners. That makes what said about Kamala Harris even more strange.
Cartoon: Trainwreck
Why many nonprofit (wink, wink) hospitals are rolling in money
News from the Olympics:
Ukrainian high jumper who fled Russia’s war wins high-jump gold
https://www.nbcnews.com/sports/olympics/live-blog/olympic-games-2024-live-updates-rcna162869#rcrd50625
Mano Singham: John Oliver on the West Bank
.https://freethoughtblogs.com/singham/2024/08/04/john-oliver-on-the-west-bank/
Not on the same page?: JD Vance touts Georgia’s election security after Trump attacks state officials
Re: Lynna, OM @ #75….
There is nothing that prevents a “non-profit” organization from making money. The distinction is that a non-profit cannot disburse those funds to whoever controls the organization.
The overall thing about having a non-profit own a for profit subsidiary is legal, so long at the pro-profit subsidiary pay taxes on whatever they retain. In the UK, the not-for-profit Raspberry Pi Foundation (a non-profit educational organization) created the for-profit Raspberry Pi Trading, Ltd to do R&D and licensing of products developed. All of the profit from RPTL went to the Foundation, which used the funds to do things like non-charged teacher training and a large array of other educational work. (RPTL has since been partially sold off and gone through an IPO).
Inmates battle heat, mold and mice inside Mississippi’s largest prison
Despite Justice Department scrutiny of the state penitentiary in Parchman, some housed in Unit 29 say conditions are worsening because of the extreme heat.
Inside the sole unit without air conditioning at Mississippi’s largest prison, inmates hang wet sheets from their cell ceilings to dampen the air and lay drenched towels strategically across their bodies.
A temporary reprieve comes from scoops of ice handed out twice a day.
As punishing heat spreads across the Deep South this summer, inmates in Unit 29 at Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman say they are sweltering inside cells where temperatures can easily climb into the triple digits.
The issue drew the scrutiny of the U.S. Justice Department four years ago, but despite efforts to upgrade the only maximum-security prison for men in the state, inmates say the situation has not improved.
“It’s hotter inside the cell,” one inmate in his 30s said by phone recently. “I’d rather be outside on the pavement and no shade. At least you can get a breeze. The heat inside is just stationary.”
Another inmate in his 40s said the showers he’s allowed to take about 10 times a month are equally unrelenting.
“They are too hot,” he said. “They will literally scald you.” [video at the link]
[…] Rappers Jay-Z and Yo Gotti helped to file lawsuits in support of inmates in the state prison system, alleging “inhumane and dangerous conditions of confinement.”
Phone interviews in recent weeks with a correctional officer, a former chaplain and a half-dozen inmates in Unit 29 indicate conditions remain unsanitary and potentially dangerous. The inmates and the correctional officer were granted anonymity because they feared retaliation.
[…] Mississippi began installing air conditioning in some units at Parchman, but not all of them, including Unit 29, because funding ran out, said Department of Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain. He estimated in 2022 that it would cost $650,000 to install air conditioning at Parchman alone.
While federal investigators said they did not focus on inmates’ allegations of “unlivable and unsanitary conditions throughout Parchman,” they noted “egregious environmental conditions” in solitary confinement that could affect inmates’ mental health, according to the report. That included leaking water, “pervasive” mold and inoperable exhaust fans contributing to “poor ventilation and extreme heat.”
“Documentation produced by MDOC confirms numerous reports from incarcerated individuals of extreme heat in Parchman’s restrictive housing units,” some of which are within Unit 29, investigators said in the Justice Department report.
[…] Temperature logs from Unit 29 indicated “temperatures over 100 degrees every day during the timeframe of reported complaints,” the report stated, with the highest temperature recorded “at the dangerously hot 145.1 degrees.”
[…] The Department of Corrections said in July that it had no timetable for installing air conditioning in Unit 29, but that water, ice and industrial floor fans were being utilized, Mississippi Today reported.
Inmates who spoke with NBC News said ice availability can be irregular, water from their sinks has appeared discolored and fans and ventilation are covered in filth.
“It’s so thick with mold, you can snap it,” an inmate in his 30s said about the fans and ventilation.
[…] On top of the stifling temperatures, the inmate and others described receiving their meals on trays with black mold, corroded ceilings and walls, and enduring mice, mosquitoes and other insects year-round.
[…] One longtime correctional officer said workers and inmates in Unit 29 are still suffering, and while some employee salaries have increased in recent years, staffing shortages have led to a depletion in morale.
“It really hasn’t improved,” the correctional officer said. “It’s miserable going to work, and it feels like 200-something degrees.”
[…] At least 13 states in the South and Midwest lack universal air conditioning in their prisons, according to the Prison Policy Initiative, a research and advocacy nonprofit.
A hearing was held last week in federal court in Texas over an inmate’s lawsuit accusing the state of cruel and unusual punishment for not providing air conditioning and seeking to ensure its availability in all state prisons. Heat-related prison deaths in Texas rose from 2001 to 2019 and may be attributable to extreme heat days, according to researchers at Boston, Brown and Harvard universities.
Lawmakers in Texas and other states without universal air conditioning have balked at the cost of installing it. But experts say climate change will only make the problem worse as the U.S. faces more extreme weather and heat.
[…] “The promised reforms remain largely unfulfilled.”
Jimmy Carter wants to live a little longer to vote for Kamala Harris
.http://youtube.com/post/UgkxdgGRhkkD9DKxbJ007q9YGFdh3eJwIESK
Of course not. It’s a chatbot, not a medbot.
Future 1st family (plus cat)
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/CZKwERX7V1fBCEK5/
Promise
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/TypigsquvTcYXaws/
David Mitchell || The Unbelievable Truth | Series 4
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=h0i3f0E7JBs
Here is something you can fall asleep to while listening to the program.
It is based on identifying the true claims in otherwise utterly bogus lectures. They pick various Brit /Scot/American comedians for each round.
birgerjohansson@81,
I hear Carter is likely to be Harris’s running mate – she needs an experienced white male politician to balance the ticket!
Lynna@76:
I guess it beats a cardboard bed?
I’ve noticed that a lot these games. Lots of hugging, especially among the women but sometimes even among the men, and not just the perfunctory “sportsmanlike handshake”.
Is this just me, or is there more of this going around this year? Could it indicate a general shift of society in a positive direction? Less “winning is the only thing” and more empathy?
RFK Jr says he was behind mystery of dead bear dumped in Central Park with bicycle. Is RFK even weirder than Trump and Vance? Is he bringing this up now in order to compete for the weird vote?
John, do you really not understand the “loses it” idiom? You’ve been commenting here for many years and your English has appeared completely fluent and idiomatic.
Only a matter of time before hugging becomes an Olympic sport!
Yes. And this does not apply.
Destroyed. Slammed. Melted. Etc.
I know the idiom. I don’t know how it supposedly applies.
See, this is how it goes.
Birger posts some bullshit clickbait title thingy, and the naked link.
No context, no anything.
And I go by the one and only thing available: the title.
Which is bullshit.
—
The dynamic is simple.
I can’t respond to those bullshit posts with just a title and a naked link and no context if they aren’t there.
(Right?)
—
(Please, please, don’t do a SoylentBubble and claim I’m being somehow hyperliteralistic!)
Not like it’s the first time, right?
But somehow it’s always late at night and he’s at a bus stop or something.
(Spam, not my thing)
Basically, if the only possible way to determine what to the adduced link relates, one has to fucking click on it and spend time seeing what it is.
I’ve been as obvious as I can possibly be including context and other info whenever I care to actually share a link.
I am not lazy.
(Unlike some)
[look at #59. A bare, rare concession. And how the fuck would anyone ever know the reference without that?]
I mean, I could lazily just fucking copypaste links and titles in a spammy manner too.
Easy as fuck. Clickety-click, done
No need to add context, details, nothing.
But I respect other readers too much.
(And, to be fair, I reckon Reginald finally got it, to his credit)
You know.
Does it catch my eye?
(Spam it! Fuck context, fuck sourcing, fuck opinion, just spam it. O joy!)
KG:
Depends.
Define ‘weird’ in this context, and I can tell you ‘yay’, ‘nay’, or ‘depends’, depending.
How strange that it appeared so!
<snicker>
If you cared to presume I actually am fluent in idiomatic English, perhaps it could have occurred to you that I am being a tad indirect, if taken literally.
—
I think I have clarified in this little burst of comments.
And please, don’t do that silly thing about imagining multiple comments in a row mean I’m melting down or something. Rather the opposite; I am being even more emphatic.
(Infinite thread, endless comments)
Nah. Thing is, Birger is spamming stuff he happens to come across in about as lazy a manner as could be imagined.
And I note that.
(I could not do that without the actual spamming of bullshit clickbaity things, so there’s that)
Anyway.
Had you not posted that, KG, I would not have known that there is a headline to the effect that “RFK Jr says he was behind mystery of dead bear [blah]”.
(Remember when this was about ‘political madnessw’?)
@ 90
This looney is literally obsessed with me. X-D
This is what it must be like to a celeb who has some weird stalker. “Why is this random idiot I don’t even know referring to me in contexts that have nothing to do with me? Why is he even thinking of me”? It’s super weird and disturbing.
Not for the first time I advise you to see a counsellor you weirdo. I don’t know you and don’t want to. And your ludicrious hyperliteralist trolling is well known and documented. I sure as fuck didn’t invent it.
Another take:
What made you imagine I supposedly did not understand the “loses it” idiom?
(All this time, you still don’t get my techniques? So weak!)
Silentbob, heh heh heh
Gotta love my hatefan addict popping in.
<snicker>
In Yana, the Touch of Undying.
The tapeworm did not invent the colon, either.
(But that’s where it belongs)
Anyway.
$HEADLINE$
#nakedlink#
Not the best way to post stuff.
Lazy as fuck.
And I will keep noting it.
Right?
@54: ““Grubby Opportunists Riding On Coattails Of History”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Go6cY-4K45Q”
@59: [after due prodding’
“These grubby opportunists are mainly Nigel Farage and the other creeps who emerged in Britain (and USA) around 2015. But their followers still deny any mistakes which is just what I expect.”
Now, had that bit been in #54, my comment would have been precluded.
(But, too fucking lazy)
What made you imagine I supposedly did not understand the “loses it” idiom? – John Morales@100
Of course I knew you did understand it and were pretending not to. I simply mirrored your technique by pretending not to know that.
Morales never even enters my thoughts unless I come across his latest idiot comment.
Can you see how disconcerting it is to come across some random thread that’s nothing to do with you and here’s this psycho talking about “soylentblather” or whatever other schoolyard insult he’s invented.
Does this nutjob lie awake at night dreaming up this shit? Is he plotting some revenge on me for being the 4,278th commenter to point out he’s a troll?
It’s genuinely disturbing. Why is this fucking creep even thinking about me? :-/
Fuck off dude and seek help.
Mate!
You are the one who has hounded me for literally three years now across multiple blogs.
Whyever would I think of my obsessive hatefan who has literally posted thousands of comments trying ever so hard to diss me and to object to what I write (with equal lack of success, but hey, desire and competence aren’t necessarily linked) and basically doing their best to harass me?
(So weird!)
Heh
KG,
Yeah, I knew you were bullshitting.
And no, you did not mirror my technique, you attempted to do so, but without grokking the way.
For you: Basicallly, it has to work on multiple levels: the literal, the metaphorical, and the idiomatic.
(And it has to be unfalsifiable in each)
KG,
No, you did not mirror my technique, you attempted to do so, but without grokking the way.
Cargo-cult effort.
For you: Basicallly, it has to work on multiple levels: the literal, the metaphorical, and the idiomatic.
(And it has to be unfalsifiable in each)
—
That’s what drives weak sods like the SoddenBog to antipathy; they can’t cope with me.
—
“Oh, they never lie. They dissemble, evade, prevaricate, confound, confuse, distract, obscure, subtly misrepresent and willfully misunderstand with what often appears to be a positively gleeful relish and are generally perfectly capable of contriving to give one an utterly unambiguous impression of their future course of action while in fact intending to do exactly the opposite, but they never lie. Perish the thought.”
― Iain M. Banks, Look to Windward
Such neediness!
[Hm; ok]
Fascist rioters in England have made an apparently serious attempt to burn down a hotel housing asylum-seekers. Hopefully, charges of attempted murder will be levelled at those responsible.
I use “England” here rather than “the UK”, because that’s where almost all the fascist violence has been, and England flags (the red-on-white cross of “St. George”, the well-known imaginary Cappadocian Greek) have been waved along with Union Flags. An exception is in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where there was the unusual sight of Union Flags and Irish Tricoleurs being waved alongside each other by fascists from “Loyalist” and “Republican” backgrounds. So far no rioting in Scotland – although the fascists are apparently planning a big demonstration in Glasgow on September 7th, very little in Wales.
You have an unjustifiably high opinion of your rhetorical prowess, John. Although as I’ve noted before, Silentbob’s obsession with you is even more irritating than you are yourself.
Interesting.
The SmellyBog thinks I lack self-esteem.
Anyway.
You do get that your attempts to copy my technique lead to such exchanges as this, no?
(If you had actually used my techniques, you’d not have been subject to my #100 where you–and kudos for integrity–had to fess up)
can you just make one long post instead of 20 short ones? some of us come here for the interesting links, not self-righteous spamming.
tia
It’s a shame about JM, really. He used to put up some interesting bits of information once in a while. I’ll no longer see any of them, however, because I automatically skip over everything he says due to his tiresome quibbling.
I miss James Randi and like how she uses this invention –
https://www.gocomics.com/lay-lines/2024/07/15
@116 redwood wrote: It’s a shame about JM, really. He used to put up some interesting bits of information
I reply: John, please, you do make good contributions to this blog. Ignore all the insults. And, the others that engage in personal insults should STFU, too.
@KG #89:
Wrestling
Given the state of the GOP, it’s not easy for any Democratic candidate to pick up cross-party backing, but Kamala Harris is now backed by many Republicans.
Judge Chutkan Has Trump’s Jan. 6 Case Back And Is Ready To Roll
Washington Post link
Secretaries of state urge Musk to fix AI chatbot spreading false election info.
Grok, the AI search assistant on Musk’s X platform, suggested that Kamala Harris had missed the ballot deadline in nine states. She hasn’t.
Cartoon: Maga-Man and Fertility Lad
Elon Musk’s X Is Spreading Deepfakes of Kamala Harris
Two phony videos seen by tens of millions of users appear to violate X’s own terms of service.
JD Vance Reiterates False Claim That Democrats “Tried to Kill” Trump
The VP candidate and other Trump allies keep pushing a narrative that threat experts say will fuel violence.
Biden, Harris head to Situation Room as Iran threatens attack on Israel
Goldman boosts recession odds but sees ‘limited’ risk of downturn
Bet You Can’t Wait To Hear How JD Vance’s Wife Usha Defends His ‘Childless Cat Lady’ Comments
Points for creativity?
Followup to KG’s comment 87, concerning Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the dead bear:
https://www.wonkette.com/p/in-desperate-bid-to-prove-his-normality
Washington Post link
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigns and flees country.
Hasina’s resignation, announced by Gen. Waker-Uz-Zaman, comes after hundreds have been killed in clashes between protesters and security forces in recent weeks.
Debby live updates: Storm made landfall as Category 1 hurricane, at least 4 dead in Florida
Half of Trump’s former cabinet secretaries haven’t backed his 2024 bid
WaPo:
With voting under attack, Arizona schools don’t want to be polling locations
By Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, Clara Ence Morse and Hannah Natanson
August 5, 2024
As false information about elections continues to spread, many school leaders in Maricopa County have closed their doors to the democratic process.
Link
Commentary from Steve Benen:
Link
Josh Marshall:
Neil Gorsuch Smarmily Threatens Nation Like Some Kind Of Mafioso
Nice democracy you got there. Be a shame if Neil Gorsuch happened to it.
Sabine Hossenfelder debunks a climate change denier.
Also, we learn the meaning of Fremdschämen.*
“Climate Change is a Myth” — A Nobel Prize Winner’s Embarrassing Ideas
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=_kGiCUiOMyQ
*it is the kind of cringe you feel when watching Basil Fawlty, or Mr. Bean.
Gender-affirming surgeries more prevalent in cisgender minors
WaPo:
Former Trump attorney Jenna Ellis agrees to cooperate in Arizona elector case
Yvonne Wingett Sanchez / August 5, 2024
Trump’s recent speech in Georgia was apparently so bad that Fox cut away from it, and audience started leaving when he entered the second hour of whatever the hell that was.
redwood: “It’s a shame about JM, really. He used to put up some interesting bits of information once in a while. I’ll no longer see any of them, however, because I automatically skip over everything he says due to his tiresome quibbling.”
Your quibbling is not at all tiresome, of course.
—
coffeepott: “can you just make one long post instead of 20 short ones? some of us come here for the interesting links, not self-righteous spamming.
tia”
I could, but it would be the same amount of posting, and this is the endless thread. There is no limit to the number of comments. More to the point, any interesting links are still here, still available.
So, basically, you seek for me to change my posting habits purely for your personal predilection, right?
—
But hey! I’ve just combined two separate comments into only one comment. So, there’s that.
(Shame redwood shan’t be seeing my response, but hey — that’s up to them, not up to me)
Supreme court won’t stop Trump sentencing going ahead.
The sentencing will be at September 18, in Manhsttan.
-A relatively recent summary of the birth of the Earth and the gradual evolution of the biosphere.
It incorporates the latest discoveries in a easy-to-follow narrative.
Much recommended!
🪐 🪱🌱🐟
The Earliest Years Of Earth’s 4.6 Billion “Year History”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=BYIzRWwT2T8
The only questions that I have is how space dust made the leap from decimeter-scale lumps to planetesimals, and how life survived the “snowball Earth” events.
“Newly developed loop heat pipe transports 10 kW of waste heat: No electricity required”
https://techxplore.com/news/2024-08-newly-loop-pipe-kw-electricity.html
Fox News host admits the economy isn’t all doom and gloom
LOSER TRUMP is Trying to Provoke Panic Over a Common Stock Market Drop to Save His Failing Campaign
From Reuters:
Followup to comments 127 and 146.
Associated Press:
The market has already opened in Japan and it has gone back up.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/trump-lackey-still-planning-project
@birgerjohansson #144:
Wikipedia is behind the times on this.
“Nebular hypothesis” says “How 1cm sized particles coalesce into 1km planetesimals is a mystery.” citing a 2002 paper.
“Accretion (astrophysics)” likewise cites old stuff.
“Pebble accretion” too.
“Streaming Instability” had a recent source overviewing the answers you seek.
Comets and Planetesimal Formation (2022)
^ Click “View pdf” on the right, Page 9.
Page 26, Concluding Remarks
Noah, Heath and Eli travelled to Salt Lake City to do a live episode of ‘God Awful Movies’ in front of an audience of half ex-mormons; dissecting the LDS film “The Oath”.
My comment: the mormons should just hire Mel Gibson when they want to make religious films. Gibson is problematic, but a professional. His films never ended up at that space station where they watched horrible films.
(the episode should pop up at Youtube in a day or two)
Tunisia court jails potential presidential candidates and bars them from upcoming election | Tunisia | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/06/tunisia-presidential-candidates-jailed-election
The Daily Show |
RFK Jr.’s Dead Bear Story & Highlights From 2024 Olympics
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=jkrkP8Emf0Q
There is a block of 22 comments above within which 19 are from the same maladjusted attention whore. Bender? Sundowning? Or just desperately bored? Ya gotta wonder.
Bounded Bekenstein (heh):
Just got to! It is ineluctable.
I know. I am wonderful. Thanks!
(You do mean me, doncha, O maladjusted attention fluffer?)
Heh.
Go for it.
Ejaculate when you think about me, that’s the thing!
OK. You are now known to me.
—
Whoredom is a noble calling; they actually get paid for their professional duties.
Besides, that would make you the John, no? Heh.
Maladjusted just means not-complying with the usual social constrictions.
Not beeing sheeplish.
Free-thinking, one could say.
(You imagined you were being insulting? Heh)
—
Gotta love these feebles’ little moans about me.
(Attention, I have no worries getting. Understanding, well… not by the plebs)
BBs are like bullets, but weaker and smaller and less harmful.
(I do love the counting, but. In an endless thread)
—
And yes, I remember TET, not this TIT. :)
It’s quite rude and cowardly to ostensibly address the audience whilst actually whining at someone.
I get that a fair bit.
Cowardice, basically.
(Weak, that is. This is what happens to such cowards)
You never had a hobby, did ya?
(Boredom, that most certainly ain’t it)
Rachel Maddow:
“Where did the cash go?’: Maddow looks for clues in new report about Trump, Egypt and $ 10 million”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=sFMrygQa8U8
Stephen Colbert reveals that Trump falsely claimed Kamala Harris ‘happened to turn Black”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=WZKBI1BOlxA
.
Also… who are the low-information voters who think Democrats permit infanticide? Are the Qanon crowd big enough to have influence in the election?
Hey, Bekenstein “maladjusted attention whore” Bound , how’s your essay at sniping going for ya?
(I’m quoting someone’s purple prose, you know. That’s why the quotation marks)
Anyway.
Oblique, I can be.
https://necromancyneverpays.wordpress.com/2022/04/21/the-stress-of-her-regard/
[Lynna, you know how it is. A touch of levity in these troublesome times.
But the Thread endures, and I don’t mistake your light touch for sappiness]
Used to be political madness, this thread.
Infinite, for sure, that is.
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-06/nsw-peter-dutton-comments-islamophobia-discrimination-complaint/104186088
Dutton is a blatant bigot and a truly horrible human. I hope the Alliance Against Islamophobia wins here.
Misinformation fuelling race riots across the UK | Media Watch Aussie ABC News – 15 mins long.
Yes, and no.
You are O so very judgemental, StevoR.
And that complaint is about as weak-arse (‘weak-ass for USAnians) as it can get.
FFS.
You are so clueless!
(Sloganeering and names, these still befuddle you. Look at the substance)
I mean, you do get Dutton is just red-meating his demographic, right?
Read it for yourself, don’t fucking go by the AAI’s spin.
“[…] it will include the Greens, it’ll include Green-Teals, it’ll include Muslim candidates from Western Sydney. It will be a disaster.”
Get it?
The “Muslim candidates from Western Sydney” are grouped with “the Greens” and the “Green-Teals”.
(What, should there be an Alliance Against Tealphobia formed? Just as bad, no?)
—
In short, please, please, start thinking for yourself.
(Then I could dispute or endorse your opinion, not your sheepish following of press pabulum)
It amuses me you don’t get how ironic it is you adduce an article about misinformed people, StevoR.
(Oh no! Three comments in a row! I’m using up the thread!)
One more, maybe I can get through.
↓
.
Same thing, no?
(Such a horrible person!)
OK, going to bed, but one last one.
Remember how you got into trouble for your O most enthusiastic cheering-on of Israel?
(You’re kinda doing the same thing, but in reverse, right now. Think about it!)
Lol. Seems you have been judged and found wanting, StevoR.
(You should of course ignore Morales – he’s trolling you. It’s his hobby. Rather pathetic really.)
@ 165.WARNING : Last segment has some pretty gross explict sexual references and languages from the 9 mins 50 seconds mark onwards.
Mainly sharing here for the first two segments (‘Fake news sparks riots’ & ‘Wrong’ flag.’)
Public outrage: “Most Reform UK Voters Against Rioters”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=WNcV2EAgoJ4
The rioters in Britain are quite isolated
Kamala Harris names Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor, as running mate | US elections 2024 | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/06/kamala-harris-vice-president-pick-tim-walz
@166. John Morales :
I think there’s more than ample evidence of Peter Dutton over decades to draw that conclusion based on Dutton’s words and actions from demonising Sudanese youth as criminals, joking about Pacific islands vanishing, opposing equal marriage, needlessly destroying the Indigenous Voice to Parlt by spreading racist misinformation, his utterly heartless treatment of refugees imprisoned in Australia’s racist sadistic Offshore (non)Processing, and so much more. (Eg and part of the wiki-listing of his appalling words and deeds here : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Dutton#Sarah_Hanson-Young_spying_incident )
Frex :
Source : https://alhr.org.au/human-rights-lawyers-say-dutton-comments-fuel-racism-undermine-democracy/
With whole books written assessing Dutton’s racist and, yes, evil policies and actions eg :
Source : https://www.quarterlyessay.com.au/essay/2024/03/bad-cop
Why do you think that?
Dutton is a candidate for future PM with a long history of displaying Islamophobic bigorty – among many other forms of bigotry notably against our First Peoples, Queer people and non-white Africans communities. There is a lot of context and history here and the Gestapotato has form here. Perhaps Dutton’s dogwhistle sounds mild or inaudible to some but to those in the marginalised and demonised community it is more than loud enough to worry them.
To say singling out an entire religious community is the same as singling out a specific political party and set of politicians with pro-Climate Action policies (Teals) seems conflating two different things. Muslims are not a political party.
I hope I have learnt by now NOT to overgeneralise – a previous bad flaw of mine and a trap I try not to fall into anymore. Peter Dutton is a singular individual. (Altho’the leader of a political party – well, coalition of two parties actually.) Peter Dutton’s own specific personal character and history condemn him and expose him ias ablatant bigot and horrid excuse for a human in my view because of all the things already noted and more.
More examples of why I – and others – consider Dutton a hateful bigot who has earned his Gestapotato nickname :
Source : https://theconversation.com/peter-duttons-fast-track-for-white-south-african-farmers-is-a-throwback-to-a-long-racist-history-93476
Plus :
Source : https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/dutton-avoids-integrity-to-fan-flames-of-racism,17904
As well as this Satrirical take from the old SB FThe eed show – Peter Dutton: Douche that keeps on giving ” here – 3 mins 42 secs long.
^ Satirical take from the old SBS The Feed show that is.
.***
Source : https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/trump-racist-minnesota-omar/
StevoR,
Dutton would be an unelectable weird nothingburger if Australian media wouldn’t hang on his every word as if it was the gospel of Matthew, and quote and regurgitate it relentlessly, and the ABC is particularly guilty of this.
@ ^ rorschach : I blame Murdoch for that a lot more and, of course, Dutton is the “alternative PM” albeit they never treated Albo or Bill Shorten etc..before him as kindly or with as much serious attention when the ALP was in opposition. Grrr.. Yeah, our Aussie media has a definite reichwing bias. Even the increasingly undermined and white-anted ABC.
StevoR,
it’s the Trump playbook, lie without shame, flood the zone with shit, you know the media will lap it up and some of it will stick with (low information) voters. Add to that that the governing Labor party is turning out to be an absolute nightmare, and you can easily see the Liberals in with a chance to win the next election. (Liberals in Australia are the bad guys, think Republicans)
Followup to comments 68 and 174.
Targeting Tim Walz, Team Trump flunks a test of self-awareness
Trump’s press secretary complained about Tim Walz restoring voting rights for formerly incarcerated people — seemingly unaware of Trump’s criminal record.
Walz served 12 years in Congress. He represented a rural county. That and his governing experience in Minnesota should stand him in good stead as far as preparation for the Vice Presidency.
NBC News:
That’s a good sign.
Also, both Bernie Sanders and Joe Manchin praised Minnesota Governor Tim Walz this morning.
Just yesterday JD Vance said, “He [Donald Trump] is not a vengeful guy.”
Ten House Republicans voted to impeach Donald Trump after Jan. 6. Two are still in Congress. Trump is eager to take one of them out.
Of the finalists for Kamala Harris’ ticket, only one had experience in statewide office, Congress and the military — and he’s the one who got the nod.
If Harris and Walz win, Minnesota will elevate the nation’s first Native woman governor
Cartoon: Kamala
Louisiana AG Blasphemes Lin Manuel Miranda In Attempt To Make Forcing Religion On Kids Constitutional
Reuters: Russia says Ukrainian sabotage group retreats after attempt to attack border
All of the information available so far is from Russia so it’s all highly questionable. This would be a significant move if Ukrainian forces directly attacked Russian territory. Previous attacks have been small special forces and/or drone strikes, with the exception of 2 raids by forces of unclear/deniable origin.
Whatever you do, don’t let PZ see this:
https://www.ksnblocal4.com/2024/08/05/woman-arrested-after-allegedly-drowning-her-roommates-pet-spider-ginger-ale/
@187 Lynna, OM wrote about how: Back in June, the state of Louisiana passed a law (HB71) requiring that every classroom in every public and private school across the state put up ginormous posters of the King James version of the Ten Commandments,
and Lynna commented: Landry, for his part, argued that the law is just democracy in action, that it is what the majority of people in Louisiana want and therefore is constitutional — which is not actually how things work in this country.
I agree! Turning the laws of this chaotic nation into a popularity contest makes it an even greater farce. Also, the commandments REQUIRED BY THAT LAW are not from any xtian sect or version of their bible, they are the MOVIE version use by Cecil B. DeMille in the 1950’s. It would be so funny if it weren’t so scary: these stupid, lying, bigoted religious zealots are are the kind that would kill you by hitting you with a metal cross to prove how peaceful they are.
520-million-year-old worm fossil solves mystery of how modern insects, spiders and crabs evolved
https://phys.org/news/2024-07-million-year-worm-fossil-mystery.html
Crossposted with “It’s Walz”.
Convicted felon Donald Trump is now attacking Walz for wanting to let convicted felons vote.
shermanj @190, thanks for the additional information about the Cecil B. DeMille movie. That makes Louisiana’s law (HB71) even more laughable.
birger @192, yep. And Trump lackeys are repeating that attack against Walz.
Also, as Steve Benen noted:
There is one area in which Trump himself has more experience … being convicted of crimes.
Dem Leadership Throws Their Support Behind Walz
Vance gives women the ick—and this won’t help
This photo of Walz is topping the r/All subreddit early Tuesday afternoon.
Future VP Walz Adopted a Rescue Cat Named Honey
Link
Harris momentum builds in polls
Washington Post link
Bangladeshi officials meet student demand to name Nobel laureate as leader.
The selection of Muhammad Yunus by the president, security chiefs and student leaders represents an initial step to restoring order after Sheikh Hasina’s ouster.
MAGA media figures launch desperate — and weird — attacks on Harris vice presidential pick Tim Walz
“Tracing the Primordial Chemical Life of Glycine: A Review from Quantum Chemical Simulations”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9030215/
So much of this is not my area, but the everything of poly glycine and poly alanine, serine, and cysteine are in my thoughts when it comes to evolution.
The polypeptide backbone and acetate going into it is something that isn’t hard to find in vent chemistry. The questions involve what gets concentrated, where, and how.
And how the concentrated things influence everything else, and are influenced.
Conceptually with membrane chemistry here you just get the fatty acid and 1-3 of those get assembled into modern membranes with glycerol phosphate.
“Generation of long-chain fatty acids by hydrogen-driven bicarbonate reduction in ancient alkaline hydrothermal vents”
https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-023-01196-4
Otherwise I have magmatic and alkaline hydrothermal systems in mind for planetary chemistry and molecular habitats.
The magmatic vents fill water with things and the planetary crust contains the minerals that serpentize. Both things would have been more common back then.
The 3,400-Year-Old Minoan Tomb Discovered on Crete
https://greekreporter.com/2024/08/06/intact-minoan-tomb-crete-photos/
I recall that one of the first decisions of Margaret Thatcher was to abolish free milk for schoolchildren. This Walz feller seems like the opposite of that which is a good thing. 🌻💐
Quite interesting times in Bangladesh:
[I missed #199]
@183. Lynna, OM :
Well, that got me curious over which motorsport is this Sessler drove in so I looked – NASCAR of course (Sorry NASCAR) :
Chyaaarrming! Another one of hypocrites for the self-proclaimed party of law’n’ordure.
Wow, Harris and Walz make their first appearance together in Philadelphia, and the crowd is ecstatic.
What energy!!
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/81G9jPkpoHo
Drug bypasses suppressive immune cells to unleash immunotherapy
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-08-drug-bypasses-suppressive-immune-cells.html
Normally, immunotherapy is leashed.
(Or so some claim)
More inane ramblings. And earlier, two little lines from me prompted multiple full paragraphs of foam from you … and you think you’re the one trolling. :)
Lynna@183:
What an idjit. That will split the MAGA vote between Newhouse’s opponents, handing Newhouse an easy victory in the primary. You’d think even a senile old coot like the Orange One would have just endorsed one of them, likely Sessler to avoid getting gurl cooties all over his endorser …
@ 207. Tethys : “Wow, Harris and Walz make their first appearance together in Philadelphia, and the crowd is ecstatic.
What energy!!”
Good energy. Good human emotional and political kinetic energy! Delighted to hear,, well, technically read.
@ # 206
Dóh! Meant to include the link to the source there – here :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerrod_Sessler
@#166-167-168. John Morales : What makes you think Dutton is NOT as evil or horrid a human individual as I think we know him to be? What valid evidence is there to suggest he isn’t? Do you believe Duitton is evil or not, horrid or not and why?
Sheesh, you’d think you’d know me by now.
What you quoted, mate.
You quoted something, then made various claims you now attempt to sustain as longstanding thingies.
(Why even bother to quote, if your opinion is not based on the quotation?)
(sigh)
No more and no less “is” than all the other leaders in the Coalition.
Again: if you’re gonna quote and opine, then make it clear when your opinion is not based on the quotation.
Well, of course he’s a piece of shit. A conservative authoritarian ex-copper. A leader in the Coalition.
That’s not the point.
Maybe re-read my response to your claim after that quotation.
My parenthetical was apparently too obscure for you, too.
Again: (What, should there be an Alliance Against Tealphobia formed? Just as bad, no?)
Basically, don’t be the “headline guy”.
Slogans are just that.
Think for yourself, StevoR.
Seriously.
Care to try to give me a response about how it’s Islamophobic but not Greenphobic?
Or how one is worse than the other, conceptually?
—
Don’t do the Birger thing, and just go by the headlines.
, you wrote.
So.
If it’s Islamophobic, then it’s also Tealphobic and Greenphobic, no?
(Look at what you quoted! Think for yourself!)
The Daily Show:
“Kamala Harris Picks Minn. Governor & Midwestern Dad Tim Walz as Running Mate”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ah4KTtOg_28
The most Midwestern man ever.
A bold claim.
(A bullshit claim, actually. Care to attempt to proovide a basis for that claim?)
I suppose he’s mostly bald, so that’s almost bold.
Anyone else remember this blog when 90% of the comments weren’t from the same decrepit troll? Those were the days.
You are so feeble, bobiferator.
Oh yeah.
When I got an OM, and you got… well, what you deserve.
Nothing.
(So spiteful, so sad, you are!)
Remember the Endless Thread?
The Thunderdome?
The various iterations?
(I do; I was here all along, bobisculous one)
Basically, O bobiferative wanker, I was here before you were.
(So yeah, I remember the times before your insipid remoraish neediness)
—
Remember that?
(So revealing!)
A few things Walz is saying.
http://youtube.com/post/UgkxsmIXJKLvOcE5avFLXkYfaVszOx4nZGR-
@212 – 214. John Morales :
I quoted a news article – refresher here :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-06/nsw-peter-dutton-comments-islamophobia-discrimination-complaint/104186088
In this comment :
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/07/06/infinite-thread-xxxii/comment-page-4/#comment-2231104
Whereby an anti-Islamophobia group made a legal complaint against Peter Dutton. I then gave my opinion / assertion / specification / elaboration that :
Numbers added for clarity / ease of reference. So :
.(1) Opinion / assertion / statement of fact based on evidence see #175-176 above*.
.(2) My wish that the anti-Islamophobia group succeeds and Dutton faces consequences for his bigotry.
.(3) My noting who Dutton is for those who may not be familar with him given most here aren’t Aussies.
“Longstanding thingies” I guess? I mean I’ve hated Dutton since years ago, decades even and so ____? (Sustatined?*)
Which has somehow caused John Morales some issue and confusion because ____________ ?
I’m not sure I get why that is or why its so important or what his whole deal besides some very nitpicky pedantry is here even though he’s tried to explain it upthread multiple times. Perhaps I’m just tired.
(One factor in at least my posting repeatedly in a row is that i often comment when its late night / early morn in my timezone and thus I’m tired, so liable to make more errors, need to then correct / clarify those errors becoz we can’t edit comemnts here and not many others are also awake and commenting so intervals between comments and number of people commenting is going to be less than during busier times when a lot of people are posting, quickly together and, presumably, are less tired and more awake becoz Circadian rhythmns, non-insomniacs, etc..)
Anyhow, seems its because my quoted article doesn’t prove my ‘Dutton is evil’ line that John Morales actually agrees with (#212) which is based on so much more* as well as that? Which, to me, seems pretty inadequate justification for all he’s being saying above but then scroll up a few paragraphs here.
Because in this case (& oft others) I wanted to provide a short excerpt for ppl to see if they were intrested before clicking. Plus similarly so that ppl could get the main point of the link without necessarily having to read the entire thing or click on a link if they didnt want to do so.
All very meta and not sure what all this adds here but … (Shrugs.)
.* Or see here : https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/07/06/infinite-thread-xxxii/comment-page-4/#comment-2231121
Meanewhile I’m half asleep and need towork tomorrow but staying up towatch skateboard finals becoz Olympics..
Yeah. Theer is an Aussie in the final.. Weird how that works huh?
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2024-08-07/hobbit-homo-floresiensis-fossils-arm-bone-teeth-human-evolution/104176118
Correction : 2 Aussies out of the 8 finalists – mind you, there’s 3 Brazillians. Plus an Italian and an American.
No they’re not walking into a bar together.. yet..
Trump, going off the rails again on Fox.
NYT:
Trump Criticizes Harris and Walz in Fox News Appearance and Suggests a Debate Will Happen
By Maggie Astor / Aug. 7, 2024
Oh no, oh no.
As Steve Benen summarized:
Here are some more details, s reported by The New York Times:
PZ’s post: You do not have the right to not listen to Nazis
Excerpt:
Commentary: In new suit, Musk’s X accuses advertisers of boycotting platform after Twitter takeover
The new lawsuit filed by Elon Musk’s social media platform is controversial for a variety of reasons — including the court in which it was filed.
Follow up to tomh @140.
Arizona’s fake electors scandal intensifies in unexpected ways
Cartoon: Together
John Cleese is hitting back at the MAGA weirdos
http://youtube.com/post/UgkxTMsiWMzT0BNsuaAB5ha45ROPW464hE-U
AP Putin accuses Ukraine of a ‘large-scale provocation’ with its raid in southwestern Russia
Russia claimed yesterday to have driven off the attack but today fighting continues. Ukraine has said nothing and Russia has not provided any trustworthy details. It’s clear that something is happening now though as this would have been denied by Ukraine or other parties if there wasn’t fighting in the region.
There are several possibilities. There are a couple of strategic targets in the area that Ukraine could be going after or they could just be disrupting supplies to the front in general. They could be making the point that Ukraine will strike into Russia. This will force Russia to defend their border better and using up troops and support to do so.
It is worse, conceptually and in its actual effects, because Islamophobia is aimed at a particularly vulnerable minority, often immediately recognisable by racial characteristics or costume and physically attacked on that basis. Indeed, people who are not Muslims but who “look Muslim” (as Sam Harris put it) are quite frequently insulted or assaulted on that basis. Simple, really, John.
Enjoy 13 videos of Democratic VP pick Tim Walz being awesome
The video snippets include:
– Walz signed a bill providing free breakfast and lunch to Minnesota schoolchildren.
– Walz celebrated National Reading Month by setting up a Little Free Library at the state Capitol.
– Walz giving away some Minnesota-made Sweet Martha cookies to the GOP booth at the Minnesota State Fair.
– Walz and his daughter, Hope, trying scary rides at the Minnesota State Fair.
– Walz and his daughter in a PSA promoting Minnesota’s new “hands free” bill, making it illegal to hold a cell phone while driving.
– The governor’s dog, Scout, also seems to be interested in civics.
– Walz gave a pro tip on saving money and fixing parts on your vehicle (with an encouragement to vote, of course).
– He’s also tried to explain how the archaic 8-track players of antiquity worked.
– Along with his Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, the two ate their way through the Minnesota State Fair.
– They also took on the sometimes divisive debate of which is better: the corn dog or the pup dog
– Walz took time to promote a small Ukrainian-owned business as well as support the community
– Walz was an educator for decades and that comes across clearly in his interactions with kids.
– like his running mate, he’s got a great laugh
The Phone Call to Gov. Walz by VP Kamala Harris — and First Few Editorial Cartoons
https://x.com/KamalaHarris/status/1820900959045685361
The phone call in which Harris asked Walz to be her running mate.
Votebeat:
Court blocks enforcement of Arizona’s voter intimidation rules, just before election
The rules prohibit yelling at or photographing voters near polling places. The judge’s order says they violate free speech rights.
By Jen Fifield | August 6, 2024
this is what happens when you search using G00GLE:
https://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyimages/3101.png
I knew it was coming. Trigger warnings for maternal stress and development.
“The effect of prenatal maternal distress on offspring brain development: A systematic review”
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378378224000781
‘The Daily Show’ takes us inside a MAGA rally–and it’s still weird
Video at the link.
Trump fails again when he tries to label Kamala Harris with a nickname:
Link
Good news … so far. We don’t know what will happen on appeal:
Link
The first Harris-Walz rally, in 12 glorious photos
Trump Writing Joe Biden Fan Fiction, Because That’s How You Campaign
https://www.wonkette.com/p/trump-on-toilet-writing-joe-biden
He is very very very very scared and upset.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/black-farmers-finally-finally-getting
Black Farmers Finally (FINALLY) Getting Some Cash Money For USDA Discrimination
Super-slomo of “Spiff” Sedrick’s match-winning breakaway
Delayed publication of Heritage president’s book reflects Project 2025 shell game
Media Matters has obtained a galley copy of Dawn’s Early Light, which decries IVF, abortion, childlessness, and dog parks.
tomh: “Trump, going off the rails again on Fox.”
To go off the rails again means he must have gone on the rails again.
Which means that at least some of the time Trump is on the rails.
(heh)
John @248: I await the day you stop pretending you don’t know what ‘idiom’ means, with little hope of it actually happening.
Lynna, OM
Thank you for digging through online material that must be no fun at all.
Just the spelling errors…
Anyway, here us a big kitten to cheer you up. .https://youtube.com/shorts/8cTnvsJboe4
Rob, there is history there.
Remember, I tailor my responses.
tomh is passive-aggressively repeating the rail thing, and I’m happy to accommodate that.
There is no pretence.
Just because something is an idiom doesn’t mean its use is always appropriate, or that it has no meaning.
And going off the rails over and over and over is not a thing.
The repetition vitiates the initial impact.
—
See, my original point to tomh was that Trump was playing to his base; he was actually on the rails.
(It moved on from that, since)
(How many times can one jump the shark?)
J.D. Vance Awkwardly Retreats After Bizarre Attempt to Storm Harris’ Empty Plane
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce38w9e41vwo
Wonder what they’re going to do about Goths and those in mourning.
Navy blue is not black. :)
Thousands of anti-racism protesters take to streets across England to counter far-right rallies. For the most part, the fascists did not show up, or did so in such small numbers they were greatly outnumbered both by police and by the counter-demonstrations. There was some violence in Belfast (Northern Ireland). Again, worth noting that the fascist riots have not occurred in Scotland or (with I think one exception) in Wales.
Tim Walz Stops Speech Over Medical Emergency
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=PB2bWqh0DjQ
This is really the baseline for how people should deal with an audience member collapsing. The fact that this makes the news implies most politicians ignore what goes on in the crowd.
A comment to the development in Ukraine. By making an unexpected incursion (>15 km) into Russian territory the russian army has been forced to scramble reserves and move units from other parts of the front. This is not the end of the war but by wrong-footing the Russian colossus the Ukrainans show the narrative of inevitable Russian dominance is false.
MSNBC:
“Watch: Fact check blows up lies in Team Trump’s new smear campaign against Tim Walz”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=aKfMCLo_xSI
Ukraine has captured Sudzja, a town with a large natural gas facility used to export gas to western Europe.
Since Ukraine has passed two defence lines it will be hard for Russia to regain the initiative in the region. The defenders must have been caught napping, assuming Ukraine would not enter Russian territory.
68 …
69 …
<snicker>
StevoR@224:
One won a pole vault event yesterday.
Bekenstein Bound, you reckon one can jump trhe shark 68 times?
Heh.
You are wrongity-wrong.
‘Jumping the shark’ is an idiom, and once it’s happened, it’s happened.
(A bit like losing one’s virginity)
No. Not mutual oral pleasuring.
See, here’s the thing.
Navy Blue is close as damn to black.
Gotta love these poseurs.
(Well, I suppose being aped is better than being derided)
—
And another got arrested for buying cocaine.
@262. Bekenstein Bound :
Yup. Four Gold medals won in a day by Aussies and our best games ever as a nation :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-08/australia-has-best-ever-olympic-results-and-day-of-gold/104198786
It is remarkable, fun and spectacular to see what Olympians can do sometimes.
@263. John Morales : “And another got arrested for buying cocaine.”
Not quite. He was trying to buy cocaine but got arrested without getting it. Yeah, still not great.
@234. KG :
(italics added for clarity.)
Exactly. Quoted for truth.
Oh dear, StevoR.
Tsk.
Which makes you just as stupid. There is no truth there. Only opinion, and weak at that.
If it’s Islamophobic, it has to be Teal and Green-phobic too, since they were all equated.
Basically, there’s no merit to that stupid complaint, and you are going by the headlines.
Whether or not Dutton is Islamophobic (obs he is), that was not Islamophobic.
It was plain politics. Just that.
—
First, you were all about Antisemitism. Now, you’re all about Islamophobia.
(Blowin’ in the wind, you are. Think for yourself!)
Anyway, I like you try to ride on the coat-tails of the Goat that Knocks.
(Shows your character)
@241 surely it’s a failed portmanteau of ‘kamala’ and ‘blah’? of course ‘blah’ clearly doesn’t apply to her when you look at how much she has energized the dems and the more-chill leftists, but this is trump we’re talking about.
@ 264 StevoR
It’s claimed (by those who know more about things than I do) Australia has the most medals per capita.
https://www.sbnation.com/2024/8/5/24213695/olympic-medal-count-per-capita-usa-china-australia
(Now I know why all the ‘normal’ kids were playing sport while I hid in the library reading science books) X-D
John Morales@265,
I notice you have no response to my #234, other than to sneer at StevoR.
The difference between the veep candidates.
http://youtube.com/post/UgkxlsLkh9QtZH5L_RPt5USdl7nrseu-ifBF
Polls in Britain show the public strongly reject the racist rioters. This sentiment extends even into the Reform UK voter demographic. There are plenty of counter-demonstrations that outnumber would-be rioters.
Kambala is racism here, and I think messing with names in general is a form of defacement.
I’ve seen enough bigots descend into mocking gibberish in response to foreign sounding words and names that I think the urge to replace part of the name like that is in racism.
My own modification of DeSantis to De fascist is also defacement. But there is an element of punching up since he’s got power and is making racism worse. And the background difference between us is more along European lines which also affects things.
Re: #228 “Georgia State Election Board yesterday approved a plan that could empower local officials to refuse or delay certification of local election results.”
In addition, that same Election Board has re-opened an investigation of Fulton County’s 2020 count.
Atlanta Journal Constitution
By Mark Niesse / August 7, 2024
Reinvestigation of Fulton’s 2020 election ordered by Georgia Election Board
I made myself make it a political position instead of just sounds.
I’ve considered calling Trump TROMP and talking like the HULK when mimicking his need to lash out and hurt people instead of address anything real. His followers TROMPS, but I’m still thinking about it.
Maybe labeling that a “fashy fit” like I have saved up is better.
And this is more of the behavior version of body shaming like mocking Kamala’s laugh.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/fox-news-jesse-watters-twitchy-tim-walz_n_66b44895e4b0e4caf7f522ff
Sabine Hossenfelder:
“Musk Promises Superhuman Vision, Experts Say It’s Nonsense”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=JIgUMBPOIo8
Summarized from an NBC News article: In the 24 hours following Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz joining the Democratic ticket, Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 campaign said it raised $36 million.
Polling and campaign news, as posted by Steve Benen:
Flunking self-awareness again, Trump bemoans ‘Pro Criminal Atmosphere’
Last week, the Trump-Vance ticket brought back birtherism. This week, the Republicans have targeted Tim Walz by bringing back Swift-boating, too.
I usually don’t forward weapon tech stuff but this was kind of cool. And it might be relevant for Ukraine.
Henry at ‘9-Hole Reviews’ has a look at the main weapon of Stargate SG-1.
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=n0WrHbTzJ2o
(But then again all weapons on film or TV are subjected to hype)
With trench warfare coming back in Eastern Ukraine, equipment like this might come back which is why I am forwarding this link. I don’t see Putin’s rusty soviet era guns hold up well in the kind of short range engagements this stuff was designed for.
(The Russian conscripts mostly lack working protective vests anyway- the officers stole the expensive armor plate inserts and sold them!)
20 Years Later, Political Press Still Falls Hard For Swift Boat Attacks
Trump nepo baby falsely claims Harris didn’t get jobs based on merit
Stop Threatening Little Girls Who Love Taylor Swift Please, It’s Upsetting
Austrian police foil a plot for mass-murder of Swifties
Can’t leave the menstrual cooties off the list. It’s all very revealing about what they are.
Some of them have to attack things like Taylor Swift concerts. They the microaggressions aren’t working so well so macroaggressions.
And all the other misogynistic mass killings prove they have to create group differences through force, maintain them. And occasionally destroy someone as an object lesson to keep the rest in line.
CNN Russia says it halted a Ukrainian incursion into its territory.
Newsweek Updates: Ukraine Advances Deeper Into Kursk, Russia
Hit post button before I added comments.
Fighting continues into 3rd day in Kursk. Russia is continuing to claim to have stopped the attack but they have claimed to have won through all of the fighting. Russian civilians seem surprised that there isn’t a quick massive response but Russia already has all of it’s easily available forces in Ukraine.
The size of the Ukrainian forces remains unclear but is obviously significant, this isn’t a small quick raid. Reports indicate that supplies are being run into Kursk to resupply Ukrainian forces in the field. Ukraine doesn’t seem to be doing the sort of digging in that would be expected if they intended to occupy this territory. Likely they intend to remain until Russia does gather a large force and then they will retreat to the defensive lines in Ukraine.
For the first time the US has talked about what Ukraine is doing. This attack may have caught the US by surprise also, suggesting that making it clear the Ukraine was an independent force to the US may have been part of the point. The US surprise can’t be trusted, it could easily have been fake to some degree.
NBC Trump says he wants to face Harris in 3 debates in September
Trump is trying to play games with the debates again. He is unilaterally trying to setup 3 debates now, but the Fox debate is still first under terms that Trump makes, with ABC second and NBC at the end of the month. He is trying to flip the script and get Harris called the coward for not debating Trump.
Harris needs to respond quickly but she has a lot of options depending on how many debates she wants. What she needs to avoid is letting Fox go first with terms set entirely by Trump. Trump could easily do that debate and then back out of the rest. Even if he doesn’t the first debate will matter the most, it needs to be reasonably fair.
“Scathing Atheist 599 Manifestive Edition”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=xjFsC9VrVPk
International cat day:
Cheetah purring
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=drq_ww7Ytzw
About Harris supporters in Red states.
http://youtube.com/post/Ugkx79VLmM9tBQdD_iZaZkyarWyqouKQsc76
Trump’s state of mind.
.https://www.facebook.com/share/p/4hYs8Pv2eiJikmXM/
KG:
Very perspicacious of you.
Heh.
Well, that’s what can happen when you try to interject yourself into an existing exchange, but miss the point.
Trump Gets Bigly Mad at Being Asked about Harris’ Crowd Size
Followup to comment 293.
Listening to Trump was really difficult for me. I tried to pay attention in order to report here, but man, what a mind-numbing stream of lies and barely-controlled anger.
I’m not sure how many times Trump characterized Kamala Harris as “incompetent” but it was a lot. He accompanied that claim with statements like, “She destroyed California,” and “She destroyed San Francisco.”
Trump also made repeated references to Kamala Harris’ intellect, apparently he intended to persuade listeners that Harris is stupid. Trump claimed that she can’t hold press conferences like he does because she can’t answer questions.
Trump’s gushing sewer of lies was not just lies … it was lies framed in the most obnoxiously misogynistic manner.
As JM notes in comment 288, Trump proposed three debates, with Fox News first. He frames that as “I have agreed …” and then goes on to claim that Harris is afraid or weak or unable to agree to debates due to her supposed incompetence. Disgusting. It’s going to take me some time to recover from watching that.
The biggest crowd drawn by Trump was the 2017 Women’s March, which he also hated because of their cat-hats. According to wiki:
Here are some excerpts from Talking Point Memo’s live coverage of Trump’s press conference:
Link
Trump did get some news coverage, but I doubt it will do him any good.
“Conservatives Upset that Seven of Nine Hates Them”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=rAY-ugaHLNI
A commenter in the thread was at the event and noted thst Jeri Ryan was not as confrontational as claimed, she certainly did not tell any one to fuck off.
BTW Star Trek exists in a post-scarcity society. Unlike the Ferenghis, they are post-capitalism.
Also, it took conservatives four seasons to realise “The Boys” does not like them.
A bit of calm in a mad world.
I found it quite relaxing.
John Morales #298
I’ve ordered his latest book.
ABC Trump and Harris agree to ABC Debate
Trump and Harris have both confirmed they have agreed to the ABC Debate on Sept 10. Harris has not agreed to other debates yet but said she was open to talking about it.
Expect a complex verbal dance where neither side wants to appear to be refusing but both sides want to set the terms. Hopefully Harris is not foolish enough to agree to a debate where Trump has set all of the terms.
Business Insider: Ukraine said M1 is best tank in war
This is obviously a propaganda piece put together for the US market. Covering for the loss of M1 tanks in Ukraine. Ukraine has lost something like 10 M1 tanks, which is bad when you realize that only something like 30-40 have made it to Ukraine so far. This is dwarfed by the number of Russian tanks and other armored vehicles taken out by missile and drone strikes, which run into the thousands. The M1s have done well in situations where it was an armor vs armor fight but this is secondary in Ukraine where fighting is mostly infantry vs infantry and both sides have equipped the infantry with drones.
The war in Ukraine is demonstrating that the older designs of armored vehicles are all obsolete. They need armor better balanced across the vehicle and they all need spaced armor. Anti-drone systems need to be standard on any vehicle expected to stand on the front line.
The only reason the felon is now agreeing to the previous scheduled debate is because the #3 tag on his own social media platform was “Trumpisacoward”.
Today he attempts to control the narrative by announced that all the networks have already agreed to his newly invented plan for 3 debates.
I think Walz should go debate Shady for a warmup, before Harris mops the floor with him on the 10th.
—-
I just watched an entire Trump ad on a news video on youtube that was just unhinged. The orange bigot lies through the whole thing, but he most disgustingly repeats the false claim that the Olympic Boxer from Algeria is a man, and is the greatest threat to humanity ever from which only he can save America.
( that’s a paraphrase but the whole 1:25 ad is really that bonkers)
I hope there is some way to get such obvious hate speech removed from the platform? Didn’t we pass some laws about it since the whole facilitating an insurrection thing happened?
Washington Post:
Ukraine moves deeper into Kursk, takes hundreds of prisoners
More at the link.
Pentagon says Ukraine’s attack into Russia is not escalatory
Followup to comment 146.
The Hill:
So much for the doofus-inspired panic. It lasted all of two days.
re your #303, Lynna, some analysis:
All-night streetlights make leaves inedible to insects
Lower levels of herbivory is not inedibility.
(That would mean zero levels of herbivory)
Greenland Fossil Discovery Reveals Increased Risk of Sea-Level Catastrophe
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/08/240805164411.htm
A shame for him that J.K. Rowling is not an American citizen, and so can’t legally contribute the odd £bn she has lying around to his campaign.
It clearly is escalatory, and why the fuck not? It seems like the Ukrainian high command has decided that unexpected counter-attack is the best form of defence against an enemy with far greater resources but limited strategic imagination. In addition to this Kursk incursion, there have been reports of Ukrainian-inspired attacks on Russian troops or bases in Mali and Syria.
Well, that’s the kind of response someone makes when they realise they have no substantive point to make. And by the way, John, this is an open forum for discussion – anyone who has not been banned is entitled to respond to anyone else’s comment.
Nah.
It’s the kind of response someone makes when they realise their very point has been missed.
To a kibitzer.
And by the way, KG, this is an open forum for discussion – anyone who has not been banned is entitled to respond to anyone else’s comment as they see fit.
That was not Islamophobia any more than it was Tealphobia or Greenphobia.
That was my point.
I quoted the relevant bit.
(Political opponents being grouped together, oh my!)
You decided to try to white-knight StevoR, who happily lapped that up.
(How’s that working for you?)
Imane Khelif will be boxing for her Olympic gold medal in under 8 hours time :
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/08/03/as-we-all-know-real-women-lose-at-sports/comment-page-1/#comment-2231550
It’ll be too early for me – probly, about 7 am ~ish morn my time, (now 10.50 pm here FWIW) – but hope she wins.
(Crossposted )
The Wall Street Journal has listed the ‘negative’ policies of Walz 🙂 🌻💐🦚
http://youtube.com/post/UgkxcbPBB2-oROP3c9MjDd0RBeeUamv1Ktn6
Automatic voter registering is standard in most European countries. The only ones who would benefit from the current archaic systems are those who benefit from suppressing voter turnout.
@312. John Morales : Islamophobia is a real thing.
Tealphobia or Greens phobia not so much. The Greens and teals are political groups – not religious and ethnic communities. As KG noted Muslims are usually visibly different and targeted in ways that Greens and Teals are not.
@ 265 Also John Morales :
Minor edit for clarity, italics mine.
I disagree.
KG observed that :
That seems pretty factual and obvs to me. What part of it is either opinion or untrue? What partof that dio you disagree with and why?
Perhaps Dutton wanted tomake them sound equivalent. They are not forthe reaosns KG among others has noted. Its fair to say the LNP and their base like the Repugs and their base loathes enviornmentalists and is also Islamophobic but still. I think there is a difference here.
Merit is intehye of teh beholder and a matter of opinion. But if therere really wasn’t any merit in the claim I doubt they’d risk making a legal case of it. I don’t think the Islamophobia case here is merit-less or stupid especially given Dutton’s history of bigotry and attacking Muslim -Sudanese and Lebanese communities & his fear-mongering lies about the Voice among other things.
A group that studies and is affected buy and focuses on islamophobia says otherwise.
I oppose both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
I do try to think for myself. Ihave no delusions about being the smaretst perosn here – I’m not. I deeply regret many of the things I said in the past. I hope I’ve learned better and will always try to do better than that now.
Who? KG I guess you mean? I think they made a relevant comment that summed things up well on this topic. I cited it and said that. Those are metaphorical “coat tails” that show my character? I should’ve, what, just ignored and not cited KG when they posted something that I think put it better I could just becoz you and they have metaphorical beef? Still baffles me what your big problem with that one news item and brief line of my take on it is.. (Shrugs.)
FWIW the anti-Islamophobia groups website here :
https://aai.support/
Sadly seems a lot is hidden behind needing a password there.
See also :
https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/politics/australian-politics/2024/08/06/formal-complaint-peter-dutton-alleged-islamophobia
Plus on the views of Muslim opening batter here :
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/jul/05/usman-khawaja-peter-dutton-islamophobia-muslim-votes-candidates-comments
@John Morales #307:
Headline: All-night streetlights make leaves inedible to insects
“In the areas lit the brightest at night, the leaves were extremely tough and showed no sign of insects munching on them.”
Summary from Steve Benen.
Video here: https://x.com/Acyn/status/1821622864837275735
Link
Jane Mayer:
https://x.com/JaneMayerNYer/status/1821510748968820954
Harris and Trump’s campaign websites couldn’t be more different
Trump claims polls show he’s ‘leading very big’—but they don’t, and he isn’t
Link
Not just a liar, Trump is a stupid liar.
Oldest Latino civil rights group breaks with past to endorse Harris
This week’s PBS Frontline (YT link) – “Biden’s Decision”:
The description is misleading – the period after the debate occupies like the last few minutes of the program and isn’t really in depth at all. It’s about his life story and experiences and how they’ve shaped his personality and decision-making. I think the vast majority of the interviews were recorded before this summer. It sometimes seems overly generous towards him and sometimes unfairly critical, and the interviewees are a mixed bag. But it’s very good in general.
Here’s the full interview with Fintan O’Toole (video and interactive transcript), from March of this year. From there:
re Lynna @324: How long will it be before The Orange Liar claims that all of those members of LULAC who are registered to vote are 1) illegals, and 2) not allowed to vote?
Also, there’s a scene in “Biden’s Decision” showing Trump at a rally gleefully repeating “Where’s Hunter?” and telling the crowd someone should make t-shirts that say “Where’s Hunter?” It’s atrocious and despicable. It’s side-by-side with a loving voicemail Joe Biden left for Hunter when the latter was in the worst depths of his addiction.
Mexico ‘cancels’ statue of Greek god Poseidon after dispute with local Mayan deity Chaach.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/mexico-greek-god-poseidon-dispute-maya-god-chaac-rcna161691
Lynna OM @ 323
A little known fact is that Trump once caught a 20-foot catfish but the line broke before he could haul it ashore.
The Babadook will come back to cinemas this fall.
GOP: Democrats are backed by film monster that entered from Mexico during Biden administration.
Storm Debby to hit the Northeast with huge rainfall, flooding and tornadoes
Debby was downgraded to a tropical depression Thursday but it still poses a risk of extreme weather.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/about-trumps-stupid-pathetic-presser
Catching up…
Quoted in CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain’s #139:
From the article at the link: “Gynecomastia is the term used in the medical field to describe unwanted breast tissue development in cisgender males. However, teenage gynecomastia—unlike gender dysphoria—is something that can resolve itself over time.”
I wonder how many of these were caused by the J&J “antipsychotic” drug Risperdal. As I understand it, gynecomastia caused by the drug is unlikely to resolve on its own even after it’s stopped. (I’m sparing everyone my rants about the “on-label” uses of this drug, psychiatric “diagnoses,” psychiatry in general, people pushing this drug onto 4-year-old autistic kids, and how J&J handled this litigation. You’re welcome!)
Re #s 195 and 254, it’s super stalkerish and creepy!
From a recent Guardian piece about Vance’s investments:
Weird, weird, weird.
Re Lynna’s #247 and Roberts on “the culture of children” vs. “the antifamily culture shaping legislation, regulation, and enforcement throughout our sprawling government.” I mean, I know this has been said by many people, but Republican policies, and those supported by Vance in particular, are monstrously anti-child and anti-family and expose children to all manner of violence and harm.
And there’s this heartwarming story:
StevoR @ #264:
Made me laugh for two separate reasons.
Memory problems in old age linked to a key enzyme (HDAC3), study in mice finds
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-08-memory-problems-age-linked-key.html
Hotdamn! This means non-dementia memory problems eventually can be treated with pharmaceuticals.
In the Guardian:
Zarah Sultana – “The enemy of the working class travels by private jet, not migrant dinghy”:
“‘It’s torture’: brutal heat broils Texas prisons, killing dozens of inmates”:
“‘It’s nice to help a life to live’: meet Sri Lanka’s turtle guardians”:
Bonus cute baby turtle pictures at the link!
“‘Edgelords’ and ‘butt-sniffers’: will Trump’s tour of hyper-masculine podcasts win over young men?”:
This needs more media attention. Of course, they’re offering these men nothing real and just exploiting them emotionally. I’m reminded once again of Hans Miklas. (Update to that 2016 post: a kind commenter here provided a link a while back so I could watch the film, so I’ve now seen it! But speaking of Criterion, they just came out with a new “Vacation Noir” collection that looks fantastic.)
First Dog On The Moon
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2024/aug/05/democrats-have-begun-belittling-republicans-with-a-cruel-mocking-epithet-and-they-dont-like-it-ntwnfb
When Republicans use slurs:
Republican: “You snowflakes are all blue-haired childless antifa communist cat ladies drinking fentanyl flavored drinks in the bathtub”
Democrat: “You say that as if it is a bad thing”.
Some Incursion links:
Kyiv Independent – “Column of Russian vehicles, personnel destroyed in Kursk Oblast, multiple sources say.”
Kyiv Independent – “Up to 20,000 Sumy Oblast residents need evacuation amid fighting in nearby Kursk Oblast, police says.”
Kyiv Independent – “Ukrainian troops publish video from Sudzha’s outskirts in Kursk Oblast, media say.”
“They said in the video that ‘everything is calm in the town’ and that a strategic facility of Russian gas giant Gazprom is controlled by the 99th Mechanized Battalion of Ukraine’s 61st Mechanized Brigade.”
Moscow Times – “Putin Seethes as Ukraine’s Shock Incursion Catches Leadership By Surprise.”
Moscow Times – “Pro-War Bloggers Slam Military Command Over Destroyed Russian Column in Kursk.”
It’s torture’: brutal heat broils Texas prisons, killing dozens of inmates | US prisons | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/09/texas-heat-prisons-lawsuit
The only way to force Texas to do the right thing may be if the lawsuits cost the state more than the cost of installing A/C.
China Daily: China launches emergency response to flooding in Beijing, neighboring regions
Flooding continues in China. The emergency response in Beijing is low level but this is significant in that the government is activating emergency teams in the capital. Much of China’s flood response is aimed at directing floods around Beijing even if it means flooding other areas. National level emergency response in Beijing means the CCCP thinks it can’t control the situation any more.
@337 SC (Salty Current): The attack in Russian territory caught Russia off guard but it did so for obvious reasons. Until this point Ukraine had be limiting it’s direct attacks on Russian territory at the direction of the US/EU because it risked escalating the war. Russia was likely aware that Ukraine was gathering forces but dismissed the idea that Ukraine would strike into Russian territory with ground forces.
The question of who actually allowed/ordered this attack is interesting but that won’t be made public for years, if not decades. Ukraine may have decided to do this on their own, feeling that the US/EU wouldn’t back out. It may also have been approved by the US/EU. Remotely it may have been suggested by the US/EU despite the publicly states risks.
Sabine Hossenfelder
“How I lost trust in scientists”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=gMOjD_Lt8qY
About the need to check the data, do the math and follow logic.
(And, yes, climate change is very real)
From Jalopnik:
“The AI Bubble Is Bursting, And Tesla Is Going To Get Burned.”
“‘Donald Trump Is A Scab’ Who ‘Doesn’t Know Sh*t About The Auto Industry,’ Shawn Fain Says In Fiery Detroit Speech.”
An aerial robot that can independently control its own position and orientation
https://techxplore.com/news/2024-08-aerial-robot-independently-position.html
StevoR @315, “But if therere really wasn’t any merit in the claim I doubt they’d risk making a legal case of it.”
First of all, it’s not a legal case.
You linked to the story!
Here: “A religious vilification complaint has been lodged with the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board against federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.”
It’s not a lawsuit.
Secondly, it’s their raisin date (heh).
You know the Catholic League in the USA?
Same sort of thing.
“I should’ve, what, just ignored and not cited KG when they posted something that I think put it better I could just becoz you and they have metaphorical beef? Still baffles me what your big problem with that one news item and brief line of my take on it is.. (Shrugs.)”
You “quoted for truth” something I did not address, which was what I actually quoted.
There is no big problem; I stated my opinion and baffled you and irritated KG thereby.
CompulsoryAccount7746 @317:
“Headline: All-night streetlights make leaves inedible to insects”
I know what the headline was, and I know what you quoted:
“Lower levels of herbivory”.
If it’s inedible, it cannot be eaten; if it cannot be eaten, there is zero level of herbivory.
If they meant zero level, then why did they write lower level?
(Words mean things)
Misrepresenting Walz’ military record
http://youtube.com/post/UgkxUI-mCQJSfXQILcoTf5qwxeEHyni_iX0r
Media dropping the ball.
http://youtube.com/post/UgkxfZXxOJGGelVkEo805D7wXVENEONLmQIP
@John Morales #346:
Zero is the worst degree of lower. The process causing lowering, in general, is the concern. They used broadly applicable language.
Inedible means unfit to be eaten—whether too hard, poisonous, or unpleasant. Eating may be possible but inadvisable. The leaves become increasingly difficult to physically degrade, and the tannins interfere with nutrition absorption or act as pesticide. Even toxins have LD50.
Anton Petrov;
“A Strange Planet That May Have Formed Inside a Star From Another Star’s Leftovers”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=zLiReB7FZ8U
Other strange binaries are common but this is the first of this kind.
(I think Petrov lives in S Korea but obviously hails from Eastern Europe, meaning he has to juggle three languages. Therefore I do not criticize his command of English)
“Zero is the worst degree of lower.”
Wow.
A bit like being dead represents a lower quality of life, right? :)
You want to rationalise why the headline differs from the body, go for it.
@John Morales
#350: “the headline differs from the body”
Headline: All-night streetlights make leaves inedible to insects
#307: “That would mean zero levels of herbivory”
Body: “In the areas lit the brightest at night, the leaves were extremely tough and showed no sign of insects munching on them.”
Um, “Lower levels of herbivory imply lower abundances of herbivorous insects”.
Lower levels of herbivory is not inedibility.
(That would mean zero levels of herbivory)
Any actual amount greater than zero is lower edibility, not inedibility.
Either something is inedible, or it’s partially edible.
Words mean things.
Mind you, I’m pretty sure plants that don’t get eaten are happier plants than those who do get eaten.
(Or would be, were they conscious)
“Your body, my choice”
http://youtube.com/post/UgkxS4rXDOtaXy-V63mPE4sQan7ZKIAD0Rf9
Hehe, JD Vance is going to be angry about this sign.
The surprising wall pattern that could keep buildings cooler | New Scientist
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2443236-the-surprising-wall-pattern-that-could-keep-buildings-cooler/
A zigzag design can maximise how much heat walls radiate into space, while minimising heat absorption from the ground ( 3°C lower without any active cooling).
‘Mother of All Cannabinoids’ Tested in First Human Clinical Trial : ScienceAlert
https://www.sciencealert.com/mother-of-all-cannabinoids-tested-in-first-human-clinical-trial
CBG instead of CBD !
I look forward to seeing wider testing, I hope the positive results stand up to it.
Lynna@319:
No, but at least it’s very easy to compile:
wget -O - "url-of-Trump-speech-transcript.txt" | awk '{printf("%0.2d %s\n", NR, $0)}' > "list-of-lies":)
Lynna@323:
Trump is combining the real helicopter ride with Newsom and Brown, with the other Brown, and with a different helicopter ride in 1989 that did end in a crash, killing three executives who managed one of his Atlantic City casinos at the time. Trump was not on that helicopter, but a) that incident might well have given him a healthy fear of flying in one and b) he did subsequently use the 1989 crash to portray himself as a “man of destiny”, claiming he’d nearly been on the ill-fated flight back in the 1990s at times. Which also means his turning his recent near-miss with an assassin’s bullet into messianic fervor is not the first time he’s done that.
History doesn’t repeat itself but it sure does seem to rhyme … especially around Trump. And a certain other megalomaniacal historical figure with ties to Germany.
John Morales @ #352:
I think you’re confusing levels here. There’s the level of the specific trees:
So they found that leaves on those trees in the brightest-lit sites were inedible to insects. This has implications at another level – that of the larger ecosystem. If those trees are inedible to insects, that contributes to a lower level of herbivory in that ecosystem, which has resonating effects:
It’s like if there were people gathering truffles at five different sites, and changes at two sites meant that no truffles could be gathered there. This could be seen (as the lowest level of truffle availability at those sites or) in terms of a binary: truffles available vs. truffles not available. At the level of the volume of truffles gathered at that constellation of sites, though, it’s not that zero truffles are gathered overall but that the total number has been reduced – decreased truffle-collection.
ref.: @323 Lynna and @357 Bekenstein Bound
Here is a very well researched article on tRUMP’s murderous helicopters:
https://www.emptywheel.net/2024/08/10/trumps-broken-down-helicopter-was-a-vehicle-to-make-up-shit-about-kamala-harris/
This is how horrible the mainstream media is: tRUMP lies, murders, deceives and the main slime media help him WTF
Followup regarding Putin’s reaction to the Ukrainian incursion into the Kursk region, as reported by the Washington Post:
NBC News:
Link
NBC News:
NBC News:
Cartoon: Crowds like this
Re: #359
The story about the emergency landing with Nate Holden that’s in the link at #359 is in today’s NYT also.
Project 2025 architect is ready to shock Washington if Trump wins
All of the details point to Vought being a dangerous man.
Democracy Docket:
Republicans Ask US Supreme Court To Reinstate Arizona Voter Suppression Laws
By Madeleine Greenberg / August 8, 2024
CNN Ukraine embarrasses Putin with surprise assault on southern Russia
If I was Gerasimov I would stay on the first floor. Keep in mind though this is what Russia released, somebody has to take the blame publicly and the head of the military is the obvious choice.
The Ukrainians continue to push into Kursk, now some 12 miles deep. A lot of Russian soldiers are surrendering but in this area it would be a lot of conscripts doing their year of service with little or no training or gear. That they don’t want to fight isn’t a surprise. That the Russian command can’t get the situation under control after several days is a surprise. Russia isn’t pulling troops out of Ukraine, they are continuing their offense there. And there doesn’t seem to be anything else that Russia can use that can stop the experienced Ukrainian units. All of the experienced and well equipped units are in Ukraine or outside Russia serving as mercenaries.
More incursion/Ukraine war news, from the Kyiv Independent:
“Ukrainian forces enter Belgorod Oblast as Kursk incursion continues, media say”:
“Over 76,000 Russians evacuated from Kursk Oblast amid Ukraine’s incursion, Russian authorities say”:
“July was ‘deadliest month’ for Ukrainian civilians since October 2022, UN says”:
Lynna @ #281 and shermanj @ #359, they really haven’t improved. I remember this episode of TPM’s Belaboring the Point podcast with Heather Cox Richardson from back in December. Around the 23-minute mark she talks about Joe McCarthy and how he played the press (also described in Ellen Schrecker’s Many Are the Crimes). She’s very clear that, then, the Republicans managed to deal with McCarthy, but the press never figured out how to cover him; and now, the press still hasn’t learned a thing and the Republicans are completely behind Trump.
The media have fallen right back into their old patterns: headlines/chyrons like “Trump:_____,” “Trump Claims _____,” “_______, Trump Alleges.” Half of MSNBC’s coverage today has been about Trump’s ramblings. And then they have Republican strategists on to endlessly repeat how other Republicans are frustrated with Trump for distracting from the “real” criticisms of Harris’s record he should be talking about, which they then proceed to list inaccurately and misleadingly with no pushback, thus getting in both Trump’s lies and the standard Republican lies in one blow. Often, they’ll ask guests “What do you think the Trump campaign has to do to fix their problems?” eliciting similar responses. Just now, an MSNBC host herself suggested a helpful talking point Trump should be using in Pennsylvania instead of what he’s talking about! WTF are they even doing? It’s infuriating. Here’s Charlemagne Tha God on the Daily Show with more (YT link).
JM @ #368:
Seriously. And out of garages, pools, cars, planes, boats, helicopters,…
The American media briefly showed signs of improvement in the 1970s. Then Reagan came along. 2 decades later Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch set up Fox News and now your uncles are saying things that even Reagan would have considered crude.
Next step: Sinclair is buying up all local TV stations and making them ‘vertically integrated’ into their Ministry of Truth project.
More Trump-on-a-helicopter factchecking:
Link
Trump did not properly pay his helicopter mechanic!?
SC
Gerasimov (and all oligarchs) need to set up one-storey bungalows out on the plain. And get lots of body doubles.
Arizona school voucher program causes budget meltdown
This issue was discussed previously in The Infinite Thread. I repeated some points made in the past, and added more details from ProPublica’s research. The Republican plan outlined in Project 2025 includes changes to educational systems that mirror the failing system in Arizona, including shifting a lot of funds to private schools.
Cartoon: The same old Trump gaslighting
Washington Post link
Trump has frequently promoted a Truth Social account that’s shared material calling for Harris, Walz, and others to be killed
See also: https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4022710
We received internal Trump documents from ‘Robert.’ The campaign just confirmed it was hacked.
The Trump campaign is blaming Iran.
So…Venezuela. As I said earlier, it’s hard to find reliable information about what’s happening there. The reporting in the mainstream media here is largely boilerplate and has no real connection to what’s happening on the ground.
These are some of the tropes in US and allied media (NYT, WaPo, CNN, MSNBC, AP, Reuters, Guardian, DW,…) that run straight through the coverage of elections in Venezuela and elsewhere in the region. I can’t emphasize enough how irrelevant the actual facts are to the repetition of these tropes. They could be entirely accurate or wildly inaccurate in any given episode; they vary almost not at all:
Leaders the US doesn’t like are always illegitimate, are always authoritarian, always corrupt, always mismanaging everything, always responsible for every problem in the country, always unpopular, always want to be dictators and remain in power forever, never come to power democratically, and never hold free or fair elections. They are never recognized as legitimate.
The opposition is always democratic and pro-freedom, always nonviolent, always oppressed, always the popular and legitimate rulers of the country and the voice of the people. Protests over election results the US doesn’t like are always peaceful (deaths and injuries are always presumed to be among them and never caused by them), always growing, always (somehow for the first time) coming to include poor people who previously supported the government. They, their parties, and the organizations around them are never connected to the US or funded by the US or oligarchical interests, and they’re never involved in coup-plotting. Pro-government demonstrations don’t exist, are solely violent paramilitaries, or are entirely staged.
Governments the US doesn’t like have always shut down all independent and oppositional media (you might think you see independent and oppositional media, but it doesn’t exist). In the wake of an election or amid disruption, these governments are always increasingly isolated at home and abroad and need other governments to negotiate a “transition” to a rightwing government. The US State Department is always a disinterested third party and observer that just wants democracy.
Anyway, here are a few articles about the situation. Venezuelanalysis is billed as somewhat critical of the government, but it’s…quite pro-government. But it has some factual information other outlets won’t provide because it doesn’t fit with the standard tropes.
Venezuelanalysis (from July) – “The Venezuelanalysis Podcast: Soft Power and the 2024 Venezuelan Elections”:
Venezuelanalysis (today) – “Venezuela: Presidential Candidates and Political Parties Submit Electoral Evidence to Supreme Court, Far-Right Opposition Rejects Request”:
(Reuters did cover this.)
Democracy Now! (from Monday) – “As Tension over Venezuelan Election Escalates, the Left Debates Who Won Contested Vote”:
Lander says at one point:
(The idea that the Venezuelan far right wants to “recover democracy” is patently ridiculous, so make of that what you will.)
As I said, the media tropes in Venezuela coverage don’t have any real relationship with the real situation, so no one can say that because they claim one thing the opposite is true. So don’t take this as a pro-Maduro comment or a statement on the freeness or fairness of the elections (the voting processes themselves are very sound, but they’re not the whole of the process) or their real outcome. I just wanted to point to the tropes in the standard coverage and offer a little more information and context.
Oh – I meant to include this Venezuelanalysis link from Tuesday – “Venezuela: CNE Turns Over Electoral Data to Supreme Court, US Walks Back González Recognition”:
It’s an interesting walkback, given that Blinken had claimed the evidence was “overwhelming” that González had won and his statements were presented everywhere in the media last Wednesday, with apparently no pushback, as recognizing him as the winner.
NYT: “U.S. Recognizes Maduro’s Rival As Winner…”
Guardian: “Blinken Congratulates González on Winning…”
NBC: “Venezuelan opposition leader thanks U.S. for recognizing him as presidential election’s winner”
CBS: “U.S. recognizes opposition candidate Edmundo González as winner of Venezuelan presidential election”
…
Some podcast recommendations:
Rachel Maddow’s Ultra – Season 2 just concluded. It’s outstanding and extremely relevant to the present.
99% Invisible’s The Power Broker (YT link) – one of the best podcasts if not the best I’ve ever listened to. Here’s the episode with AOC.
Tech Won’t Save Us and Species Unite – these are on completely different subjects but both have particularly delightful hosts.
Better Offline – for when you’re in the mood for a rant.
Cited:
379-380
Forgive my ignorance, but is there an actual democratic socialist party in Venezuela that values human rights and free speech, or is it authoritarians of one political stripe or another all the way down?
I think my comment had too many links, so I’ll try breaking it up. Apologies in advance if it repeats…
Some podcast recommendations:
Rachel Maddow’s Ultra – Season 2 just concluded. It’s outstanding and extremely relevant to the present.
99% Invisible’s The Power Broker (YT link) – one of the best podcasts if not the best I’ve ever listened to. Here’s the episode with AOC.
Tech Won’t Save Us and Species Unite – these are on completely different subjects but both have particularly delightful hosts.
Part 2:
Better Offline – for when you’re in the mood for a rant.
Cited:
Oh, 5 links is okay here. Good to know.
Lynna@378:
AOL?
AOL??
AOL is still around??!
For those who wish to unwind with a bit of non-election fun, here are a bunch of Brits making outrageous claims. Like Trump, but more benign.
“The Unbelievable Truth – Season 24- Unbelievable Truth”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=znF9RjKi0Qs
Well, well, well.
https://yle.fi/a/74-20104053
This story relates to the far right social media (mainly Telegram) groups that incited and organized the recent far right protests/riots/vandalism parties in Britain. Apparently, one of the influential admins in these groups was known to be a Finnish neonazi guy. Other foreign actors have been active in the groups, and some Russians in particular have been suspected of systematically spreading inflammatory misinformation. The story linked above has embedded some links to English language sources on the general background of this.
The Finnish national broadcaster Yle tracked down the Finnish guy’s identity and went to his home door for an interview. He (a 20 year old guy) opened the door, surprised, and then reluctantly but meekly exchanged some words with the reporter. He admitted being a member of the Telegram group in question, but nothing beyond that. His name is not published, because he’s apparently not (yet) officially suspected of crimes in either UK or Finland.
He does have a long history of far right activism on several social media platforms, including half dozen Twitter accounts (either sockpuppets or banned accounts – and we all know how much it takes for nazis to get themselves banned on Twitter). His account was seen posting usual nazi stuff on the Telegram group very shortly before and after the interview.
SaveAFox:
“All of the foxes try eating Reptilinks!”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=TbQfsqd21Ns
A very big kitty waking up dad
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=HjB1cb6f8Wg
This was a sickly rescue animal that was nursed to health. Despite the size, not as big as average.
“Aircraft Lift Explained: Bernoulli vs. Newton’s Equations”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=d4w1Iy4vVMg
To make it simple: Airfoils exist to reduce drag.
Lift is generated only by deflection of air or fluid (angle of attack).
@379 SC
Insight into imperial narrative management? In the Infinite Thread? I am pleasantly surprised.
When you don’t have any dirt on your adversary, just make shit up. Is your ally doing a genocide? Deny, dispute, and distort the facts beyond recognition.
@381 Akira
Yes.
birgerjohansson@386,
Are you related to the producer of The Unbelievable Truth or something? I don’t find it particularly amusing myself, but of course tastes in humour differ.
The independence of the high court is itself contested, so it’s unlikely that (if as expected it finds in favour of Maduro) its verdict will be accepted by the opposition or its foreign supporters. It will be interesting to see which side the governments of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico (all leftish and with good democratic credentials) come down. Myself I find it hard to believe either that Maduro or the opposition would accept electoral defeat if in fact they lost. Or that beholder actually gives a shit about who really won more votes.
Bolts:
Direct Democracy Scores a Win in Michigan’s High Court. Can It Survive November?
Quinn Yeargain | August 5, 2024
States have increased anti-abortion center funding by nearly $500M since Roe was overturned
Tim Walz is one of the nation’s most forceful climate advocates.
Cartoon: Tim Walz for vice president
tomh @395, that’s some particularly sneaky politics being practiced by Republicans in Michigan. I agree with this: “Allowing the Legislature to bypass the voters and repeal the very same law it just passed in the same legislative session thwarts the voters’ ability to participate in the lawmaking process.”
lumipuna @388, it’s amazing that a 20-year-old Finnish guy is wielding that much influence. That nazi-wannabe is helping to incite riots in Britain? He should be checked for Russian connections.
Cartoon: Couchsurfing
I think this is just one part of the explanation for why Trump isn’t holding more rallies, but it is an important reminder:
Link
Good points:
Excerpted from an article written by Paul Krugman for The New York Times.
David Lien of Colorado’s The Journal reviews Project 2025’s plans for public lands.
Another bankruptcy in Trump’s future?
Link
From Mano Singham ‘s blog
“Laughter can be the best medicine in politics”
https://freethoughtblogs.com/singham/2024/08/11/laughter-can-be-the-best-medicine-in-politics/
Lewis Black Heats Up Over The Hottest Summer in History – Back in Black , The Daily Show
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=azkTVOa0nTc
Kamala Before The Storm /Colbert Is Brat
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=8zPor9l9SwI
President 45 portrait as per Spitting Image. They nailed the weird part years ago.
http://youtube.com/post/Ugkx44lcnSJA9sy49SJ2Ld_lGLC0HsU_QD0V
(Unwinding before Monday)
Kittens seek shelter in the dog’s bed during a rainstorm
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-9vvSj0qAI
https://www.wonkette.com/p/kamala-harris-is-making-progressive
Kamala Harris Is Making Progressive Politics Fun Again, And Wingnuts Are FURIOUS
This Week’s Sky at a Glance, August 9 – 18 – Sky & Telescope
https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/observing-news/this-weeks-sky-at-a-glance-august-9-18/
The Perseids are still coming, and Mars and Jupiter are passing close by each other in the sky
.
Lynna, OM
The way those people see it, it is only appropriate to laugh if you see some blind guy stumble and do a pratfall. They would approve of King Joffrey.
Exploring the evolution of social norms with a supercomputer
https://phys.org/news/2024-08-exploring-evolution-social-norms-supercomputer.html
It would be interesting to see if the bizarre societies in the stories by Jack Vance* might evolve by themselves
nor related to J D. Jack Vance took every opportunity to make fun of religion.
https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Travel/disney-announces-new-indiana-jones-avengers-rides-new/story?id=112712925
They’ll need to find a way to work deSantis into area.
Researcher designs robot to help children cross streets safely
https://techxplore.com/news/2024-08-robot-children-streets-safely.html
If a car ignores the safety of the kids, I want the robot to go full Dalek on the driver.
If Rosalind Franklin had had one of these, she could have sorted out the DNA structure early enough to be alive for the Nobel Prize.
“PhAI—an AI system that figures out the phase of x-rays that crystals have diffracted”
https://phys.org/news/2024-08-phai-ai-figures-phase-rays.html
This looks promidong for learning the structure of small molecules faster. Great for finding new medicines.
Cannabis use tied to head and neck cancer
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-08-cannabis-neck-cancer.html
Researchers report potent antibiotic that overcomes resistance
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-08-potent-antibiotic-resistance.html
Study unveils limits on the extent to which quantum errors can be ‘undone’ in large systems
https://phys.org/news/2024-08-unveils-limits-extent-quantum-errors.html
Forbes: Ukrainian Troops Are Digging Trenches In Russia’s Kursk Oblast.
Spending the time to build an extensive trench network is a sign Ukraine plans to stay. It could still be a diversion but not likely. It also becomes harder for Russia to get the Ukrainians out. If Ukraine has the time to build a full trench system it will become very difficult to get them out. Forcing Ukraine out of trench networks in Ukraine has taken months of bombardment and thousands of Russian lives. Ukraine would probably pull back from Kursk faster but it would still be painful.
Horses can plan ahead and think strategically, scientists find | Animal behaviour | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/aug/12/horses-can-plan-ahead-and-think-strategically-scientists-find
I think anyone who has spent a long time with horses knows they can be pretty smart for a herbivore.
Lynna@396:
What?! States are allowed to divert food stamps money into bullshit like this that has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with provisioning food stamps?!
Lynna@403:
Sounds like he’s a one-person private equity firm …
JD Vance’s campaign won’t deny that’s him in viral drag photo
Trending under the hashtag #SofaLoren, a reference to actress Sophia Loren.
The photo is from a Halloween party. Dark blouse & skirt, circle link necklace, and bad blonde wig. A bit more eyeliner than 2024. Unshaved beard stubble.
Last Week Tonight with Jihn Oliver
S11 E20: Hawaii, J.D. Vance & Tim Walz: 8/11/24
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=nhXAmbgTSyI
John Oliver starts with trying to understand “Kambala”.
.
David Pakman Show on campaign insults:
“Trump is losing Fox News now!”
BTW Kennedy is as unimpressive as I expected.
Apologies!
Venn diagrams
From Trump and Vance to falling asleep on public transport:
Edith Pritchett’s week in Venn diagrams – cartoon | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/picture/2024/aug/12/from-trump-and-vance-to-falling-asleep-on-public-transport-edith-pritchetts-week-in-venn-diagrams-cartoon
Traces of Dinosaur Catastrophe Found in Genes of Today’s Birds : ScienceAlert
https://www.sciencealert.com/traces-of-dinosaur-catastrophe-found-in-genes-of-todays-birds
NB: “Having children should not be an individual optional choice”
The Damage Report:
“Project 2025 Leader Sinks Entire Party As Terrifying Book Revelations Blow Up”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=NUQPB7QXm4Y
Kursk updates from the Kyiv Independent:
“Ukraine war latest: Ukraine pushing war into ‘aggressor’s territory,’ Zelensky says”:
“Zelensky promises ‘fair response’ to Russian regions that attack Ukraine”:
“Russia recycles old videos in attempt to show success against Ukraine’s incursion, media reports”:
“Authorities in Russia’s Belgorod Oblast announce evacuation of border region as Ukrainian incursion reportedly widens”:
‘The young offenders system worked for me’: the ex-convict turned chef | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/food/article/2024/aug/11/the-young-offenders-system-worked-for-me-the-ex-convict-turned-chef
-Shortly after he was rehabilitated, the Tories came to power and scrapped the programs. Because… of course they did.
Akira MacKenzie @ #382, its a good question and I’ll try to respond as best I can after I’ve had my morning tea, breakfast, etc.
The Moscow Times has a Kursk liveblog. From there:
Also from the MT – “Russia Jails Head of Uzbek Diaspora Group Over Meme”:
Guardian – “Greek officials evacuate residents as wildfire moves ‘like lightning’”:
10 of Futurama’s smartest science references and gags | Space
https://www.space.com/futurama-smartest-science-references-and-gags
The actress Prunella Scales -married to Timothy West for half a century- is sadly in poor health, suffering from severe Alzheimer’s disease. Among many other roles she played Sybil in ‘Fawlty Towers’.
At the end of the millennium I had hoped science would have abolished horrors like Alzheimer’s and cancer by now. But it went the way of flying cars.
Current situation
http://youtube.com/post/Ugkxom69GgPUMAOkC3WHlFcvQhWgn1GIV0Y_
Kyiv Independent:
“Ukraine in control of 28 settlements in Kursk Oblast, Russian official tells Putin”:
“Ukraine’s 225th battalion showed Russian flag removal in Kursk Oblast village, video alleged”:
Lawndale News
Chicagoland’s Largest Hispanic Bilingual Newspaper
Gov. Pritzker Signs Landmark Legislation Further Expanding Reproductive Rights in Illinois
By: Ashmar Mandou / Aug 8, 2024
Guardian – “Heat aggravated by carbon pollution killed 50,000 in Europe last year – study”:
Text quoted by SC in comment 436: “Elderly people often do not perceive thirst, so we should keep an extra eye on them.”
True. In addition, many elderly people take medications that sort of strip fluids out of the body. Kidneys might be working overtime as a result of various prescription medications. Intake of water has to be increased.
Yuk and expletive sand well, not buying this mag :
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2024-08-08/csiro-cosmos-magazine-generating-articles-using-ai/104186330
Huge wildfire near Athens :
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-12/wildfire-rages-in-athens-and-greece-on-fire-watch/104215854
DW news has also had some good (Tv & likely website) items on this news too.)
Text quoted by SC in comment 434:
So predictable. Of course the Russian government would also be incompetent when it came to planning and executing evacuations.
Another source for information: Ukraine Invasion Day 901: Kursk incursion shows ‘no sign of winding down’
Map at the link.
Aussies are being played for absolute suckers here i reckon :
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-10/australians-in-dark-on-aukus-commitments-joe-biden-revealed/104206862
Link
Same link as in comment 442.
What In The World?
Cartoon: The week in weird, by Tom Tomorrow.
The cartoon includes a panel showing Stephen Miller:
NY Post: Trump to sue DOJ for 100m over Mar-a-lago raid
This is pure political maneuvering. Nothing will be done until after the election. If Trump does win he might try to force the DOJ to settle with himself to get the cash. If Trump loses this will be dropped because it would be a bad idea for Trump to go through discovery. As a case it makes no sense and several of the claims are simply wrong. The raid on Mar-a-Lago was only done after Trump said he didn’t have secret documents when the DOJ got information that he did, and the raid proved he did.
Skepticrat 231 Occupy Walz Treat Edition
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=h1c06hImDkc
Kyiv Independent:
“Putin vows ‘worthy riposte’ to Ukraine’s Kursk incursion”:
A “worthy riposte” sounds so antiquated. Will he slap them with his glove?
“Kursk is Putin’s catastrophe, Zelensky says”:
JM @445, I think that was not even Trump’s cash that was spent on legal fees. That cash came from donors through Trump’s PAC.
Bekenstein Bound @418: “Sounds like he’s a one-person private equity firm …”
LOL. Yep. That’s a good description of this: “Trump’s modus operandi has been to run companies into the ground, skim off the cream at the top, and let everyone else suffer from the financial catastrophe that he created. “
https://www.wonkette.com/p/trump-keeps-stealing-music-artists
Trump Keeps Stealing Music, Artists Keep Telling Him To F*ck Off
Judge says Maine can forbid discrimination by religious schools that take state tuition money
Yay.
SpaceX repeatedly polluted waters in Texas this year, regulators found
Elon Musk’s aerospace company violated environmental regulations by releasing pollutants into or near bodies of water in Texas, a state environmental agency said in a notice.
The peak opportunity for watching the Perseids in Europe is just beginning (see birgerjohansson at 409).
A Guardian story on the topic ends with this, featuring Royal Observatory senior astronomer Ed Bloomer:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/aug/12/perseid-meteor-shower-to-brighten-night-sky-as-it-peaks-this-week
Spoken like a true astronomy nerd, and I know what I’m talking about.
Incidentally, I just saw literal fireworks over central Helsinki (almost 10 km away) when I was out in the local park shortly after sunset to appreciate the twilight, the pinkish clouds and the setting moon. I barely got a glimpse of the moon between the clouds, though most of the sky was clear. I have no idea who was shooting the fireworks at this time, or why. It was the first time I’ve seen fireworks from that far away, or in near full daylight. The noise was just barely audible in the calm, quiet summer evening.
Now, out to look for the stars, Perseids and auroras.
Does anyone here watch For All Mankind? I’m surprised I’ve never seen it mentioned.
That sounds amazing, lumipuna.
In the news: https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/12/pair-of-chilean-male-flamingos-hatch-egg-at-devon-zoo
Fun for history/technology nerds like myself near the edge of Aspbergers.
Some military history podcasters on Youtube got together for two and a half hours to design the absolutely worst military possible.
Rules: If the Generalissimo is not impressed with your suggestion of a new weapon for the glory of the nation you will get shot.
If the weapon system is too good the resistance will assassinate you. So the suggested weapon/vehicle must be flashy enough for a North Korean dictator yet completely impractical.
“MAKE ELBONIA GREAT AGAIN: Building the Worlds WORST Military”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=lB1KTzQ9q0g
Jesus, they ended up with a collection of vehicles, guns and weapon systems that has “Trump approved” stamped on it.
In USA news: https://slate.com/technology/2024/08/bullet-vending-machine-american-rounds-oklahoma.html
NB
Scientists find oceans of water on Mars. It’s just too deep to tap.
https://phys.org/news/2024-08-scientists-oceans-mars-deep.html
Back to Venezuela. I’ll maybe respond to the main question in a bit, but I don’t have much to say. I’m quite ignorant about what’s happening within Venezuela, and can find very little online that isn’t propaganda.
But I did want to say more about the leading figures of the opposition. They’re consistently portrayed in the mainstream media as a sort of brave but beleaguered democratic opposition, pictured in close-ups looking vigorous and smiling and waving to their supporters (Roland Barthes would have a field day with these images). It’s difficult to get information about them, their background, their links to the US, their policies, or their larger agenda. It’s like they’re created in a USAID lab to fit a mold, and the content of their agenda is entirely unimportant.
This is from a NACLA article about a new book which seems fairly critical of all of the political forces in Venezuela:
(This last hyper-credulous sentence makes me question the judgment of the writer of the book or the article or both. This is not a thing that would happen, and to call for it like it’s a genuine possibility is mindnumbingly stupid.)
Here’s a surprisingly substantive (little to none of the substance has made it into their election coverage) CNN interview with Machado from a few weeks ago (I fully encourage you to check out the photos!) – “The woman behind Venezuela’s upstart [LOL] opposition movement”:
(This doesn’t appear to be happening.) They call her the “Iron Lady” of Venezuela due to the obvious resemblance. She’s a market fundamentalist who would work to turn Venezuela into the sort of Latin American country the US propped up in the twentieth century. She doesn’t give a flying fuck about democracy or the material well-being or sovereignty of the Venezuelan people. She wants power to return to the oligarchs and their patron, the US. Venezuela is tragically still a petro-state, but these people are hardly ecological warriors.
Here’s a piece reprinted by Venezuelanalysis about the “upstart” from back in 2011 – “Opposition Candidate Maria Corina Machado Pledges ‘Popular Capitalism'”:
I keep hearing Trump’s rally in Montana went bad as he apparently had little energy and the audience got bored.
Now I hope we will see some additional polls from the ‘swing states’ maybe getting better statistical certainty.
MSN: Putin replaces Gerasimov with FSB chief Bortnikov in Kursk operation
Claims are that Gerasimov is largely to blame for the Russians be unready for the attack, which is very bad for Gerasimov’s job, status and health. No telling if this is true, this could easily be dumping all the blame on one target before removing them. Bortnikov is intelligence not military and this indicates that Putin is losing trust in the military, which is bad for Russia.
Russia continues to try and grind forward in Ukraine with human wave attacks but this has had little success. Russia had trouble making progress over the summer when Ukrainian supplies were held up. Now that has been resolved and artillery ammunition and drones are making their way to the front Russian progress has stopped. Because Russia has been doing this they have not been able to turn any of their front line units against Ukrainian forces in Kursk. What Russia will use against Ukrainian forces is unknown but Russia is certainly talking about an offense soon.
Business Insider: Trump is using plane previously owned by Jeffrey Epstein
The plane is now owned by a Republican donor who is letting the Trump campaign use it. This is the sort of stupid mistake a better organized campaign wouldn’t make. This isn’t actually a big deal now that somebody else owns the plane but Epstein and his history is something that Trump doesn’t want associated with and doesn’t want to talk about.
@SC #453:
I haven’t. Someone I follow shared this review by Jessie Gender and Erin Macdonald (astrophysicist / StarTrek’s science advisor) on why it devastated them.
Elon Musk’s Takeover of Sci-Fi Imagination (59:57)
Sounds like an excellent argument for worker-owned cooperatives to me … otherwise the bosses own the fruit of your labor.
Pure projection, of course. It’s capitalists who “need people living in poverty so as to generate dependence”. Poor workers are too afraid of being fired to rock the boat, so are easy for bosses to abuse and exploit, and a large poor population depresses wages, making labor cheaper for the same bosses. Capitalists are very pro-poverty, since it both keeps labor inexpensive and comes in handy as a cudgel to beat people down. This, far more than a begrudging of having to pay taxes, is why they hate social spending by governments so much. (You’ll notice the capitalist class not having any complaints at all with tax money being lavished on war spending, or on law enforcement. They never call for cutting the budgetary fat by slashing their own guard labor, or the huge pork projects that go to the giant defense contractors.)
@458. birgerjohansson : You beat me to it. Aussie ABC also has this news item on that InSight mission discovery :
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-13/mars-study-suggests-oceans-worth-of-water-may-be-hiding/104217394
He was gone for three weeks and when he returned, the world was a different place!
🦜🌻🌺
“Seth Meyers Catches Up on the Worst Three Weeks of Donald Trump’s Campaign ”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=owvCF5cnkYI
🍾🍷
Stephen Colbert:
“Harris-Walz Ticket Supercharges Dems | Trump’s Stages Of Grief | Iconic Camo Hat Sells Out”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=gQ8MNuYdI-Q
StevoR @ 465
The least energy-demanding way to get an ocean’s worth of water to the Martian surface may be to get ‘new’ water:
Nudge iceteroids in already elliptic orbits outside Neptune to get a gravity assist from that planet, sending them to the inner solar system.
Half the mass will be solids, the other half will be volatiles, a mixture of water, methane, nitrogen ammonia et cetera.
The downside will be the time factor: those objects need centuries to get anywhere.
I like to use 1996TL66 as an example: perihelium at 35 AU aphelium at 130 AU. At 130 AU you need only a tiny nudge to bring it to Neptune at 30 AU (for simplicity I am disregarding the angle to the ecliptic).
Very little delta-v but it takes nearly a millennium.
On the other hand the medieval cathedral builders were willing to commit to very long projects. And Stonehenge got added to for more than a millennium (but in a couple of centuries I hope we will have “Culture”-style AI minds who are not much worried by biological flaws like ageing).
SC at 454 – My midnight viewing session was indeed amazing!
I saw a bunch of stars – about as many as you can ever see here in the outskirts of Helsinki, with lots of light pollution around. At this time of year, the night gets just barely dark enough for proper viewing. Generally at these latitudes, late summer and early autumn is the best (or least crappy) season for stargazing, because the nights are much darker than in early summer, while the leaves on trees and lack of snow on the ground reduce light pollution, and there’s still a decent chance of clear skies, and the weather isn’t too cold. Now, the sky was cloudless albeit a little misty.
I saw only occasional stray meteors, but at least one of them was unusually big and bright. It might’ve even qualified as a fireball.
I saw some nice auroras. They were faint and pretty colorless, but they lasted long and spread over much of the sky. They were very slow moving, except for a brief moment there was localized rapid twitching and flickering.
I also saw what I think were two planets very close to each other, rising together from the northeastern horizon. I think the bigger one was either Venus or Jupiter. The other, much smaller one looked slightly reddish, so it was probably Mars rather than Mercury or Saturn. In that position, relatively close to Sun’s direction, Mars would be relatively far from Earth and not look anywhere near its brightest.
I also saw several tiny dots that I think were satellites moving rapidly across the sky. I may not have seen or noticed those before. They’re only visible if its dark at ground level but the Sun isn’t very much below horizon, so they can catch sunlight and reflect it. The Sun was in the north, and I literally saw a couple of the satellites disappear into Earth’s shadow as they flew toward south, deeper into the planet’s night side.
Jon Stewart on Why Trump Wants Biden Back So Badly He’s Reusing His Old Attacks
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=-VW6tHIcGfc
Lumipuna @ 468
Helsinki is clearly sufficiently far south to escape the too-bright nights of the summer period we still have in Umeå.
BTW once you have familiarised yourself with the stars you very quickly notice even slow-moving satellites as they disrupt the familiar patterns of stars.
I hope you will be in a position to see the expected nova that will flare up in Corona Borealis.
Anton Petrov: “Do not miss the potential Aurora show tonight”
http://youtube.com/post/UgkxOs6TwRkiZ4jp1-nBrINLkpjiqbvjDdIj
Jon Stewart / Mark Cuban – AI Industrialization & Drug Transparency with Cost Plus Drugs
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=ayhRmnFlSkE
Probly not that surprising but Trump is seriously pisssed in the angry sense and not handling it well apparently – TYT – REPORT: Trump Calls Harris A ‘B*TCH’ In Private As He Continues To Unravel .. Further unravel that is I’d say. (15 mins long.)
Must admit ihaven’t seen thsi fully yet myself but froma very good (Aussie) ABC news show / youtube doco series here – Is Trump’s favourite chart accurate? It’s complicated | If You’re Listening minute over fifteeen minutes in length.
Palate cleanser as Phil Plait used to call them – just some awe-inspiring atmospheric (& beyond the atmosphere!) astronomical artwork here The Fantastic Space Art of David A. Hardy Part 2 minute under five minutes long.
AI accurately diagnoses genetic condition from facial photographs
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-08-ai-accurately-genetic-condition-facial.html
Algorithm achieves 98% accuracy in disease prediction via tongue color
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-08-algorithm-accuracy-disease-tongue.html
lumipuna @ #468, I got a vicarious thrill reading your comment!
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain, @ #463, thanks. I’ve saved that link – I can’t watch it yet because I’m still in Season 3 and I think that’s about Season 4. Now I’m not looking forward to watching Season 4 as much as I was, but they are making a Season 5, so maybe that’ll be another shift!
Kyiv Independent:
“Kursk incursion aims to divert Russian troops, protect Ukrainian border regions, Kyiv says”:
“Kursk incursion has not yet influenced situation near Toretsk, military says”:
Dmitri tweeted that the Russians have now evacuated the Bolshesoldatsky district.
Allan Lichtman – a political historian who has an extraordinary prediction record and methodology – here on Kamala Excitement Soaring! But does that mean she’ll win?? – 9 minutes long.
Assorted news links:
CBC – “Jordan Peterson agrees to social media coaching after Supreme Court declines free speech case”:
Countervortex (reprinted from Jurist) – “CHIQUITA TO PAY FOR PARAMILITARY TERROR IN COLOMBIA” (from June, but I missed it at the time):
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog (one bonus of the Kursk incursion/offensive is that this exists again!).
And here’s a link to today’s Guardian US-politics liveblog. From there:
AP:
With over 577,000 signatures verified, Arizona will put abortion rights on the ballot
By Rio Yamat / August 12, 2024
NYT:
Former Pro-Trump County Clerk Is Found Guilty of Tampering With Voting Machines
By Alan Feuer and Nick Corasaniti / August 13, 2024
Is the AI Left-Bias Real?
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=xaroJxFTVFQ
Answer: “it’s complicated”
Musk And Trump Are Made For Each Other
Judge rules against RFK Jr. in fight to be on New York’s ballot, says he is not a state resident
Media kept Trump’s hack under wraps, but couldn’t get enough of Clinton’s emails
Posted by readers of the article:
Sci Show:
“Do We Have to Die?”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Hqh_fiOmiRo
https://x.com/atrupar/status/1823175640331255821
NPR:
Former police chief faces a felony charge in the raid of a Kansas newspaper
August 13, 20241 / By The Associated Press
Today In Project 2025: Oh Lordy, There Are Tapes
Followup to comment 490.
Posted by readers of the article:
UAW files labor charges against Trump and Musk, alleging worker intimidation
British Far Right Scurry Back To Their Holes
Tens of thousands of anti-racist counter-protesters, plus some prison sentences, chased them off.
Washington Post link
Disease was spreading in Gaza. Now there’s polio in the sewage.
Israel’s war in Gaza has destroyed its water and sanitation infrastructure, leaving sewage in the streets as a breeding ground for infectious diseases.
Trump’s plan to quell protests: ‘Deport pro-Hamas radicals’
The vast majority of the protesters, though, appear to be U.S. citizens. Biden has not terminated any academic student visas due to participation in protests.
Vance’s failed agricultural startup broke big promises to Appalachia
So … Vance fails as a businessman, and Vance backs near-criminal enterprises … just like Trump.
‘A display of two planet-sized egos’: Media reacts to Trump-Musk interview
The Guardian‘s Marina Hyde on the Musk-Trump technical glitch:
Scientists achieve more than 98% efficiency in removing nanoplastics from water
https://phys.org/news/2024-08-scientists-efficiency-nanoplastics.html
Guardian liveblog: