Interesting postscript: The Russians are still dependent on railroads because the productivity of their agriculture is too low to build big roads everywhere. I recognise this from the Soviet era but did not expect it to still be the case.
And a war machine that is still tied to the rail network for logistics will have vulnerabilities that now are becoming obvious.
birgerjohanssonsays
An embarassing note on parochial music ‘experts’.
Swedish Radio had a large number of (Swedish) music critics and music media people vote on the best song ever.
Instead of something from The Beatles, Madonna etc they voted for Robyn’s ‘Dancing On My Own’.
While a perfectly good song, it is just not on the level of ‘Yesterday’ or ‘Stayin’ Alive’.
I keep criticising Brits and Americans for being parochial, and now this (blushes of embarrassment).
birgerjohanssonsays
Abba’s Björn Ulvaeus remarries with Sandi Toksvig officiating | Abba | The Guardian
A feel-good story. Brit readers will be familiar with Danish-British Toksvig, from -among other things – the program QI. Ulvaeus et al have not been into drugs or endorsed nazis, so I am posting this in case American musicians need role models. Especially the “do not endorse nazis” bit.
Exit polls from the 2016 elections suggest Donald Trump lost women voters to Hillary Clinton by roughly 12 points. Four years later, exit polls found Trump lost women voters to Joe Biden by roughly 15 points. Could the trend become even worse for the former president?
It’s a distinct possibility. Election Day is still six weeks away, but the latest national NBC News poll showed Trump trailing Kamala Harris by 21 points among women voters.
The good news for Republicans is that their party’s candidate appears to be aware of the problem is taking steps to address the gender gap. The bad news for the GOP is that Trump’s solution is a cringeworthy mess. The Wall Street Journal reported:
Former President Donald Trump claimed women won’t think about abortion anymore if he wins the election, a day after Vice President Kamala Harris argued he was the “architect” of a reproductive healthcare crisis. … The comments underscored Trump’s anxiety over the issue, which has proven to be a powerful motivator for women and could play a major role in the suburban areas that may decide the election.
Shortly before midnight on Friday, Trump published a 183-word screed to his social media platform, published entirely in capital letters, which is worth reading just to fully appreciate his hysterics.
[…] Trump apparently wants women voters to know a few things:
– They’re currently miserable.
– Trump will make all of their problems go away, at which point their “lives will be happy, beautiful, and great again.”
– After he fixes all of their problems, they’ll “no longer be thinking about abortion,” because it will be a state-based issue.
– Democrats support “executing” infants after birth.
In case that was too subtle, a day later, the GOP nominee held a rally in North Carolina, where he echoed the missive he published online the night before, reading it nearly word for word. [video at the link]
The Wall Street Journal’s report noted that the Harris campaign “quickly circulated his remarks” — and when a rival candidate wants everyone to know what you’ve said, it’s probably not because you’ve said something smart.
[…] Trump covered a lot of nonsensical ground with his message. He began by telling women how awful their lives are, prompting a Harris campaign spokeswoman to say, “After ripping away our reproductive freedom, now he’s trying to tell us how to think.”
His brazen lie about Democrats and infanticide was obviously no better.
What’s more, the idea that women will simply stop thinking about abortion, because it will be a state-based issue, doesn’t make any sense at all, since it’s currently a state-based issue, and millions of American women continue to make clear that they’re still thinking about reproductive rights.
But one of the most striking parts of the Republican’s pitch was his insistence that he’ll make their lives “happy, beautiful, and great.”
In case anyone has forgotten, Trump was actually president in the recent past, and to the extent that he tried to make women’s lives happy, beautiful, and great, he failed spectacularly. In fact, polls suggest he remained unpopular with most women throughout his White House tenure, and it was women who helped show him the door in the 2020 elections.
Trump appears to be under the impression that women have forgotten all about this. His 21-point deficit against Harris suggests they have not.
When it came to matters of public health, Donald Trump’s presidency featured few highlights, though part of the Republican’s record stands out as unusual: his approach to vaping.
In 2019, the year before his re-election bid, Trump announced that his administration would ban flavored vapes, and while he ultimately scaled back his position for political reasons, the then-president ultimately signed a measure to raise the minimum age to purchase e-cigarette and other tobacco products. Soon after, the Republican administration also approved a limited ban on mint and fruit-flavored cartridge-based e-cigarettes.
Evidently, however, Trump’s position is evolving. The Washington Post reported:
Former President Donald Trump offered enthusiastic support for vaping on Friday, promising to protect the industry following a private meeting earlier in the day with a leading vaping lobbyist. Trump wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform, that he “saved Flavored Vaping in 2019” and would “save Vaping again!”
The article noted that the GOP candidate’s online boast represented “a revisionist account of his administration’s approach to vaping, the heating of nicotine to make an inhaled aerosol.”
But of particular interest was the process through which Trump changed his mind. While in office, Trump briefly endorsed a ban on flavored vaping. As he eyes a return to the White House, the former president now wants to be seen as a vaping champion.
What changed? According to the Post’s reporting, Trump’s new position “is consistent with the recent financial support he has received from the tobacco industry.” It also came “just after a meeting with the head of the Vapor Technology Association, which describes itself as the leading vaping trade association, representing more than 100 members of the industry.”
A few months ago, Politico published a report with a memorable headline: “Trump keeps flip-flopping his policy positions after meeting with rich people.”
The relevance of the headline lingers for a reason.
For example, Trump supported banning TikTok, only to reverse course after chatting with Jeff Yass, a billionaire hedge fund manager — and prospective campaign donor — who has a multibillion-dollar stake in ByteDance, TikTok’s parent corporation. Something similar appears to have happened with the cryptocurrency industry.
Trump also started hedging on some of his immigration policies around the time he met with wealthy corporate executives at a Business Roundtable meeting.
A few months earlier, Trump publicly suggested that conservatives should give up their opposition to Anheuser-Busch shortly before he attended a fundraiser hosted by an Anheuser-Busch lobbyist.
Perhaps most importantly, Trump abandoned his long-time skepticism about cryptocurrencies after having some chats with prospective donors at Mar-a-Lago.
It’s tempting to see this as corruption, but it’s worth being more specific about what’s happened. Trump isn’t saying, “I’ll change my position in exchange for money,” he’s instead effectively saying, “Since I don’t care about governing or public policy anyway, I’ll just align my beliefs with the preferences of wealthy people and prospective donors who have my ear behind closed doors.”
If recent history is any guide, it’s only a matter of time before this list grows.
[…] The Washington Post reported late Friday, “A porn site user linked to North Carolina gubernatorial nominee Mark Robinson praised Adolf Hitler’s book ‘Mein Kampf.’”
NBC News […]:
Four top staff members of Mark Robinson’s campaign for North Carolina governor have stepped down, the campaign announced Sunday as the candidate faces calls from Republicans to do the same. The campaign’s comment did not link the staff departures to the bombshell CNN report alleging Robinson, a Republican, made antisemitic and racist comments years ago on a porn website, and it did not say why the staffers were stepping down.
These were not obscure figures on Team Robinson. On the contrary, with roughly six weeks remaining before Election Day, the scandal-plagued candidate lost his campaign manager, deputy campaign manager, finance director and senior adviser.
The local NPR affiliate reported soon after that, in the wake of the resignations, Robinson’s campaign operation was left with just three paid aides — one of whom is the candidate’s bodyguard.
But as things stand, Team Trump isn’t prepared to abandon the gubernatorial hopeful just yet.
The former president campaigned in North Carolina on Saturday, and while Trump didn’t share the stage with Robinson, and he was careful not to mention Robinson, Trump campaign insiders told NBC News the White House hopeful has no plans to pull his endorsement.
As for Trump’s running mate, JD Vance’s initial response to the scandal was to argue online that Robinson is less important than grocery prices. […]
That was not, however, the Ohio senator’s final word on the subject. NBC News reported:
Sen. JD Vance on Saturday reacted for the first time to the bombshell report about Mark Robinson, the Republican candidate for governor in North Carolina, saying that the allegations against Robinson “aren’t necessarily reality.”
In comments to the network affiliate in Philadelphia, the Republican vice presidential hopeful said on camera, “The allegations are pretty far out there, of course, but I know that allegations aren’t necessarily reality.” Asked whether he believed Robinson’s seemingly outlandish denials, Vance went on to say, “I don’t not believe him, I don’t believe him.”
Evidently, those responsible for running Robinson’s statewide campaign came to a very different conclusion.
As the election season progresses, let’s also not forget that Robinson faced perfectly credible primary rivals earlier this year, both of whom warned North Carolina Republicans that Robinson’s unambiguous record of radicalism made him a poor choice for a critically important race.
Trump backed him anyway, and local GOP voters backed Robinson over his intraparty rivals by a lopsided margin.
[…] If you’re having trouble recalling all the ways in which DOJ’s independence, professionalism, and reputation were sullied by Trump’s depredations, the NYT offers a much-needed reminder in a tight, accessible and very on-point package it published over the weekend.
The lead story in the package, authored by reporter Michael S. Schmidt, includes new, never-before-reported details about efforts by the Trump White House Counsel’s Office to steer him away from even worse abuses of the Justice Department and to memorialize those efforts in a self-protective memo, drafts of which they reportedly snuck out of the White House for safekeeping. Your ass-covering memo doesn’t do you much good if it’s hidden away in a White House vault you can no longer access – or is simply destroyed.
A valuable sidebar to the main story is a list of some of the highest profile instances of Trump abusing DOJ to target people he considered threats. It’s a good refresher if time, ambiguity, and the sheer volume of Trump’s transgressions have overwhelmed your memory.
Finally, Schmidt runs through the key findings in a short video: [video at the link] […]
The man accused in the apparent assassination attempt of Donald Trump at a golf course in Florida left behind a note saying that he intended to kill the former president and maintained in his car a handwritten list of dates and venues where Trump was to appear, the Justice Department said Monday.
The new allegations were included in a detention memo filed ahead of a hearing Monday at which the Justice Department was expected to argue that 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh should remain locked up as the case moves forward.
The details are meant to buttress prosecutors’ assertions that Routh is a threat to public safety with a premeditated plan to kill Trump—a plot officials say was thwarted by a Secret Service agent who spotted a rifle poking out of shrubbery on the West Palm Beach golf course where Trump was playing.
The note was placed in a box dropped off months earlier at the home of an unidentified person who did not open it until after last Sunday’s arrest. The box also contained ammunition, a metal pipe, building materials, tools, phones and various letters. The person who received the box and contacted law enforcement was not identified in the Justice Department’s detention memo.
One note, addressed “Dear World,” appears to have been premised on the idea that the assassination attempt would be unsuccessful.
“This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you. I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It is up to you now to finish the job; and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job,” the note said, according to prosecutors.
[…] Cellphone records cited by the Justice Department indicate Routh traveled to West Palm Beach from Greensboro in mid-August, and that he was near Trump’s golf club and the former president’s Mar-a-Lago residence “on multiple days and times” between August 18 and the day of the apparent attempted assassination.
He was arrested on Sunday afternoon after a Secret Service agent who was scoping the Trump International Golf Club for potential security threats saw a partially obscured man’s face, and the barrel of a semiautomatic rifle, aimed directly at him. The agent fired at Routh, who sped away before being stopped by officials in a neighboring county.
The Secret Service has said Routh did not fire any shots and never had Trump in his line of sight.
The Justice Department also said Monday that authorities who searched his car found six cellphones, including one that showed a Google search of how to travel from Palm Beach County to Mexico. […]
Routh is charged with illegally possessing his gun in spite of multiple felony convictions, including two charges of possessing stolen goods in 2002 in North Carolina, and with possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. More serious charges are possible in the weeks ahead.
Congressional leaders announced an agreement Sunday on a short-term spending bill that will fund federal agencies for about three months, averting a possible partial government shutdown when the new budget year begins Oct. 1 and pushing final decisions until after the November election.
Temporary spending bills generally fund agencies at current levels, but an additional $231 million was included to bolster the Secret Service after the two assassination attempts against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, and additional money was added to aid with the presidential transition, among other things.
[…] At the urging of the most conservative members of his conference, House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, had linked temporary funding with a mandate that would have compelled states to require proof of citizenship when people register to vote.
But Johnson abandoned that approach to reach an agreement, even as Trump insisted there should not be a stop-gap measure without the voting requirement.
Bipartisan negotiations began in earnest shortly after that, with leadership agreeing to extend funding into mid-December. That gives the current Congress the ability to fashion a full-year spending bill after the Nov. 5 election, rather than push that responsibility to the next Congress and president.
In a letter to Republican colleagues, Johnson said the budget measure would be “very narrow, bare-bones” and include “only the extensions that are absolutely necessary.”
“While this is not the solution any of us prefer, it is the most prudent path forward under the present circumstances,” Johnson wrote. “As history has taught and current polling affirms, shutting the government down less than 40 days from a fateful election would be an act of political malpractice.”
[…] Johnson’s earlier effort had no chance in the Democratic-controlled Senate and was opposed by the White House, but it did give the speaker a chance to show Trump and conservatives within his conference that he fought for their request.
The final result—government funding effectively on autopilot—was what many had predicted. […]
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said the same agreement could have been reached two weeks ago, but “Speaker Johnson chose to follow the MAGA way and wasted precious time.” [True.]
[…] Now a bipartisan majority is expected to push the short-term measure over the finish line this week. The agreement on the short-term measure does not mean getting to a final spending bill will be easy in December. The election results could also influence the political calculations if one party fares much better than the other, potentially pushing the fight into early next year.
The Secret Service funding also comes with a string attached, with lawmakers making it contingent on the Department of Homeland Security providing certain information to a House task force and Senate committee investigating the assassination attempts made against Trump.
In a recent letter, the Secret Service told lawmakers that a funding shortfall was not the reason for lapses in Trump’s security when a gunman climbed onto an unsecured roof on July 13 at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and opened fire. But acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. said this week that the agency had “immediate needs” and that he’s talking to Congress.
Well Of Course They’re Selling MyPillows For $14.88
Very subtle!
Are you a white supremacist and a bargain hunter?
Well, MyPillow has got you covered. Because for the low, low price of $14.88 you can get a pillow and a complimentary neo-Nazi dogwhistle. (Because after all, Hitler did famously love his dog.)
“1488” is, of course, a very famous white supremacist symbol/catchphrase, with the 14 standing for the 14-word slogan coined by domestic terrorist David Lane: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.” The 88 stands for “Heil Hitler,” because H is the eighth letter of the alphabet. Aren’t they clever? Or the exact opposite of that, given that this is very easy information to look up for the rare few who still don’t know what it means.
Nazis themselves were quite pleased! And yes, that one guy’s handle is, in fact “@killdoctors,” and the other guy’s avatar is David Koresh wearing a MAGA hat, and the other guy after that punctuated his “Heil Mike Lindell!” comment with a picture of Arnold Schwarzenegger doing a Nazi salute. [Examples of posts and photos are available at the link]
Nice, normal people!
The real question is … does Mike Lindell actually know? Honestly I am going to guess that he very much does not. Not because I think he is morally above that, but because he appears to just be very, very stupid. He does, however, seem highly likely to hire the kind of person who absolutely would work a Nazi slogan into a pillow sale […]
It is appalling to see how many doofuses online are praising Mike Lindell for what they see as praising Nazi slogans. Lindell may not have intended the Nazi association, but the effect is the same as if he had. Also, Lindell did include in his advertisement an image of Christ with a crown of thorns … a sharp contrast to whole soft pillow sell.
Today, President Joe Biden is at the White House celebrating Gotham FC, which will be the first time a NWSL (National Women’s Soccer League) champion will get to go to the White House for a team champion celebration.
[…] Too bad, so sad, GOP. We’d suggest you try nominating candidates who are not bugfuck insane, but who are we kidding, all you have is bugfuck insane.
In November 2022, my editors asked me to be careful about what I ate and stop ordering takeout. Initially, I didn’t think much of it. But I soon realized the importance of their advice when, just one month later, my colleague Elena Kostyuchenko discovered she had been poisoned in Germany, in a probable assassination attempt by the Russian state.
Such stories have become routine. Last year, an investigative journalist, Alesya Marokhovskaya, was harassed in the Czech Republic; in February, the bullet-riddled body of a Russian defector, Maxim Kuzminov, was found in Spain. In both cases, the Kremlin was assumed to be involved. Russian opposition figures know well that even in exile they remain targets of Russia’s intelligence services.
But it’s not just them who are in danger. There are also the hundreds of thousands of Russians who left home because they did not want to have anything to do with Vladimir Putin’s war — or were forced out, accused of not embracing it enough. These low-profile dissenters are subjected to surveillance and kidnappings, too. Yet their repression happens in silence — away from the spotlight and often with the tacit consent, or inadequate prevention, of the countries to which they have fled.
It’s a terrifying thing: The Kremlin is hunting down ordinary people across the world, and nobody seems to care.
I’ve been gathering information about Russia’s targeting of exiles since the start of the war in Ukraine. My sources range from people who themselves survived abductions and surveillance to the leaders of Russian diasporas around the world — and the few human rights activists helping them. Many spoke to me on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss Russian repression without fear of reprisal. […]
There’s a vocal coach arrested in Kazakhstan at Moscow’s request who went mad in a local jail. A caregiver for the elderly detained in Montenegro on Russian orders, carried out by Interpol. A schoolteacher detained by Armenian border guards after telling her students about Russia’s crimes in Bucha. A toy shop owner, an industrial climber, a punk rocker: These are some of the people caught in the Kremlin dragnet, all over the world. [Embedded links to additional sources are available at the main link]
And it is a truly global operation. In Britain, exiles are being followed and London opposition events are crawling with agents “who stick out like a sore thumb,” Ksenia Maximova, an anti-Kremlin activist there, told me. Russian intelligence officers have been sent to monitor the diasporas in Germany, Poland and Lithuania, according to Evgeny Smirnov, a lawyer who specializes in treason and espionage cases. Other emigrants have been stalked and threatened in Rome, Paris, Prague and Istanbul. The list goes on.
Some of the methods are especially insidious. Lev Gyammer, an exiled activist in Poland, has been receiving texts for two years, supposedly from his mother. “Levushka, son, I miss you so, when will you visit me?” Another reads, “Son, I’m waiting for you. Come back soon.” He ignores them: His mother, Olga, died five years ago. Another Russian expatriate — whose elderly parents are still alive and very sick — chose to believe it when his parents’ nurse of many years told him, over the phone, of a fire in their apartment. He rushed home from Finland and was immediately taken to prison and tortured, according to Mr. Smirnov. Of course, there never was a fire.
Those who cannot be tricked back to Russia are subjected to surveillance. An employee of an organization that supports L.G.B.T.Q. people was walking her dog around the neighborhood in Tbilisi, Georgia, when she noticed that she was being followed by a drone. It was an evening in early May — two years since she’d fled Russia with the rest of her colleagues. She hurried back to hide at her apartment but could still hear the buzzing. She followed the noise to the balcony and came face to face with the device, hanging there within arm’s reach.
Host countries are often complicit. In some places, local police officers even conduct surveillance on behalf of their Russian colleagues. In Kazakhstan, local special services are helping Russia catch draft dodgers. In Kyrgyzstan, the police are using facial recognition technology to search for those wanted by the Kremlin, forcing people to leave cities for the mountains, according to a host of advocacy groups. [Details at the link]
[…] Antiwar exiles are supported by a handful of human rights organizations, perennially on the brink of closing because of lack of funds. Russia, by contrast, lavishes a great deal of resources on the exiles — as it accuses them of treason and terrorism and, driven by paranoia, pursues them all over the world. They are at immediate risk. But the greater danger is that the world forgets altogether about these people — and why they left their country in the first place.
Trump Media’s share price has fallen more than 80% since the company surged in its public trading debut in late March.
Shares of Trump Media on Monday sank to their lowest price in more than a year, days after majority owner Donald Trump and other company insiders got the green light to start selling their stakes in the Truth Social maker.
The stock, which trades as DJT on the Nasdaq, dropped more than 6% at the market open, putting the company on track for its sixth straight day of declines.
Trump Media’s share price has fallen more than 80% since the company surged in its public trading debut in late March. The stock as of Monday morning was at its lowest intraday level since July 2023.
The company’s market capitalization, which crossed $10 billion in March, has shrunk to about $2.5 billion. Trump owns nearly 57% of the company’s outstanding shares, which as of Monday morning at 10:30 a.m. ET was worth less than $1.5 billion.
Trump and other company insiders have been bound by lockup agreements that barred them from selling their shares in the initial months after Trump Media went public.
Those restrictions expired at the closing bell Thursday. […]
[…] A few years ago this would have seemed like a tale of pure fiction right out of The Handmaid’s Tale, but it’s increasingly becoming a reality in a post-Roe America.
A case in point is the horrific story of Amari Marsh, a 23-year-old South Carolina woman, that was published today at Raw Story. Last year she was accused of murder for losing a pregnancy, and she is bravely telling her story because she says she wants to “help other young women that are in my position now and will be in the future.”
Amari played clarinet as section leader in the marching band and once performed at Carnegie Hall. In college, she was majoring in biology and planned to become a doctor. Things started to change for her in November 2022, when she took an in-home pregnancy test that was positive. She kept having her period so she thought that the test might have been wrong. But that was not the case.
On Feb. 28, 2023, Marsh said, she experienced abdominal pain that was “way worse” than regular menstrual cramps. She went to the emergency room, investigation records show, but left after several hours without being treated. Back at home, she said, the pain grew worse. She returned to the hospital, this time by ambulance.
Hospital staffers crowded around her, she said, and none of them explained what was happening to her. Bright lights shone in her face. “I was scared,” she said.
According to the sheriff’s department report, hospital staffers told Marsh that she was pregnant and that a fetal heartbeat could be detected. Freaked out and confused, she chose to leave the hospital a second time, she said, and her pain had subsided.
In the middle of the night, she said, the pain started again. She woke up, she recalled, feeling an intense urge to use the bathroom. “And when I did, the child came,” she said. “I screamed because I was scared, because I didn’t know what was going on.”
Her boyfriend at the time called 911. The emergency dispatcher “kept telling me to take the baby out” of the toilet, she recalled. “I couldn’t because I couldn’t even keep myself together.”
First medical responders detected signs of life and tried to perform lifesaving measures as they headed to Regional Medical Center in Orangeburg, the incident report said. But at the hospital, Marsh learned that her infant, a girl, had not survived.
“I kept asking to see the baby,” she said. “They wouldn’t let me.”
In a pre-Dobbs America that would have been the end of it, a woman tragically loses a pregnancy but strives to move on with her life. But not today, not in a state with a strict six-week Trump abortion ban. Not in a state where its Supreme Court ruled that “a pregnant person’s interest in their bodily autonomy is outweighed by the state’s interest in fetal life.”
The day after Amari lost her pregnancy, a sheriff’s deputy told Marsh in her hospital room that the incident was under investigation but said that Marsh “was currently not in any trouble.” She didn’t think much of it, because or course she did not feel as though she did anything wrong.
Law enforcement had other ideas. More than 10 weeks later a police officer texted her requesting a follow-up meeting. Marsh arranged to meet the officer on June 2, 2023. During that meeting, she was arrested. Marsh was charged with murder/homicide by child abuse. She spent 22 days at the Orangeburg-Calhoun Regional Detention Center, where she was initially held without bond, facing 20 years to life in prison.
The arrest warrant alleges that not moving the infant from the toilet at the urging of the dispatcher was ultimately “a proximate cause of her daughter’s death.” The warrant also cites as the cause of death “respiratory complications” due to a premature delivery stemming from a maternal chlamydia infection. Marsh said she was unaware of the infection until after the pregnancy loss.
In trying to tie Amari’s tragic loss to the issue of abortion, an incident report filed by the Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office on the day Amari lost the pregnancy stated that in January 2023 Marsh made an appointment at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Columbia to “take the Plan-C pill which would possibly cause an abortion to occur.” The report doesn’t specify whether she took — or even obtained — the drug. During an interview at her parents’ house, Marsh denied going to Planned Parenthood or taking medicine to induce abortion.
To make matters worse, local and national anti-abortion groups seized on Marsh’s story when her name and mug shot were published online by the local newspaper. “Orangeburg Newborn Dies in Toilet” was the title of a blog post published by National Right to Life.
“It was heartbreaking to see all those things,” she said. “I cried so many times.”
Just this past August — 13 months after she was released from jail to house arrest with an ankle monitor — Amari was cleared by a grand jury. So thankfully her case will not proceed to trial. But Amari should never been forced to go through this horror to begin with.
This case shows how pregnancy loss is being criminalized around the country, said U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, a Democrat and graduate of South Carolina State University whose congressional district includes Orangeburg.
[…] Today, Marsh has moved back in with her parents and is seeing a therapist. She is taking classes at a local community college and hopes to reenroll in college to earn a four-year degree. She still wants to become a doctor.
Amari’s story highlights once again why we MUST elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. And this is not just about women – its about about MEN too. Men, this is about your wives, daughters, sisters and what they are going through right now with all the serious challenges to their health care – even more so for women of color and Black women in particular. […]
SpaceX plans to launch about five uncrewed Starship missions to Mars in two years, CEO Elon Musk said on Sunday. From a report:
Earlier this month, Musk had said that the first Starships to Mars would launch in two years “when the next Earth-Mars transfer window opens.”
The CEO on Sunday said that the first crewed mission timeline will depend upon the success of the uncrewed flights. If the uncrewed missions land safely, crewed missions will be launched in four years. However, in case of challenges, crewed missions will be postponed by another two years, Musk said…
Florida Pretty Sure No Student Old Enough To Learn About Bodies, Or Consent, Or …
Or contraception, or domestic violence, or gender identity, or … or fluids!
Florida’s got a lot of problems: skyrocketing homeowners’ insurance prices, invasive pythons eating cats and dogs, a senile old man running a golf motel with a history of employing undocumented workers. But its legislature has more pressing priorities, and that’s making sure that teenagers stay ignorant about how their bodies work, and don’t know what “consent” is.
Sex ed always allowed parents to opt out and let the religious kids wait in the hall and pray for everyone’s souls. And before 2023, Florida school boards used to be able to approve their own sex ed curriculums. But then the Florida legislature changed the law to require the state to approve school districts’ lesson plans instead, in addition to 2022’s law SB 1834, AKA “Don’t Say Gay,” which prohibits “classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in primary grade levels.”
Last school year, the state simply didn’t respond to the schools’ proposed lesson plans, leaving them in a bind about which law they wanted to break: the one saying they’re required to teach reproductive health in high school, or the new one saying that they couldn’t without the approval that the state refused to give them. Broward, Collier and Seminole counties opted to teach their curriculums anyway, and Orange County skipped teaching sex ed altogether.
Now for the 2024-25 year, the state has reportedly told school districts:
– They may not show students pictures depicting external human reproductive anatomy;
– They can’t discuss topics such as sexual consent and domestic violence;
– That “contraceptives are not part of any health or science standard”;
– They may not discuss different types of sex (i.e., anal, oral, and vaginal);
– To remove the words “abuse,” “consent,” “domestic violence,” “fluids,” “gender identity” and any LGBTQ information.
Like, holy shit.
And we say reportedly, because the little chickenshits at the state apparently refuse to put any of this into writing, and will only provide “verbal feedback” on lesson plans. Probably because they know their Project 2025-inspired plan will be as unpopular as gonorrhea. […]
So now districts have been left on their own to figure out on their own how to teach about periods or sexually transmitted infections without mentioning fluids. Or how to talk about sexual abuse, when you can’t talk about sex, consent, or abuse. Pantomime? And what are they supposed to teach for a week? Just repeated chanting of the word “abstinence,” we guess? Playing videos of Mark Robinson screaming at women to keep their skirts down?
Florida already has one of the highest rates of sexually transmitted infections in the country, and had the second-highest infant mortality rate (behind Texas), even before their draconian six-week abortion ban took effect in May. The state has a shortage of doctors, making a six-week ban effectively a total ban. […]
Northeastern Germany’s Tollense Valley hosts what is known as the world’s oldest battlefield: an archaeological site bearing the remains of some 150 individuals, dating to the 13th century BCE.
Now, analysis of arrowheads found on the site reveal that the weaponry was not produced in the area, indicating that the conflict involved people from elsewhere in Europe. The team’s research was published today in Antiquity…
For the first time, the International Criminal Court has concluded that an armed group specifically targeted women.
In the spring of 2012, members of a militia known as Ansar Dine seized control of Timbuktu, in Mali. The militia, which was working with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, meant to restore “proper” Islam to a city it saw as corrupted by secular influence. It forbade women from wearing jewelry, leaving the house at night, being alone with men other than their husbands, and even from speaking to their own brothers-in-law […]
The extremist group also required women to cover themselves almost entirely, and to dress in a way that concealed the shape of their bodies. Women and girls who were detained, often for violating the dress code, were at risk of rape. […]
A French-led multinational force ousted Ansar Dine from much of northern Mali in January, 2013. Three of its members, so far, have been indicted at the International Criminal Court—and, in a historic verdict against one of them in late June, the court concluded, for the first time in its twenty-two-year history, that an armed group had committed the crime against humanity known as gender persecution. As one I.C.C. prosecutor put it in court, “women were targeted because they were women.” And yet, in a confounding verdict, Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz, the de-facto chief of the Islamic police under the regime, was personally acquitted of gender-related charges against him. […]
Al Hassan had been accused of sentencing women who engaged in extramarital relations to floggings and, in at least one case, of participating in the punishment; of facilitating forced marriages between jihadis and girls; and of contributing to rape and sexual slavery. […]
Al Hassan had been accused of sentencing women who engaged in extramarital relations to floggings and, in at least one case, of participating in the punishment; of facilitating forced marriages between jihadis and girls; and of contributing to rape and sexual slavery. […]
In its judgment, the I.C.C. found that Ansar Dine specifically targeted women and girls with a “discriminatory campaign,” based on the “specific roles and expectations assigned to women” in the group’s social and legal order. This simple recognition that gender crimes were committed on the basis of gender is a major step forward. “It has taken a very, very, very long time for judges to actually acknowledge that these crimes happen due to discrimination,” J. M. Kirby, a human-rights lawyer who directs advocacy for Madre, a global women’s-rights organization, said. “They’re acknowledging it’s misogyny driving rape, driving sexual slavery, driving forced marriage or torture.”
[…] the Al Hassan case establishes a clear precedent for charging gender persecution as a crime against humanity.
The verdict, however, was ambiguous. The gender-persecution finding had the support of only two of the trial chamber’s three judges. Judge Tomoko Akane dissented, arguing that the discrimination presented as evidence before the court was motivated by religion, rather than gender. Akane put a great deal of weight on the fact that Ansar Dine declared its purpose was to impose religious law but did not proclaim an intention to oppress women. She largely viewed the sexual abuse of women committed by Ansar Dine as “opportunistic” rather than systemic; any mistreatment of women, she argued, was a by-product of religious goals. [FFS]
[…] Judge Kimberly Prost, in her own opinion, suggested that Akane had missed the obvious. “[W]omen and girls were not only particularly affected” by Ansar Dine’s crimes, she wrote, “they were also specifically targeted on the basis of their gender.” Judge Antoine Kesia-Mbe Mindua joined her in affirming that Ansar Dine had committed gender persecution, but he disputed Al Hassan’s personal culpability. Al Hassan lacked “the soul of an Islamic terrorist,” he contended, and had acted out of fear for his life and for his family. Judges don’t generally rule on the state of a defendant’s soul, but Mindua seems to have had in mind witness statements that described Al Hassan’s participation in Ansar Dine’s crimes as perfunctory. On the basis of that supposed duress, Mindua exonerated Al Hassan from all charges, even for gender persecution and other crimes in which Mindua himself agreed that Al Hassan had participated.
[…] Karim A. A. Khan, who has made gender persecution a priority since becoming the court’s chief prosecutor, in 2021, said the case is still an important step forward. “We were heartened to see that two out of three judges affirmed our approach to the crime of gender persecution,” he said in an e-mail. “We can take this guidance forward in our other cases.” On Wednesday, his office appealed Al Hassan’s acquittals of gender crimes.
[…] “Afghan women are looking to the International Criminal Court,” Shaharzad Akbar, the executive director of the Afghan human-rights organization Rawadari, said. “The gender-persecution framework provides a glimmer of hope that the Taliban can be held accountable for what they’ve done to women and girls.”
The permian mass extinction:
During the second phase of the Siberian traps flood magma eruption layers deep underground of coal and salt were heated to 800°C and led both to extra release of CO2, and release of toxic halogene gases that ruined the ozone layer.
The combination of global warming, acid rain, UV-induced infertility of plants and loss of oxygen in the ocean was utterly devastating.
These conditions have been revealed by current research and give a better explanation than ‘mere’ flood magma eruptions.
birgerjohanssonsays
What does the world use as their decimal separation? A decimal point or comma?
My criticism goes broader than that.
1) This notion that the President of the United States is personally responsible for everything that happens during his term is just absurd. A few years ago, the pandemic screwed up a lot of supply chains. Also, the price of eggs in particular probably got jolted by a few rounds of bird flu in the last few years. I don’t see how you tie those to the president, unless you can make the case that he did a really bad job of managing those things.
2) Kamala Harris isn’t the president. She may have some input, but she doesn’t make the decisions on policy.
So, the fact that is is straight-out lying aside, the type of argument Vance is trying to make is just stupid.
Donald Trump doesn’t just want to avoid a rematch against Kamala Harris, he also wants to keep exploring conspiracy theories about the previous debate.
The morning after former President Donald Trump’s debate failure against Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrat’s campaign wasted little time in issuing a fresh challenge: She wanted to debate him again. The Republican made little effort to hide his reluctance to the idea.
In fact, just two days after Harris beat Trump in their first debate, the GOP nominee announced — in an all-caps online message — that there would be no rematch.
So, that settled that? Not exactly. One day later, NBC News reported that the Republican left open the possibility of another debate with Harris, saying it might happen if he were in “the right mood.”
With this in mind, Harris isn’t giving up on sharing the stage with Trump again. In fact, as NBC News reported, the Democratic nominee has already accepted an invitation to appear in another such event.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign on Saturday said it would accept an invitation to participate in a second debate with former President Donald Trump. The potential debate would take place on Oct. 23 and be hosted by CNN, Harris campaign chair Jennifer O’Malley Dillon said in a statement.
I won’t pretend to know whether Trump will change his mind, or how many times he might reverse course over the next month. But over the weekend, the former president seemed to rule out the possibility.
“The problem with another debate is that it’s just too late,” the Republican said. “Voting has already started.” [video at the link]
It was an odd response. For one thing, Trump was happy to participate in a 2020 debate that was held on Oct. 22. The proposed CNN debate would be held on Oct. 23.
For another, what difference does it make if early voting has begun in some states? If Trump is going to keep airing ads and holding rallies, there’s nothing stopping him from similarly sharing his message by way of a televised debate.
As it turns out, however, Trump isn’t just balking at the idea of another debate, he’s also still relitigating the last one. In his latest Fox News interview, the former president once again endorsed an investigation into ABC News, suggesting the network’s broadcast license should be in jeopardy.
This is, alas, a go-to move for the Republican nominee.
Complicating matters, Trump isn’t alone in targeting ABC for hosting a debate he lost. Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., appears to have launched his own freelance investigation, demanding that the network turn over communications with the Harris campaign, while Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa., recently endorsed congressional hearings into an ABC “whistleblower” who does not appear to exist in reality.
Embattled “black NAZI” Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson of North Carolina is hell-bent on continuing his gubernatorial campaign as fallout continues in the wake of the release of disturbing and acutely hypocritical message board posts by the Republican nominee.
“We’re getting resumes from all over. We’re getting offers from all over,” the allegedly self-proclaimed “perv” told a small group of reporters gathered in front of a bakery on Monday. Robinson was responding to reports that a number of his key campaign staff abandoned ship over the weekend.
Robinson has reached MAGA-pariah status in record time, with Donald Trump and other prominent GOP politicians pretending they barely know the guy. Trump’s campaign made sure Robinson did not appear at an event in Wilmington, North Carolina, over the weekend. Trump’s running mate Sen. JD Vance predictably bungled his response, telling NBC’s Philadelphia affiliate that the allegations against Robinson “aren’t necessarily reality.”
CNN reported last week on numerous disturbing statements, connected to Robinson, that he allegedly made on the message board of a pornographic website between 2008 and 2012. This included identifying himself as a “black NAZI,” defending slavery, denigrating civil rights leader Martin Luther King, and a lot of graphic sexual content that belies his public moralist attacks on the LGBTQ+ community.
Robinson has denied everything, cryptically claiming that “There’s been over $1 million spent on me through AI by a billionaire’s son who’s bound and determined to destroy me.”
On Monday, Robinson was asked whether he would seek legal action against CNN for the report, he was equally vague.
“We’re in talks right now. Everything up to legal counsel to take CNN to task for what they have done to us,” he told reporters. “We are, we are going after, okay, we are going to go after them for what they’ve done.”
Robinson also took a stab at turning the tables and explaining his current controversy as just a distraction. “Quite frankly I am dismayed about the fact … think about how many people right now … who are hooked on fentanyl, who are hooked on opioids, and how many will die tonight because of it. Think about what’s going on on our border. Think about what’s going on on the world stage. And this is what you choose to focus on?’
Video at the link.
Posted by readers of the article:
I don’t think even he’s delusional enough to think he’s got the ghost of a chance, but he’s still playing for the consolation prize, a pundit gig on Newsmax or Breitbart.
————————
“I’m not in the K.K.K. They don’t let Blacks join. If I was in the K.K.K. I would have called him Martin Lucifer Koon!”
–NC Lt Gov Mark Robinson
Trump on Robinson:
”He’s Martin Luther King on steroids.”
——————————
The Republican Governors Association has just announced that it will no longer be purchasing media advertisements in support of Robinson after the current set expire tomorrow.
FTC Cracks Down On Middlemen Jacking Up Prices Of Your Medications
Prescription Benefit Managers — only in America!
In recent years, due to pressure from both the public and the government, pharmaceutical companies have dropped the price of insulin down to $35 per month for most people. That’s good news, but it only solves part of the problem, and not in any sort of permanent way. What really needs to change, ultimately, are the things that led to a medication that has been on the market for decades and costs only $2 to make costing consumers so much in the first place. Prescription drug benefit managers (PBMs) are one of those things.
On Friday, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a lawsuit against the USA’s top three PBMs — CVS Health’s Caremark, Cigna’s ESI, and United Health Group’s Optum — and their affiliated group purchasing organizations (GPOs) — Zinc Health Services, Ascent Health Services, and Emisar Pharma Services — for engaging in shady practices that artificially jacked up the prices of insulin and other medications.
We don’t talk a lot about PBMs, but they’re a pretty big deal. According to a report from the New York Times, these three “would each rank among the top 40 U.S. companies by revenue.” Caremark, on its own, “generates more revenue than Ford or Home Depot.” Together, they administer about 80 percent of all prescriptions in the United States.
Theoretically, PBMs are supposed to bring down prices for consumers, and that’s what they claim to do. The industry’s lobbying group says they saved “their clients and patients” $286 billion in 2022.
If you have a brain in your head, you are probably thinking, “How would an entity that exists only to reduce prices for consumers be so profitable? How would the clients also be saving money? That seems like some bullshit!”
And it is. It is absolutely some bullshit. Of course it is. All of their profit comes from getting a percentage of what the consumers pay, so obviously they have a ton of incentive to make consumers pay more.
The FTC accuses the PBMs of having created a “perverse drug rebate system that prioritizes high rebates from drug manufacturers, leading to artificially inflated insulin list prices.” Because of this, the complaint says, when cheaper insulins came on the market, the PBMs shut them out in favor of insulins with higher list prices and higher rebate prices, which in turn encouraged companies to drive up the price of insulin in order for their products to be included.
This strategy, according to one PBM vice president, allowed the PBMs to “drink down the tasty … rebates.”
Ew.
“Millions of Americans with diabetes need insulin to survive, yet for many of these vulnerable patients, their insulin drug costs have skyrocketed over the past decade thanks in part to powerful PBMs and their greed,” said Rahul Rao, Deputy Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition. “Caremark, ESI, and Optum—as medication gatekeepers—have extracted millions of dollars off the backs of patients who need life-saving medications. The FTC’s administrative action seeks to put an end to the Big Three PBMs’ exploitative conduct and marks an important step in fixing a broken system—a fix that could ripple beyond the insulin market and restore healthy competition to drive down drug prices for consumers.”
PBMs, by the way, are one of those things that do not exist in other countries. […]
In many other countries, the state negotiates the price of pharmaceuticals with the pharmaceutical companies, their healthcare system covers what it covers, and all consumers pay the same out-of pocket cost (in the instances where they pay any at all). It’s very simple. It makes sense.
In the US, we don’t have that. Instead, we have these separate Prescription Benefit Managers, whose job it is to “negotiate” prices with pharmaceutical companies and help determine what insurance companies will cover, and in exchange, they get a cut of the profits. […]
Let me explain it this way. When you buy wholesale, you pay a lower price than you do if you pay retail — because the person who sells you the item has to get their cut as well. That is basically what happens here. Other countries pay direct-to-consumer wholesale prices, we pay retail. Because we don’t just have to pay for our medical care and our prescriptions, we also have to pay for PBMs and private health insurance to exist and make ridiculous amounts of money.
Part of the reason our healthcare is so expensive here is because the “for profit” model just really does not make sense for healthcare, so we have to do 14 backflips, eight umbrella twirls, a triple axel and a double Cincinnati time step in order to make it work. We have to stick random people in there to do pretty much nothing other than put their hands out and take their cut, just so it can qualify as sufficiently capitalist. We have to do everything in the stupidest, least efficient, most ass-backwards and most expensive way possible, just to be able to be able to go, “Look at us! We’re not commies! Isn’t it great how we’re not commies?”
It’s great that the FTC is cracking down on PBMs, which should not exist to begin with. It’s even better that they are also looking to hold other entities responsible for this. But as long as these entities exist, we’re going to be paying more than we should have to for our prescriptions, because that is literally the only way they can turn a profit.
Pierce R. Butlersays
KG @ # 499 in previous thread: … French imperialism largely escapes the attention of anti-imperialists, just as Russian and Chinese imperialism does, because so many “anti-imperialists” are, in practice, merely anti-American-imperialism.
There seems to be enough Russian money supporting “mere anti-American-imperialism” that ideology plays a secondary role in much of that. I feel very sure that two “progressive” organizations which I personally know the leaders of (and have participated in demonstrations led by) now sustain themselves on well-laundered rubles, and I have serious suspicions about certain other groups I know less of.
These in turn keep up a flood of (familiar, and not wholly unjustified) rhetoric that has persuaded other activists I know and formerly respected – and whom I don’t think receive a single kopek – to turn their eyes away from certain problems caused by Moscow. A lot of the “why can’t we just get along?” verbiage regarding China still seems sort-of sincere and even possible, but much includes the same sort of one-sidedness I see in Putin puppets.
It took me some serious effort to set aside my own reflexive anti-militarism and support arming Ukraine, so I partly understand why so many others continue in their customary reactions, but I had really thought more of “us” had learned better than to paint one side black and one side white.
Late last week, Russia’s military planned to launch a Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on a test flight from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome. Imagery from commercial satellites captured over the weekend suggest the missile exploded before or during launch…
A Nebraska Republican state lawmaker said Monday that he remains opposed to switching how the state allocates its electoral votes, effectively blocking a bid by President Donald Trump and his allies to change the system in a bid for an extra electoral vote this fall.
Trump allies have pushed for a special legislative session intended for the Republican-controlled legislature to change Nebraska to a winner-take-all system instead of awarding electoral votes by congressional district.
“After deep consideration, it is clear to me that right now, 43 days from Election Day, is not the moment to make this change,” state Sen. Mike McDonnell wrote in a letter obtained by NBC News.
Nebraska GOP state Sen. Loren Lippincott, who sponsored the bill to move the state to a winner-take-all system, indicated Monday that McDonnell’s position means a special session to move the legislation is not expected this fall.
In response to questions about McDonnell’s statement, Lippincott emailed NBC News a draft of his weekly op-ed in local newspapers, which reads: “Governor Pillen did not want to call a special session unless he had assurances from 33 senators they would vote yes on the bill. That effort did not bear fruit. There will be no special session to address Winner Take All. I will be carrying this bill, again, next legislative session.” …
Now who could possibly mistake that for a Nazi dog whistle? /s
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
JD Vance attempted to make a relatable TikTok in which he played a hunting video game while taking a jab at Tim Walz.
“Hey guys, JD Vance here, playing a little Buck Hunter before a rally in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, also known as the closest Tim Walz has ever gotten to real combat,”
[…]
this game is not called ‘Buck Hunter.’ It’s called ‘Big Buck World.’ [as seen on the arcade cabinet beside him] JD Vance has never played this game in his life. […] on the bottom of the console screen […] he had two consecutive misses in his shot report. “Two misses right out of the gate! This guy hasn’t even seen combat in a fake safari hunting video game […] They used this take! That means he tried to do it multiple times and he couldn’t shoot a fake video game antelope […] He’s like, right next to it […] and he still can’t f-ing hit it.”
[…]
there was an unnatural zoom into Vance’s face […] at the end of every round of “Big Buck World,” there are scantily clad women wearing bikinis and short skirts holding fake rifles standing next to text explaining to players how to improve their shooting technique. […] the zoom was done in order to obscure those images from viewers
Project 2025 wants to ban pornography, and […] sexualized video game characters like this […] So this is a game JD Vance wants to ban, and he’s playing it. Because he’s a hypocrite. Because he’s a liar.
/This is an alterNet blog repeating from a Daily Show writer’s BlueSky video posts, which are playable below the article.
Pierce R. Butlersays
CA7746, SC @ # 45, quoting JDV: … the closest Tim Walz has ever gotten to real combat.
Juvenile Delinquent Vance has previously admitted that his own short term in Iraq did not involve even witnessing combat.
Israel dramatically expanded its aerial assaults on Lebanon with airstrikes Monday that killed at least 356 people, wounded almost 1,030 more, and appeared to signal the start of a broader military campaign. Israeli officials said their forces struck 1,300 ‘terrorist targets’ inside Lebanon that were linked to Hezbollah, the militant group that has been trading rocket fire with Israel for nearly a year.
The embattled center-left party of Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany scored a hard-fought and narrow victory over the far-right ethnonationalist party, Alternative für Deutschland, or AfD, in an election in an eastern state of the country, potentially energizing Mr. Scholz’s government in Berlin.
The state of California sued ExxonMobil on Monday, accusing the oil giant of misleading the public about the effectiveness of plastics recycling and contributing to the flood of bottles, bags and wrappers polluting waterways in the state and worldwide.
A manhunt is underway for ‘multiple shooters’ who killed four people and injured 17 when they ‘fired upon a large group of people’ in Birmingham, Alabama, police said Sunday.
Elon Musk suddenly appears to be giving up. After defying court orders in Brazil for three weeks, Mr. Musk’s social network, X, has capitulated. In a court filing on Friday night, the company’s lawyers said that X had complied with orders from Brazil’s Supreme Court in the hopes that the court would lift a block on its site.
The asteroid is expected to spend about two months orbiting the planet, starting Sunday, as it gets temporarily caught by Earth’s gravity.
Earth is set to play host to a visiting “mini-moon.”
An asteroid is expected to swing by Earth next week, then spend about two months orbiting the planet as it gets temporarily caught by Earth’s gravity, according to two astronomers in Spain who reported the discovery.
The asteroid, dubbed 2024 PT5, is 33 feet long — roughly equivalent to a standard school bus. The space rock does not pose a threat to Earth, and it is not expected to stick around for long before it swings back out into space on a path around the sun.
“It will not complete one orbit around Earth, just part of it,” said Carlos de la Fuente Marcos, who co-authored a study about the asteroid published this month in the journal Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society.
The asteroid is expected to enter Earth’s orbit Sunday and lurk there until Nov. 25, just over 56 days, Marcos said. [video at the link]
Earth is set to play host to a visiting “mini-moon.”
An asteroid is expected to swing by Earth next week, then spend about two months orbiting the planet as it gets temporarily caught by Earth’s gravity, according to two astronomers in Spain who reported the discovery.
The asteroid, dubbed 2024 PT5, is 33 feet long — roughly equivalent to a standard school bus. The space rock does not pose a threat to Earth, and it is not expected to stick around for long before it swings back out into space on a path around the sun.
“It will not complete one orbit around Earth, just part of it,” said Carlos de la Fuente Marcos, who co-authored a study about the asteroid published this month in the journal Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society.
The asteroid is expected to enter Earth’s orbit Sunday and lurk there until Nov. 25, just over 56 days, Marcos said.
[…] The space rock will be too small and faint to be seen with regular telescopes and binoculars. Marcos said he and his colleagues plan to study it with the Gran Telescopio Canarias, a ground-based observatory in the Canary Islands.
The scientists hope to learn about the asteroid’s surface composition and how fast it rotates, he said. Those observations could help researchers figure out its origin, which in turn could shed light on other asteroids, including ones that could be dangerous to Earth.
An early warning system for asteroids known as ATLAS (short for Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) discovered 2024 PT5 in early August. The ATLAS telescopes were funded by NASA and developed by the University of Hawaii.
Sky’s Economics and Data editor Ed Conway tracked some of these cars to the Georgia Russia border.
It’s a simple method for getting the cars into Russia, similar scams are done for other luxury goods. They are sold to poor countries near Russia that don’t share a border. They are then resold to some shady transport firm that ships them up to the Russian border. Then somebody from Russia comes out, puts Russian plates on the car and drives them in. On a small scale this sort of thing is very hard to stop but it makes them rare enough and expensive enough in Russia to achieve the goal.
Advances were made in the towns of Leonidivka and Niu York, near the city of Toretsk, and in Krutyi Yar and Mykhailivka, near the city of Pokrovsk, the ISW said in its daily update on the war on Sunday. Russia’s gains in the region are significant, while Ukraine’s advances in Kursk, in Russian territory, which took place in early August, are a fraction of the size.
Russia continues to make small advances at high costs in Ukraine. In Kursk Ukraine is more blocking Russian attempts to push them back. Ukraine has made some small advances here and there across the front in both Ukraine and Kursk but they mostly seem to be grabbing easy land where they can setup defensive lines for the winter.
Open-source analyst Moklasen first reported the reassignment of some of the 58,000-ton Kuznetsov’s approximately 1,500-person crew. The sailors formed a so-called “frigate” mechanized battalion within the 1st Guards Tank Army, Moklasen concluded after scouring Russian social media for clues.
The Kuznetsov is Russia’s only aircraft carrier so symbolically this is a big deal. Practically the ship isn’t really functional and probably isn’t worth Russia repairing at this point. If the Russians are doing this to their aircraft carrier they are probably doing it to other ships also. A lot of the Russian Navy’s big ships are cold war left overs that would be destroyed if taken into a conflict at sea today. Taking the crew from those ships into Ukraine likely seems like an easy source of men.
StevoRsays
Thought this discussion on PBS Newshour just seen was worth sharing :
For perspective on the spiraling violence between Israel and Lebanon, we get two views.
Aaron David Miller is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a longtime State Department official in both Democratic and Republican administrations. And Hussein Ibish is a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.
The Ukraine war has divided the British left – although the Gaza genocide has led to some papering over the rift. I don’t know whether the main “progressive” anti-American-imperialist organisations in the UK are ruble-funded – my hunch is that they are not, and are providing their services to Putin free of charge, because if they were taking the ruble, this would have become public by now. I’ve abandoned a decades-long membership in CND over their de facto pro-Putin line (i.e. no arms to Ukraine), and practically lost quite a close friend (we haven’t completely severed ties, but as this was very much a friendship based in political discussion and activity, it’s on ice by mutual agreement). In his case, I’ve diagnosed him as a “transferred nationalist” (Orwell’s term, from his Notes on Nationalism), with the transfer in his case being to China – he’s managed to convince himself that the Chinese Communist Party is “building socialism” (rather than a largely hereditary, highly patriarchal and ethnonationalist Han Chinese oligarchy now topped by the personal dictatorship of Xi Jinping). Since China in practice supports Putin’s war, that war must be justified, or at least, all NATO’s fault.
The alleged Iranian hack of Donald Trump’s orbit continued at least until mid-September and may be ongoing, a document the hackers shared with a progressive publication reveals…
Meh, not a reliable source. They could be lying about that just to spread chaos.
Elon Musk is facing a backlash after announcing that the block button on X (fomerly Twitter) will no longer prevent people from viewing posts.
The billionaire, who took over the social media app in 2022, said the update was long overdue, having previously claimed that the feature “makes no sense” and should be removed entirely.
“High time this happened,” Mr Musk wrote on X. “The block function will block that account from engaging with, but not block seeing, public post.”
His post received thousands of comments, with many X users fearing that the update will make X more toxic and open to harassment…
Musk just wouldn’t understand, being a creep himself.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy criticized Ohio Sen. JD Vance as being “too radical” and recommended that he read up on World War II in an interview with The New Yorker.
Zelenskyy took issue with former President Donald Trump’s running mate’s approach to the war in Ukraine, accusing him of advocating for the wartorn country to “give up our territories.”
He called Vance’s position a message that seemed to indicate that “Ukraine must make the sacrifice.”
Shortly before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Vance said: “I gotta be honest with you, I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.”
Since then, he has accused Zelenskyy’s ministers of corruption and argued that the US has given too much aid to Ukraine.
In an opinion piece for The Hill last October, Vance wrote that the US had “overcommitted resources and attention to Ukraine” at the expense of other allies.
Last month, Vance outlined a potential plan for ending the war in Ukraine under a possible Trump administration, with the establishment of a “demilitarized zone” in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories.
In exchange, Vance said, Ukraine would need to guarantee it wouldn’t join NATO or other “allied institutions.” …
Allies of former President Donald Trump and others affiliated with the GOP are supporting the Green Party’s Jill Stein in the hopes that her presidential bid will divert attention and votes away from Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Stein, now in her third race for the White House, has fought to secure ballot access in multiple battleground states and has been represented by Trump-affiliated lawyers, the Journal reported. Indeed, Stein’s campaign has paid six figures to a Republican-tied consulting firm led by a man accused of participating in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol…
The Ohio sheriff who likened migrants to “human locusts” and threatened local supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris is reaping the consequences of his own actions.
In a 3–1 vote on Friday, the Portage County elections board agreed to strip Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski of his election security duties, formally removing the sheriff’s office from providing security during in-person voting, reported The Daily Beast…
A team of researchers from the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) in Italy have identified massive structures that make up the galactic halo that surrounds the Milky Way, which may be powered by intense outflows of gas and energy generated by the explosive death of stars. The findings are detailed in a study published Monday in Nature Astronomy.
Using more than 10 different all-sky surveys in different wavelengths, the team behind the new study scoured the galaxy using frequencies ranging from radio to gamma-rays. The astronomers were able to confirm the large scale of several magnetized structures in the galaxy, extending to heights of over 16,000 light-years far above and below the galactic plane. The magnetic fields within these bubbles are also highly organized, forming thin filaments that stretch up to around 150 times the width of the Moon…
Perseverance has seen a lot of groundbreaking things since it landed on Mars in February 2021, and now we can add one more discovery to the list: a really weird rock.
On September 13, NASA’s rover continued its journey through the Jezero Crater, a region thought to have once been filled with water. As it slowly made its way through a flat, pebbly stretch of ground, its cameras spotted the strange rock. The stone is definitely a standout, with its white color contrasting sharply with Mars’ red dirt. What makes it even odder are the black stripes that cover much of its surface…
On Threads, people started tossing around theories. One person said the rock appeared to have undergone metamorphism, where high heat and pressure can change one type of rock into another. As it turns out, that theory might actually be correct. In a statement, NASA acknowledged that its knowledge of the rock’s composition is “limited,” but it appears the rock’s striking pattern could be igneous and/or metamorphic in origin.
As Freya Castle is completely different from the surrounding bedrock, NASA said it almost definitely got there by rolling downhill. Luckily, Perseverance is slowly climbing the crater rim, so finding other, similar stones is a possibility…
* Apparently not satisfied with the damage he’s helped do in Springfield, Ohio, Donald Trump also vilified legal immigrants in Charleroi, Pennsylvania, during his latest rally in the Keystone State.
* In Arizona’s closely watched U.S. Senate race, the latest New York Times/Siena College poll found Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego with a five-point lead over failed Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, despite Donald Trump’s advantage in the same state and in the same poll. (Click the links for information on the survey’s methodology and margin of error.)
* In Maryland’s closely watched U.S. Senate race, a super PAC created to boost former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan placed $18.2 million worth of ad buys so far this week, which is an enormous investment. Politico’s report on this noted, “Republicans are now outspending Democrats in the state by a more than two-to-one margin.”
* Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign unveiled a new television ad this week focused specifically on IVF access, featuring the wife of a service member, who’s relied on IVF, and who’s concerned what might happen if her husband were assigned to a state where IVF faces Republican-imposed restrictions.
* While Harris’ husband, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, has played an active role in the 2024 campaign, Melania Trump has been largely invisible so far this year. That said, CNN reported this week, “One of the few times she has appeared at a political event, she’s received a six-figure paycheck — a highly unusual move for the spouse of a candidate.”
* The Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend on the many Republicans rallying to boost Jill Stein’s Green Party presidential candidacy, hoping to divide the anti-Trump vote enough to return the former president to the White House.
* And the Associated Press reported that Harris and her Democratic campaign are “stepping up her efforts to win over voters who belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, enlisting prominent members of the faith to make the case in pivotal Arizona that Donald Trump does not align with the church’s values.” The AP added that Team Harris announced an advisory committee last week “to formalize the outreach to current and former members of the church, widely known as the Mormon church.”
It’s not a secret that Donald Trump’s finances are a bit of a mess. As a Washington Post analysis summarized, the former Republican president “is in a cash crunch — personally and politically — and has been unafraid throughout his career to put the Trump name on anything that might yield a stream of revenue.”
That analysis was published in March. The problem is vastly worse now. New York magazine reported:
With fewer than 45 days until Election Day and polls showing an extremely tight presidential race, you might think that both candidates would be laser-focused on laying out their vision for America and turning out voters. But instead, Donald Trump took time out of his schedule to hawk a silver Trump commemorative coin. Trump brought late-night TV infomercial vibes to his social-media channels over the weekend with a video advertising his latest venture.”
I’ve seen plenty of cringeworthy merchandising pitches from the Republican candidate, but this one, promoted by way of his social media platform, was practically a caricature of itself.
“I’ve seen a lot of coins out there using my very beautiful face — I’m a very beautiful guy,” Trump declared in the video. “I’m only kidding! But they are not the official coin.”
All of this came just days after the GOP nominee launched a new family cryptocurrency project — the details of which he did not appear to understand — while partnering with two little-known crypto entrepreneurs, one of whom described himself as “the dirtbag of the internet.” (The other taught classes on how to seduce women.)
But as striking as those details are, it’s important to emphasize a dynamic that Americans have simply never seen before: With six weeks remaining before Election Day, the Republican Party’s nominee for the nation’s highest office keeps careening from one money-making scheme to another.
It’s tempting to describe this as weird.
Some might see Trump’s silver coin gambit and think he’s trying to raise money for his campaign. He’s not. This merchandising opportunity is wholly unrelated to his 2024 political operation.
And that, in and of itself, is extraordinary. As a New York Times report noted last week, “It’s highly unusual for a presidential candidate to embark on a new business just weeks before Election Day.” Indeed, there’s simply no precedent for anything like this in the American tradition.
The silver coin and crypto gambits — two ventures that would appear to contradict each other — come on the heels of Trump selling batches of digital trading cards, which made the candidate look like a two-bit carnival huckster but also reinforced larger pattern. It includes the gold sneakers. And the Trump-endorsed Bible. And the fake university. And the board game. And the steaks.
We’re talking about a politician who appears to meander from one get-rich-quick opportunity to the next, without much regard for merit or dignity.
A Washington Post report added earlier this month, “No presidential candidate has ever so closely linked his election with personal for-profit enterprises, selling a staggering array of merchandise.” What’s more, the Trump company website “also sells a variety of political merchandise at higher prices than his campaign charges for the same items.”
The article quoted Don Fox, former general counsel for the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, who said, “There’s no precedent in history at all, and certainly not in modern history, for somebody who has monetized the office or running for office of president the way he has.”
To date, no one in Republican politics has even tried to present a compelling defense for any of this.
If North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson hoped that last week’s allegations would be a one-day story, the right-wing Republican has since learned otherwise. Indeed, while it was a devastating CNN report that sparked the gubernatorial candidate’s latest scandal, similar reports soon followed.
Politico, for example, published a report alleging that an email address belonging to Robinson “was registered on Ashley Madison, a website designed for married people seeking affairs.” A day later, The Washington Post reported, “A porn site user linked to North Carolina gubernatorial nominee Mark Robinson praised Adolf Hitler’s book ‘Mein Kampf.’”
As this week got underway, Politico also reported that user data showed “that the person using the ‘Nude Africa’ account that reportedly belonged to Robinson had accessed the porn website from a location not far from Robinson’s home.”
[…] a great many Republicans have found the meticulously reported allegations credible. Indeed, much of Robinson’s campaign staff — who were apparently unbothered by all of the earlier revelations about the radical candidate — resigned en masse in recent days.
They’re not the only ones jumping ship. Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, the senior senator from Robinson’s home state, indicated this week that he’s not going to vote for his party’s gubernatorial nominee. Around the same time, two Republican governors — Georgia’s Brian Kemp and Tennessee’s Bill Lee — announced that they’re withdrawing their earlier Robinson endorsements.
In case that weren’t quite enough, the Republican Governors Association said in a statement that its pro-Robinson ads are poised to expire — and “no further placements have been made.”
But the gubernatorial candidate can take some comfort in the fact that Donald Trump and JD Vance haven’t yet abandoned him.
On Sunday, the Ohio senator said the Robinson allegations “aren’t necessarily reality,” and as The Charlotte Observer reported, the GOP’s vice presidential nominee made related comments a day later.
‘What (Robinson) said or didn’t say is ultimately between him and the people of North Carolina,’ Vance told a reporter at [Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte]. Asked by another reporter if he would continue to support Robinson’s campaign, Vance said he would ‘continue to support the people of North Carolina.’ When a third reporter questioned whether that meant the Trump campaign would rescind its Robinson endorsement, the crowd booed loudly and Vance gave a similar answer.”
As part of the same Q&A, Vance went on to condemn the media’s interest in Robinson’s scandal, while repeatedly downplaying the fiasco as a “sex scandal.”
I can appreciate how the senator arrived at this — if the allegations are true, Robinson published disgusting comments on a porn website — but I also think it’s fair to say that “sex scandal” doesn’t fully capture the scope of the controversy.
We are, after all, talking about a right-wing candidate who reportedly described himself as a “Nazi,” argued that slavery wasn’t necessarily a “bad” thing and had positive things to say about Hitler’s book, among other things.
We’ve all seen plenty of politicians caught up in “sex scandals.” This is … something else.
For his part, Robinson told reporters that he intends to go after news organizations such as CNN “full throttle.” Watch this space.
[…] It’s not just Trump.
GOP Senate nominee Bernie Moreno (OH), at a town hall event last week but first reported yesterday by NBC4 in Columbus:
You know, the left has a lot of single issue voters. Sadly, by the way, there’s a lot of suburban women, a lot of suburban women that are like, ‘Listen, abortion is it. If I can’t have an abortion in this country whenever I want, I will vote for anybody else.’ … OK. It’s a little crazy by the way, but — especially for women that are like past 50 — I’m thinking to myself, ‘I don’t think that’s an issue for you.’
[If you are a woman over 50, you are too old to have an opinion?]
Trump Escalates His Jihad Against Immigrants
Trump’s “blood and soil” rhetoric against legal immigrants in Ohio prompted the crowd at his Pennsylvania rally to begin chanting “Send them back.” [video at the link]
In recent days, Trump has broadened his attack on Haitian refugees from his initial focus on Springfield, Ohio, to include the small Pennsylvania town of Charleroi. He repeated those attacks at yesterday’s rally. […]
On April 8, a shocking article appeared under the banner of the “Washington Post.” The headline declared that President Joe Biden, who was at the time running for a second term, “needs migrants” to win the election. It went on to allege that Biden and the Democratic Party had “smuggled over 320,000 illegals by plane through several airports last year” to secure victory and further a nefarious agenda.
“The Democrats are determined to win elections at any cost so they can continue to fuel wars around the world. Therefore, they promote uncontrolled illegal migration in every possible way,” the article said.
The report would have been a blockbuster … if it were true. It was, however, completely fake. It included wholly made up quotes that appear in no other search results and faked Washington Post branding to advance the thoroughly debunked conspiracy theory that non-citizens are voting en masse for Democrats in U.S. elections. While the page the story was posted on looked exactly like the Washington Post and featured the byline of one of the newspaper’s journalists, it was actually hosted on “washingtonpost.pm,” a web domain that the Justice Department has linked to a “Russian government-directed” influence campaign known as “Doppelganger.”
An FBI affidavit filed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania that was unsealed earlier this month flagged the spoof Washington Post site as one of 32 domains that were seized by law enforcement after the U.S. government identified them as part of the Kremlin propaganda push.
“The propaganda did not identify, and in fact purposefully obfuscated, the Russian government or its agents as the source of the content,” the Justice Department explained in a press release announcing the domain seizure. “The perpetrators extensively utilized ‘cybersquatted’ domains, a method of registering a domain intended to mimic another person or company’s website … to publish Russian government messaging falsely presented as content from legitimate news media organizations.”
TPM subsequently unearthed some of the content published on these pages, much of which has since been deleted or seized by the FBI, and found multiple articles on the fake sites that advanced the debunked narrative about non-citizen voting. It is already illegal for non-citizens to vote in U.S. federal elections. It is extremely rare that a non-citizen manages to cast a vote, experts have determined, and the few instances have no impact on outcomes due to the systems already in place to detect and prevent it.
Yet […] Trump and his allies have repeatedly and persistently made false claims about migrants illegally voting for Democrats on a massive scale as they lay the groundwork to dispute a potential election loss.
The Russian-linked content is particularly notable because it mirrors those Republican talking points. In fact, some of the articles on the Russian propaganda sites specifically amplified claims from Trump-aligned organizations.
A website called “Across The Line,” which was one of the pages seized by the FBI and identified as part of the “Doppelganger” campaign, published an article dated June 25 that was headlined “Immigrants Are Voting.” That piece was based on a statement released the previous day from America First Legal, a group that was launched in April 2021 by Trump’s former senior advisor, Stephen Miller, and other ex-officials from his administration with the explicit goal of “upholding” the former president’s agenda. [Stephen Miller!]
Unlike the fake “Washington Post” site, Across The Line did not masquerade as a major American news outlet. Instead, it was billed as a publication focused on “tackling the problem of refugees across the globe and at the US border.” And unlike the non-citizen voting article on the faux “Washington Post” page, which was almost entirely filled with wholly made up quotes, this article featured actual statements from a press release sent by Miller and his group.
“In the current political landscape, there are significant challenges, including the risk of non-citizens entering the voting process. AFL emphasizes the importance of immediate action,” the article said.
America First Legal, which is one of the advisory groups involved in the controversial Project 2025 initiative, did not respond to requests for comment on this story.
While most of the website is no longer accessible, archived pages show Across The Line published articles about supposed non-citizen voting on at least two other occasions. Another site linked to the Russian campaign by the FBI, ElectionWatch.io, published a piece earlier this month noting over 300 “stateless migrants” were registered to vote in Oregon. While there was indeed an incident earlier this month where officials in Oregon announced non-citizens had mistakenly been added to the voter rolls after applying for drivers licenses, the result of a bureaucratic error, legitimate local news outlets were clear the situation would not affect election results. [Good correction, using facts.]
According to Oregon Public Broadcasting, “officials were also emphatic that the errant registrations would not impact this year’s election, saying noncitizens found to have been registered would be notified that they would need to submit proof of citizenship before being mailed a ballot next month.” ElectionWatch.io, the site linked to the Russian campaign, essentially — and erroneously — reported the opposite.
[…] “And now a lot is becoming clear, namely the reason why Kamala Harris is so actively importing migrants. If the government fails to limit the participation of non-citizens in the electoral process, we will face the most unfair elections in the history of the United States.”
[…] Republican efforts to promote fears about non-citizen voting have included legislation like the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act.
[snipped House Speaker Mike Johnson’s attempts to push the SAVE act.]
In July, shortly after the SAVE Act passed in the House, the fake “Doppelganger” WashingtonPost.pm page featured an article touting the bill in strikingly racist and partisan terms.
“The savages that the Democrats want to give the right to impose their president on us are already turning the US into a third world country,” the article said. [Screengrab of bogus “Washington Post” website is available at the link]
All of the articles on the fake WashingtonPost.pm site were attributed to Loveday Morris, who is the real newspaper’s Berlin bureau chief, and featured her headshot. Morris, who covers Europe and, among other things, has written about Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about whether she was aware her name and image were falsely used for the propaganda campaign.
Republicans have pursued legislation premised on the non-citizen voting myth in statehouses around the country […] identification requirements in these bills might lead to obstacles that will discourage qualified voters from registering and turning out to vote.
[…] The FBI detailed extensive evidence to allege that the domains were used by Russian companies — Social Design Agency (SDA), Structura National Technology (Structura), and ANO Dialog — that were “operating under the direction and control of the Russian Presidential Administration, and in particular First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Sergei Vladilenovich Kiriyenko.” According to the unsealed affidavit, meeting notes obtained by investigators indicate Russian President Vladimir Putin was personally briefed on aspects of the project.
The fake news sites were allegedly just a part of a sprawling Kremlin campaign to disrupt this year’s U.S. election detailed by the Justice Department in recent weeks. On Sept. 4, the same day that the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced the domain seizures and efforts to disrupt the “Doppelganger” network, Manhattan federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment that alleged employees of the Russian media company RT secretly financed and directed the operations of an American right-wing media outlet that worked with notable influencers including Benny Johnson, Tim Pool, Lauren Southern, and Dave Rubin.
Along with the network of faux news websites, the FBI affidavit filed in the Pennsylvania court revealed evidence investigators uncovered indicating the Russian “guerilla” influence campaign included efforts to establish a “social media influencers network” of fake Twitter accounts, YouTube videos, and social media pages. […] these documents make clear the Russian effort was specifically designed to promote Trump’s agenda. […]
The fake, Russian “Washington Post” made its pro-Trump sympathies clear in several articles, including one dated Sept. 10 that suggested Biden had put the world in danger with his handling of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and flatly declared “the whole trick is that it is the Democrats who are exactly the ones who piss off the Russians the most.” That piece was headlined “Democrats Abandoned Americans.”
“The closer Nov. 5 gets, the more it becomes clear what base the parties are relying on to achieve victory in the presidential race,” the fake article said. “Obviously, the Republicans intend to act in the interests of ordinary people, while the Democrats have staked their support on the bosses of big corporations and their money.”
FFS.
Reginald Selkirksays
@76 Lynna, OM
In Arizona’s closely watched U.S. Senate race, the latest New York Times/Siena College poll found Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego with a five-point lead over failed Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, despite Donald Trump’s advantage in the same state and in the same poll.
The Arizona Republican Party has commissioned a new billboard…
Now, the party’s brain trust has moved on to a message of unity in billboards that were put up across the Valley last week.
“Team Unity,” proclaims the new billboards, featuring Trump, Vance and four other key Trump supporters.
“This billboard embodies the spirit of unity that our nation desperately needs,” state Republican Party Chairwoman Gina Swoboda said, in announcing the campaign. “The Trump-Vance ticket represents a powerful coalition of voices that will fight for America.”
A coalition that apparently excludes the party’s nominee for the U.S. Senate?
When it comes to Team Unity, Kari Lake was left in the locker room.
Instead, Trump and Vance are pictured with Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
It’s almost as if Arizona’s Republican Party has written off Arizona’s U.S. Senate race…
Re : Lynna 79
The political right has little to say about abortion as a single issue. Over the years abortion is why my parents are silent about everything else that affects me in their politics. Think of the children cooties that left them incompetent and ignorant about what they actually believe about everything, including abortion.
And they’re wrong on their own theology. That religion supposedly puts a lot of value on choice and sin, and they have to force it on others. While their own book says it’s a fine if you kill someone else’s unborn. Craven and cowardly.
Reginald Selkirksays
@79 Lynna, OM
… OK. It’s a little crazy by the way, but — especially for women that are like past 50 — I’m thinking to myself, ‘I don’t think that’s an issue for you.’
These people are sociopaths. They have no notion of standing on principles, or caring about other people. It is all about what they themselves will get out of any deal.
Representative D’Esposito doesn’t want to answer questions about a report that he gave jobs in his office to his former lover and his fiancée’s daughter.
After a scoop from The New York Times, the Long Island politician is under fire for this possible nepotism, which could be grounds for a House ethics investigation. It’s a little ironic, given that D’Esposito led the charge and eventual expulsion of former fellow New York Republican George Santos from Congress…
(Bolding by me for emphasis)
I have questions. The first is: do I understand correctly that his “lover” and his “fiancee” are two separate people? He’s cheating on his wife before he is even married?
Anti-LGBT+ author and activist Corey DeAngelis has been placed on leave from the conservative group the American Federation for Children following allegations that he appeared in gay adult films.
The organization removed a page outlining his work with the group. The federation said that DeAngelis had been placed on leave while the claim that he appeared in videos as “Seth Rose” on the adult film site GayHoopla was investigated, according to LGBTQ Nation. The videos seem to have been posted around 2014, the outlet noted.
DeAngelis is the author behind the book The Parent Revolution: Rescuing Your Kids from the Radicals Ruining Our Schools, which has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump. He has argued that taxes should be used for private for-profit schools – something repeatedly pushed by Christian social conservatives – institutions that can choose to reject a student for any reason and avoid government oversight.
The author recently appeared on Fox News where he said public schools are more focused on the “LGBTs” than the “ABCs.” …
Blinken told Congress, “We do not currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting” aid, even though the US Agency for International Development and others had determined that Israel had broken the law.
This story was published first by ProPublica […]
The US government’s two foremost authorities on humanitarian assistance concluded this spring that Israel had deliberately blocked deliveries of food and medicine into Gaza.
The US Agency for International Development delivered its assessment to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the State Department’s refugees bureau made its stance known to top diplomats in late April. Their conclusion was explosive because US law requires the government to cut off weapons shipments to countries that prevent the delivery of US-backed humanitarian aid. […]
Blinken and the administration of President Joe Biden did not accept either finding. Days later, on May 10, Blinken delivered a carefully worded statement to Congress that said, “We do not currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of US humanitarian assistance.”
Prior to his report, USAID had sent Blinken a detailed 17-page memo on Israel’s conduct. The memo described instances of Israeli interference with aid efforts, including killing aid workers, razing agricultural structures, bombing ambulances and hospitals, sitting on supply depots, and routinely turning away trucks full of food and medicine.
Lifesaving food was stockpiled less than 30 miles across the border in an Israeli port, including enough flour to feed about 1.5 million Palestinians for five months, according to the memo. But in February the Israeli government had prohibited the transfer of flour, saying its recipient was the United Nations’ Palestinian branch that had been accused of having ties with Hamas.
Separately, the head of the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration had also determined that Israel was blocking humanitarian aid and that the Foreign Assistance Act should be triggered to freeze almost $830 million in taxpayer dollars earmarked for weapons and bombs to Israel, according to emails obtained by ProPublica.
The U.N. has declared a famine in parts of Gaza. The world’s leading independent panel of aid experts found that nearly half of the Palestinians in the enclave are struggling with hunger. Many go days without eating. Local authorities say dozens of children have starved to death […] Health care workers are battling a lack of immunizations compounded by a sanitation crisis. Last month, a little boy became Gaza’s first confirmed case of polio in 25 years.
[…] USAID, which is led by longtime diplomat Samantha Power, said the looming famine in Gaza was the result of Israel’s “arbitrary denial, restriction, and impediments of U.S. humanitarian assistance,” according to the memo. It also acknowledged Hamas had played a role in the humanitarian crisis. USAID, which receives overall policy guidance from the secretary of state, is an independent agency responsible for international development and disaster relief. The agency had for months tried and failed to deliver enough food and medicine to a starving and desperate Palestinian population.
It is, USAID concluded, “one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes in the world.”
[…] Government experts and human rights advocates said while the State Department may have secured a number of important commitments from the Israelis, the level of aid going to Palestinians is as inadequate as when the two determinations were reached. “The implication that the humanitarian situation has markedly improved in Gaza is a farce,” said Scott Paul, an associate director at Oxfam. “The emergence of polio in the last couple months tells you all that you need to know.”
[…] In March, the US ambassador to Israel, Jack Lew, sent Blinken a cable arguing that Israel’s war cabinet, which includes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, should be trusted to facilitate aid shipments to the Palestinians.
Lew acknowledged that “other parts of the Israeli government have tried to impede the movement of [humanitarian assistance,]” according to a copy of his cable obtained by ProPublica. But he recommended continuing to provide military assistance because he had “assessed that Israel will not arbitrarily deny, restrict, or otherwise impede US provided or supported” shipments of food and medicine.
Lew said Israeli officials regularly cite “overwhelming negative Israeli public opinion against” allowing aid to the Palestinians, “especially when Hamas seizes portions of it and when hostages remain in Gaza.” […]
[…] A second official said Lew had access to the same information as USAID leaders in Washington, in addition to evidence collected by the local State Department diplomats working in Jerusalem. “But his instincts are to defend Israel,” said a third official.
[…] The question of whether Israel was impeding humanitarian aid has garnered widespread attention. Before Blinken’s statement to Congress, Reuters reported concerns from USAID about the death toll in Gaza, which now stands at about 42,000, and that some officials inside the State Department, including the refugees bureau, had warned him that the Israelis’ assurances were not credible. The existence of USAID’s memo and its broad conclusion was also previously reported by the global development publication Devex.
But the full accounting of USAID’s evidence, the determination of the refugees bureau in April and the statements from experts at the embassy—along with Lew’s decision to undermine them—reveal new aspects of the striking split within the Biden administration and how the highest-ranking American diplomats have justified his policy of continuing to flood Israel with arms over the objections of their own experts.
Stacy Gilbert, a former senior civil military adviser in the refugees bureau who had been working on drafts of Blinken’s report to Congress, resigned over the language in the final version. “There is abundant evidence showing Israel is responsible for blocking aid,” she wrote in a statement shortly after leaving, which The Washington Post and other outlets reported on. “To deny this is absurd and shameful. That report and its flagrant untruths will haunt us.”
[…] The US gives the Israeli government about $3.8 billion every year as a baseline and significantly more during wartime—money the Israelis use to buy American-made bombs and equipment. Congress and the executive branch have imposed legal guardrails on how Israel and other partners can use that money.
One of them is the Foreign Assistance Act. The humanitarian aid portion of the law is known as 620I, which dates back to Turkey’s embargo of Armenia during the 1990s. That part of the law has never been widely implemented. But this year, advocacy groups and some Democrats in Congress brought it out of obscurity and called for Biden to use 620I to pressure the Israelis to allow aid freely into Gaza.
In response, the Biden administration announced a policy called the National Security Memorandum, or NSM-20, to require the State Department to vet Israel’s assurances about whether it was blocking aid and then report its findings to lawmakers. If Blinken determined the Israelis were not facilitating aid and were instead arbitrarily restricting it, then the government would be required by the law to halt military assistance.
Blinken submitted the agency’s official position on May 10, siding with Lew, which meant that the military support would continue.
[…] As of early March, at least 930 trucks full of food, medicine and other supplies were stuck in Egypt awaiting approval from the Israelis, according to USAID’s memo.
The officials wrote that the Israeli government frequently blocks aid by imposing bureaucratic delays. The Israelis took weeks or months to respond to humanitarian groups that had submitted specific items to be approved for passage past government checkpoints. Israel would then often deny those submissions outright or accept them some days but not others. The Israeli government “doesn’t provide justification, issues blanket rejections, or cites arbitrary factors for the denial of certain items,” the memo said.
Israeli officials told State Department attorneys that the Israeli government has “scaled up its security check capacity and asserted that it imposes no limits on the number of trucks that can be inspected and enter Gaza,” according to a separate memo sent to Blinken and obtained by ProPublica. Those officials blamed most of the holdups on the humanitarian groups for not having enough capacity to get food and medicine in. USAID and State Department experts who work directly with those groups say that is not true.
In separate emails obtained by ProPublica, aid officials identified items in trucks that were banned by the Israelis, including emergency shelter gear, solar lamps, cooking stoves and desalination kits, because they were deemed “dual use,” which means Hamas could co-opt the materials. Some of the trucks that were turned away had also been carrying American-funded items like hygiene kits, the emails show.
[…] On Nov. 18 a convoy of aid workers was trying to evacuate along a route assigned to them by the IDF. The convoy was denied permission to cross a military checkpoint — despite previous IDF authorization.
Then, while en route back to their facility, the IDF opened fire on the aid workers, killing two of them.
[snipped details of an email exchange obtained by ProPublica that detailed funding and money issues]
[…] All the relevant bureaus inside the State Department would need to sign off on and agree that Israel was not preventing humanitarian aid shipments. “The principal thing we would need to see is that no bureau currently assesses that the restriction in 620i is triggered,” Richard Visek, the agency’s acting legal adviser, wrote.
The bureaus started to fall in line. The Middle East and human rights divisions agreed and determined the law hadn’t been triggered, “in light of Netanyahu’s commitments and the steps Israel has announced so far,” while noting that they still have “significant concerns about Israeli actions.”
By April 25, all had signed off but one. The Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration was the holdout. That was notable because the bureau had among the most firsthand knowledge of the situation after months of working closely with USAID and humanitarian groups to try to get food and medicine to the Palestinians.
“While we agree there have been positive steps on some commitments related to humanitarian assistance, we continue to assess that the facts on the ground indicate U.S. humanitarian assistance is being restricted,” an official in the bureau wrote to the group.
[…] after a series of in-person conversations, Valls Noyes backed down, according to a person familiar with the episode. When asked during a staff meeting later why she had punted on the issue, Valls Noyes replied, “There will be other opportunities,” the person said.
The financing appears to have ultimately gone through.
Less than two weeks later, Blinken delivered his report to Congress.
Well, well, well, if it isn’t some intriguing news about Melania Melanija Knavs Knauss Trump, the former first lady and shadowy chatelaine of The Trump Palm Beach Nuclear-Secret Emporium and Plastic Surgery Museum!
You’ll recall back in April she swept open the door of her million-dollar closet to give a five-minute speech at a fundraiser for the Log Cabin Republicans, which was one of only six in-person appearances she’s made this entire year.
(If you are keeping track at home, she got ogled by Viktor Orbán in March, attended a private Palm Beach fundraiser in April, went to Barron’s high school graduation in May, made a second Log Cabin Republican appearance in New York in July, and appeared briefly at the RNC in August, where she did not speak.)
Now it turns out she didn’t put on her Michael Kors pantsuit for that Log Cabin event back in April and walk down the stairs of her own house for free. Are you shocked? Trump’s August financial disclosure showed that she was paid $237,500. Sweet grift! And now the head of the group, Charles Moran, says it wasn’t his group that paid her, actually.
First of all, can you imagine the Republican screaming if Doug Emhoff or Gwen Walz refused to appear on behalf of their spouse’s campaign unless they were paid? […]
Or imagine if Gwen Walz was selling $245 necklaces that look like a bouquet of scrotums with some janky typing on them, a $600 gold-plated coin necklace, or a $90 brass fockin Chreesmas ornament. “Trashy” would be the nicest thing she would get called. I mean, just look at this hideous stuff! [images at the link]
So anyway, what’s the deal with these payments? Possibility one, the head of the Log Cabin Republicans is lying. Could we be not getting complete and total honesty from the head of the group that’s trying to convince LGBTQ+ people that a Trump administration would be super great for their rights, at the very same time the right-wing nutbags on the Supreme Court are fantasizing about invalidating their marriages, and Martha “Vergogna” Alito is angrily flapping flags at her gay neighbors across the lagoon of her beach house? Charles Moran doesn’t seem like he’d have a motivation to lie, but also it doesn’t seem like he’d have a motivation to be a Republican at all. Ergo, we do not know the rules, properties or dimensions of his particular fictional universe.
The other possibility is Trump filed a financial disclosure that is inaccurate. Which would be on-brand. But then the question remains, who did actually pay her, and why would they hide it? She’s been paid by PACs plenty of times to appear in the past, and one more time would not be a big deal. Other than how embarrassing it is that she refuses to help her husband’s campaign for free.
It’s a mystery! Just like the cat-eyed lady herself, living in a big pink house, or a Fifth Avenue aerie with shifting dimensions […]
President Joe Biden on Tuesday forcefully touted his record of rebuilding alliances and defending democracy around the globe, as Israeli strikes in Lebanon and the growing threat of a regional war in the Middle East cast a pall over his final United Nations address.
Biden reflected on the arc of his five-decade political career and said he believed the world was at an “inflection point” given the myriad conflicts unspooling across the globe, including wars in Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan.
The president also cast his decision this summer not to seek a second term as one that continued his push to protect democracy, which he called one of the driving goals of his presidency. “My fellow leaders, let us never forget — some things are more important than staying in power,” Biden told the assembled heads of state. “It’s your people that matter the most. Never forget, we are here to serve the people, not the other way around.”
But looming over Biden’s speech — in which he touted his work defending Ukraine and combating climate change, among other things — was the quickly escalating violence between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
Israeli strikes in Lebanon this week have killed more than 550 people, including 50 children, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry, and Israeli officials have said they are turning to a new phase of the war focused on the country’s northern border with Lebanon rather than its southern border with Gaza.
“Full scale war is not in anyone’s interest. The situation has escalated,” Biden said. “A solution is still possible. In fact, it remains the only path to lasting security and to allow the residents of both countries to return to their homes.”
Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel after the Oct. 7 attacks, forcing Israel to evacuate some 67,500 people from its northern communities, according to the Taub Center, and many of those towns remain empty. Israel’s retaliatory strikes on southern Lebanon have displaced more than 111,000 people, according to the United Nations.
Biden has focused most of his administration’s diplomatic efforts on trying to achieve a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, based in Gaza, and he defended those efforts Tuesday. “Now is the time for the parties to finalize the terms,” Biden said. “Bring the hostages home, secure security for Israel and Gaza free of Hamas’s grip, ease the suffering in Gaza, and end this war.”
But senior U.S. officials acknowledge privately that a cease-fire in Gaza is increasingly elusive, saying that neither side appears to truly want a deal. Hezbollah has vowed to continue firing rockets into Israel as long as the war continues, and now Israeli officials have vowed to eliminate the threat on their northern border and have significantly escalated attacks in recent days.
[…] “The world must not flinch from the horrors of Oct. 7. Any country — any country — would have the right and responsibility to ensure that such an attack can never happen again,” Biden said, noting that he has met and grieved with hostage families, who are “going through hell.”
He added: “Innocent civilians in Gaza are also going through hell. Thousands and thousands killed, including aid workers. Too many families dislocated, crowding into tents, facing a dire humanitarian situation. They didn’t ask for this war Hamas started.”
The first Arab leader to address the gathering, Jordan’s King Abdullah II, recounted the pain of witnessing the suffering of the conflict and warned that it could get worse as Israel steps up its bombardment of Lebanon.
“The Israeli government’s assault has resulted in one of the fastest death rates in recent conflicts, one of the fastest rates of starvation caused by war, the largest cohort of child amputees and unprecedented levels of destruction,” Abdullah said. […]
[…] Biden said he and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, recognized Russia’s invasion as “an assault on everything this institution is supposed to stand for.” While describing his Ukraine policy as a success, Biden warned that Russia still has a path to victory.
“The world now has another choice to make. Will we sustain our support to help Ukraine win this war and preserve its freedom — or walk away, let aggression be renewed and a nation be destroyed?” Biden told the leaders, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who sat in the grand hall, unsmiling, a translation headset on his ear. [Why would they expect him to smile? Sheesh]
“I know my answer,” Biden said. “We cannot grow weary. We cannot look away, and we will not let up on our support for Ukraine, not until Ukraine wins a just and durable peace.”
[…] Biden is facing pressure to allow American-made missile systems to strike deeper into Russian territory.
Ukrainian leaders have made that policy change a top priority in recent weeks, and many European leaders agree with them. […]
Zelensky plans to continue to press the issue this week, including at White House meetings with Biden and Harris on Thursday. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer — who also quietly favors a policy shift — plans to continue discussions about it during this week’s U.N. activities in New York.
As he wrapped his speech, Biden reflected on his decision to step aside this summer and end his campaign for a second term. “It was a difficult decision,” Biden said. “Being president has been the honor of my life. There’s so much more I want to get done.”
But he said that after 50 years of public service, he decided it was time for a new generation of leadership. “It’s your people that matter most,” Biden said. “That’s the soul of democracy. It does not belong to any one country.”
A federal jury in Texas on Monday cleared a group of Donald Trump’s supporters and found one driver liable in a civil trial over a so-called “Trump Train” that surrounded a Biden-Harris campaign bus on a busy highway days before the 2020 election.
The two-week trial in a federal courthouse in Austin centered on whether the actions of the “Trump Train” participants amounted to political intimidation…
The jury awarded $10,000 to the bus driver…
I dare say if the trial was in a civilized state, the verdict would have been different.
birgerjohanssonsays
God Awful Movies
‘GAM475 Am I Racist?’
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=4xUrjDlYkfA
Considering the people who made the documentary, the answer seens to be “yes”.
Propagandists in China, Iran and Russia are using artificial intelligence to create content designed to deceive Americans ahead of the November presidential election, federal intelligence officials said Monday.
In a conference call about foreign election interference efforts organized by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, officials said the U.S. intelligence community has concluded that AI has made it easier to create disinformation, but has not fundamentally changed the way those actors operate.
“The IC considers AI a malign influence accelerant, not yet a revolutionary influence tool. In other words, information operations are the threat, and AI is an enabler,” said one ODNI official, referring to the U.S. intelligence community. The official requested not to be named as a condition for participating in the call. […]
In its assessment of the impact of disinformation, the official noted that U.S. adversaries struggle to avoid detection by Western AI companies, have not developed particularly advanced AI models of their own, and struggle to effectively disseminate AI-generated content. [Expect that to change soon.]
The ODNI call comes after the National Security Agency said earlier this year it had detected hackers and propagandists increasingly using AI to help them seem like convincing English speakers.
In January, an NSA official said hackers and propagandists around the world were increasingly using generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT when trying to communicate with potential victims. In August, OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, said it had banned accounts linked to an attempted Iranian operation that in part aimed to create content aimed at influencing the U.S. election.
Russia has by far the biggest disinformation operation aimed at the U.S. election and correspondingly has created the most AI-generated content, the official said, including text, images, audio and video, the official said. Its propagandists also still rely on human actors for some videos, as in one identified by Microsoft and Clemson University researchers in which actors stage a video of a fake attack on a Trump supporter.
As in previous calls, officials reiterated that Iran preferred to hurt Trump’s campaign, while China runs down ballot and general anti-democracy influence operations but is not pushing one candidate over another. Russia, on the other hand, wants Trump to beat any Democratic candidate given his policy positions on Ukraine.
Federal officials have formally accused Russia of masterminding two sprawling influence campaigns aimed at influencing American voters: covertly funding a media company that paid right-wing influencers to publish videos, and maintaining fake news sites […]
Russia has a much more sophisticated understanding of American politics than Iran, the intelligence official said Monday. Iranian online propagandists that pretend to be American have pushed immigration as a divisive issue. Russia, on the other hand, understands it’s more effective to target voters in swing states.
Tropical Storm Helene is forecast to become a hurricane Wednesday and will strengthen as it crosses the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
Video at the link.
A hurricane watch and warnings of storm surges up to 15 feet high were issued Tuesday for almost all of Florida’s western coastline as Tropical Storm Helene formed over the Caribbean Sea, and heads towards the Gulf Coast.
Helene, previously called Potential Tropical Cyclone Nine, officially formed Tuesday, the National Hurricane Center said in an 11 a.m. advisory. The storm is forecast to strengthen into a hurricane Wednesday […]
Donald Trump apparently believes it’ll be easy to deport undocumented immigrants because the local police know of them — and “their serial numbers.” Huh?
When Donald Trump sat down with Sharyl Attkisson for his latest conservative media interview, the former president largely stuck to his usual rhetoric about immigrants. “We’re not a dumping ground,” the Republican said. “We’re going to get all of those people out, and we’re going to get them out fast.”
But there was a point in the appearance when the GOP nominee used a phrase he doesn’t usually include in his anti-immigrant talking points. Politico’s report flagged it:
Trump said that it will be easy to round up foreign criminals in America because the local police know of them and know ‘their serial numbers.’”
I’ve seen a handful of reports suggesting that Trump opened the door to assigning serial numbers to immigrants, but I’ve watched the full context, and that’s not quite right. Rather, Trump suggested that as far as he’s concerned, immigrants already have serial numbers.
What’s more, Trump is under the impression that law enforcement officials at the local level have access to some kind of lists that include both the immigrants’ names and “their serial numbers.”
The Republican candidate has made similar assumptions before. In fact, way back in August 2016, Trump sat down with Fox News and made a series of boasts about his deportation plans, some of which now sound familiar.
“We are going to get them out,” the future president told then-host Bill O’Reilly. “And the police know who they are. They are known by law enforcement who they are. We don’t do anything.”
In other words, as Trump saw it eight years ago, police departments — responsible for protecting communities and cities of varying sizes — were fully aware of which of their neighbors were in the country illegally, but local officers simply didn’t do anything about it.
That didn’t make any sense, though at the time, Trump— the first major-party nominee to have literally no background in public service — knew effectively nothing about how his country’s government works.
Eight years later, Trump has a presidential term under his belt — and he’s still confused.
For the record, local police departments are not sitting on lists of undocumented immigrants (and “their serial numbers”) awaiting word from the Oval Office to take action. There are no such lists; there are no such numbers.
The fact that the GOP nominee doesn’t fully understand this is both remarkable and unsettling.
birgerjohanssonsays
If you have to elect a 78-year-old why not try Cher?
A new grassroots political organization aims to hit Donald Trump at his base: white male voters. White Dudes for Harris has been fundraising to organize and advertise in swing states […]
Lead organizer Ross Morales Rocketto began the group in a midnight text thread between friends six weeks ago. He was inspired by the coalitions Win with Black Women and Win with Black Men. […]
This week, the group released a one-minute video ad targeting “white dudes.”
“I think we’re all pretty much sick of hearing how much we suck,” the ad’s narrator says. “Every time you go online, it’s the same story: We’re the problem. And yeah, some white dudes are. Trump and all his MAGA buddies are out there making it worse, shouting nonsense in their stupid red hats and acting like they speak for us when they don’t.”
Trump has made his campaign targeting fans of podcast bros, like Joe Rogan and Theo Von—men with tens of millions of followers and whose audience is predominantly white, young, and male. That’s because white male voters are the Trump campaign’s bread and butter. Trump won 62% of white men in 2016 and 57% in 2020, according to Pew Research Center.
White Dudes for Harris isn’t alone in trying to win over white men, though. Last week, there was a viral video of Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, speaking with college-aged men at a campaign event. The Democratic campaign also released a video of Walz changing a truck’s air filter while talking about the threats of the authoritarian agenda Project 2025. [video at the link]
White Dudes for Harris plans to use some of its funds toward digital ads in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The group is also hosting weekly organizing calls, with 2,000 attendees on their first YouTube livestream, with featured talks from actors like Mark Hamill and Jeff Bridges. The group is also organizing weekly volunteer opportunities for the Harris-Walz ticket until Election Day.
[…] Democrats like Walz may be changing how men—and women—view traditional masculinity. Instead of brawn, shirt-ripping Hulk Hogans and brash Kid Rocks, Democrats offer a son filled with emotion and joy while supporting his father. And hunting-style camo hats, which were sold out for weeks. And second gentleman Doug Emhoff beaming with pride when speaking about his wife’s ambition.
“In order to engage people, you need to make sure you can create a space for them where they can feel a sense of belonging, where they’re not going to feel judged,” Morales Rocketto said. “This isn’t anyone else’s job to do. White men need to organize themselves to do this work. It’s not Black women’s jobs, not Black men’s jobs, not Latino women’s jobs. It’s our job.”
[…] Trump has taken toxic masculinity to a new level. He has repeatedly been accused of sexual misconduct, and last year, he was found liable for the sexual abuse of writer E. Jean Carroll. He also has a history of crude language about women, describing them as ugly, dumb, mentally ill, and so on, as well as gloating about grabbing women without their consent. Even his sloppy apology was an appeal to toxic masculinity: He called his remarks “locker room banter.”
In August, Trump also amplified a sexist remark about Kamala Harris and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, reposting an image on his Truth Social platform that showed the two women and the text “Funny how blowjobs impacted both their careers differently…”
[…] White Dudes for Harris aims to reclaim what it means to be masculine in the digital age. They’re making a progressive space for white male voters. […]
Russian intelligence services are building up their presence in Mexico for spy operations targeting the United States, a return to Cold War tactics by an increasingly aggressive regime, according to U.S. officials and former intelligence officers.
Russia has added dozens of personnel to its embassy staff in Mexico City in the past few years, even though Moscow has only limited trade ties with the country. U.S. officials say the trend is concerning and believe the extensive buildup is aimed at bolstering the Kremlin’s intelligence operations targeting the U.S., as well as its propaganda efforts aimed at undermining Washington and Ukraine…
The leader of a nonprofit representing the Haitian community filed criminal charges Tuesday against former President Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, over the chaos and threats experienced by Springfield, Ohio, since Trump first spread false claims about legal immigrants there during a presidential debate.
The Haitian Bridge Alliance invoked its private-citizen right to file the charges in the wake of inaction by the local prosecutor, said their attorney, Subodh Chandra of the Cleveland-based Chandra Law Firm.
Trump and Vance, a U.S. senator from Ohio, are charged with disrupting public services, making false alarms, telecommunications harassment, aggravated menacing and complicity. The filing asks the Clark County Municipal Court to affirm that there is probable cause and issue arrest warrants against Trump and Vance.
“Their persistence and relentlessness, even in the face of the governor and the mayor saying this is false, that shows intent,” Chandra said. “It’s knowing, willful flouting of criminal law.”
Steven Cheung, communications director for the Trump-Vance campaign, said, “President Trump is rightfully highlighting the failed immigration system that (Vice President) Kamala Harris has overseen, bringing thousands of illegal immigrants pouring into communities like Springfield and many others across the country.”
The 15,000 to 20,000 Haitian immigrants who have arrived in Springfield over the past several years, in many cases after being recruited to local jobs, have been granted Temporary Protected Status to be in the U.S. legally.
More than 30 bomb threats were directed at state and local government buildings and schools, prompting closures, the assignment of additional law enforcement protection and security cameras. Some of the city’s Haitian residents have also said they feared for their safety as public vitriol grew, and Mayor Rob Rue has received death threats.
“If it were anyone else other than Trump and Vance who had done what they’ve done — wreak havoc on Springfield, resulting in bomb threats, evacuated and closed government buildings and schools, threats to the mayor and his family — they would have been arrested by now,” Chandra said. “So, really, the only question is whether the court and then the prosecutors would treat Trump and Vance the way anyone else would be treated. They are not above the law.” [Important points.]
[…] Specifically, the affidavit alleges Trump and Vance: — Disrupted public service “by causing widespread bomb and other threats that resulted in massive disruptions” to Springfield’s public services;
— Made false alarms “by knowingly causing alarm in the Springfield community by continuing to repeat lies that state and local officials have said were false”;
— Committed telecommunications harassment “by spreading claims they know to be false during the presidential debate, campaign rallies, nationally televised interviews, and social media”;
— Committed aggravated menacing “by knowingly making intimidating statements with the intent to abuse, threaten, or harass the recipients, including Trump’s threat to deport immigrants who are here legally to Venezuela, a land they have never known”;
— Committed aggravated menacing “by knowingly causing others to falsely believe that members of Springfield’s Haitian community would cause serious physical harm to the person or property of others in Springfield;” and
— Violated the prohibition against complicity “by conspiring with one another and spreading vicious lies that caused innocent parties to be parties to their various crimes.”
[…] State law requires a hearing to take place before the affidavit can move forward. As of Tuesday afternoon, none had been scheduled.
Rachel Maddow took a few minutes during her show Monday night to break down some of the fundamental differences between Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump’s presidential campaigns and bemoan the media’s baffling desire to pretend the two candidates are somehow on the same playing field.
“They are not the same kind of candidates. They are not doing the same kinds of things,” Maddow said, citing the more than 700 national security and former military officials who recently signed a letter endorsing Harris.
And on the other hand?
“Here’s Trump promising that if he’s president, he’s going to find where California is hiding its huge secret faucet that they used to dump all the rainwater into the ocean,” Maddow said. Even Canadians, who are legendarily nice, say Trump’s insistence that water shortage issues could be easily fixed by ending environmental protections is “uninformed.”
Maddow then pointed to Harris’ plan to help working- and middle-class families with an expanded child tax credit.
“Here, on the other hand, is Donald Trump saying he’s going to abolish the Department of the Interior,” Maddow said, then paused. “For some reason. Nobody has bothered asking him why. Why do you want to abolish the Department of the Interior?” Anyone wondering won’t be surprised to learn that very idea can be read about in the anti-democracy Project 2025.
Maddow also highlighted Trump’s many promises to punish his critics using executive powers.
Her obvious conclusion?
“One of these things is not like the other.”
The fact that House Republicans largely ignored Trump’s recent demands to shut down the government “would have led the news for days,” Maddow explains. But the media is all business as usual “while Trump instead races toward Election Day, rolling out a new scam, some new money-making effort to squeeze money out of his fans almost every day.”
This includes everything from cryptocurrency, to Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara releasing a new music video, to former first lady Melania Trump’s bizarre social media campaign trying to drum up press for her upcoming memoir.
“Imagine if Kamala Harris was, like, rolling out a mortgage scam and some commemorative trinkets right now?” Maddow says. “Not for the campaign, but just to, like, get her and Doug some money.”
The bar for Trump is so low it might be impossible to find.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Tuesday rebuffed a request from former President Trump asking her to upend previously set deadlines and bar a lengthy filing from special counsel Jack Smith.
The order from Chutkan comes after Trump lodged multiple complaints about her ruling, issued shortly after a Sept. 5 hearing, to allow Smith’s team to first file a brief laying out how to proceed in the case in the wake of the Supreme Court decision granting former presidents broad immunity.
Chutkan chastised Trump’s attorneys for repeatedly asking her to reconsider her schedule and allow them to kick off discussion of the immunity issue “several months from now” in unrelated filings.
“For the second time in a week, Defendant urges reconsideration of the current pretrial schedule in a brief intended to respond to a separate issue, and without actually filing a motion to that effect,” she wrote.
“The court has already addressed the scheduling objections Defendant raised when he was given an opportunity to do so.”
In the same order, Chutkan grants Smith’s request to file a 180-page opening brief on how to address the immunity issues in the case, a request that likewise earned pushback from Trump’s team.
Trump’s attorneys called the brief a “180-page false hit piece” and seemed to mock the special counsel’s contention it would be of “great assistance” to Chutkan.
“The requested 180-page brief would be tantamount to a premature and improper Special Counsel report,” they added.
A university lecturer has successfully grown a full-size ruby as it sits in a platinum jewellery setting in what is believed to be a world-first process.
Sofie Boons, who is a senior lecturer and researcher in jewellery design at the University of the West of England (UWE) in Bristol, has developed a chemical technique to kickstart the growth process.
It enables a tiny fragment of real ruby to multiply as it sits in its jewellery setting.
The university believes this “in situ process” has not been successfully achieved before.
To grow the gem, Ms Boons started with a ruby “seed” taken from waste gemstone offcuts.
She placed the fragment into a platinum setting, like a ring, and then used a chemical agent called a “flux”. This lowers the temperature, which enables growth in the gem…
Reginald Selkirksays
@103 Lynna, OM
Haitian group in Springfield, Ohio, files citizen criminal charges against Trump and Vance
I think they should file a civil case for damages as well.
IANAL.
Not-Running-For-President RFK Jr. Demands US Supreme Court Manager Let Him Back On New York Ballot
Will his brain worm please make up RFK Jr.’s mind.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is apparently desperate to replace headlines about his sexting relationship with reporter Olivia Nuzzi from the top of search results, the one where he claims she texted him obsessively, unsolicited, while he kept repeating, “please, madam, I am a married man and this is all terribly offensive to my sensibilities,” while weeping softly.
How else to explain him EMERGENCY EMERGENCY begging the Supreme Court — the United States Supreme Court — to be put back on the ballot in New York, in a 234-page filing?
New York is not even close to a swing state; Kamala Harris is most recently up by 13 points. But Trump made two appearances there last week and seems to think he can win it. Who knows what drives the rabid bats and various varmints that are running loose in these guys’ skulls?
Junior got kicked off of the New York ballot back in August, after a judge found that his claims of residence in a $500-a-month room in a foreclosed house in Katonah, New York, “existed only on paper and were maintained for the sole purpose of maintaining his voter registration and political standing.” [LOL] Sure, Jan, he spends most of his time in a rented room, and not the multimillion-dollar house next door to Dr. Dre, Scooter Braun, and Gwyneth Paltrow that he and his wife have owned in Brentwood (California, most definitely not New York) since 2021.
Why make up such a silly lie? Probably because his running mate, Nicole Shanahan, is also a resident of California, and both of them being from the same state would violate the terms of the Twelfth Amendment.
So, Kennedy whined to the court that removing him from the ballot was terribly unfair to the voters of New York, and New York has no state business meddling in the goings-on of national elections, how dare they question where he lives. Plus he spent a lot of money getting signatures to get on New York’s ballot, he complains. Leticia James should pay his legal fees! He demands to speak to the manager!
[…] if by some miracle SCOTUS agrees to let him worm his way back onto New York’s ballot, then he could demand to be put back on the ballot in Georgia, where the red mud makes the spoiling more fertile?
Yes, we know he said he wanted off the ballot in states where his presence would hurt that dear lovable Trump — heck, he sued to get back off the ballot in North Carolina, past the “get off the ballot deadline,” where he unaccountably won his case, meaning they had to reprint all the state’s election materials in contravention of state law and probably are going to fuck up weeks of state- and federally mandated early voting for everyone! — but when in the past 40 years has he made sense?
What are silly ballot deadlines compared to JUSTICE? Sure, it’s the longest of long shots. But you don’t get eleventy-hundred mistresses, a whale head on your roof, a dog haunch for lunch or dead bear in your trunk by being sensible and shy!
[…] Moreno may not think women over 50 should have an opinion on abortion rights — and the MAGA voters in the room laughed with him, some of them women […] As Maddow noted after the clip, as unhappy as it might make a pigfuck like Moreno (our words, Maddow rarely if ever says “pigfuck”), women in Ohio still get to vote about their opinions, even if they’re no longer fertile!
Of course, as always, take note of how foreign a concept it is to a selfish whiny-ass MAGA rage-brat that a person might vote in such a way that takes into account other people’s lives and experiences. Perhaps their daughters’. Perhaps their neighbors’. Perhaps the Haitian immigrant family down the street, maybe they have daughters!
[…] Republicans like Moreno can’t imagine voting selflessly instead of selfishly, or as an act of anything besides hate, ignorance, grievance, and stickin’ it to the libs. […]
As we said, Ohio is a red state, but Sherrod Brown has held on to his seat for a long time and he’s defied the odds before. Most of the polls lately have shown him up a few points against Moreno. A new poll has him within 2.2 percentage points of Moreno, inside the margin of error, but on the losing side. […]
last year — not a presidential or a midterm year — Ohioans went to the polls and enshrined abortion rights directly in their state constitution. Indeed, abortion won by 13 points.
How many of those voters you reckon were women over 50? How many you reckon will be in six weeks on November 5? How many you reckon are still pissed?
[…] Republicans are getting pretty excited about their chances to retake the Senate. Throw Sherrod Brown some money so he can work to make sure that doesn’t happen.
Zelensky Addresses the Security Council, Calling for Attention to Stay on Ukraine
“Russia can only be forced into peace.” President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine urged the Council members to sustain their backing for his country’s resistance to Russia’s full-scale invasion.
The Security Council convened a session to discuss the war in Ukraine on Tuesday afternoon, on the first day of the General Assembly’s annual summit meeting in New York. Ukraine and its allies intended for the session to signal that the conflict was still a global priority, even as wars in Gaza, Sudan and Myanmar demand attention.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine addressed the Council in a brief speech, appealing to its 15 members to continue supporting his country’s fight against Russia, which began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“Russia is committing an international crime. This war can’t simply fade away, this war can’t be calmed by talks. Actions are needed,” Mr. Zelensky told the Council. “Russia can only be forced into peace.”
Mr. Zelensky said that Ukraine had obtained information that Russia was planning to attack its three nuclear plants. “We have proof of this, if Russia is ready to go that far, it means nothing you value matters to Moscow.”
He said he had put together a new victory plan based on the principles and values of the U.N. charter, but did not elaborate on its details other than to say that he was organizing a peace conference. He added that he would invite all countries to the conference, including China, Russia’s most powerful partner, and India, which has said it is a neutral player in the war but is helping to sustain Russia’s economy with large oil purchases.
Mr. Zelensky was speaking ahead of meetings this week, during which he plans to present his “victory plan” to President Biden and other U.S. officials. So far, he has withheld details of the plan from the public. Mr. Zelensky has also called for the United States and other allies to permit Ukraine to use long-range missiles provided by the West to strike deep into Russia.
Secretary General António Guterres briefed the Council, telling diplomats that it was past time to end the war in Ukraine, which has led to catastrophic civilian suffering and spillover consequences, such as a rise in grain and energy prices and the displacement of millions. He also laid out the U.N.’s role in providing lifesaving humanitarian aid to some 6.2 million people in Ukraine this year, and he appealed to donors for more funding.
With the bitter winter approaching, only half of the U.N.’s response plan was funded, Mr. Guterres pointed out.
“The longer this tragic war continues, the greater the risk of escalation and spillover,” he said.
Antony J. Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, said the Security Council must act to address North Korea and Iran sending weapons to Russia for its war. He repeated an assertion that he first made during a trip to Britain this month — that in exchange for Iran equipping the Russian military with armed drones and short-range ballistic missiles, Russia was “sharing technology with Iran on nuclear issues, as well as space information.”
Mr. Blinken did not give more details. Russia was one of several powerful nations that joined an agreement led by President Barack Obama to place limits on Iran’s nuclear program.
Mr. Blinken said the Security Council must also help Ukraine reach “a just and lasting peace.” That means any diplomatic settlement must allow Ukraine to retain its full sovereignty and territorial integrity, despite the intent of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to occupy and annex large parts of eastern Ukraine, in addition to Crimea.
The Security Council has been deadlocked over the war in Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion. Russia, a permanent member of the Council with veto power, has blocked resolutions calling for an immediate withdrawal of its troops.
Fox News is burying the bombshell report that North Carolina’s GOP Senate nominee Mark Robinson posted extremist rantings on a pornograpy site’s message board, including describing himself as a “black NAZI!” Meanwhile, host Sean Hannity has found the story’s real victim — Donald Trump.
Fox covered the Robinson story for only 20 minutes from Thursday through Monday, with 7 of those minutes airing on Monday’s Hannity, according to a Media Matters review. Fox regularly ignores or downplays stories that reflect unfavorably on Republicans as the network seeks to return Trump to the White House.
Hannity finally came up with his angle on Monday night, after passing on the story on Thursday and Friday. The loyal Trump apparatchik alleged during his monologue that “the media mob” and Democrats are unfairly trying to “smear” Trump by linking him to Robinson. (Trump’s endorsement helped the North Carolina lieutenant governor secure the Republican nomination for Senate, and the former president has compared him favorably to Martin Luther King Jr. […])
Hannity described Robinson as “accused of making offensive comments that no conservative or Republican would ever agree with,” though he did not detail either the comments or where he made them.
“Now, I don’t know, we don’t know if the allegations are true,” Hannity continued. “It’s odd. He’s been in office three years and apparently nobody or very few people in North Carolina knew much about any of this. And if it wasn’t big news in North Carolina, then Donald Trump certainly didn’t know either.”
He compared Trump’s relationship with Robinson to Vice President Kamala Harris’ past “effusive praise of P. Diddy, now credibly accused of horrible sex crimes.” [WTF?] [video at the link]
“The left has a major double standard when it comes to so-called guilt by association,” he said at the top of a second segment on the story later in the show. “Now, for years, they have tried to smear, slander, besmirch Donald Trump for his alleged connections to various people. Now, the lieutenant governor, gubernatorial candidate in North Carolina, Mark Robinson, is the latest example.”
“In North Carolina, they’re running ads trying to tie Donald Trump, who I’m pretty certain knew nothing because most people in North Carolina didn’t seem to know about any of these controversial statements,” he complained to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
“You’re in South Carolina,” he added. “Did you ever hear of it before? Because I hadn’t.”
Graham responded that Robinson “needs to address the allegations” because “he is unfit for office if they are true,” but he defended Trump, saying the former president “didn’t do anything with Mark Robinson” and is the victim of “guilt by association.” [video at the link]
Hannity’s remarks were the first time his program had addressed the story, which broke on Thursday afternoon. That is nonetheless more coverage than some of his colleagues have provided: Robinson’s porn site comments have not been mentioned on Jesse Watters Primetime, The Ingraham Angle, or Gutfeld!
Hannity’s take echoes comments Greg Gutfeld made on The Five last week. When co-host Jessica Tarlov, a liberal, mentioned Robinson’s comments on Thursday’s edition of the panel show, Gutfeld responded, “How dare you kink shame,” and suggested that the story had no bearing on Trump because the former president was unaware “this guy was on porn sites.” The Five has not returned to the story since. […]
It’s not just “policy differences.” Vice President Kamala Harris and the GOP nominee are running fundamentally different campaigns.
This weekend, The Washington Post published a story about the “turbulent phase” Donald Trump’s campaign has entered into, with just six weeks to go until the election. The Post describes Trump’s behavior in the campaign as “impulsive” and “impetuous,” noting:
In a single 24-hour span at the end of last month, for example, he amplified a crude joke about Vice President Harris performing a sex act; falsely accused her of staging a coup against President Joe Biden; promoted tributes to the QAnon conspiracy theory; hawked digital trading cards; and became embroiled in a public feud with staff and officials at Arlington National Cemetery.
All in 24 hours! The Post goes on to describe, gently, what they call Trump’s “policy incoherence” at this point in his campaign. To be clear, his policy incoherence is off the charts.
There’s so much interest and appetite in the mainstream media for reporting on Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump as if they’re just normal, competing candidates. But while Harris is scoring the endorsement of 700 retired military and national security officials, Trump is promising that, if he’s president, he’ll find out where California is hiding its huge secret faucet that they use to dump all the rainwater into the ocean. [Excellent use of contrast.]
As Harris calls for an expanded child tax credit, Trump is promising to abolish the Department of the Interior, take away the broadcast licenses of news organizations that criticize him, and put former President Barack Obama in front of a military tribunal.
Republicans in the House just ignored Trump’s demand to shut down the government before the election and they’re going ahead with funding the government against his wishes. That insult and rebuke to the party’s leader would have led the news for days if this was a candidate who attracted normal political coverage.
Trump, instead, is racing toward Election Day, rolling out new money-making efforts to squeeze money out of his fans almost every day. There’s the new Trump commemorative coin, hot on the heels of Trump’s crypto venture, which he’s rolling out with the help of a man who calls himself the “dirtbag of the internet” and another self-proclaimed pick-up artist.
And his wife is launching a book, hot on the heels of the news that the majority or her campaign appearances this whole cycle were ones for which she was personally paid hundreds of thousands of dollars. His daughter-in-law, whom he installed as the chair of the national Republican Party, nevertheless found time to drop a new single for her side gig as a singer. None of these things raise money for the campaign, they’re all just personal money-making gigs for him and his family.
Trump also brought a 9/11 truther to the 9/11 commemoration, right after his staff shoved an Arlington National Cemetery worker when she tried to stop them from filming campaign videos at gravesites.
Then you have the Trump-endorsed North Carolina Republican candidate for governor, whom Trump has celebrated. Trump has yet to rescind that endorsement, not even after the reporting that he literally calls himself a Nazi, praises Hitler, praises “Mein Kampf,” wants to take away women’s right to vote, and wants to bring back slavery because slavery was a good thing. (Robinson has denied the allegations.)
Just imagine being a world leader coming to New York for the United Nations General Assembly this week, fully briefed and cognizant that a presidential nominee in that situation has essentially even odds of being elected right now in the United States of America. Imagine having to come up with your contingency plans for that.
Missouri is set to execute a death row inmate Tuesday night after two efforts to save his life failed. The Missouri Supreme Court and the state’s governor both rejected requests from attorneys for Marcellus Williams to cancel his execution. Gov. Mike Parson had been asked to convert Williams’ sentence to life in prison, while the state Supreme Court was asked to grant a stay. Williams’ case has spurred several efforts to save his life amid doubts about the evidence presented at his 2001 murder trial and the actions of a trial lawyer in the case.
At a Donald Trump rally in Indiana, Pennsylvania, on Monday, the MAGA crowd chanted, “Send them back,” referring to the Springfield, Ohio, Haitian immigrant community.
“The fact is and I’ll say it now, you have to get them the hell out,” said Trump preceding the chant in his 90-minute remarks. [video at the link]
It doesn’t matter that these Haitian residents are legal American citizens. What matters, it seems, is that they are different from most of those who had lived in the town for years—they’re from a different culture with a different skin color. And that othering is what attracts the fury of Trump and his MAGA crowd.
[…] Trump has historically targeted people of color. In a 2019 rally while president, MAGA rally goers chanted “Send her back,” about Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, the first Somali American in Congress who is also Muslim. The chant happened after Trump misrepresented comments from Omar to make her sound like an al-Qaida sympathizer.
In 2016, in reference to keeping Mexicans out of the U.S. “Build that wall” was a common chant and one that Trump still enjoys using.
Trump has gone after Haitians before. In 2018, in a meeting with a group of bipartisan senators, Trump “asked why America would want immigrants from ‘all these shithole countries’ and that the U.S. should have more people coming in from places like Norway,” NBC News reported. Trump referred to Haiti, El Salvador, and an assortment of African nations as “shithole countries.”
This is the dark, angry, xenophobic, nationalist aspect of Trump’s political brand he’s formed over a decade. It’s where he is most comfortable, being bombastic and cruel. And it’s why he has turned American politics into a grim, primitive circus.
Trump rallies are known for their frenzied, mob-like behavior. You know, like the behavior that resulted in a terror attack by whipping MAGA supporters up into a rage and getting them to storm the Capitol. There the chant was to “hang Mike Pence” because the vice president had the nerve to allow democracy and accept the electoral votes that proved Joe Biden had won the presidency.
This disturbing rhetoric is not just a “good time.” It leads to tangible political violence. Earlier this month during the debate, after Trump amplified the lie that Haitians were eating household pets in Springfield, Ohio, children had to evacuate schools due to bomb threats being sent in.
This shows how much impact a week or two of cat-and-dog-eating rhetoric can have. […] Trump supporters are more likely to double down on a lie if it’s, in fact, called out as a lie.
It’s mean. It’s nasty. It’s dangerous. It’s un-American. It needs to stop.
A panel of federal judges heard arguments Tuesday in a case that could upend the rules for counting a sliver of mail ballots in Mississippi just weeks before Election Day, with possible ramifications for all states.
At issue is a Mississippi law that allows mail ballots to be counted if they arrive up to five days after Election Day and are postmarked by Election Day or earlier. Seventeen other states and Washington, D.C., have laws allowing postmarked mail ballots to be counted if they arrive after Election Day, according to the nonpartisan National Conference of State Legislatures.
The case in Mississippi is one example of a nationwide effort by Republicans to invalidate mail ballots over issues unrelated to whether they were cast by a legitimate voter. Republicans say they want to ensure states strictly follow voting laws, while Democrats and voting rights advocates say Republicans are trying to throw out otherwise valid votes because Democrats have disproportionately embraced mail voting.
Mississippi is a reliably Republican state that will not sway the presidential election. But the challenge to its law could ultimately make its way to the Supreme Court for a decision that affects the options available to all states. Such a ruling would have significant implications for the presidential race, as well as some closely fought congressional contests.
In Pennsylvania, a battleground state that could decide the presidential election, the Republican National Committee last week filed a lawsuit arguing that voters should not get a chance to fix errors on their mail ballots to make sure their votes get counted. Another lawsuit seeks to throw out mail ballots when their outer envelopes are undated or misdated, even if they arrive by Election Day. If voters aren’t able to fix their mistakes, tens of thousands of ballots could be thrown out in Pennsylvania.
“It is really a brazen voter suppression effort,” said Vic Walczak, legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania….
The RNC brought its lawsuit over the Mississippi law in January, arguing elections must be completed by Election Day because Congress has set a specific day for the election. A district court upheld Mississippi’s law in July, finding that Congress has not regulated mail ballots and has left states with “the authority and the constitutional charge to establish their lawful time, place, and manner boundaries.”
The RNC, joined by the Libertarian Party of Mississippi, appealed the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. The three judges who heard arguments Tuesday, all appointed by former president Donald Trump, [my bold]
asked probing questions about the history of voting laws and the definitions of “Election Day” and “casting” ballots….
Donald Verrilli Jr., a former solicitor general representing the Democratic National Committee, compared Mississippi’s law with the federal government’s deadline for filing taxes.
“When you mail your tax payment in, so long as it’s postmarked by April 15th, you’ve paid your taxes on time, even though they arrive after April 15th,” he said.
Bekenstein Boundsays
The odds at FiveThirtyEight are slipping back in Trump’s favor. NC has tipped back into the R column. I demand to know what keeps causing this! Every time Harris gains, something intervenes after about one week to push things back toward a likely Trump victory — an outcome the world literally cannot afford and that therefore must not happen.
What is it that keeps intervening in Trump’s favor one week after anything helps Harris? Whatever that thing is it has to be hunted down and destroyed. It is endangering hundreds of millions of lives.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Re: Bekenstein Bound @118:
What is it that keeps intervening in Trump’s favor one week after anything helps Harris?
Traditional media loves a horse race.
/During the summer anti-Biden blitz, there was a briefly circulated conspiracy theory about media CEOs that turned out to be unsupported.
he incident, described by local media as a cyberattack, was discovered on the morning of September 22 and led to precautionary measures being taken “to ensure plant operations remained secure”, the city announced in an incident notice.
According to city manager Randy Frazer, the water supply has not been affected and the incident has not caused disruption to service…
While the city’s notification does not share further details on the incident, it appears that the water treatment plant might have fallen victim to a ransomware attack…
The resin of a tree grown from an ancient seed found in a desert cave near Jerusalem could be the source of a medicinal balm mentioned in the Bible, a new study has found.
The strange seed, about 2cm long, was discovered in a Judean Desert cave in the late 1980s, and dated to between 993AD and 1202AD. After years of attempting to grow the plant, researchers have identified the sapling nicknamed “Sheba”.
DNA analysis has revealed that the tree belongs to a unique species of the Commiphora family, which is distributed across Africa, Madagascar and the Arabian Peninsula and known for its aromatic gum resins.
Researchers suspected the “Sheba” tree to be a candidate for the “Judean Balsam” or “Balm of Judea”, which was cultivated exclusively in the desert region of southern Levant during Biblical times.
The Judean Balsam has been extensively described in the literature from Hellenistic, Roman-Byzantine and Post-Classical periods between the 4th century BC and the 8th century AD…
Motor sports legend Danica Patrick has never been afraid to wade into politics and has done so again with a six-word message to America’s critics – while endorsing Donald Trump as president.
Even with her pick, the current Formula one analyst’s response to those who are critical of America leaves no doubt as to where her loyalties lie.
And has a blunt, six word message for those who aren’t: ‘You can leave if you want’. ..
Someone should tell her that there is no bigger critic of America today than Donald Trump. To hear him describe it, the country has become an absolute “shithole” in the last 4 years.
A federal judge is allowing more than 8,000 Catholic employers nationwide to reject government regulations that protect workers seeking abortions and fertility care.
In a sharply worded order, U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor, of Bismarck, North Dakota, granted a preliminary injunction Monday, ruling that the Catholic Benefits Association and the Diocese of Bismarck were likely to succeed in proving that a final rule adopted by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in April violated their freedom of religion. The regulations are meant to enforce the federal Pregnant Workers Fairness Act.
The judge also barred the EEOC from forcing the diocese and association to comply with harassment regulations meant to safeguard workers, writing “in a manner that would require them to speak or communicate in favor of abortion, fertility treatments, or gender transition when such is contrary to the Catholic faith.” The ruling targeted transgender employees who would be restricted from expressing parts of their gender identities.
“It is a precarious time for people of religious faith in America. It has been described as a post-Christian age,” Traynor wrote. “One indication of this dire assessment may be the repeated illegal and unconstitutional administrative actions against one of the founding principles of our country, the free exercise of religion.” …
How is it that only employers have freedom of religion, and not employees?
I have a brother here that took a little while to get a political fix on but his online shows have lots of anti-DEI and he’s reactive towards inclusion.
On Monday night, Trump cast himself as a “protector” of women, saying in battleground Pennsylvania that he will save them from fear and loneliness and they will no longer have to think about abortion.
“You will no longer be abandoned, lonely or scared. You will no longer be in danger. … You will no longer have anxiety from all of the problems our country has today,” Trump said. “You will be protected, and I will be your protector.” …
Creepy creep is creepy.
StevoRsays
Random dinosaur discovery doco w Dan Snow Into Dinosaur Valley (2022) An hour and 6 mins long. Broadcast a week or three ago on SBS TV in Oz.
birgerjohanssonsays
Thank you, StevoR.
.
“Don’t break the 4th wall, just make it disappear” .https://youtube.com/watch?v=shgljvAUwjw
How people perceive images and sounds to immerse themselves in a narrative. Most examples are taken from the anime Frieren, but the lessons are ubiquitous.
In his fourth and final address to the United Nations General Assembly, President Joe Biden covered quite a bit of ground, though the Democrat appeared especially animated when speaking about Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“The world now has another choice to make: Will we sustain our support to help Ukraine win this war and preserve its freedom or walk away and let aggression be renewed and a nation be destroyed?” Biden asked. “I know my answer. We cannot grow weary. We cannot look away. And we will not let up on our support for Ukraine, not until Ukraine wins a just and durable peace.”
If Vice President Kamala Harris is elected in November, the world can expect the United States to follow through on the commitments Biden outlined at the U.N. If, however, Donald Trump returns to power, it appears increasingly likely that American policy toward Ukraine would change course dramatically. NBC News reported:
Trump signaled reluctance about providing further U.S. financial assistance to Ukraine, just hours after Biden defended U.S. backing of its ally in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly. “Every time [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy comes to the United States, he walks away with $100 billion,” Trump said from a campaign stage in the battleground state of Georgia. “I think he’s the greatest salesman on Earth.”
[That is not a substantive criticism. Trump is repeating overly simplified and inaccurate disparagement from earlier statements.]
As part of the same remarks, the Republican marveled at the history of Russia’s military might — suggesting the Russian military might not be worth trying to fend off — while appearing to goad his audience into booing the Ukrainian leader. [video at the link: "Somebody told me the other day, they beat Hitler, they beat Napoleon. That's what they do."]
The comments came one day after the former president held a rally in Pennsylvania in which he insisted that the United States is to blame for Russia’s war in Ukraine, mocked Zelenskyy, and argued without evidence that Ukraine’s president wants Harris to win the 2024 election “so badly.”
This also comes on the heels of Trump refusing to say whether he wants our Ukrainian allies to win the war or not.
n June, Sen. Tom Cotton appeared on Fox News and said opponents of Russia’s war in Ukraine have nothing to fear from a Trump election victory. “[Former] President Trump has said that he strongly supports Ukraine’s strength and survival,” the Arkansas Republican said.
Three months later, it seems “strongly” might’ve been the wrong choice of words.
As for the near future, Trump had tentative plans to meet with Zelenskyy, but NBC News reported that plans have changed, and that the Republican candidate no longer wants to have the meeting.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell panned Donald Trump’s plans to raise tariffs on many goods, decrying it as a policy that would raise prices for middle-class consumers.
[…] “I’m not a fan of tariffs, they raise prices for American consumers. I’m more of a free trade kind of Republican that remembers how many jobs are created by the exports that we engage in,” McConnell said.
[…] Trump has said that if elected to another term he would impose tariffs on many goods and would use the power of the presidency to do so even if Congress opposed him.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign has criticized these policies and labeled them a “Trump tax.”
“He intends to enact what, in effect, is a national sales tax, call it a Trump tax, that would raise prices on middle-class families by almost $4,000 a year,” Harris said in her August speech while accepting the Democratic Party’s nomination. […]
Economic experts have warned that raising tariffs on many imported goods—Trump has proposed 60% for Chinese goods and 10% for products from the rest of the world—would lead to a retaliatory trade war from other governments in response. That would be a repeat of a disastrous policy that Trump put in place when he was president.
Trump imposed tariffs of up to 25% on many Chinese-made goods. China retaliated and consumers ended up spending over $230 billion in tariffs for products like solar panels, steel, and aluminum, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The trade war under Trump also caused the government to pay out subsidies to farmers, who found themselves shut out of many international markets. Billions were paid to farms, with most of the aid going to corporate farms—not ones owned by families.
Trump has often championed economic policies that disproportionately benefit the wealthy while failing to assist those in the middle class.
In June, 16 Nobel Prize-winning economists signed a joint letter warning that Trump’s economic policies would be harmful.
“The outcome of this election will have economic repercussions for years, and possibly decades, to come. We believe that a second Trump term would have a negative impact on the U.S.’s economic standing in the world and a destabilizing effect on the U.S.’s domestic economy,” they wrote.
The economists contrasted Trump’s record to economic improvement under President Joe Biden and Harris, noting, “During Joe Biden’s presidency we have also seen a remarkably strong and equitable labor market recovery—enabled by his pandemic stimulus.” […]
birgerjohanssonsays
‘I have £7 in my bank account’: how the two-child benefit cap changed Britain | Children | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/sep/25/i-have-7-in-my-bank-account-how-the-two-child-benefit-cap-changed-britain
Labour under Keir Starmer is infinitely more competent than the conservatives, but seems to be Conservative-lite in their values.
.
BTW I was wathcing an image on Facebook. On the top: “These are hunters” showing two foxes in their habitat.
Underneath: “These are parasites” showing horseback fox hunters with fox carcasses.
I read the author: “Jeremy Corbyn”.
I decided to start following him on Facebook.
Unlike Sir Keir, there is no question about his values.
More than 1,000 people have turned up at the steps of South Australia’s Parliament House in support of a proposal to change state abortion laws. Liberal MP Ben Hood has introduced the private member’s bill in the upper house that, if successful, would require people seeking to terminate a pregnancy from 27 weeks and six days to instead deliver their baby alive. Anti-abortion campaigner and University of Adelaide law professor Joanna Howe said the purpose of the rally was to “talk about the implications” of current abortion laws and “to demand change”.
“The question is, as South Australians, do we want her to deliver that child stillborn, or do we expect that child to be delivered alive? That’s all this is about,” Professor Howe said. “This is not an anti-woman, anti-abortion piece of legislation.”
Also LNP douchebag MP Ben Hood, dude, that’s not a thing that actually happens. That’s a lie you’ve fallen for and you’re in our (my) state Parliament. Again, fer fucks sake.
StevoRsays
Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS adn fampously cats are like comets they do what they please and are hard to predict :
Last year, a study found black swans were particularly susceptible to the virus and could be wiped out if highly pathogenic forms of bird flu took hold in Australia.
Thailand’s landmark marriage equality bill has been endorsed by the monarchy, making it the first country in Southeast Asia and the third place in Asia to recognize same-sex marriage.
The bill, which required approval from King Maha Vajiralongkorn, was officially written into law late Tuesday when it was published in the Royal Gazette. It will take effect in 120 days, allowing LGBTQ couples to register their marriages starting Jan. 22.
The law, which amends the country’s Civil and Commercial Code to use gender-neutral words such as “individual” rather than “men and women,” was approved overwhelmingly by legislators this year. It grants married couples full legal, financial and medical rights regardless of gender…
“Words as Aggression – Annals of the Semantics of Trumpism,” by Josh Marshall
“You will no longer be abandoned, lonely or scared … You will be protected, and I will be your protector … Women will be happy, healthy, confident and free …You will no longer be thinking about abortion.”
You’ve probably heard some combination of these lines and others more than once by now. Donald Trump first posted them on social media sites and then added them to the scripted part of his speech at a rally in Pennsylvania on Monday night. They’ve been greeted with a mix of consternation and mockery. […] I think it’s safe to say that any woman who has some meaningful investment in abortion rights and reproductive rights generally would find these words some mix of chilling, infuriating, bizarre and absurd. As I read them they essentially say, Only I can be and I will be your total protector. In fact, you will be so totally protected that you will cease to be who you are. Especially coming from a man known to be a serial predator and court-adjudicated rapist — “rape” being the ordinary word, according to the judge in the case, for the acts Trump was found to have committed — these words seem to describe less being protected than engulfed.
Perhaps most simply the words are, as a number of observers have put it, creepy. [Agreed!]
So who is the audience exactly? Who was he talking to? WTF, as one might say? I’m not sure I can answer that question precisely. In a way the question brings us back to that endless one of whether Trump’s actions are best understand as strategy or acting out. We can’t forget that Trump’s campaign brain trust, the strategists and speech-writers, are made up of people who are, in Tim Walz’s phrasing, just weird. It’s guys like Stephen Miller, incel-adjacent misogynists who’ve built a whole political micro-culture around grievance, provocation and rage. But there’s part of this that is much more familiar and really essential to Trump’s whole political program and style.
We’ve spoken a lot over recent years about the concept and practice of words as aggression. We’ve talked about it as essential to Big Lie talk. Do people really believe this stuff? When Trump says up is down and all his supporters dutifully chime in insisting that yes, up is definitely down, what’s going on here exactly? Again, do people really believe this stuff? Are we really saying the thing we all saw happen yesterday didn’t happen? […] You believe certain things or say you believe certain things not as a matter of considered analysis of the relevant facts but as an act of assertion and aggression. In this mode the difference between what you believe and what you say you believe becomes muddled or secondary, perhaps meaningless at some level. Because this is speech or belief as aggression, self-assertion, at some level even identity. You’ll see that this feature of belief or willed-belief as assertion and aggression is a ubiquitous through-line on the right today.
At some basic level, modern American political culture is structured around differing models of the world built around empiricism, structured frameworks of rules and limits on the one hand and the centrality of power and dominance on the other. […] This is what makes so much of the conversations about press failures, fact checking, media bubbles, and so forth if not wrong then somehow besides the point.
These abortion comments are part of that same thing. When someone keeps saying the same thing over and over to you after you’ve disagreed with it or rejected it that’s not persuasion or argument. It’s an assertion of power, an effort to overwhelm, an expression of dominance. It’s hardly surprising from someone with a decades-long record of predatory sexual behavior including multiple rape accusations. It’s all part of the same mindset and behavior. […]
A Texas bankruptcy judge ruled on Tuesday that a plan to sell the assets of Alex Jones’ company Free Speech Systems, the parent company of Infowars, can proceed. The profits from the conspiracy-powered media organization’s sale will be awarded to Jones’ creditors, most of whom are families who sued Jones after he repeatedly defamed them by claiming that the Sandy Hook mass shooting that killed their loved ones was a hoax.
The judge’s approval means that Infowars’ slow wind-down will continue, after years of delays during bankruptcy proceedings. […]
Jones lost by default in a series of lawsuit brought by two sets of Sandy Hook families in Texas and Connecticut; both Free Speech Systems and Jones personally have since filed for bankruptcy. The total amount expected from the sale, while likely to be in the millions, won’t approach the $1.5 billion courts have ordered Jones and Infowars pay out to the families. Two parents who sued him in Texas, Lenny Pozner and Veronique De La Rosa—their son Noah was the youngest child to die at Sandy Hook—also have yet to have their case heard.
[…] The sale is scheduled to happen in stages beginning in November, and will include both the company’s intellectual and physical property. In a separate ruling earlier this year, Houston bankruptcy Judge Christopher M. Lopez ruled that some of Jones’ personal assets could also be sold off, although he is being allowed to keep his home in Austin.
One remaining fight is whether FSS owes money to a company called PQPR holdings, which claims to sell Infowars the pills and supplements the company markets. PQPR is another Jones-controlled entity, and the families have long maintained that its sudden appearance in business filings not long after the families were told they could proceed with their defamation suit was part of a plan to “siphon off” assets that might otherwise be subject to court judgement.
[…] For his part, Jones has made it clear he wants the company to be auctioned off, in hopes that “patriots,” as he puts it, will buy it more or less whole and let him continue broadcasting.
“The Democratic party running all this, the FBI, the CIA running this, didn’t want that,” Jones said of the proposed auction in a broadcast on Tuesday, shortly before the hearing. “They wanted me off the air…They want us shut down and closed and don’t even let ‘em sell the assets.” He tied the case to the upcoming election adding, “They’re getting ready to try to take Trump out, and don’t want us on the air during that fight.” [Delusional asshat comes up with a conspiracy theory to hide his true nature from himself.]
Jones also hinted, as he often does, that he has yet another plan up his sleeve. “They have our phones tapped and know something better is coming,” he declared. “They’re gonna have an issue on their hands.”
During the same show, Jones claimed to be “out of money,” and urged his audience to go to the The Alex Jones Store—an entity he insisted was separate from Free Speech Systems—and buy merchandise to support him. “We need the funds,” Jones wheedled. “These are great T-shirts. I need your aid.”
“If there were negative consequences in the last 20 years of the decision to legalize marriage for same-sex couples, no one has yet been able to measure them,” said Benjamin Karney, an adjunct behavioral scientist at Rand.
Tesla’s controversial “Full Self Driving” is now capable of some quite advanced driving. But that can breed undeserved complacency, according to independent testing. The partially automated driving system exhibited dangerous behavior that required human intervention more than 75 times over the course of more than 1,000 miles (1,600 km) of driving in Southern California, averaging one intervention every 13 miles (21 km)…
When religion is placed at the service of a political party, it corrupts both.
In 2014, at an elegant gala inside the Supreme Court’s gilded Great Hall, a tuxedoed Justice Clarence Thomas turned to me and voiced his approval for my work. I glanced over to where Chief Justice John Roberts and his wife, Jane, were entertaining two of my associates, trustees of the Supreme Court Historical Society, a private, nongovernmental entity for which Roberts served as honorary chair. At that moment, I knew the secretive operation I had run, aimed at emboldening Thomas and his conservative colleagues to render the strongest possible decisions in favor of our right-wing Christian agenda, had succeeded.
My organization, Faith and Action in the Nation’s Capital, had created an initiative we called “Operation Higher Court” that trained wealthy couples as “stealth missionaries,” befriending Thomas and his wife, Ginni; Samuel and Martha-Ann Alito; and Antonin and Maureen Scalia—lavishing them with meals at high-end restaurants and invitations to luxurious vacation properties. Alongside these amenities, our ministry offered prayers, gift Bibles, and the assurance that millions of believers thanked God for the decisions this trio of justices rendered on abortion, health care, marriage, and gun ownership. [Holy shit!]
The Supreme Court was the pinnacle of my success, but I had started with Congress, advanced to the White House, and only then took on the judicial branch. Under the banner of Faith and Action, our mission, in evangelical parlance, was “to bring the Word of God to bear on the hearts and minds of those who make public policy in America.” Backing me were some 50,000 donors, spread across the country, along with hundreds of church leaders and several prominent lawmakers. The goal was to convert a “secular culture” into a God-fearing, foundationally Christian, socially conservative, and politically Republican one. To achieve it, we raised tens of millions of dollars, mobilized activists, and lobbied lawmakers relentlessly. […]
“Christian nationalist” was yet to become a common expression, but my allies and I were that in every way. We believed America was founded as a Christian nation and needed to be preserved as such.
Besides establishing a national organization aimed at making America part of a revivified Christendom, I chaired the National Pro-Life Religious Council, which dedicated itself to ending Roe. After Norma McCorvey recanted her pro-abortion stance as Jane Roe, Faith and Action supported her financially. I consulted for the American Center for Law and Justice, an ultraconservative legal advocacy organization; campaigned for George W. Bush, Mitt Romney, and John McCain; and helped Roy Moore, then Alabama’s chief justice, physically install a Ten Commandments monument in the state Supreme Court building.
When President George W. Bush nominated Roberts for chief justice, I was in a private box seat at the Senate confirmation hearing. At Alito’s confirmation, I was the guest of Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the three-time Senate Judiciary Committee chair. And when Donald Trump chose Neil Gorsuch after Scalia’s death, not only was I present for the hearing, but a month before, I had coordinated prayers for Gorsuch and his family in a nearby chapel. On more than one occasion, I knelt in prayer alongside Mike Pence (when he was a member of Congress from Indiana) and other lawmakers in the vanguard of the new right.
My efforts were rewarded handsomely. I spoke at many of the largest churches in the country and at events that drew thousands of attendees. I grew accustomed to being picked up by executive limousines, flying in private jets, and eating in the finest restaurants.
We in the religious right helped foster a political culture that has produced the likes of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), and former President Trump. It also gave rise to the Mississippi Republican legislators who challenged Roe v. Wade, handing Justice Alito the opportunity to write the opinion that destroyed it. My task was to convince religious leaders, officials on every level of government, and big-money benefactors that our nation was literally going to hell and the only way to rescue it was a mass conversion to Christian sensibilities. Preachers and politicians might be able to persuade some people, but the force of law would be necessary to coerce others.
Much to my present regret, we succeeded.
[snipped a lot of Reverend Rob Schenck’s history]
America could either choose God’s way and enjoy prosperity or take the devil’s path to destruction. God’s way meant wives were to dutifully submit to their husbands “as unto the Lord”; children were to obey their parents; and everyone was to attend church, Sunday school, and Bible study. Prayer and Bible reading needed to be returned to public school classrooms. Children should be taught that sex is strictly for married couples; young people must remain virgins until their wedding night; and intercourse, while enjoyable, was principally for procreation.
Falwell’s gospel differed distinctly from the one I had initially responded to, the one with a compassionate Jesus who blessed the poor, the forgotten, and the persecuted. Falwell’s message, while sprinkled with side references to marginalized people, implied they may have caused their own problems. Instead of calling upon believers to be peacemakers and to love one another, as Jesus did, Falwell’s Christians were modern-day crusaders conquering an evil, secular world.
[President Ronald Reagan said in 1983] “Abortion on demand now takes the lives of up to one and a half million unborn children a year,” Reagan continued. “Human life legislation ending this tragedy will someday pass the Congress, and you and I must never rest until it does.” He framed a perfect argument for this audience, saying, “There is sin and evil in this world, and we’re enjoined by Scripture and the Lord Jesus to oppose it with all our might.”
[I snipped more of Schenck’s history, including connections to Pat Robertson, to the “Rescue” movement, and the subsequent incorporation of “strictly binary gender roles, opposition to LGBTQ rights, and denunciation of “feminazis” and “Jezebels”—like Hillary Clinton.” Details of backing Roy Moore have also been snipped.]
In Washington, I also occasionally administered Holy Communion and delivered sermons in the Congressional Prayer Room, offered invocational prayers at functions in the Capitol complex, and linked arms with groups like the Family Research Council, the Heritage Foundation, and the formidable Council for National Policy. The CNP—a nearly clandestine cabal of conservative religious, business, and political movers and shakers—assembled some of the country’s wealthiest and most powerful figures in closed-door sessions, where we heard from insiders like Supreme Court spouse Ginni Thomas and Richard Viguerie, the doyen of conservative fundraising.
[…] By the winter of 2001, many other religiously motivated public interest groups were working the executive and legislative branches, so I decided to concentrate on the judiciary. In confidential meetings of top anti-abortion activists known as the 115 Forum (named for a hotel meeting space), we discussed how the federal judiciary, especially the Supreme Court, was the obstacle to any progress we had made in the other two branches.
[…] First, I befriended a couple of lower-level federal judges. Sen. Hatch introduced me to others. But a culmination of my efforts was an invitation to members of the prestigious Judicial Breakfast Group from “The Chambers of Justice Clarence Thomas” announcing me as the speaker. The subject would be the Ten Commandments. I concluded my talk by asking the 50 or so judges in the room to proudly incorporate their Christian beliefs into their jurisprudence. [Clarence Thomas again!]
Federal judges and especially Supreme Court justices, unlike politicians, never need to shake hands across a rope line. Accessing their world required creativity. I found it through the little-known Supreme Court Historical Society. Founded by the late Chief Justice Warren Burger, the independent nonprofit holds an annual dinner hosted by the chief justice and attended by most associate justices. Tickets are strictly controlled. By establishing a close relationship with the society’s staff, I managed to secure seats each year for several of my donors, whom I would coach on how to connect with the justices attending the event. As a result, two of my most active participants, Don and Gayle Wright of Dayton, Ohio, ingratiated themselves with the Alitos, Scalias, and Thomases. [Remarkble. Also, a telling detail in that it shows how gullible the Alito’s, Scalia’s and Thomases are.]
[…] In a notable instance, the Wrights were tipped off about a pending decision before it was announced to the public. As I later told the House Judiciary Committee, “Gayle relayed that she had learned the outcome of the Burwell v. Hobby Lobby case while at the meal with the Alitos, that it was in Hobby Lobby’s favor, and that ‘Sam is writing it.’” The ruling would affirm that companies with religious objections were not required to provide contraceptive coverage in their health insurance packages. I also told the House committee that Gayle had shared the news with me and that I told the president of Hobby Lobby, Steve Green—his parents were donors to my organization—that they had won the case. The Green family found themselves in the enviable position of using the advance notice to prep their spokespeople so they could be ready at the microphone outside the court following Alito’s reading of the majority opinion. They could shape the public narrative, a distinct advantage over their opponents.
[snipped denials from the Alito’s, from Gayle Wright and from Steve Green … all of them bogus]
[…] It took years for the scales to fall from my eyes. A major turning point occurred when I took a leave of absence from Faith and Action to pursue a late-in-life doctorate. Part of my research involved the German Christian movement of the 1930s, which supported the Nazi Party. One of the most respected Bible scholars of that period, Paul Althaus, declared Hitler’s ascent to the chancellorship to be a “gift and miracle from God.” I began to suspect that we evangelicals were similarly allowing our faith to be co-opted for political purposes. […]
These fears were reinforced when I attended a tribute banquet for Pat Robertson around 2010. Virtually every evangelical luminary was there. When Robertson introduced his guest of honor, Donald J. Trump, I was shocked. In Bible college, my preaching instructor had suggested that the New York playboy was a perfect illustration for what it meant to not live as a Christian. I asked a friend of Pat’s why Trump was there. They both were “members of the billionaires’ club,” he explained. “Besides, he may make a good president someday.” Trump worked the room, filled with the biggest names on the religious right, garnering hearty applause.
Another reckoning came after working with Abigail Disney on a film about American evangelicals’ love affair with firearms. The Armor of Light won an Emmy, but many of my colleagues labeled me a sellout to liberal gun grabbers.[…] When I visited one church as a guest preacher, my host forbade me from mentioning guns in his pulpit. “I have 50 armed people sitting out there every Sunday,” he warned, “and I don’t know what they’ll do if they get mad at you.” He gave me a wry smile. “Seriously.”
Meanwhile, as a Republican presidential candidate, Trump displayed pomposity and an ugly denunciation of the most vulnerable, both of which are diametrically opposed to the Christian virtues of humility, kindness, love for neighbors, and care for strangers. In June 2016, when his campaign invited scores of my closest friends and longtime colleagues to meet with him in New York, I declined. My contacts texted me from the gathering, reporting on the deal they were striking with him. Trump essentially promised to appoint anti-abortion federal judges and Supreme Court justices in exchange for our constituents’ loyal support. James Dobson, founder of the enormously influential Focus on the Family, assured attendees that Trump was a “baby Christian.”
When I arrived at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Trump’s nomination was a fait accompli. Sitting at a luncheon table with evangelical leaders, I expressed bewilderment over our support of him. Repeatedly, I was assured he would advance our cause. After Trump’s acceptance speech, I decided to leave the fold.
It took two years to extract myself. I dismantled the organization I had spent more than two decades building, walking away from a multimillion-dollar donor base. I called countless people to explain why I was leaving the movement I’d helped lead. I reached out to others to beg their pardon for the harm I had inflicted. I repented in prayer for my errors and the damage they caused. Then, I privately dedicated the rest of my life to doing as much repair as possible.
Following the insurrection of January 6, when Christian banners, Bibles, and prayers in Jesus’ name appeared in the assault on the Capitol, I felt even greater urgency in warning my fellow evangelicals of the grave danger Trump and his MAGA cult posed to Christianity and US democracy.
[…] I realized that when religion is placed at the service of a political party, it corrupts both. To claim that one political figure uniquely represents God’s will for the body politic is a form of anti-Christian idolatry. […]
Because it is immoral, I believe Christian nationalism is inevitably doomed. But in the meantime, the pain, suffering, and injury it will inflict will be enormous—just consider women facing difficult pregnancies, trans children seeking care, librarians attacked for certain books. “We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit. We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theater, and in the press—in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality, which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of liberal excess.” This may sound familiar—maybe some overheated Republican talking points. In fact, it’s what Adolf Hitler promised the German people in 1933.
Former White House attorney Ty Cobb said it’s a “remarkable coincidence” that the case involving former President Trump’s second assassination threat was assigned to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon.
Cannon, who was appointed by Trump, oversaw the former president’s classified documents case. She tossed the charges earlier this year, ruling that the special counsel in the case, Jack Smith, was not lawfully appointed.
“I was going to say, ‘You can’t make this up.’ I think it’s a remarkable coincidence,” Cobb told CNN’s Erin Burnett when asked to weigh in. “I would suspect that she may recuse herself or have the case reassigned.”
“The defense attorney will certainly file motion to transfer case to another judge, citing to her palpable bias,” he added later.
Cobb, who has been critical of Cannon in the past, said if she doesn’t grant that motion, a court order may be necessary to require a government official or agency to take action.
“It would be an interesting potential mandamus issue for the defendant to try to get [the] 11th Circuit to remove her, and also it’s certainly a very good appellate motion for [the] defendant,” Cobb said.
“I suspect she will not be the trial judge in that case, but in the times that we’re living in, it’s just one more crazy fact,” he added.
His comments come a day after a federal grand jury indicted the suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, on five charges. Routh, who showed up to one of Trump’s golf courses with a rifle, could face up to life in prison over the apparent assassination attempt.
The charges mark a significant escalation in the case and came after prosecutors revealed Routh allegedly wrote a letter detailing his plans months beforehand.
Records show the case was randomly assigned to Cannon.
In my opinion, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon should not even be in a position to have cases assigned to her. She has displayed too much incompetence.
If you don’t feel like reading all 921 pages of Project 2025, here’s a short summary! White heterosexual cisgender conservative men can do whatever they want, and anybody and anything else that might stand in their way can drop dead. This is why Donald J. Trump’s raping, frauding, racism, and other activities from creepy to criminal aren’t considered a liability, but a proud feature showcasing his enviably manly dominionism. It’s a big tent, with frauds, creepers, and animal abusers!
So be not surprised that two of today’s finalists in the ongoing Worst Most Disgusting Conservative Men Contest are two Project 2025 guys, Kevin Roberts and John McEntee! […] Latest update, McEntee’s been busted hitting on 18-year-olds while he was 33, and Roberts allegedly bragged about beating a neighbor’s dog to death with a shovel at a dinner party. (He denies it.)
John “Hot Johnny” McEntee, come on down! Remember him? Sure you do!
He was the bad boy Trump hired from Fox News to work as his personal aide, toting around his bags, and was quickly promoted to Director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office. There his job was to suss out the disloyal, such as staffers who treasonously listened to Taylor Swift, making the administration a vast wasteland of unqualified morons, including any young white ladies he found fuckable, regardless of their work experience.
We also later learned during that felony trial of Trump’s (you know, the one, just kidding there are so many!) that McEntee got Trump’s porn peener personal checks for payments mailed to his own home, so Trump could avoid the prying eyes of the White House mailroom.
McEntee derpwalked out of the White House in 2018 when he couldn’t pass a background check, reportedly due to a gambling problem […] But Johnny pulled himself up by Peter Thiel’s bootstraps! Thiel gave Johnny $1.5 million to start a dating app for conservatives, The Right Stuff, which may have attracted more […] January Sixers than women wanting to date conservative guys.
In 2023 McEntee got a job at the Heritage Foundation working on Project 2025, assembling slates of lackeys who’ll be ready to pull the plug on democracy in America on day one. [Telling detail!]
But he still had extra time to work on his social media presence, by which we mean messaging 18-year-olds while he was 33. One was a freshman at North Carolina State University; he slid into her DMs on Instagram, asking her if she wanted a Date Right hoodie, and then started pushing to visit him in Los Angeles and bring a friend, “my treat.” “I think you’re a liberal,” he slimed, but “as long as you’ll be fun I don’t care.” Barf emoji.
The other teen was a conservative on his dating app, who says McEntee started messaging her with gross sexual things, and also tried to fly her to California. “He kept making comments about my age and how hot it would be to sleep with someone who was my age.”
He also found time to become a TikTok star with 3.3 million followers, where he eats food while sneering things like, “so I can’t have an opinion on abortion because I don’t have a uterus, but I can be a woman without one?” and “can someone track down the women Kamala Harris said are bleeding out in parking lots because Roe v. Wade was overturned?” Thousands of women — helpfully! — helped him track them down.
Then there was the time he laughed about giving homeless people fake money to get them arrested. Why he can’t seem to find any woman to marry, or even date him more than once, real mystery.
And Kevin Roberts, come on down! The Guardian reports that the president of the Heritage Foundation, the lizardy guy whose book JD Vance wrote an intro for, once bragged at a dinner party about beating a neighbor’s dog to death with a shovel, and fantasized about killing her puppies too. Just a delightful anecdote to relate while passing around the canapés. And he also bragged about it at work.
Roberts denied the story, so The Guardian sent a reporter to interview his former neighbors in Las Cruces, who confirmed that the dog, Loca, had indeed gone missing while Roberts was living next door, and had never been found.
The second American revolution will remain bloodless if you just sit, stay and roll over for a repeated shoveling to the skull, America!
“If I were the president, I would inform the threatening country, in this case Iran, that if you do anything to harm this person, we are going to blow your largest cities and the country itself to smithereens,” Trump said at an event in North Carolina. “We’re going to blow it to smithereens. You can’t do that, and there would be no more threats. … But right now we don’t have that leadership.”
[…]
Trump surmised that two recent attempts to assassinate him “may or may not involve, but possibly do, Iran.” There is no evidence of any Iranian involvement in either attempted assassination.
You should never voluntarily hand your phone to a police officer.
It’s going to become increasingly tempting for the cops to ask and for you to comply, especially as more and more states adopt digital ID systems that allow driver’s licenses and state IDs to be added to Apple Wallet on iOS and Google Wallet on Android. Californians can now add their driver’s licenses and state IDs to their iPhones and Apple Watches in addition to Android devices, making the state one of seven — alongside Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Hawaii, and Ohio — to allow storing digital IDs through Apple’s system.
These particular digital IDs are so far pretty limited. California’s are for use at “select TSA checkpoints” and participating businesses, for instance — they aren’t meant to be used as identification in traffic stops or other police interactions, which means users are supposed to continue carrying their physical IDs. But other states — including Louisiana and Colorado — have rolled out their own digital IDs that can be used during traffic stops and other police interactions, which may have fewer privacy protections. And Apple’s vision for Apple Pay has long been explicitly to replace your entire wallet, which means that eventually, these IDs will be meant for use during police stops.
No matter what, teaching people they can add their IDs to their phones means some people will inevitably leave the house without physical ID, and that means creating the opportunity for cops to demand phones — which you should never, ever do. Technical details of your digital ID aside, handing your phone to a police officer grants law enforcement a lot of power over some of your most intimate personal data…
Akira MacKenziesays
@146
Because according to the right, the MSM is a leftist controlled organ that lies about everything. If they say something is false, it MUST be true.
A little less than two weeks ago, on Friday, September 13, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) sent a letter to Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks demanding an immediate investigation of U.S. Army Lieutenant General Brian Eifler, who, in August. delivered a presentation, in uniform, at a major New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) event.
The event was NAR Apostle Cindy Jacobs’s annual Reformation Prayer Network gathering in Washington, D.C., at which NAR prophets, apostles, and other assorted kingdom warriors from all 50 states come together to strategize about how they’re going to seize dominion over the world, which, for us here in America, means ending democracy as we know it. This is not hyperbole. The NAR is a dangerous, politically influential movement, whose annual Reformation Prayer Network gathering, held a stone’s throw from the Capitol Building, includes legislative briefings with like-minded members of Congress.
No member of the United States military, let alone a 3-star Pentagon general, has any business being involved in any way with this subversive conglomerate of Christian dominionists, but there was Lt. General Eifler, whose wife Sherry is a member of the NAR’s “Alaska’s War Council,” delivering a presentation — again, in full uniform — at their major annual gathering (a presentation that, for some reason, involved a map of the Asia-Pacific region).
Well, two days ago, MRFF received an e-mail from a Senior Investigator with the Department of the Army Inspector General Agency – Investigations Division, complete with his IG credentials signed by Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth, informing us that his office has opened an “investigative inquiry” into Lt. General Eifler’s NAR activities. To borrow an analogy from MRFF’s fearless leader Mikey Weinstein, an Inspector General’s “investigative inquiry” is comparable to a grand jury in the civilian world looking at the evidence to determine if that evidence is damning enough to indict someone. If this investigative inquiry by the Army’s highest level IG office finds the requisite evidence (which MRFF intends to supply on a silver platter), a full-blown IG investigation would be the expected next step of the several actions that could be taken against Lt. General Eifler.
The IG investigator has asked for MRFF’s participation in the investigative inquiry, to which the answer is “Hell yes!”
Now, as often happens when MRFF exposes a bad actor in our military, we get contacted by people who, from personal experience, know things about that individual and their doings — things that we could not possibly find out on our own. And, that is exactly what has happened in this case. So, even with as much incriminating evidence and information about Lt. General Eifler and his “Alaska’s War Council” wife as was in my post from September 13 (which I am including in its entirety below for those who might have missed it), we’re gonna have a whole lot more for that IG investigative inquiry!
So, stay tuned. I think this one is going to get very, very interesting.
– The Israeli military’s chief of staff told troops that today’s barrage of airstrikes was in preparation for a possible ground offensive in Lebanon.
– The IDF had earlier said it was calling up two reserve brigades to the northern border, as the United States and others urge against an expansion of its conflict with Hezbollah.
– A new wave of “extensive strikes” by the Israeli military in southern Lebanon has killed more than 600. Lebanon’s foreign minister, Abdallah Bou Habib, said the number of displaced was likely “approaching half a million.”
– Israel said it intercepted a missile fired from Lebanon toward Tel Aviv today, the first time Hezbollah has targeted the country’s economic center. The militant group said it was targeting the spy agency Mossad’s HQ.
– Yesterday, an Israeli airstrike in Beirut killed a senior Hezbollah commander, the latest member of the Iran-backed group’s top brass to be killed in recent weeks.
– The U.N. Security Council is expected to meet tonight as global leaders fear a broader regional war. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged the two sides to reach a diplomatic agreement in an interview on NBC’s “TODAY” show this morning.
A question I’ve considered is if there was a point where the output of the purine pathway came into existence, what was it? And what made it?
At the very least we can wonder if ATP or GTP came first.
I’ve been thinking about it from the view of an aspartate accumulation leading to ATP maybe. But that could be the replicator making ATP preferentially when the environment might lead to a different bias, like GTP.
Ribosomes run on GTP, and some ATP but GTP does the most direct work in each round of amino acid addition. The molecular highways that ribosomes use to move around, microtubules, use GTP in their dynamic elongation and contraction cycles.
And since the replicator itself is a nucleotideish I’m thinking about the output being different things as you move back in the purine pathway. And the environment is doing different things with it.
The first ring. The ring getting a bicarbonate stuck on it and moving it looks like a biosynthic platform to me.
Earth’s majestic “apex predators” are some of the most prolific hunters in the world. But which ones kill the most?
Our new research, published in Biological Reviews, showed solitary hunters such as bears, tigers and Eurasian lynx have higher individual kill rates than social predators such as wolves and lions. And smaller species, such as cheetahs and pumas, tend to kill relatively more prey because their kills are often stolen by more dominant carnivores…
A team of scientist–sleuths has flagged data-integrity concerns in 130 studies authored by the same biomedical researcher, a specialist in women’s health and gynaecology, and his colleagues. The sleuths published their findings in a peer-reviewed paper earlier this year1.
Some of the studies that were identified as potentially problematic have been cited by other researchers or included in analyses that could inform clinical practice. The number of papers being questioned is among the highest by a still-active life-scientist, say some specialists.
The 130 studies were published between 2014 and 2023 and report the results of clinical trials and other research on maternal and women’s health. The highlighted problems include oddities in reported statistics, unfeasible results and text that is identical to other papers. Ahmed Abbas, an obstetrician and gynaecologist at Assiut University in Egypt, is listed as a co-author or corresponding author for all 130 articles. Abbas did not respond to Nature’s request for comment.
Some of the papers remain part of the literature. Eleven have been retracted. Before it was retracted, one of those 11 was included in a 2019 meta-analysis on a treatment to prevent miscarriage. The retractions of the paper by Abbas and his team and another, unrelated paper will probably change the conclusion of the analysis, says one of the 2019 work’s authors…
Artificial intelligence (AI) is helping to redraw the virus family tree. Predicted protein structures generated by AlphaFold and chatbot-inspired ‘protein language models’ have uncovered some surprising connections in a family of viruses that includes pathogens that infect humans as well as emerging threats.
“At the sequence level, things are so divergent that we can’t tell if they’re related or not,” he says. “The advent of protein structure prediction unlocks the whole question, and we can see things quite clearly.”
The researchers used DeepMind’s AlphaFold2 model and ESMFold, a structure-prediction tool developed at tech giant Meta, to generate more than 33,000 predicted structures for proteins from 458 flavivirus species. ESMFold is based on a language model trained on tens of millions of protein sequences. Unlike AlphaFold, it requires only a single input sequence, rather than relying on multiple sequences from similar proteins, so it might be especially useful for scrutinizing the most mysterious viruses…
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has survived a motion in parliament aimed at bringing down his government and triggering an election.
Wednesday’s no-confidence vote is the first in a series of similar votes expected to be put forward by the opposition Conservative Party amid Trudeau’s plummeting approval ratings.
The motion failed after opposition leader Pierre Poilievre fell short in his effort to shore up support from leaders of two other political parties in parliament, the New Democratic Party (NDP) and the Bloc Québécois…
@Reginald Selkirk 167
That requires a login. Do you have another link? I’m curious about which protein domains they found. They might match something interesting in other databases.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the federal body that sets technology standards for governmental agencies, standards organizations, and private companies, has proposed barring some of the most vexing and nonsensical password requirements. Chief among them: mandatory resets, required or restricted use of certain characters, and the use of security questions…
Reginald Selkirksays
@169
The virus family involved was flaviviruses – dengue, Zika, hepatitis C and others.
The protein of interest was a viral entry protein.
The predicted structures allowed the authors to identify viral entry proteins with very different sequences to those of known flaviviruses. They found some unexpected links. For instance, the subset of viruses that includes hepatitis C infects cells using a system similar to one they discovered in the pestiviruses – a group that includes classical swine fever virus, which causes haemorhagic fever in pigs, and other animal pathogens.
The AI-enabled comparisons showd that this entry system is distinct from those of many other flaviviruses. “For Hep C and its relatives, we don’t know where its entry system came from. It may have been ‘invented’ by those viruses way back when,” says Grove.
The predicted structures also revealed that the well-studied entry proteins of Zika and dengue virus have the same origins as those of what Grove describes as “weird and wonderful” flaviviruses with giant genomes, including Haseki tick virus, which can cause fever in humans. Another big surprise was the discovery that some flaviviruses have an enzyme that seems to have been stolen from bacteria…
David Moi, a computational biologist at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, says that the flavivirus study is the tip of the iceberg, and that the evolutionary histories of other viruses and even some cellular organisms are likely to be rewritten with AI..
Congress on Wednesday passed a temporary measure that keeps government agencies funded into December, avoiding a shutdown for now while punting final spending decisions until after the Nov. 5 election.
The Senate approved the measure by a vote of 78-18 shortly after the House easily approved it. The bill generally funds agencies at current levels through Dec. 20. But an additional $231 million was included to bolster the Secret Service after the two assassination attempts against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. Money was also added to aid with the presidential transition, among other things.
The bill now goes to President Joe Biden’s desk to be signed into law…
Only until December? They couldn’t keep it going until a new administration is functioning at the end of January?
Did Donald Trump just make Jack Smith’s job that much easier by admitting that he knows he lost the 2020 election?
During a speech Wednesday in Mint Hill, North Carolina, Trump appeared to give up the game when speaking about his performance four years ago.
“We did much better by the way, in the election of 2020, than we did in 2016,” Trump said.
“Millions and millions of votes more—more votes than any sitting president in the history of our country,” Trump said. This election-denying claim simply isn’t true, because Trump got roughly 74 million votes, while President Joe Biden got 81 million.*
“But they beat us by a whisker. They beat us by a little whisker,” Trump said. “He beat us from the basement.”
Of course, it’s important to know that pretty much every time Trump opens his mouth, his words are admissible in court. So admitting that he didn’t win the election could potentially hurt the former president in court—specifically, in his election interference case in Washington, D.C., where special counsel Smith is seeking to prove that Trump knew he lost the 2020 election but still tried to overturn the results…
* They missed something here. Biden was not a sitting president in 2020. If you parse Trump’s statement as “the most votes of any sitting president running for reelection” the objection does not hold.
whheydtsays
Re: Reginald Selkirk @ #172…
The Congressional Republicans want another chance to stick their oar in the budget and screw things up after they know that the Democrats will be taking over before said Democrats control the House. I predict another CR for the time from Dec. 20 to sometime in late January or early February as the Democrats aren’t going to go along with Republican bomb throwing at a time when the know they’ll have control of the House in less than a month.
The Biden administration on Thursday announced $375 million more in security assistance for Ukraine, which for the first time will include American Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) glide bombs, a U.S. defense official told ABC News.
The bombs, which can be deployed by Ukraine’s new F-16 fighters, have retractable wings that help them reach targets up to 70 miles away. There are several versions of JSOW, but the ones being sent to Ukraine are equipped with cluster munitions, according to the official.
The U.S. will also soon announce more than $2 billion in aid for Ukraine under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), the official told ABC News on Wednesday. Unlike the $350 million package, which will draw equipment from existing American stockpiles for Ukraine, USAI funds are used for contracts to procure assistance, which can take months or years to materialize. The coming USAI funds will largely go toward restocking Ukraine with munitions, according to the official…
Ukraine on Monday accused Russia of seeking to illegally seize control of the strategically important Sea of Azov and Kerch Strait, as hearings opened in a high-stakes arbitration case between Kyiv and Moscow.
The hearings at the Permanent Court of Arbitration are the latest in a string of international legal cases involving Russia and Ukraine linked to Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, even as fighting continues to rage on battlefields in Ukraine.
This isn’t over the current fighting, this is about the 2014 annexation of Crimea and Russia building a bridge that controls access to the Sea of Azov. The bridge blocks large container ships and has been used to control shipping and block Ukrainian fishermen. I think the whole thing is funny happening during a war. If Russia wins the war they will keep control no matter what the court rules and if Ukraine wins they will open the straight. The whole thing only matters if there is some negotiated settlement to the war but that is enough to keep the case going forward.
Virus protein domains go to 2 groups; of “Virus Hallmark Proteins”; “replication associated VHPs” which are older, and “Structural VHPs”. I wonder if the above count as “Membrane associated”?
The problem is not just that House Republican leaders relied on Democrats to prevent a government shutdown. It’s also the familiarity of the circumstances.
UPDATE (Sept. 25, 2024, 6:38 p.m. ET): On Wednesday, the Senate voted 78-18 to pass the stopgap funding bill and avert a government shutdown, sending the measure to President Joe Biden.
A couple of weeks ago, facing the possibility of a Republican-imposed government shutdown, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries shared an underappreciated point with reporters. “Democrats are temporarily in the minority but have repeatedly governed as if we are in the majority, because we recognize that our job is to deliver for the American people,” the New York Democrat explained.
Two weeks later, the accuracy of Jeffries’ assessment rang true anew. NBC News reported:
The House on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed a funding bill to avert a government shutdown next week after it removed a proposal demanded by Donald Trump that would require Americans nationwide to show proof of citizenship to register to vote. The vote was 341-82, with all opposition coming from Republicans. House Republican leaders, facing defections within their ranks, relied heavily on Democratic votes to approve the short-term measure.
It was just last week when the House GOP leadership tried a far-right approach to preventing a shutdown, tying spending cuts to a far-right election scheme called the SAVE Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote. That bill failed in humiliating fashion, prompting House Speaker Mike Johnson to turn to a backup plan.
This week, we learned that the backup plan was, for all intents and purposes, to give up entirely.
[…] as the dust settles on this unnecessary drama, it’s worth appreciating just how frequently House Republican leaders have been forced to rely on the Democratic minority to govern.
Five months ago, for example, Congress passed a long-sought security-aid package, but in order to advance the legislation, Johnson and his leadership team had no choice but to disregard the wishes of their far-right members and partner with the Democratic minority — which provided more than two-thirds of the votes needed to pass the bill.
This was not an isolated incident. Ten days earlier, the House reauthorized the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and it was the Democratic minority that provided a majority of the votes. A few weeks before that, the House passed a bill to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year and Democrats provided nearly two-thirds of the votes.
A month before that, House Republican leaders endorsed a stopgap spending measure and relied on Democrats to pass it. A month earlier, the House considered a bipartisan compromise on tax policy, which was endorsed by the House GOP leadership. It was nevertheless Democrats who provided most of the votes to pass it.
Two weeks earlier, a bill to prevent a partial government shutdown cleared the House, but roughly two-thirds of those votes came from the House Democratic minority.
The circumstances have become a staple of the current Congress. A year ago this week, to prevent a government shutdown, it was Democrats who provided most of the votes on a must-pass bill. Two months later, again to prevent a government shutdown, Republicans also relied on Democratic votes.
[…] A month later, when the House needed to pass the National Defense Authorization Act, Democrats again provided a majority of the votes.
And when Republicans threatened to crash the economy on purpose by leveraging the debt ceiling, it was — you guessed it — Democrats who cast most of the votes to pass the bipartisan solution.
As 2023 came to an end, Axios highlighted the underappreciated pattern: “Republicans may hold the House majority, but Democratic yeas outnumbered GOP votes on every major bill that landed on President Biden’s desk this year.”
In 2024, the pattern remains unchanged. A Washington Post report summarized in the spring, “If it wasn’t obvious before, it’s obvious now. The House’s governing coalition has been cemented. It consists of nearly every Democrat and about half of Republicans. The pattern was reinforced this weekend with a vote to pass Ukraine aid, but it has played out over and over again this Congress with the passage of major pieces of legislation.”
When Republican John Boehner was the House speaker, he too found himself dependent on Democrats when his far-right members didn’t want to govern. During Paul Ryan’s tenure, it happened some more. When Kevin McCarthy did the same thing, it contributed to the intraparty revolt that cost him his gavel.
And now, here we are, watching Speaker Johnson do the same thing, reinforcing the fact that one of the major parties on Capitol Hill is focused on constructive policymaking, and it’s clearly not the GOP.
Hurricane Helene is strengthening as it moves past Mexico and toward the U.S. Gulf Coast. It became a Category 1 hurricane today and is expected to hit Florida’s Big Bend late tomorrow. Helene is expected to become Category 3 storm. Around 32 million people are under flood watches.
Some reports predict a Category 4 storm, and a devastating 15-foot storm surge. We will see.
The Treasury Department’s report shows that 4.2 million small business owners and self-employed workers have coverage through the ACA [Affordable Care Act] Marketplaces, up from 3.3 million in 2022 and 1.4 million in 2014.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams indicted on federal charges, by Associated Press.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been indicted by a grand jury on federal criminal charges, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The indictment detailing the charges against Adams, a Democrat, was still sealed late Wednesday, according to the people, who spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan declined to comment. The indictment was first reported by The New York Times.
“I always knew that If I stood my ground for New Yorkers that I would be a target — and a target I became,” Adams said in a statement that implied he hadn’t been informed of the indictment. “If I am charged, I am innocent and I will fight this with every ounce of my strength and spirit.”
In a speech recorded at his official residence, Adams acknowledged that some New Yorkers would question his ability to manage the city while he fights the charges, but he vowed to stay in office.
“I have been facing these lies for months … yet the city has continued to improve,” Adams said. “Make no mistake. You elected me to lead this city and lead it I will.”
It was not immediately clear when the charges would be made public or when Adams might have to appear in court.
The indictment marks a stunning turn for Adams, a former police captain who won election nearly three years ago to become the second Black mayor of the nation’s largest city on a platform that promised a law-and-order approach to reducing crime.
[…] He had repeatedly said he wasn’t aware of any wrongdoing and vowed as recently as Wednesday afternoon to stay in office.
Adams is the first mayor in New York City history to be indicted while in office. If he were to resign, he would be replaced by the city’s public advocate, Jumaane Williams, who would then schedule a special election.
[…] The federal investigations into Adams administration first emerged publicly on Nov. 2, 2023, when FBI agents conducted an early morning raid on the Brooklyn home of Adams’ chief fundraiser, Brianna Suggs.
At the time, Adams insisted he followed the law and said he would be “shocked” if anyone on his campaign had acted illegally. “I cannot tell you how much I start the day with telling my team we’ve got to follow the law,” he told reporters at the time.
Days later, FBI agents seized the mayor’s phones and iPad as he was leaving an event in Manhattan. The interaction was disclosed several days later by the mayor’s attorney.
Then on Sept. 4, federal investigators seized electronic devices from the city’s police commissioner, schools chancellor, deputy mayor of public safety, first deputy mayor and other trusted confidantes of Adams both in and out of City Hall.
Federal prosecutors declined to discuss the investigations but people familiar with elements of the cases described multiple, separate inquiries involving senior Adams aides, relatives of those aides, campaign fundraising and possible influence peddling of the police and fire departments. […]
A Louisiana congressman’s post on X claiming that Haitian people participate in “eating pets,” practice “vudu,” and come from the “nastiest country in the western hemisphere” sparked widespread outrage on Wednesday.
“All these thugs better get their mind right and their ass out of our country before January 20th,” Clay Higgins’ post concluded. (Note: These immigrants from Haiti are in the United States legally.)
Two hours later, the racist post was deleted from the Republican House member’s official account, and members of the Congressional Black Caucus were calling for Higgins to be censured.
Higgins’ diatribe was sparked by a Haitian community group in Springfield, Ohio, filing criminal charges against former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, after they repeatedly—and falsely—claimed Haitian immigrants were kidnapping and eating cats and dogs.
[…] Higgins, a member of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, decided to pile on with his latest despicable tirade. The former cop and car dealership manager has a history of antidemocratic, racist, and violent behavior.
[…] House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Higgins’ post was “vile, racist, and beneath the House of Representatives” in a post on X.
“The extreme MAGA Republicans in the House are unfit to govern,” Jeffries said.
⚡️”🇷🇺Putin runs a “mafia state” and is a slave owner”: no one expected such a fiery speech from the Head of Foreign Affairs of 🇬🇧Great Britain David Lammy at the UN Security Council
“Your invasion is in your own interest. To turn your mafia state into a mafia empire. An empire built on corruption,” he said.
How are they putting a thumb on the scale for Trump though? Most of what they report about him should repel everyone who isn’t a MAGA fanatic and further cement the MAGA fanatics’ loyalty to him, but not move anyone from one camp into the other I would expect.
Lynna@142: I don’t see the full article at your link. It stops after “Perhaps most simply the words are, as a number of observers have put it, creepy.” How do I view the full article? (Without signing up for anything or paying any money, obvs.)
Lynna@158:
NAR prophets, apostles, and other assorted kingdom warriors from all 50 states come together to strategize about how they’re going to seize dominion over the world, which, for us here in America, means ending democracy as we know it.
So, basically your standard-issue supervillain org, like SPECTRE or COBRA or HYDRA. Gotcha.
… the NAR’s “Alaska’s War Council,” delivering a presentation — again, in full uniform — at their major annual gathering (a presentation that, for some reason, involved a map of the Asia-Pacific region).
Ah, that’s just a classic supervillain trope. They always have a big map in their lair. Usually with pins or areas that light up as the ringleader briefs the minions on the mechanics of his evil scheme for world domination. Watch almost any James Bond movie, or any movie featuring Lex Luthor as the antagonist, for ample examples.
Tomh@152:
If I were the president, I would inform the threatening country, in this case Iran, that if you do anything to harm this person, we are going to blow your largest cities and the country itself to smithereens,” Trump said at an event in North Carolina.
and Lynna@159:
The Israeli military’s chief of staff told troops that today’s barrage of airstrikes was in preparation for a possible ground offensive in Lebanon.
World War III moving a little closer … especially if the orange turdblossom gets back in.
I’m not convinced the media or pollsters are “putting a thumb on the scale for Trump” as far as polls go (as opposed to “sanewashing” Trump’s absurd lies, word salads and fascist outbursts). My hunch is that there has simply been little change in what their samples are telling pollsters over the past month, and what change there has been (perhaps about 1% nationally) has favoured Trump, as the Democratic Convention and the debate fade from public attention. The great majority of those intending to vote for Trump are not going to be swayed – they have already shown they are irredeemable bigots and haters. If the polls are right (and of course they could be wrong in either direction) the result will be very close, and probably decided by which side gets their vote out more effectively. In that context, the large number of small donations and volunteers Harris got give some grounds for optimism – but the fascists will try their best to intimidate voters and fix the counts. Meanwhile Netanyahu is doing his best to drag the USA into war with Iran, which he presumably thinks will favour Trump – I’ve no idea whether he’s right.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Re: Bekenstein Bound @186:
How are they putting a thumb on the scale for Trump though? Most of what they report about him should repel everyone […] not move anyone from one camp into the other
What KG said. Also in general, the thumb doesn’t need to sway voters to the other side. Republicans just need to seem less catastrophic than they are, such that unenthusiastic conservative folks aren’t so horrified they stay home and unenthusiastic liberals/progressives aren’t so horrified that they go vote.
A while back, there was a story about focus groups explaining Republican policies to conservative voters who then could not believe what the party was proposing.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Eh, I’m tired, vacillated on writing anything at all, chose poorly I think. Should’ve stopped at the first sentence. =)
Tens of thousands of fuel storage tanks in critical infrastructure facilities remain vulnerable to zero-day attacks due to buggy Automatic Tank Gauge systems from multiple vendors, say infosec researchers.
Automatic Tank Gauges (ATGs) are used to monitor fuel levels in storage tanks and ensure that the tanks don’t leak. The ten CVEs disclosed today were found in products from several different vendors: Dover Fueling Solutions (DFS), OPW Fuel Management Systems (owned by DFS), Franklin Fueling Systems, and OMNTEC.
Seven are rated critical, and all of them allow for full administrator privileges of the device application, according to Bitsight, which found the flaws and reported them to the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) six months ago. Three of the buggy products still don’t have a fix…
The Fever lost two in a row of a best-of-three series to the Connecticut Sun, so they are out if it now. Clark says she plans to play golf during the off season.
KGsays
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain@192,
No, I think your #191 was useful – it does seem unlikely there are many people at this stage who are actually prepared to switch from Trump to Harris or vice versa, rather than on whether to vote at all.
According to an investigation by the Senate Finance Committee, Jared Kushner’s private equity firm, Affinity Partners, has yet to return even a cent of profit to its foreign investors.
The shady firm has received billions from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and other foreign governments. In fact, 99 percent of the firm’s approximately $3 billion in funding came from overseas sources, according to a New York Times report that spurred the Senate investigation. Yet Trump’s son-in-law has returned no profit to the governments. All the while, it’s estimated his firm has pocketed an additional $112 million in fees from the governments since 2021, according to the findings. ..
Lynna@142: I don’t see the full article at your link. It stops after “Perhaps most simply the words are, as a number of observers have put it, creepy.” How do I view the full article? (Without signing up for anything or paying any money, obvs.)
Josh Marshall’s post is part of a “member newsletter.” One does have to pay a fee to view those. Nothing I can do about that.
The text I posted in comment 142 is most of that member newsletter post.
When Russia invaded Ukraine, the U.S. position was largely bipartisan. Now, Republicans are turning against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, U.S. support for our allies was largely bipartisan. There was a so-called “Putin wing“ among congressional Republicans, but for the most part, both parties were aligned with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and recognized the importance of proving officials in Kyiv with resources.
Two and a half years later, that bipartisan stance appears to be collapsing. NBC News reported:
Vice President Kamala Harris is meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a trip to the U.S., while former President Donald Trump isn’t, highlighting the growing partisan division over a key foreign policy issue. Harris is scheduled to meet Thursday with Zelenskyy at the White House. Trump won’t meet with him while he’s in the country this week for the United Nations General Assembly, and he has grown increasingly critical of Zelenskyy, accusing him of having a favorite in the coming election.
As recently as Tuesday, the Republican candidate insisted that the U.S. is to blame for Russia’s war in Ukraine, publicly mocked Zelenskyy, and argued without evidence that Ukraine’s president wants Harris to win the 2024 election “so badly.”
A day later, the former American president also signaled reluctance about providing further U.S. financial assistance to Ukraine, marveled at the history of Russia’s military might, blamed Zelenskyy for tactical decisions that Russia didn’t like, and accused the Ukrainian leader of “making little nasty aspersions toward your favorite president, me.”
But on Capitol Hill, GOP criticisms of Zelenskyy have also reached a new and unprecedented level.
Ahead of Zelenskyy’s address to the United Nations General Assembly, the Ukrainian leader visited an important artillery plant in Pennsylvania and thanked those who work there. It didn’t seem like the sort of thing that would enrage congressional Republicans, but a few days after Zelenskyy’s visit, GOP officials threw quite a fit.
House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, whose track record on launching pointless probes is already a brutal embarrassment, launched an investigation into Zelenskyy’s visit to an ammunition factory, suggesting it was some kind of partisan campaign event.
Soon after, House Speaker Mike Johnson, who really ought to know better, sent a letter to Zelenskyy to “demand that you immediately fire” Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S. over the Pennsylvania trip. The Louisiana Republican also announced that he would not meet with the Ukrainian president.
Around the same time, Republican Rep. Lance Gooden of Texas, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, appeared on Fox Business, endorsed his party’s conspiracy theory about the factory visit, and called on the United States to “move on” from supporting Ukraine’s war effort.
Support for Ukraine against Russian aggression might not have been an especially partisan issue before, but just in recent days, partisan divisions have become surprisingly stark.
A related video tops the article. The video includes a good discussion of threats against nuclear power plants, of Zelensky’s jabs at Trump (without mentioning Trump’s name), Putin’s actual goals, etc. Trump and Vance’s rhetoric is “flippant.”
Last summer, a Washington, D.C.-based bar discipline committee concluded that Rudy Giuliani should be disbarred for “frivolous” and “destructive” efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. As part of the process, the former New York City mayor concocted a series of outlandish excuses for his alleged misconduct, though they didn’t prove persuasive.
“He claimed massive election fraud but had no evidence of it,” the three-member panel declared in a 38-page decision. “By prosecuting that destructive case Mr. Giuliani, a sworn officer of the Court, forfeited his right to practice law.”
The same panel acknowledged some of the more worthwhile parts of Giuliani’s earlier record before concluding, “The misconduct here sadly transcends all his past accomplishments. It was unparalleled in its destructive purpose and effect. He sought to disrupt a presidential election and persists in his refusal to acknowledge the wrong he has done.”
This was not, however, the final word: Giuliani’s ultimate disbarment would be decided by the D.C. Court of Appeals. We now know the appellate bench has, in fact, disbarred the disgraced New York Republican. [X post available at the link]
If this sounds at all familiar, there’s a good reason for that: Giuliani was also disbarred in New York a few months ago after a court found he repeatedly lied about the 2020 election.
All of this, of course, is separate from Giuliani’s civil and financial troubles with Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman.
Let’s also not forget that Giuliani has been indicted in Georgia and Arizona, and those charges are unrelated to the defamation lawsuit he’s facing from Dominion Voting Systems. (Giuliani has denied any wrongdoing.)
And did I mention that his radio show was also cancelled? Because that happened, too.
Things clearly aren’t going well for the incumbent New York City mayor, but one of his recent predecessors continues to suffer one indignity after another.
Comment 183 presents details of current Mayor Eric Adams being indicted.
[…] if Trump wins in November, then in about six weeks’ time, things will start moving very quickly and I don’t want this potential threat flying under your radar.
The overarching theme of Josh’s reporting is that Trump is drawn to using the military because it appeals to a series of fantasies he has:
– The military is all powerful.
– The military can augment his own power as president, particularly in areas where federalism and the law make the president inherently weaker.
– Unlike other components of the federal government, the president can use the military free of congressional strings and oversight.
None of these fantasies is actually true, though they contain wisps and fragments of truth.
We’ve long known about Trump’s attraction to the military, or at least to the trappings he perceives it to have: strength, power, loyalty. His obsession with “my generals” in his first term led him to surround himself with flag officers, most of whom came to despise and disrespect him.
What’s new […] is how MAGA adherents want to co-opt the military for its own political ends, including: mass deportations, cracking down on domestic protests, and simply to project political strength.
Civilian rule over the military is a core American value. Keeping the military as an institution non-partisan and out of politics remains a bedrock tradition. Not using the military for domestic purposes except in extreme cases is also a foundational value.
Trump’s child-like fascination with the military as a way to shore up his own insecurities ignores all of that history and tradition and the laws that help preserve them. He would come into office perturbed that hadn’t made full use of the military his first time round and determined not to be thwarted from doing so this time.
It’s a particular flavor of the Trump threat that we haven’t encountered before in our history and which we may not be sufficiently prepared for: It threatens the military as we know it and civilian life. Because there’s no precedent for it, predicting how it will unfold is difficult. […]
The fallout continues for North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson after scandalous details of his sordid online activity seemingly doomed the Republican nominee’s bid for governor.
On Wednesday, WRAL News reported that senior staff members in the lieutenant governor’s office plan to resign in the coming days.
Those staff members include: Brian LiVecchi, Robinson’s chief of staff and general counsel; Director of Communications John Wesley Waugh; Policy Director Jonathan Harris; and Director of Government Affairs Nathan Lewis. The New York Times confirmed LiVecchi’s resignation.
This is just the latest piece of bad news for Robinson, whose campaign has been rocked by controversy that culminated in a damning CNN report published on Sept. 19. The investigation uncovered the misogynistic Republican’s lewd and racist online posts in the comment forums of a pornographic website. Robinson has denied the report, vaguely blaming artificial intelligence and “a billionaire’s son” for the scandal.
News that the lieutenant governor is losing key staff members comes just days after multiple senior campaign officials, including his campaign manager, deputy campaign manager, finance director, and a senior adviser, announced their own plans to leave Robinson’s sinking ship.
Robinson has stubbornly insisted he will continue his gubernatorial campaign, even while quickly becoming a pariah within his party. MAGA cult leader Donald Trump is pretending not to know the man he recently called “better than Martin Luther King,” while other GOP politicians who once championed the bigoted Robinson have rushed to distance themselves, too.
What Wednesday’s news means for the people of North Carolina is an open question. Because the lieutenant governor’s staffers focus on the logistics of his day-to-day operations, losing four top advisers is no small matter. Robinson’s fellow Republicans criticized him for being an absentee lieutenant governor long before the latest scandal.
Blue Ridge Public Radio shed some light on Robinson’s work habits on Monday. The report detailed how Robinson tasked senior staff members like LiVecchi and Harris to sit in on important board meetings and even chair the Energy Policy Council that Robinson is responsible for.
In fact, when contacted for that very story, director of communications Waugh said, “The lieutenant governor is deeply committed to his duties, consistently staying informed on the activities of every board and commission our office serves on and is continuously in communication with lawmakers and legislative leadership.”
Now Waugh is on the list of those reportedly resigning.
His record includes allegedly putting a gun to the head of one of his ex-wives, voting for a neo-Nazi, and assaulting an unarmed Black man while working as a cop.
On Wednesday afternoon, Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) posted a mocking, racist tweet about “wild” Haitians practicing “vudu” and flooding into the US from the “nastiest country in the western hemisphere.” Such rhetoric would be surprising for most members of Congress. In the case of Higgins, it serves as an excellent introduction.
The post from Higgins, which he soon deleted, focused on the legal Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, who Republicans continue to slander for sport and potential electoral gain. [Screen grab of the post is available at the link]
The tweet is racist. There’s not much more to say about it. There is, however, a lot more to say about Higgins, a member of Congress whose disturbing personal history has not gotten much attention.
One of Higgins’ first appearances in the public record came in a 1992 newspaper article dug up by Bayou Brief, a Louisiana publication that has investigated the congressman. Higgins, then 30, was commenting on Pat Buchanan’s run for president, which came one year after the former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard and neo-Nazi David Duke was nearly elected governor of Louisiana.
“Duke won’t get the vote. Pat will. Pat represents much of the same positions,” Higgins explained to a reporter while attending a Buchanan rally—correctly sussing out Buchanan’s white nationalism. “Regardless of the fact that David’s a homeboy and all that, the boy’s a Nazi, and that’s a real problem.”
Still, Higgins admitted that he’d recently voted for David Duke for governor of Louisiana (a man who once decorated his college dorm room with a Nazi flag and picture of Adolf Hitler). [Image of 1992 newspaper article is available at the link]
Higgins’ missteps have allegedly not been limited to rhetoric. The first of his three ex-wives wrote while seeking a protective order against him in 1991 that Higgins “put a gun to my head” during an argument. She explained that he “threatened that if I ever came near the house he would shoot me.” (Higgins denied ever being violent with her.)
In 2007, Higgins resigned from the Opelousas Police Department in Louisiana after reportedly assaulting an unarmed Black man and then lying about it. The victim stated that Higgins and another officer, John Chautin, attacked him after he did not consent to a search of his car, according to an internal investigation. “[The victim] stated while on the ground, Officer Higgins grabbed him by the hair and twisted his head and told him to go get his lawyer and called him a [P-word],” the report explains. “[He] stated that he was then kicked while still on the ground but could not see who kicked him.” The report also says that Higgins “grabbed [the victim] by the neck and slammed him against his car” and “struck him in the jaw.”
Higgins went on to lie about the incident, falsely claiming that he was the one who was assaulted. Later, the now congressman called back the police investigator to admit he was not telling the truth. He claimed his decision for new honesty stemmed from confessing his sins to a counselor from Las Vegas. The report concluded something else: Higgins learned that a third officer, who was on the scene during the incident, had failed to cover for him and Chautin. [Excerpt from 2007 police investigation is available at the link]
Higgins resigned rather than face disciplinary action. And he went on to hire Chautin in his congressional office […]
Oh Fiddlesticks, Half Mark Robinson’s Employees Quit AGAIN.
This time at the lieutenant governor’s office, not the campaign office!
[…] Despite Mark Robinson’s declared intentions to find the guy who did this, and by “this” we mean put these comments on the internet’s porn forums in his name saying that he’s a Black NAZI! and that slavery is awesome and that he peed on his wife’s sister — yeeeeeeahhhLLEGEDLY! — and despite the fact that he says he’s hired a law firm to find the real killer, half his staff at the office just quit again.
(It’s a Trump lawyer that he hired. An idiot one. One that we’ve had very happy good times here at Wonkette laughing at.)
We say again because half Robinson’s employees already just quit last week. But that was his campaign staff.
Now it’s all his happy funtimes staff at the lieutenant governor’s office, AKA his day job. […]
It also happened the same day it was reported Robinson had made comments online about how Al Sharpton should be shot — “If the cops wanted to shoot an elderly black man they should have shot Al Sharpton” was the exact comment — and also gross, weird comments about Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey. But he didn’t even make those comments on porn sites, which just goes to show that he doesn’t have to be on porn sites to make gross comments. Why, sometimes he just says gross things in public with his out-loud voice!
We are sure whatever people are still working for Mark Robinson are top-notch characters, just like his new very smart Trump lawyer. Either that or maybe they’re going to quit too.
Who can say what life successes await Mark Robinson!
Missouri executed Marcellus Williams over the objections of the local prosecutor and against the wishes of the murdered victim’s spouse. Earlier this year, the St. Louis County prosecutor filed a motion to overturn the conviction, citing a lack of credible evidence, ineffective trial counsel and racial discrimination in jury selection. William Brangham discussed more with Jonathan Potts.
David Pakman show:
“New poll proves Shocking Reality about Trump supporters”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=VlC2vOmAq-s
Meh. It is no shock to me they believe anything they are told. Many seem just one notch away from Qanon.
The head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee took a Zoom call with someone using deepfake technology to pose as a top Ukrainian official, the New York Times reports.
Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD) received an email last Thursday that appeared to be from Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s former foreign minister, asking him to meet on Zoom. The person on the other end of the call reportedly looked and sounded like Kuleba but was acting strangely. He asked Cardin “politically charged questions in relation to the upcoming election,” according to an email Senate security officials sent legislators that was obtained by the Times. The fake Kuleba demanded that Cardin give his opinion on foreign policy questions, including whether he supported firing long-range missiles into Russian territory.
The tenor of the conversation made Cardin suspicious, according to the Times’s report, and he reported it to the State Department. Officials there confirmed that Cardin hadn’t spoken to the real Kuleba but to an imposter, though it’s still unclear who was behind the call…
Senate security officials told lawmakers to be on the lookout for similar attempts, and warned “it is likely that other attempts will be made in the coming weeks.” …
South Korea announced plans Thursday to compensate famers and others in the country’s dwindling dog meat industry before a formal ban goes into effect in 2027, a move that is drawing opposition from both farmers and some animal rights activists.
South Korea’s parliament passed a landmark bill in January that will ban slaughtering, breeding or selling dog meat for human consumption after a three-year grace period. It will be punishable by 2-3 years in prison.
The Agriculture Ministry said that farmers would receive compensation starting from 225,000 won ($170), and rising up to 600,000 won ($450) per dog if they agree to shut down their businesses early…
Yesterday, it may have been assassination-themed sneakers, NFTs, or Bibles, but today it is watches. And of course, the Republican presidential nominee promises that “these Watches are truly special.” …
Caption for a New Yorker cartoon that shows passengers in a subway train: “This train will not be stopping at City Hall, because we’d rather just steer clear of that whole mess.”
It was earlier this month when Donald Trump and JD Vance launched an ugly and racist offensive against Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, falsely accusing them of being pet-eating, disease-ridden thieves. A dangerous national firestorm, including threats of violence, soon followed.
What might not be immediately obvious to the public is that the offensive isn’t over. The New Republic noted:
Donald Trump claimed Wednesday that the towns he smeared with anti-immigrant lies actually suffered “hostile takeovers” by immigrants, and insisted that immigrants have been “taking over” cities across America. During a campaign stop in Mint Hill, North Carolina, Trump continued to escalate his violent rhetoric about immigrant populations in Springfield, Ohio, and Aurora, Colorado.
In the same remarks, the former president said “illegals” are “creating havoc” in Springfield, despite the fact that the Haitian immigrants entered the United States legally, and the only people responsible for creating havoc in the Ohio community are members of the Republican Party’s presidential ticket.
A day earlier, Trump campaigned in Georgia, mocked Haitian immigrants’ accents, and said they’ll “have to” leave the country, despite the positive impact they’re having in Springfield.
The day before that Trump held a rally in Pennsylvania in which he said, in reference to the Haitian immigrants, “You have to get them the hell out” because they’ve “destroyed” Springfield. His followers responded by chanting, “Send them back! Send them back!” [video at the link]
f there was another moment in this campaign as nauseating as this one, I can’t think of it.
His running mate, who ostensibly represents the community, isn’t letting up, either. After playing a direct role in picking this radical and unnecessary fight, Vance complained at a rally this week about news organizations daring to tell the public the truth about immigrants in Springfield.
A few days earlier, the Ohio senator dared journalists to go to Springfield and get the whole story — indifferent to the fact that when a Wall Street Journal reporter did exactly that, Vance’s lies actually looked worse.
All the while, local Republican officials have continued to confirm that Trump’s and Vance’s claims continue to be the opposite of reality. Even the editorial board of the local newspaper in Springfield condemned the senator’s lies as “unbecoming of his office.”
It was against this backdrop that the senator implored reporters to “tell the truth,” even as he expressed utter indifference toward the truth.
As for why, exactly, the GOP’s presidential and vice presidential nominees won’t let this particular lie go, The Atlantic’s Adam Serwer had a smart piece along these lines, explaining, “What’s going on here is emblematic of the Trump campaign’s strategy, which is to try to make race the big issue of the campaign, via incessant trolling, lying, and baiting of both the press and the Harris camp.”
Adam added, “The theory is that by supercharging the salience of race — a reliable winner with huge swaths of the electorate — they can compensate for the unpopularity of the Trump campaign’s actual policy agenda: its plans to ban abortion, repeal protections for preexisting conditions in the Affordable Care Act, deregulate Big Business, and cut taxes on the wealthy while raising them on everyone else. The campaign wants people — white people in particular — thinking about race, and hopes that these kinds of appeals will activate the necessary number of voters in the key swing states where the electorate is more conservative than the country as a whole.”
With this in mind, it’s likely that the Republican ticket’s offensive against Springfield will continue for the next 40 or so days.
Exclusive: America Pac has up to 400 employees in each of the seven key states, with the campaign dependent on it.
Donald Trump’s ground game operation in crucial battleground states is now largely outsourced to America Pac, the political action committee backed by the billionaire Elon Musk, according to multiple people familiar with the situation.
The Trump campaign gambled with its voter turnout efforts for the 2024 cycle and outsourced it to Super Pacs, while it targeted its focus on turning out Trump supporters in rural areas who typically do not vote.
But while the Trump campaign once predicted having multiple Pacs doing get-out-the-vote work, with six weeks until the election, only America Pac has a material presence of 300 to 400 paid and part-time people knocking on doors in each of the seven battleground states, the people said.
America Pac also remains the only entity – Trump campaign or otherwise – with a target to do three “passes” of homes of likely Trump voters in every battleground state before election day.
Turning Point Action, run by the rightwing activist Charlie Kirk and touted by the Trump campaign, for instance, has a smaller footprint; it has a presence in Arizona, Wisconsin and two specific districts in Michigan and Nevada, after dropping Georgia from its initial list.
The situation means America Pac now accounts for an outsize proportion of the unglamorous but critical work of door-knocking and canvassing Trump voters in battleground states to get them to return a ballot.
And since the Trump campaign does not have its own mass field operation – it has a new model of “Trump 47 Captains”, volunteers targeting likely Trump supporters who do not typically vote […]
Last week, America Pac fired the company it had retained in Arizona and Nevada to do door-knocking and canvassing.
The move to terminate the September Group had damaging consequences for Trump as America Pac lost several days of canvassing while they sought a replacement company, and lost at least some of the roughly 300 people they hired in each state.
The Trump campaign denied that it had a reliance on America Pac and said it had more than 27,000 volunteers working as Trump 47 Captains, the program in which ardent Trump supporters receive special Maga merchandise as they get more people to register to vote. [The Trump campaign sends them trashy campaign merchandise instead of paying them for the work.]
Each volunteer initially receives a list of 10 neighbors to mobilize. If they meet that target, the next tier involves canvassing 24 out of 50 likely Trump voters, followed by canvassing 45 out of 100 voters, with new perks at each tier. […]
But a person involved with America Pac expressed skepticism about the reach of the Trump 47 captains and noted targeting just so-called low propensity voters in rural areas is no substitute for hitting doors in suburban areas and cities as well.
[…] if Trump wins, it could be in part thanks to Musk, who has articulated wider political ambitions – he recently pitched to Trump to serve in his cabinet in a second term – and [has]outsized influence with Trump.
[…] In North Carolina and Michigan, America Pac’s vendor, Blitz Canvassing LLC, has hired more than 400 staffers in each state, the person said. America Pac has paid roughly $3.3m to Blitz to date, according to federal campaign finance filings.
Blitz is now also responsible for Arizona and Nevada after it was named as the successor to the September Group. It has a mandate to rehire as many of the fired 300 canvassers as possible, and in Nevada, to hit roughly 30,000 doors a day.
The retention of Blitz has been controversial inside Trump world, in part because Blitz is a subsidiary of a company called GP3 owned by the political consultants running America Pac. It has given rise to accusations that America Pac’s leadership is profiting twice. [Yep. That sounds like a trumpian or an Elon-Musk-type arrangement. LOL]
For Pennsylvania and Georgia, America Pac has subcontracted to Patriot Grassroots LLC and paid about $2.3m to date. For Wisconsin, America Pac has subcontracted to the Synapse Group for about $468,000, according to campaign finance filings.
A resurfaced video clip of Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance is once again taking off on the internet as economic issues and family dynamics continue to dominate the election cycle.
This particular clip from 2023 is gaining traction because Vance indicates that car seats are preventing people from having more babies…
“American families aren’t having enough children. I think there’s evidence that some of the things that we’re doing to parents is driving down the number of children that American families are having,” Vance says in the video.
“In particular, there’s evidence that the car seat rules that we’ve imposed, which of course I want kids to drive in car seats, have driven down the number of babies born in this country by over 100,000. So as we think about how to make kids safe here, I think we should do it in a way that’s accommodating to American families.” …
China’s newest nuclear attack submarine has sunk in a shipyard accident, in a setback to the country’s attempts to overtake the United States in a naval arms race, according to US officials.
The sinking of the first of a new Zhou-class of nuclear-powered submarines triggered a scramble for Beijing to cover up the incident, officials told The Wall Street Journal.
The newly built vessel, which features a distinctive X-shaped stern, was sighted on satellite images alongside a pier at Wuchang Shipyard as it was being equipped for sea in late May.
It is claimed to have sunk later that month or in early June. Suspicion was said to have been raised when floating cranes were seen at the site soon afterwards…
U.S. crude oil prices fell nearly 3% on Thursday on a report that Saudi Arabia is committed to pressing ahead with production increases later this year.
Saudi is prepared to ditch its unofficial oil price target of $100 per barrel, people familiar with the kingdom’s thinking told The Financial Times. Saudi officials are ready to increase oil production in December even if the move results in a prolonged period of low oil prices, the people said.
Saudi Arabia had long been trying to get OPEC to keep prices higher. It hasn’t worked for some time and now the Saudis have decided to get more money for themselves, even if it pushes oil prices down. Combine with other sellers increasing production and China not buying as much because their economy is crashing. Oil prices look to be down for some time and gas prices at the pump will follow the trend.
This is good news for Harris. The economy is doing well but rise in oil prices tends to make people feel the economy is doing badly quickly, a slow decline through the election will help her.
Construction workers have finished the excavation of the huge caverns that will house the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment…
The purity of the liquid argon inside the DUNE cryostats, which is crucial to observing particles and light created by neutrino interactions in the liquid, might get an upgrade too. An interdisciplinary team of researchers in Brazil discovered that a filter media typically used in industrial applications can filter out nitrogen contamination in liquid argon. Future large-scale tests will help determine whether this promising method might be applicable for DUNE…
Researchers and engineers ensure that the liquid argon in the detectors is as pure as it can be by filtering out contaminants like water and oxygen. These are two of the most common impurities. However, there’s a third contaminant that is common: nitrogen. While neutrino researchers have well-established methods to filter out water and oxygen, reducing nitrogen levels below the levels provided by commercial providers has been a challenge…
Led by Pagliuso, researchers in Brazil discovered a way to reduce even small contamination levels of nitrogen in liquid argon. His interdisciplinary team of physicists and engineers found a material that removes both nitrogen and water.
Combined with a filter media like the copper material used by Fermilab, the media can remove the three most common liquid-argon contaminants, ensuring the argon is as pure as possible for neutrino experiments.
The material is known as Lithium-FAU, a Faujasite LiX zeolite. This type of aluminosilicate material has industrial applications in refining petroleum and purifying air. The Brazilian team discovered it also has the ability to remove nitrogen from liquid argon through adsorption. “It’s like when you have a medicine for one disease and discover that it also works for another disease,” Pagliuso said…
Volodymyr Zelensky is meeting Joe Biden at the White House, as a row with Donald Trump and the broader Republican party escalated ahead of the US presidential election in November.
Republicans in Congress reacted angrily to the Ukrainian president’s decision to visit an arms factory in the US president’s hometown of Scranton with several top Democrats, and it now appears Zelensky will not meet Trump as had been expected…
In a public letter, speaker of the US House Mike Johnson said the visit was “designed to help Democrats” and claimed it amounted to “election interference”.
He also demanded that Ukraine fire its ambassador to Washington who helped arrange the visit. ..
Ideally, Sen. Tommy Tuberville would steer clear of controversies related to the U.S. military. Evidently, however, the Alabama Republican can’t seem to help himself.
Last year, the coach-turned-politician launched an unprecedented 10-month blockade on armed services confirmations, which undermined his own country’s military during international crises. In the end, the right-wing senator had nothing to show for it but a ruined reputation.
This is the same Tuberville who has reportedly failed to follow through on his commitments to veterans’ charities, failed to tell the whole truth about his father’s military service, lied about the U.S. military not being “an equal opportunity employer,” used veterans to push a debunked anti-immigrant conspiracy theory and claimed earlier this year, “We’ve kinda gone downhill with our military.”
It is against this backdrop that the Alabaman came up with yet another idea related to the military: Tuberville decided it’d be smart to block the promotion of Lt. Gen. Ronald P. Clark, who was nominated to become the four-star commander of all U.S. Army forces in the Pacific. [video at the link: "Putin is on top of his game."]
As the GOP senator saw it, Clark was a senior aide to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin when the Pentagon chief underwent surgery to treat prostate cancer last year, which Austin failed to disclose. (He ultimately apologized for the secrecy.) Thankfully for the military, Tuberville backed down shortly before lawmakers wrapped up their pre-election work. Politico reported:
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) has dropped his objection to President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead Army forces in the Pacific, ending a weekslong standoff over the officer’s role in Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s hospitalization. The Senate on Tuesday quietly confirmed Lt. Gen. Ronald Clark’s promotion to four-star general. The vote, which Tuberville had been blocking in recent weeks, occurred just hours after the Alabama Republican met with Clark to clear the air.
The senator initially wanted to delay the general’s promotion until he saw an inspector general’s report on Austin’s hospitalization, but those findings aren’t complete, and U.S. forces in the Pacific couldn’t wait.So Clark and Tuberville had a private meeting, at which point the senator concluded Austin’s misplaced secrecy “wasn’t his problem.”
That’s probably the sort of detail the Republican might’ve realized before blocking the general’s promotion, but at least Tuberville allowed Clark to be confirmed.
The list of Tuberville’s military-related missteps, however, continues to grow.
Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden Has Simple, Innocent Plan To F*ck Up The Hack Partisan Supreme Court :)
What fun we have!
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), god love him, has been busy this week. First he decided to be the only person in Washington to try to get some answers about Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner’s multibillion Saudi (and Qatari, and UAE-y, and the guy from Foxconn … y) graft.
And now he’s introduced a federal judiciary reform bill that could fix many of the problems that have led to widespread distrust of the US Supreme Court. Not that it has even a chance of passing our current hellcongress with its Republican House and filibuster-bedraggled Senate. But both of those conditions could change, so let’s take a look at what Wyden’s proposing. […] It’s a little different from the reforms Joe Biden endorsed earlier this year, but hey, good to have a big menu to choose from.
As the Washington Post explains, the biggest change Wyden proposes is expansion of the court to 15 members, over the course of 12 years so that no single party is likely to bogart all the new justices and make things worse. Once the law is in effect, the next few presidents could appoint new justices in the first and third years of their terms.
But Wyden’s just getting started. To prevent sudden shifts in the law like we’ve seen from the Alito Court just making shit up […], the Supremes, and federal appeals courts, would have to have a two-thirds majority on any ruling that overturns a law passed by Congress. Observers note that this would mean “desecrating the flag” would still be illegal, and DOMA would still be the law. They like the rest of the proposal better!
Like this one: To prevent fuckery of the sort that Mitch McConnell perpetrated to block Barack Obama from appointing a replacement for Dead Antonin Scalia, the bill would require an automatic vote on Supreme Court nominees if a nomination is stuck in committee more than 180 days. [Good idea.]
To ensure cases don’t take forever to make their way through the courts, the bill also expands the number of federal circuits from 13 to 15, which would add “more than 100 district court judges and more than 60 appellate-level judges,” and also give triskaidekaphobes one less thing to worry about. Ooh, and there’d be one circuit for each SCOTUS justice, which seems pleasantly symmetrical and which in fact used to be the practice.
Also, to address the bizarre and increasing use of the anonymous shadow docket in “emergency” decisions, justices would be required to reveal how they voted in such decisions. Transparency, fuckers.
And then there’s some nice ethics stuff, too, like toughening up the financial disclosures justices must make and requiring an annual IRS audit of each justice’s taxes […] Nominees to be on the Supreme Court would have to disclose three years of tax returns, too.
To prevent raging hypocrisy like, we dunno, a justice ruling on a case their spouse advocated loudly about, or flying flags supporting the defendants, members of the Court could force a colleague to recuse via a two-thirds vote. We do hope Wyden included some sort of guardrails to prevent the six current Republican justices from routinely forcing recusals by Justices Kagan, Sotomayor, and Jackson, because you know they would deploy it as automatically as Mitch McConnell employs the filibuster.
We like a lot of these changes, and even if the whole package doesn’t pass (it won’t), Wyden says he would like to at least pass parts of it on an à la carte basis, which would also require a saner Congress.
Have you heard? Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is stealing the election for Kamala Harris, by existing and being cute. This is the scandal and House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer is gonna ‘VESTIGATE.
At least whenever he gets back from the House’s recess, Comer is gonna ‘VESTIGATE.
You wouldn’t like him when he ‘VESTIGATES. Just ask Hunter Biden […]
Earlier this week, Zelenskyy visited a union factory in Scranton, Pennsylvania. (He is in America doing United Nations things and probably doing a Costco run, we don’t know.) The factory Zelenskyy visited has been making ammo that’s very important to Ukraine’s war against Russia. (For Republicans and people who are brand new, Ukraine is our ally, and Russia is our enemy. Russia invaded Ukraine and started raping, kidnapping, and killing people a few years back. The United States and our allies in Europe and elsewhere are trying to help Ukrainians win the war.)
Politico explains:
Defense and State Department officials traveled with Zelenskyy from New Jersey to Pennsylvania. That trip was paid for by DoD, which requested military airlift to facilitate the administration officials’ travel, said Pentagon spokesperson James Adams.
“These officials were conducting official business related to U.S. security assistance to Ukraine, which included a stop at Newark Liberty International Airport, where they linked up with President Zelenskyy before continuing to Wilkes-Barre International Airport in Pennsylvania,” Adams said.
It was an official visit by an official head of state of one of our official allies with the official US American presidential administration. And James Comer and his Republican friends are squealing “ELECTION INTERFERENCE!” like the little fucking piggies they are.
In one of Comer’s letters, this one to Attorney General Merrick Garland, the congressman tries to compare this to the investigation that led to Donald Trump’s (first) impeachment in 2019, which was undertaken because Trump’s first major act after Zelenskyy was elected was to try to extort him into helping Trump steal the 2020 election, by withholding the military aid Zelenskyy needed for his fight against Vladimir Putin. If you watched Nicolle Wallace’s show yesterday on MSNBC, you will remember that they had an extended discussion on how Trump is, and we quote, “Putin’s [B-word].”
Comer and his Republican pals (there’s another letter from more congressmen) accuse the administration of orchestrating this trip with a foreign leader to help Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign. Why? Not because Harris was there or anything. Rather, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro was there, and that guy was MAYBE gonna be Harris’s running mate but then he wasn’t! And Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey! And Rep. Matt Cartwright!
Ummmmm, and also …
And also Zelenskyy got to ride on a military plane, like a common head of state any time they’re transported by the US!
Ummmmm, and also …
Oh yeah, and also because Zelenskyy did a New Yorker interview and he talked shit about Trump and JD Vance in it! (Zelenskyy is a bit pissy about the fact that Trump and Vance’s plan for Ukraine is to sell them out as a slobbering love offering to Putin.)
The rest of Comer’s letter is just him armpit-farting and squealing and hooting and hollering […]
Speaker Mike Johnson is also acting like he has the right to order Zelenskyy around, demanding in a HUFF AND PUFF AND BLOW YOUR HOUSE DOWN letter that Zelenskyy fire Ukraine’s ambassador to the US for coordinating the visit.
And of course, Fox News has gotten the memo and is pushing the conspiracy theory. Here’s slurring rage muppet Maria Bartiromo this week, reporting that Republicans are wondering if Zelenskyy’s trip is election interference to help Kamala Harris, and then reporting that as fact less than a minute later: [video at the link]
Meanwhile, Donald Trump moaned yesterday that Zelenskyy is “making nasty little dispersions toward your favorite president” and saying there’s “not enough money in the world to rebuild Ukraine.” He referred to Ukraine’s people as “dead.” [Sheesh.]
He could have met with Zelenskyy during this trip, but he isn’t. Neither will Mike Johnson, because at the end of the day, he’s Trump’s lapdog, and again, Trump is Putin’s [B-word].
Hey, guess what, we have a pro tip for Republicans, and here it is:
If the president of one of our allies visiting the United States and thanking people for their support in the war he’s fighting against Russia makes the Republican nominee and former president look bad, THEN THE PROBLEM IS THE FORMER PRESIDENT.
[…] During her interview, Kamala Harris specifically cited Trump’s 2017 promise to the residents of Lordstown, Ohio, that he would save the jobs of workers at a GM plant there slated for closure. Trump was so assured of his ability that he told people, “Don’t move. Don’t sell your house.”
The facility closed in 2019. Since then, a plant for electric vehicle battery manufacturer Ultium Cells has opened in the area employing 2,200 employees. The company has received incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act signed into law by President Joe Biden as part of an effort to revive American manufacturing via clean energy initiatives. The law faced unified opposition from the Republican Party in Congress and only secured passage via Harris’ swing vote in the Senate.
Harris’ tie-breaking vote was also critical to the passage of the American Rescue Plan, the 2021 economic stimulus package passed with only Democratic votes and signed into law by Biden. Along with the federal infrastructure law and the CHIPS and Science Act enacted under the Biden-Harris administration, more than $900 billion in private industry commitments for manufacturing have been announced since 2021.
Trump frequently claimed while in office that manufacturing was booming, but the number of U.S. workers in manufacturing declined while outsourcing grew [during the Trump administration]
Harris has said that as part of her “New Way Forward” agenda she intends to maintain much of the Biden approach toward encouraging domestic manufacturing via clean energy. Harris has also promised to sign the federal PRO Act protecting labor and the right to organize.
“My perspective, on the economy, is that when you grow the middle class, America’s economy is stronger. And there’s empirical evidence to prove my point correct,” Harris told Ruhle.
Reginald Selkirksays
@229 Lynna, OM
He referred to Ukraine’s people as “dead.” [Sheesh.]
He could have met with Zelenskyy during this trip, but he isn’t…
Why would he bother meeting with a dead person?
KGsays
As for why, exactly, the GOP’s presidential and vice presidential nominees won’t let this particular lie go, The Atlantic’s Adam Serwer had a smart piece along these lines, explaining, “What’s going on here is emblematic of the Trump campaign’s strategy, which is to try to make race the big issue of the campaign, via incessant trolling, lying, and baiting of both the press and the Harris camp.”
Adam added, “The theory is that by supercharging the salience of race — a reliable winner with huge swaths of the electorate — they can compensate for the unpopularity of the Trump campaign’s actual policy agenda: its plans to ban abortion, repeal protections for preexisting conditions in the Affordable Care Act, deregulate Big Business, and cut taxes on the wealthy while raising them on everyone else. The campaign wants people — white people in particular — thinking about race, and hopes that these kinds of appeals will activate the necessary number of voters in the key swing states where the electorate is more conservative than the country as a whole.” – Lynna, OM@216, quoting MSNBC
Yup – pretty much excatly what I’ve been saying, here and elsewhere. It’s important to understand that to Trump and Vance it doesn’t matter that the lie has been repreatedly exposed as such. Including this lie in the debate was not a mistake, but part of a plan. Trump didn’t follow through as he was supposed to with an attack on Harris over immigration, but that’s of secondary importance.
The Republican presidential candidate unveiled the “Official Trump Watch Collection” on Thursday. The most expensive, listed as including 122 diamonds on its bezel and available in three 18-karat gold styles, costs $100,000. Another “Fight Fight Fight” model is listed at $499…
Using AI-generated visuals and IRL quotes, a parody political action committee (PAC) is taking on North Carolina’s embattled lieutenant governor and GOP candidate Mark Robinson — and AI itself.
Released by a group calling itself Americans for Prosparody, the fake ad has all the hallmarks of AI uncanniness: weird hands and fingers, jerky serpentine motions, and a voice that sounds like Robinson’s but somehow inhuman.
On the fake “Mark Rottensen” campaign website created by the PAC, which was founded by Raleigh investor and Democratic donor Todd Stiefel, Americans for Prosparody notes that everything the fake version of the gubernatorial candidate says in the phony attack ad are real quotes from the pol himself…
…
“Newsmax is pleased to announce it has resolved the litigation brought by Smartmatic through a confidential settlement,” Newsmax said in a statement posted to their website.
In a statement, Smartmatic said they are “very pleased” with the settlement, and referenced to their ongoing case against Fox News…
The amount of the settlement was not immediately disclosed. Prior to the settlement, Smartmatic had suffered a setback that included the judge ruling out their ability to seek punitive damages at trial…
Israel said it killed another top Hezbollah commander — Muhammad Hussein Srour, the commander of Hezbollah’s Aerial Command — in a “precise” strike on Beirut Thursday.
At least two people were killed, and 15 others were injured in a strike on Dahieh in Beirut, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. Hezbollah has not yet commented on the death of its commander…
Helene to make landfall soon: Hurricane Helene, a dangerous Category 4 storm, is racing toward the Florida Panhandle. The eye — around which are the most dangerous and life-threatening conditions — will likely make landfall in the 11 p.m. ET hour. ..
“The spray, called Pathogen Capture and Neutralizing Spray (PCANS) in the paper, was developed using ingredients from the FDA’s Inactive Ingredient Database (IID), which have been previously used in approved nasal sprays […] PCANS forms a gel-like matrix that traps respiratory droplets, immobilizes the germs, and effectively neutralizes them, preventing infection.”
[…]
They have not studied PCANS directly in humans. […] in a 3D-printed replica of a human nose. They showed that when sprayed in the nasal cavity replica, PCANS captured twice as many droplets as mucus alone. […] “It blocked and neutralized almost 100 percent of all viruses and bacteria we tested, including Influenza, SARS-CoV-2, RSV, adenovirus, K Pneumonia and more.”
Experiments in mice showed that a single dose of the PCANS nasal spray could effectively block infection from an influenza virus (PR8) at 25 times the lethal dose. Virus levels in the lungs were reduced by >99.99 percent
Bekenstein Boundsays
Sky Captain@191:
Republicans just need to seem less catastrophic than they are, such that unenthusiastic conservative folks aren’t so horrified they stay home and unenthusiastic liberals/progressives aren’t so horrified that they go vote.
And how are they managing that? Even while, nowadays, saying all of the quiet parts out loud and being widely denounced by, among others, the top-tier Dem candidates themselves?
I could see this explaining 2016 — I knew exactly what Trump represented and how dangerous that was, and so did some others, but it wasn’t widely known or believed and the case could still be made that it was just an act to rile up the base and get out the vote. After his term, and especially the coup attempt on January 6, 2021, plus the rhetoric (and Project 2025) since then? No way, José. By now every moderate liberal and every moderate conservative must have heard some of the shit being spewed by the Trump far right, including during the recent debate wherein Trump blood-libeled Haitians among other things. So why is the race still so close?
Lynna@198:
Josh Marshall’s post is part of a “member newsletter.” One does have to pay a fee to view those. Nothing I can do about that.
Why did you bother linking to it then, knowing the link wouldn’t be useful? Better to just post the entire text of the thing and attribute it without a clickable link.
On weird and perhaps-related note: Vox appears to have implemented a fake paywall for some reason. A smattering of articles there now purport to be “member exclusive”, but I am able to read them without a login and without having taken any explicit circumvention action (disable CSS, google cache, google translate, etc.) … I do have anti-paywall addons in my browser, but surely they would take days or even weeks to be updated to add Vox. So it looks like the “paywall” is actually a bluff? Why do this?
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Re: Bekenstein Bound @242:
I could see this explaining 2016
Ah yes, the days of dapper nazi alt-right interviews and small town ‘economic anxiety’ profiles.
People who weren’t watching social media footage at the time, or closely following political news, or the hearings, might only have the vague impression of a rowdy unwelcome frat party with a few violent belligerents. I’ve been pretty plugged in yet only saw the weapon list and ammo suitcases mentioned on THIS thread; it wasn’t even in the hearings.
Republican stories have room to be worse is what I’m saying.
Trump blood-libeled Haitians among other things.
Cruelty to immigrants doesn’t horrify the primary conservative demographic: insular financially-secure old straight white men and their wives. They need to hear of policies that directly hurt them personally to care. Sabotage to Social Security, Medicare, Veterans Affairs. Trump’s crassness and criminality and gaffes don’t affect them. The Access Hollywood tape didn’t sink his career.
The liberals got pet memes.
Project 2025
tldr. What’s the Heritage Foundation? /s The Project 2025 Song (a la Schoolhouse Rock)—Conservatives who roll their eyes at wokeness would be cool with that aside from the blink-and-you-miss-it Medicare bit.
And leftists have had years of anti-Biden news on social media which carried over to Harris, especially the framing a vote for her as an endorsement for the admin arming genocide. Graphic suffering. Didn’t help that the DNC snubbed a dissenting State Rep from speaking. If the admin doesn’t change its policy to allay that, Republican stories need to be Gaza-level chilling for them.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
My memory might’ve conflated two Jan 6 weapon lists? Like a concise tally.
– Buzzfeed’s compilation of charges from prosecutors. It had a “panoply of weapons” paragraph for miscellaneous items.
– MotherJones’ list of weapons confiscated at the magnetometers.
Josh Marshall’s post is part of a “member newsletter.” One does have to pay a fee to view those. Nothing I can do about that.
Why did you bother linking to it then, knowing the link wouldn’t be useful? Better to just post the entire text of the thing and attribute it without a clickable link.
Writers should be compensated for their work. When I can, I pay the fee for access to really good analysis and/or writing. I am living at the poverty level … and that’s in the USA, where health care is always an issue. I cannot afford to support local newspapers and writers who post online as much as I would like.
I avoid paywalls when I can.
Other people read and post to this thread. You are not the only reader. I do not tailor my posts for you. Some of the other readers are likely to have a yearly subscription to Josh Marshall’s/Talking Points Memo’s member newsletter. The right thing to do is to provide the link. Subscribe if you can.
Also, you can just fucking figure it out for yourself if you go to the website. You do not need to harass me about it.
I have been working to keep this thread useful for years. I do not earn a fee for doing this. I do not appreciate nitpicking regarding whatever mistakes I have made.
I am imperfect. Always will be. Do you want the job?
New York City Mayor Eric Adams surrendered to federal authorities one day after a 57-page federal indictment was unsealed, accusing the Democrat of bribery, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national. Adams has denied any wrongdoing and is expected to plead not guilty.
But his legal troubles are not Adams’ only problem. There’s also a political dimension to his mess, as prominent members of his party call on the mayor to resign. The Washington Post reported:
A growing number of New York Democrats are calling on Mayor Eric Adams (D) to resign, broadly stating that his federal criminal indictment will hinder his ability to run the city. … New York Democrats in positions of leadership have declined to call on Adams to step down, instead acknowledging that the charges against him are serious but arguing for the presumption of innocence. However, several other elected officials, including members of Congress, have called on the mayor to resign.
As Adams’ Democratic support quickly evaporated, the public saw a case study in partisan asymmetry unfold in real time.
Indeed, no prominent voices in Democratic politics — except for Adams himself — responded to the New York City mayor’s indictment with conspiracy theories. They didn’t talk about “election interference.” Democrats didn’t say that federal prosecutors should be “defunded.” The party didn’t entertain the idea that evidence might’ve been “planted.”
No one in the party accused the Justice Department of having been “weaponized.” Democrats also didn’t issue weird fundraising letters or whine about George Soros.
Instead, Democrats responded to Adams’ indictment the way you’d expect members of a normal, mature, and responsible political party to respond: Many called for the mayor to resign, while others acknowledged the seriousness of the allegations.
In fact, in an odd twist, the Adams’ indictment did generate weird conspiracy theories, just not from his own party.
Donald Trump, for example, argued — in public and in apparent seriousness — that federal prosecutors charged the mayor, not because of evidence of corruption, but because of Adams’ position on immigration policy. Some Fox News hosts and assorted far-right personalities — including conspiratorial billionaire Elon Musk — pushed a similar line. (The defendant himself also expressed support for the same idea.)
In other words, some leading voices on the right want Americans to believe that a Democratic administration indicted a prominent Democratic mayor — with 40 days left in the election cycle — as part of a plot to punish Adams for taking a conservative line on immigration policy months ago.
Putting aside the fact that there’s literally no evidence to substantiate such a weird idea, the principal problem with these bonkers assertions is that the indictment is now publicly available, and it’s filled with highly credible allegations of serious crimes.
If the indictment were flimsy, and the charges were based on very little, the conspiracy theorists’ complaints might be marginally more believable. But I’d encourage those on the right peddling such nonsense to get a copy of the indictment and actually read the darned thing.
As a Washington Post analysis summarized, “The document outlines schemes that appear brazen. It suggests at least some knowledge on the part of Adams and an aide that what was being undertaken was not exactly on the up-and-up. And some episodes detailed came years before Adams’s comments alienated some Democrats.”
These details probably won’t matter to Trump and his allies, but they should matter to those who take reality seriously.
The highly decorated four-star general who commanded U.S. forces in Afghanistan has endorsed Kamala Harris, and he has plenty of related company.
On New Year’s Day 2019, Donald Trump kicked off the year with a tweet attacking retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal. “‘General’ McChrystal got fired like a dog by Obama,” the then-president wrote, adding, “Known for big, dumb mouth.”
McChrystal, of course, was a highly decorated four-star general and combat veteran who devoted nearly all of his adult life to serving and protecting the United States. Trump nevertheless questioned McChrystal’s service — he used scare quotes around “general,” as if he hadn’t earned his rank — and publicly mocked him.
That was in public. In private, according to Trump’s former Defense secretary, Mark Esper, Trump also set out to have McChrystal court-martialed. It was, of course, impossible to court martial civilians in private life, so the then-president talked to military leaders about the Pentagon recalling the retired general to active duty so that Trump could formally punish him.
It was against this backdrop that the retired general, who commanded U.S. forces in Afghanistan, endorsed Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign. Four years later, McChrystal is backing Kamala Harris, endorsing the Democratic vice president in a New York Times op-ed.
I’ve thought deeply about my choice and considered what I’ve seen and heard and what I owe my three granddaughters. I’ve concluded that it isn’t political slogans or cultural tribalism; it is the best president my vote might help select. So I have cast my vote for character, and that vote is for Vice President Kamala Harris.
[Well said.]
Interestingly enough, over the course of roughly 700 words, McChrystal did not mention Trump at all in his Times piece.
Just as notable is the number of other retired military leaders who’ve gone in a similar direction.
Last month, for example, retired four-star Gen. Larry Ellis, a highly decorated veteran who served under 10 presidential administrations, announced his support for the Democratic nominee. Ellis, who served his country for nearly a half-century, had never before endorsed a candidate for elected office, but in the 2024 presidential election, he made an exception, writing that “this is not a decision I take lightly, but one I believe necessary.”
The retired general was the first senior military leader to publicly back the vice president, but he wasn’t the last. NBC News reported a couple of weeks ago on the launch of National Security Leaders for America and the group’s support for Harris. The group said in a statement, signed by several retired generals and admirals, that Harris is “the best — and only — presidential candidate in this race who is fit to serve as our commander-in-chief.”
“She has demonstrated her ability to take on the most difficult national security challenges in the Situation Room and on the international stage, from rallying our allies against Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine to standing shoulder to shoulder with our allies in the Indo-Pacific against China’s provocative actions, to advancing U.S. leadership on space and artificial intelligence. She is a steadfast supporter of service members, veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors,” the group wrote.
Members of the group, who include a former George W. Bush advisor, went on to describe Trump as a “danger to our national security and our democracy.”
This week, the list grew longer. The Times reported earlier this week that more than 700 current and former national security leaders threw their support behind Harris, “arguing that only she had the temperament and values needed to serve as commander in chief.”
The signatories of the letter, which was organized by the group National Security Leaders for America, included former Defense secretaries and retired generals, including Rear Adm. Michael E. Smith and Gen. Michael V. Hayden, who led the CIA under George W. Bush.
As Election Day approaches, there’s every reason to believe the vice president’s support from retired military leaders will continue to grow. Around this time four years ago, a surprising number of retired military leaders, many of whom had been apolitical for decades, stepped up to denounce Trump, endorse Biden, or both. […]
The Republican candidate has launched an astonishing number of merchandising opportunities lately. The $100,000 watches are arguably the most outlandish.
In February 2016, Sen. Marco Rubio and Donald Trump were rivals for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, and the Florida senator was still desperately trying to convince voters that the former television personality was an untrustworthy “con man.”
It led to an exchange during a televised debate in which Rubio declared, while pointing to the future president, “Here’s the guy that inherited $200 million. If he hadn’t inherited $200 million, you know where he’d be right now? Selling watches in Manhattan.”
More than eight years later, the line is relevant anew. NBC News reported:
Former President Donald Trump on Thursday promoted watches branded with his name, his latest involvement in a series of business endeavors as he simultaneously campaigns for the White House. ‘You’re going to love them. Would make a great Christmas Gift,’ Trump said in a Truth Social post linking to the vendor website.”
In the same video, released with just 40 days remaining before Election Day, the Republican nominee added, in reference to the watch collection, “I love gold. I love diamonds. We all do.” [video at the link]
The prices vary, though as NBC News’ report added, “Some of the most expensive watches listed on the website go for $100,000.”
That’s not a typo. We’re talking about watches that sell for six figures.
And it’s that detail that makes Trump’s latest merchandising opportunity more ridiculous than most. On the one hand, the former president occasionally likes to pretend to champion the interests of working families. On the other hand, the Republican filmed a cartoonish video at his glorified country club, boasting about his love of gold and diamonds, while urging people to check out a watch collection — some of which cost far more than the average American’s annual income.
In case this weren’t quite enough, those who follow the link to the merchandising website will find a Frequently Asked Questions section, which lets visitors know, “The images shown are for illustration purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the final product.”
<b<The same FAQ lets visitors know, “There are no refunds.”
Some might see all of this and think that some candidates have no choice but to pursue outlandish fundraising gambits during a campaign, especially when their rivals are outpacing them. But this new merchandising opportunity is wholly unrelated to the GOP candidate’s 2024 political operation.
As Election Day nears, Trump isn’t trying to put money in his campaign coffers; he’s trying to put money in his own pocket.
As regular readers know, Americans have never seen anything like this. A Washington Post report added earlier this month, “No presidential candidate has ever so closely linked his election with personal for-profit enterprises, selling a staggering array of merchandise.”
[…] Complicating matters is the staggering variety of items. The watch collection comes just days after the Republican unveiled silver Trump commemorative coins, which came just days after the GOP nominee launched a new family cryptocurrency project — the details of which he did not appear to understand […]
It’s not a secret that Trump’s finances are a bit of a mess. As a Washington Post analysis summarized, the Republican “is in a cash crunch — personally and politically — and has been unafraid throughout his career to put the Trump name on anything that might yield a stream of revenue.”
But that desperation has turned the former president into a two-bit carnival huckster on the eve of one of the most important elections in American history.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday [today] met with former President Trump, who lauded his relationship with Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin, suggesting he could broker an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine “very quickly.”
“We’re going to work very much with both parties to try and get this settled,” Trump told reporters alongside Zelensky.
“We have a very good relationship, and I also have a very good relationship — as you know — with President Putin. And I think if we win, I think we’re going to get it resolved very quickly,” Trump added.
“I hope we have more good relations,” Zelensky cut in.
“Oh, I see,” Trump responded. “But it takes two to tango, you know. And we’re going to have a good meeting today. And I think the fact that we’re even together today is a very good sign.”
The two, who met at Trump Tower in New York City, shook hands and spoke briefly to the press before sitting down for talks
.
Trump, who has often voiced his deep skepticism of U.S. aid to Ukraine, said it was “an honor” to meet with Zelensky. At a rally Wednesday, Trump joined other Republicans criticizing Zelensky over perceptions that he favors Democrats in November’s election.
Asked why he decided to meet with Trump, Zelensky said the two had a “common view” on ending the conflict and, regardless of who wins the election, he hoped U.S. support would continue.
“I think we have [a] common view that the war in Ukraine has to be stopped and Putin can’t win. The Ukrainians have to prevail, and I want to discuss with you the details,” Zelensky said. [Zelensky is good at getting his point across in just a few words.]
Trump a day prior said Zelensky had asked to meet with him, again claiming he could broker a deal between Kyiv and Moscow “quite quickly.”
Trump so far has declined to provide details of what such a deal would include, and his critics worry he is prepared to pressure Ukraine to cede land to Russia.
CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour is chastising former first lady Melania Trump over comments she made attacking the mainstream media in a recent interview.
“Mrs Trump is mistaken, political violence is not the fault of the ‘mainstream media’ and I wish she would take back this false and dangerous accusation,” Amanpour wrote in a social media post Friday morning.
The CNN anchor was referencing an interview Melania Trump gave on Fox News a day earlier.
When asked about the recent assassination attempts against her husband, the former first lady called it “really shocking that all this egregious violence goes against my husband.”
“Especially that we hear the leaders from the opposition party and mainstream media branding him as a threat to democracy, calling him vile names,” she said. “They only fueling a toxic atmosphere and giving power all of these people that they want to do harm to him. This needs to stop. This needs to stop. The country needs to unite.”
Amanpour’s post was first highlighted by Mediaite.
Trump’s sit-down was the first interview she had granted to a major media outlet in more than two years, and came as she was promoting a new book.
Trump and his allies regularly attack the mainstream media, singling out CNN in many cases as “fake news” and “the enemy of the people.”
Vice President Harris on Thursday said so-called Ukraine peace plans from “some” in the United States are proposals for surrender during an appearance alongside the country’s leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, who has come under Republican fire this week.
“There are some in my country who would instead force Ukraine to give up large parts of its sovereign territory, who would demand that Ukraine accept neutrality, and would require Ukraine to forgo security relationships with other nations,” the vice president said.
“These proposals are the same as those of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and let us be clear, they are not proposals for peace. Instead, they are proposals for surrender, which is dangerous and unacceptable,” she added.
Harris and Zelensky met on Thursday afternoon, after the Ukrainian president met with President Biden and went to the Capitol to meet with bipartisan groups of House and Senate members.
Harris did not name Republicans specifically in her remarks, but the visit comes as some members of the GOP have become increasingly isolationist, with former President Trump indicating that an end to the war should be prioritized over Ukraine’s victory. During a debate against Harris, he refused to say if he wants Ukraine to defeat Russia.
Republicans in Congress have become increasingly divided over Ukraine, with many senior GOP House members aligned with Senate leaders in support of Ukraine, while a growing right-wing group wants to end assistance to Kyiv.
[…] “Putin started this war and he could end it tomorrow if he simply withdrew his troops from Ukraine’s sovereign territory,” Harris said on Thursday. […]
Elon Musk’s X is blocking links to the JD Vance “dossier” containing the Trump campaign’s research on the vice presidential nominee. X also suspended Ken Klippenstein, the journalist who published the dossier that apparently comes from an Iranian hack of the Trump campaign.
“Ken Klippenstein was temporarily suspended for violating our rules on posting unredacted private personal information, specifically Sen. Vance’s physical addresses and the majority of his Social Security number,” X’s safety account wrote yesterday. Klippenstein’s account was still suspended as of this writing…
Klippenstein’s article explains that the “dossier has been offered to me and I’ve decided to publish it because it’s of keen public interest in an election season. It’s a 271-page research paper the Trump campaign prepared to vet now vice presidential candidate JD Vance.”
The article doesn’t contain Vance’s address or Social Security number, but it provides a download link for the dossier…
“Self-styled free speech warrior Elon Musk’s X (Twitter) banned me after I published a copy of the Donald Trump campaign’s JD Vance research dossier,” Klippenstein wrote. “X says that I’ve been suspended for ‘violating our rules against posting private information,’ citing a tweet linking to my story about the JD Vance dossier. First, I never published any private information on X. I linked to an article I wrote here, linking to a document of controversial provenance, one that I didn’t want to alter for that very reason.”
Elon Musk claimed that he bought Twitter in order to protect free speech, and he criticized the social network for an October 2020 incident in which Twitter blocked a New York Post story about Hunter Biden’s emails for allegedly violating a policy against posting hacked materials.
“Suspending the Twitter account of a major news organization for publishing a truthful story was obviously incredibly inappropriate,” Musk wrote in April 2022, one day after he struck a deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion. After completing the purchase, Musk leaked so-called “Twitter Files” containing the company’s internal deliberations about the Hunter Biden laptop story and other matters…
Hey! Do you have bad politics and far more money than taste? Well, do I have a deal for you! Or an enormous grift, depending on how you look at it.
Because Donald Trump is now selling some very unattractive watches for the entirely reasonable price of $100,000 — just for his most dedicated, wealthy friends. Perhaps to cheer themselves up after losing millions (billions?) in Trump Media stock.
“The Trump Victory Tourbillon’s design is one of classic sophistication combined with President Trump’s symbol of success: Gold,” the website explains. “Almost entirely made out of 18 Karat Gold (approximately 200 grams across the band, case, and buckle) and decorated with 122 VS1 Diamonds, you will stand out for all the right reasons.”
Yes, because for the next however many years, you will be wearing a watch stamped with the brand of the adjudicated rapist who lost (we hope) two elections in a row. Talk about a status symbol.
“The case and bezel of every Victory Tourbillon are finely crafted to hold all 122 VS1-grade diamonds in an elegant display of success and wealth,” it continues. “Each stone is meticulously placed and aligned before being securely set in its gold foundation.
The Victory Tourbillon features some of the highest-quality diamonds. Every diamond is VS1 G+ rated, catching the light and projecting a sparkling symphony guaranteed to turn heads everywhere.”
If only because they’ll be wondering where the hell they even still have those gumball-type toy machines that sometimes dropped watches.
Now, I don’t know a ton about watches, but I do know that when Kyle Richards from “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” had a Rolex Postmated to her in the Bahamas that one time, it was only $10,000. So I’m going to say that $100,000 is just a smidge too much for this. Of course, it is very limited edition — only 147 will be made, which will be helpful for identifying the 147 biggest suckers in all the land.
But Donald Trump is not the only Trump getting their grift on! Melania Trump recently debuted a $600 necklace that she would definitely never wear in public. [Screen grab image at the link]
It’s even too tacky for me to wear in public and I literally spent an hour the other day trying to find a quality knockoff of the St. Laurent heart coat pictured below. [Photo at the link]
We all have dreams, okay?
You may be wondering what the rest of Melania’s website has to offer — I did as well, and it did not disappoint. For $250, you can have this necklace that says “Love & Gratitude” but looks more like it says “Love, Gratitude & ______,” with her signature on the back. [Image at the link]
Engraving done, apparently, by the fine artisans at the closest Home Depot.
Most intriguing was a section for “collectibles” — which I definitely assumed were going to be snowglobes or dolls or some shit, but are, in fact, NFTs, mostly of her face.
The Women’s History Month Collection! Of just one thing! Not being sold in March! [Image at the link]
A picture of a book that says MELANIA, for just $250. [Image at the link]
Tragically, however, you can not purchase this painting of Melania’s general eye area, because someone has beaten you to it. [Image at the link]
These things are all clearly ridiculous — but my question is this: If Donald Trump thinks the economy is so bad, then what makes him think he think he can sell 147 tacky-ass watches for $100,000 a pop? Why does he think Melania can sell a gold-plated necklace for $600? Or any NFTs for any amount of money at all?
Helene made landfall as a dangerous Category 4 hurricane in Florida’s Big Bend region at about 11:10 p.m. ET on Thursday.
What we know about Tropical Storm Helene
– Helene has weakened to a tropical storm and is moving north across the Southeast, bringing strong winds and heavy rain in what the National Hurricane Center called “life-threatening” conditions.
– At 11 a.m. ET the storm was 3 miles south-west of Bryson City, North Carolina, with sustained winds of 45 mph.
The storm made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region as a Category 4 storm last night at 11:10 p.m. Emergency services are rescuing people trapped by fast-rising waters.
– A warning of storm surges of up to 10 feet is still in place along Florida’s west coast, from Indian Pass to Tampa Bay.
– At least 22 deaths across the Southeast have been reported as a result of the storm.
– Some 4 million people are without power across Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia amid fears that outages could last weeks.
[…] Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said in a press conference that there are 11 confirmed fatalities in the state, and one of them was a first responder.
“One of our finest has lost his life trying to save others,” Kemp said in a storm briefing.
He said there are still people trapped and rescues are still underway.
[…] President Joe Biden on Friday morning approved emergency declaration requests from the governors of several southern states affected by Helene.
Georgia, Florida, Alabama, North Carolina and South Carolina will receive a variety of federal assistance from the government after the storm made landfall as highly destructive Category 4 hurricane.
Biden has also ordered more than 1,500 federal personnel to be deployed to the region, including search and rescue teams, medical teams and power restoration teams. […]
Water levels reached more than 15 feet above ground in areas within the Big Bend region of Florida, according to preliminary storm surge information following Helene’s landfall.
There will be a more detailed analysis of the storm surge in the coming weeks, the Storm Surge Unit at the National Hurricane Center said […]
[…] In a career spanning nearly seven decades, Smith established herself as one of the most towering and beloved British actors of her generation, revered for her witty line deliveries and self-possession.
She was frequently honored by her peers. She won Academy Awards for her performances in “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” (1969) and “California Suite” (1978). She earned four Emmy Awards, including three for her role as Violet Crawley on “Downton.” […]
One of the most toxic and politically explosive parts of the current abortion rights debate is tied the complexities and perhaps inanities of leaving national abortion policy up to individual states. And a comment yesterday from Trump spokesman Jason Miller put the question right back into the center of the campaign.
It’s not enough for many anti-abortion stalwarts to ban the procedure in their state. They want to ban legal drugs designed to induce abortion. They want to surveil and block women traveling to other states to obtain an abortion. One of the most threatening dimensions of these programs is that they threaten to make doctors and other medical professionals — who might give counsel on or simply know about a woman’s plans to obtain an abortion — responsible for reporting her actions.
If you visit your OB-GYN and discuss traveling to another state to get an abortion, does your OB have to report you to the local sheriff? It applies to third parties who might assist a woman either in traveling to get an abortion or getting FDA-approved medications to induce an abortion at home. The cases we’ve already seen range the gamut from sheriff’s departments wanting to pull medical and travel records for evidence of pregnancies that ended for unexplained reasons, gaps in menstruation, trips out of state that coincided with a pregnancy not brought to term.
JD Vance is a major menstrual surveillance hawk. When the Biden administration pushed for updated HIPAA regulations to prevent sheriff’s departments and other law enforcement agencies from pulling women’s medical records for their menstrual surveillance programs (which they termed “compassionate laws protecting unborn children and their mothers”), Vance was one of only 28 members of Congress (and only 8 senators) to sign a letter protesting the new regs, which, per the letter, “interfere with valid state laws protecting life.” (<a href="One of the most toxic and politically explosive parts of the current abortion rights debate is tied the complexities and perhaps inanities of leaving national abortion policy up to individual states. And a comment yesterday from Trump spokesman Jason Miller put the question right back into the center of the campaign.
It’s not enough for many anti-abortion stalwarts to ban the procedure in their state. They want to ban legal drugs designed to induce abortion. They want to surveil and block women traveling to other states to obtain an abortion. One of the most threatening dimensions of these programs is that they threaten to make doctors and other medical professionals — who might give counsel on or simply know about a woman’s plans to obtain an abortion — responsible for reporting her actions. If you visit your OB-GYN and discuss traveling to another state to get an abortion, does your OB have to report you to the local sheriff? It applies to third parties who might assist a woman either in traveling to get an abortion or getting FDA-approved medications to induce an abortion at home. The cases we’ve already seen range the gamut from sheriff’s departments wanting to pull medical and travel records for evidence of pregnancies that ended for unexplained reasons, gaps in menstruation, trips out of state that coincided with a pregnancy not brought to term.
JD Vance is a major menstrual surveillance hawk. When the Biden administration pushed for updated HIPAA regulations to prevent sheriff’s departments and other law enforcement agencies from pulling women’s medical records for their menstrual surveillance programs (which they termed “compassionate laws protecting unborn children and their mothers”), Vance was one of only 28 members of Congress (and only 8 senators) to sign a letter protesting the new regs, which, per the letter, “interfere with valid state laws protecting life.” (You can see the letter here. It’s a doozy.)
Think about those numbers. Out of all the crazies in the House Republican caucus and among the 49 Republican senators, they couldn’t even get 30 people to sign this thing. But the Trump campaign itself, not surprisingly, has done its best to avoid the issue. I mean, how could they not? Even the name is toxic.
But yesterday in an interview on Newsmax of all places, a host asked Trump spokesman Jason Miller whether Donald Trump supported or wouldn’t aim to prevent states from enforcing their own menstrual surveillance regimes. It was one of those Fox-like interviews in which the host seems to go out of his way to signal what the right answer is. You wouldn’t do this, right?
“But he wouldn’t support monitoring pregnancies, even if a state decided to do that?” the host asked.
Miller responded that “he’s [i.e., Trump’s] made it very clear that he’s not going to go and weigh in and push various states on how they want to go and set up their particular rules and restrictions. That’s going to be up to the states.”
So he went there. It’s totally up to the states. Trump’s “leave it up to the states” approach applies to all these menstrual surveillance and travel restriction regimes as well. It’s a new opening for the Harris campaign to focus attention on an issue that hasn’t yet gotten enough attention — not just abortion rights as a general issue but states and county sheriffs’ effort to restrict women’s travel, access their medical records and current state of menstruation or gestation, and bar access to legal medications.
So menstrual surveillance programs in states with Trump abortion bans are back at the center of the campaign conversation. And it also comes at a propitious time because we’re only days away from the first and apparently only vice presidential debate, which will focus new attention on JD Vance. These programs are way weird. So it’s a nice opening for Tim Walz. (You can see the letter here. It’s a doozy.)
Think about those numbers. Out of all the crazies in the House Republican caucus and among the 49 Republican senators, they couldn’t even get 30 people to sign this thing. But the Trump campaign itself, not surprisingly, has done its best to avoid the issue. I mean, how could they not? Even the name is toxic.
But yesterday in an interview on Newsmax of all places, a host asked Trump spokesman Jason Miller whether Donald Trump supported or wouldn’t aim to prevent states from enforcing their own menstrual surveillance regimes. It was one of those Fox-like interviews in which the host seems to go out of his way to signal what the right answer is. You wouldn’t do this, right?
“But he wouldn’t support monitoring pregnancies, even if a state decided to do that?” the host asked.
Miller responded that “he’s [i.e., Trump’s] made it very clear that he’s not going to go and weigh in and push various states on how they want to go and set up their particular rules and restrictions. That’s going to be up to the states.”
So he went there. It’s totally up to the states. Trump’s “leave it up to the states” approach applies to all these menstrual surveillance and travel restriction regimes as well. It’s a new opening for the Harris campaign to focus attention on an issue that hasn’t yet gotten enough attention — not just abortion rights as a general issue but states and county sheriffs’ effort to restrict women’s travel, access their medical records and current state of menstruation or gestation, and bar access to legal medications.
So menstrual surveillance programs in states with Trump abortion bans are back at the center of the campaign conversation. And it also comes at a propitious time because we’re only days away from the first and apparently only vice presidential debate, which will focus new attention on JD Vance. These programs are way weird. So it’s a nice opening for Tim Walz.
Well, Stephen Miller did say that Trump would not say anything against states setting up menstrual surveillance and travel restriction programs.
[…] Rock and roll icon Stevie Nicks released a new abortion-rights anthem on Friday. Nicks wrote “The Lighthouse” shortly after the Supreme Court’s conservative majority overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, eliminating the constitutional right to abortion.
“I find it very sad, at 76 years old, I had to see Roe v. Wade taken away,” Nicks told People magazine, adding that she found herself absorbing a ton of media coverage after the decision. “One morning I woke up… which, I never write when I wake up in the morning, and all of a sudden went, ‘I have my scars, I have my scars,’ so I just grabbed my notebook, and I started writing the whole thing,” she said. […]
Nicks says that although she initially wrote the song in 2022, the song took some time to finish. She enlisted fellow musicians, such as Sheryl Crow, who contributed backing vocals on the song as well as guitar and bass tracks.
Fresh news out of Arizona. The schadenfreude with Kari Lake’s recent poll numbers is just delicious:
Kari Lake, the Republican Senate candidate, has been stung by a new Fox News poll which shows her far behind her Democratic rival in Arizona.
Lake is trailing Ruben Gallego on both voting intention and favorability, the poll shows.
Gallego is polling at 55 percent among likely voters, and 56 percent among registered voters, whereas Lake is polling at 42 percent among both likely and registered voters.
Those numbers are absolutely gaudy. What’s even more delicious is that they are from a FOX news poll. Kari Lake used to be a local Arizonan FOX news anchor for decades, so I’m sure those numbers are stinging her even more. These poll numbers are also part of a greater trend showing Kari Lake losing Arizona by a significant margin. This is not an outlier.
I guess being a Trump toady and MAGA election denier hasn’t paid off. […] even Trump wanted to kick her out of Mar-A-Lago.
And Trump is also worried that she will sink him in Arizona in a few weeks. I’m hoping that is the case because I find it difficult to believe that there are this many ticket splitters in Arizona. (This same poll had Trump up by 2 against Kamala in Arizona.)
I’ve been watching the anti-Kari Lake ads in Arizona, and they are brutal on her anti-abortion stances. An abortion measure is also on the ballot here in Arizona, and it will further sink both Lake’s and Trump’s chances of winning Arizona. For example: [video at the link]
I see no future in politics for Kari Lake after this election. I’m sure it didn’t help that she pissed off the McCain Republicans and aligned independents […]
Looking back at the public’s failure to assess the threat of the Republican party.
Dear gods, Pew’s 2022 percentage of Democrats with a very unfavorable view of the Republican party: 54%.
/Caption: That’s the /partisan/ Democrats (folks who lean Dem would drive it lower).
/*Squint* Measuring pixels on the chart, it looks like 33% of partisans were merely unfavorable.
/The data was collected from June 27 to July 4. Half of the Jan 6 hearings aired in that timespan. Still that was years into Trump admin and covid hostility to public health. SCOTUS’ Dobbs decision was Jun 24, leaked in May.
Their survey a year later only offered numbers for the general public.
About six-in-ten Americans (61%) say they have an unfavorable view of the Republican Party, and a nearly identical share (60%) rate the Democratic Party unfavorably.
For close to two decades, views of the Republican Party have been consistently more unfavorable than favorable, with little shift in the last few years. But current evaluations are among the most negative in nearly three decades of Pew Research Center polling—and throughout the mid-1990s and early 2000s, the GOP was seen more favorably than not by the public.
The percentage of Americans calling themselves “independents” is at or near all-time highs. Gallup has found that 40% said so in December of 2023. […] But this increase in those calling themselves independents is something of a mirage. It doesn’t really reflect how they vote, merely the decline in the party’s brands.
Estimates have shown that truly persuadable voters make up less than 10% of the population and are on the decline. That’s meant that getting those voters to show up and swing in their candidate’s direction has gotten more difficult and more expensive for campaigns.
[…]
Pew Research Center has found that the country is more like eight or nine distinct political ideologies and that self-identified independents “have very little in common politically.”
Jeansays
Lynna re. #248 #242
I just wanted to counter the negative comment to say, as has been mentioned before by others, that I appreciate what you do here and how you do it. And I’m sure that’s the case for the vast majority of people who read this thread whether or not the post here.
In her Wednesday interview with MSNBC, Vice President Kamala Harris provided a detailed, two-minute-long response to a question about housing policy and her plans regarding home affordability if she is elected president. (Watch it here.) But on Fox News the following day, multiple hosts and pundits seized on what they saw to be the most significant aspect of Harris’ response: her use of the term “holistic.”
During the primetime “Hannity” program, host Sean Hannity ranted beside a graphic of Harris’ face and the term “holistically” repeated three times. Hannity also referenced Harris’ marks with a chyron underneath that read, “Kamala Harris’ ‘Holistic’ Word Salad’.”
The segment was a capper on an entire day of Fox taking aim at the vice president’s vocabulary.
Lawrence Jones, co-host of “Fox & Friends,” began Thursday by telling viewers that Harris had “found a new word—holistic.”
On “America’s Newsroom,” anchor Dana Perino played a clip of Harris and mused, “Imagine she got paid a dollar for every time she said it.”
Commentator Joe Concha followed up on “America Reports,” and said, “She said the word holistically three times. That’s really hard to do.”
In the afternoon, Jesse Watters of “The Five” noted, “She said she is going to give money to state and local governments and it is going to be holistic. What does that mean—she is going to build yoga studios, Jessica? Healing crystals?”
His co-host Greg Gutfeld added that Harris had used “holistic” as a “rhetorical safe word” during her interview.
Laura Ingraham said on her show, “The Ingraham Angle,” that Harris offered “another tired cliché” during her interview and that “holistic” was the candidate’s “favorite new word.”
Watters took another stab at the issue while hosting “Jesse Watters Primetime,” asking, “What’s holistic about housing? A yoga studio?”
Gutfeld also brought up the issue during his program, “Gutfeld!”: “Here I thought [President] Joe [Biden] was the stutterer. She says it like she just learned the word. “
This bizarre attack continued through Friday morning, when, during an appearance on “Fox & Friends First,” Concha asked, “What does holistic mean?”
Fox News used the string of attacks to feed into a narrative the network has attempted to build around the vice president, repeatedly telling their audience that she does not provide clear answers and speaks in a “word salad.”
At the same time that Fox News has promoted this line of attack against Harris, the network has been an ardent defender of Donald Trump, who is infamous for nonsensical public speaking. […]
But at least for Fox News, Trump didn’t say “holistic.”
I took Harris to mean that she was taking into account all of the factors that might affect the whole of the housing issue, or of other issues her upcoming administration wanted to address.
Donald Trump met with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday and used the occasion to tout his poll numbers, complain at length about his first impeachment, and praise Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
“We’re leading in the polls,” Trump told reporters at Trump Tower in New York, as Zelenskyy looked on. This is false. Trump is behind Vice President Kamala Harris in most national polls and averages of those polls, and is also trailing in many swing state polls.
After acknowledging that the war in Ukraine is a “terrible situation,” Trump claimed he has had a “great relationship” with Zelenskyy and brought up his first impeachment. [video at the link]
Donald Trump: When they did the impeachment hoax, it was a hoax, just a Democrat hoax, which we won, one of the reasons we won it so easily is that when the president was asked—it was over a phone call—with the president, and he said, he could have grandstanded and played cute, but he didn’t do that. He said, “President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong.” He said it loud and clear. And the impeachment hoax died right there.
Trump was impeached in 2019 on the charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The charges stemmed from Trump’s decision to initially withhold military aid to Ukraine while attempting to solicit political dirt on his rivals, like President Joe Biden. A key piece of evidence against Trump was a phone call in which he repeatedly pressured Zelenskyy to instigate an investigation into the Biden family, which Trump has repeatedly falsely categorized as a “perfect” call.
The articles of impeachment ultimately passed in the House and Trump was later acquitted on a party-line vote in the Republican-held Senate. Trump was also later impeached for inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, becoming the only president in U.S. history to be impeached twice.
In addition to relegating domestic political battles, Trump also used the occasion of his discussion with the Ukrainian leader to reiterate his long-standing habit of saying good things about Putin—who launched an invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“[Putin] wants it to end, and he wants it to end as quickly as possible,” Trump said, adding, “I’m sure President Putin wants it to stop.”
According to the United Nations, over 11,520 civilians in Ukraine have been killed since the war began, with an additional 23,640 who have been wounded. The U.S. government has estimated a death toll of 500,000 for military troops of both nations.
Putin has not ceased his aggression despite global condemnation of his actions, including from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and other NATO allies.
Trump has threatened to cut U.S. aid to Ukraine if he wins the election and attacked Zelenskyy at a June rally as “the greatest salesman of all time” for securing financial support from the U.S.
“It never ends,” Trump complained.
By contrast, during her meeting on Thursday with Zelenskyy, Harris reiterated her support for Ukraine.
“The United States supports Ukraine not out of charity, but because it’s in our strategic interest,” she said.
Here is some commentary that is available without paying:
The former president of the United States, who also is the current Republican nominee for president, got up on stage in North Carolina on Wednesday and said something insane. I just thought I’d take note of that. He said:
We wouldn’t have hostile takeovers of Springfield, Ohio, Aurora, Colorado, where they are actually going in with massive machine gun-type equipment. They are going in with guns that are beyond even military scope, and they are taking over apartment buildings. They’re taking over real estate. They’re in the real estate development business. Congratulations. These are in that case people from Venezuela, young street-gang members that were sent here by the government of Venezuela.
[“machine gun-type equipment” eh? WTF!?]
(Note On Context: I don’t know what “guns that are beyond even military scope” are. Jewish space lasers? Sharks with frickin’ laser beams on their heads. I guess if you’re making up the Venezuelan takeover of the real estate market in the Denver suburbs, you can make up the weaponry, too.)
Newsweek is the source of the quote Pierce is commenting on. Newsweek contacted the Trump campaign to ask if they’d support a ban on “beyond even military scope” weapons. This is the reply they got:
In response, Anna Kelly a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee (RNC) told Newsweek that Vice President Kamala Harris was to blame for the situation in Aurora. “The residents of Aurora, Colorado, whose neighborhoods are being destroyed by Venezuelan gangs, know best that under Border Czar Kamala Harris, every state is a border state, and no one is safe in Harris’ America.”
The RNC doubled down on the totally bogus claim, as they do when challenged by the press.
TWO PROBLEMS
One is that Trump is running loose saying stuff that will further stoke fears of immigrants, inciting violence and division — and painting a totally false picture of what is actually happening.
The second is the way Newsweek is reporting this. Here’s the headline: Trump Warns Hostile Migrants Have Machine Guns Beyond ‘Military Scope’. The news report headlines Trump’s claim, lays out what he said, and then goes on to debunk it. This has several consequences. It promotes Trump’s lies and allows his framing to shape reporting on this. It doesn’t address the real story.
Trump is saying stuff that is totally insane and evidence-free, but it’s being treated as something that should be taken at face value, as something normal people say. The fact that it is dangerous speech and evidence of Trump’s unfitness to serve as president is not even brought up — but that should be the real story.
There’s a name for this.
Jamison Foser calls it Privileging the Lie. To quote again from the writeup I did on it, here’s what Foser had to say:
When a news report treats the truthfulness of a lie as an open question, it privileges the lie. When a news report devotes more and more prominent space to recounting the lie and the liar’s defense of it than it does making clear that it’s a lie, the article privileges the lie. […] And when a news report focuses on the topic of the lie — even if it does a good job of making clear the lie is a lie — it privileges the lie, because it allows the liar to set the topic of conversation, and thus increases the electoral salience of a topic the liar believes is to his benefit.
Your comment to Lynna was very rude, just like your rude outburst on Mano’s blog where you accused him of tampering with your post after you borked the closing tag. Congrats on being the first person to get themselves banned under his new comment policy.
This is Lynna’s thread, has been for many years, and she does a fantastic job of compiling accurate news and reporting in one thread.
Thanks Lynnna for your efforts! (And the others who also contribute)
I rarely comment here, but I do read and appreciate the thread regularly.
Heroic Ukrainian President Resists Urge To Gouge Out Donald Trump’s Eyeballs
You know he was thinking it. [That is Wonkette’s characteristic hyperbole when referring to Zelensky’s look of long-suffering in Trump’s presence. I would not use gouging out eyeballs even as a metaphor. Let’s dispense with the violent metaphors when possible.]
Would you like to watch seven of the most awkward minutes committed to video since “Two Girls, One Cup” became the viral sensation of the early 21st century? Then by all means check out this clip of Donald Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine talking to the media before holding a meeting at Trump Tower on Friday. They make quite a pair: Zelensky in the combat fatigues he has taken to wearing everywhere and Trump in one of those ill-fitting suits that make him look as if his tailor got bored halfway through measuring him for it. [video at the link]
Zelensky had sent Trump a fawning letter requesting the meeting, which Trump proudly posted on TruthSocial this week so we would all know that he is still important and also because egregious flattery is about the only thing that can rouse his weird mushroom dick from slumber these days. Zelensky’s motivation for requesting this meeting is profoundly transparent – he wants to be on Trump’s good side in case the burnt umber crayon-colored freak makes it back into the White House in January. Given the stakes for his people and his nation, spending a couple of hours in Donald Trump’s mouthy presence must feel like a very small sacrifice.
But if body language could talk, Zelensky’s would be screaming DEAR LORD GET ME BACK TO KYIV WHERE I ONLY HAVE TO DEAL WITH BOMBS AND RUSSIAN HIT SQUADS TRYING TO KILL ME AND MY NATION’S POSSIBLE EXTINCTION.
Trump, meanwhile, was his usual self. Asked by a reporter about what his expectations were for the meeting, the former-and-God-willing-never-again-president talked his poll numbers:
“This is a meeting, and we have a big race going on right now. I guess 37 days left and we’re leading in the polls and so we’ll see how it all works out. Hopefully it’ll work out, but if it does we’re going to work very much with both parties to get this settled.”
Then it was on to the “impeachment hoax,” that time when Trump was president and tried to extort Zelensky to find some dirt on Joe Biden, leaning on the head of a sovereign nation like he was a Manhattan real estate tax assessor:
“I will say I’ve had a great relationship … when they did the impeachment hoax–it was a hoax, just a Democrat hoax which we won–but one of the reasons we won it so easily is that when the president was asked—it was over a phone call with the president, and he could have said, he could have grandstanded and played cute. But he didn’t do that, he said President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong, he said it loud and clear and the impeachment hoax died right there.”
We’re sure you will be shocked to learn this is an inaccurate description of what happened, although Trump has been claiming otherwise for five years.
What Zelensky said in 2019 was that he never talked to Trump “from the position of a quid pro quo.” He had also expressed how mad he was that Trump threatened to withhold aid from Ukraine, which at the time had been fighting Russian-backed separatists in the eastern part of the country for five years:
“I don’t want us to look like beggars. But you have to understand. We’re at war. If you’re our strategic partner, then you can’t go blocking anything for us. I think that’s just about fairness. It’s not about a quid pro quo. It just goes without saying.”
Naturally Trump only heard the part about the lack of a quid pro quo. And of course the impeachment “hoax” didn’t die because of Zelensky, it died because the Republicans in the Senate are corrupt weenies who acquitted him despite the abundant evidence.
Now, maybe Zelensky really felt the conversation was no big deal. Or maybe in 2019 Trump was still president and running for re-election the next year, so Zelensky was trying to stay on the big baby’s good side. We’ll have to wait for his memoirs to perhaps get an answer.
Back at Trump Tower on Friday, Trump continued equivocating about ending the war, because otherwise Vladimir Putin will call him later and yank his leash:
”We have a very good relationship. And as you know, I also have a very good relationship with President Putin, and I think if we win, we’re going to get it resolved very quickly … you know it takes two to tango.”
We keep seeing this vision of Putin sitting in the Kremlin, rubbing his hands together and cackling as he watches his lickspittle on worldwide television promise he’s going to work out a “fair” deal for everyone in Ukraine.
We prefer what Kamala Harris said when meeting with Zelensky on Thursday, which was that Ukraine handing over territory to Putin is a form of surrender, not peace. She is much more clear-eyed about the Russian president and his intentions. […]
As a bonus, Trump and Zelensky made a brief appearance after Friday’s meeting, during which Trump babbled about getting a “fair deal for everyone” and Zelensky continued to look like Trump had just skewered his soul and made it into a shish kabob.
The whole scene at Trump Tower was at least nicer than the scene Republicans staged earlier this week when Zelensky visited an ammunition factory in Pennsylvania, a trip that caused […] James Comer to nearly choke […]
Zelensky is flying back home to a war zone later, which means his weekend is actually looking up.
[Wonkette will let you read articles even if you don’t sign up or sign in. Just look for their “Nah, just let me read it” option. And you may have to also choose “continue reading” to finish an article. Subscribe if you can.]
I checked my voter registration, and I requested and received my mail-in ballot. So all good here.
Back to the Wonkette article:
MAGA election-denying forces have been on a nationwide spree to get voters’ registrations purged from rolls since their Lord Emperor Donald J. Trump got his ass handed to him in 2020.
Latest development: North Carolina has purged 747,274 voter registrations from its rolls over the past 20 months, which is almost 10 percent of all the registrations in the state. […] And election deniers would like to remove even more, if a judge would be so kind as to let them.
The Republican National Committee and North Carolina Republican Party also have a pending lawsuit wherein they [complain] that 225,000 people were allowed to register without providing a drivers’ license or Social Security number, so therefore these people are probably three George Soroses in a trench coat, and another lawsuit wherein they gripe that the state didn’t cross-reference its voter registrations with people who asked to be excused from jury duty because they were not citizens, so probably Joe Biden will be busing them in to vote from their day jobs working for a Mexican cocaine cartel.
In 2020, Trump won North Carolina with 74,481 votes. But with his poll numbers dwindling there, putting him ahead by the finest frog hair, Republicans are not taking any chances.
North Carolina’s mass purge is not necessarily as alarming as it sounds, though. The NC board of elections has a breakdown of why these registrations were removed, and most are routine and reasonable: dead people, felons, duplicates. But a big chunk are people who didn’t vote in the past two elections, which could come as a surprise to the recently invigorated who show up on election day expecting to be able to vote. Also “people who have recently moved,” who perhaps didn’t realize that entering a USPS change-of-address would get them kicked off the rolls. The good news is that it’s easy to check one’s voter status, and people can still register or re-register until October 11. Here’s the breakdown from the NC elections board: [chart at the link]
The voter-rolls colonic is all part of a nationwide push by election-denying groups, largely spearheaded by […] Cleta Mitchell, that Trump coup lawyer who was on Trump’s “find me 11,780 votes” phone call in Georgia. She was recommended by a grand jury for indictment there for her meddling efforts, and for whatever reason DA Fani Willis didn’t include her in that RICO case, and so she got right back to it, popping up just about everywhere that some voter-roll-purging bullshit is going down.
Mitchell-affiliated groups, plus other groups of election deniers have also targeted Georgia, and since July have challenged about 45,000 registrations, though they’ve only succeeded in removing about 50 of them.
Then there’s Michigan, where thousands of registrations have been challenged. And Wisconsin! Right-wing cheeseheads have been fighting early voting sites, voter registration efforts, and drop boxes. The mayor of Wausau, Doug Diny, is now under investigation by the attorney general for dressing up like Bob The Builder to haul away a absentee ballot drop box. Look at how this weenus seems so pleased with himself! [Photo at the link]
There’s Texas, where Ken Paxton has been terrorizing abuelas for the horrible crime of trying to help voters register, among his many other shenanigans.
And Nevada, where a group calling itself the Pigpen Project combed voter rolls and went door-to-door to “confirm registrations.” Also New York, where a group called NY Citizens Audit got slapped with a cease-and-desist after going door-to-door, falsely claiming that they were state election officials and baselessly accusing people of committing voter fraud.
Nebraska! A bipartisan legislature voted to let felons have their right to vote reinstated, but two Republican officials in Nebraska—Attorney General Mike Hilgers and Secretary of State Bob Evnen— simply refused to implement it.
Arizona! Republicans tried to get 41,000 voters who didn’t show the right papers kicked off of the rolls entirely until SCOTUS shot them down, and then the Republican state Supreme Court decided NOT to kick 97,688 Arizona voters off the full-ballot rolls, coincidentally after it turned out those voters were mostly Republicans.
Which might lead you to ask, how can these right-wing election-deniers be so sure that the people they’re disenfranchising aren’t actually their own people? Oldster Fox-watchers in North Carolina who forgot to re-register when they moved to the nursing home? Some of it is by using AI programs, like EagleAI, where they can try to pinpoint who to target and challenge […] And another part of it is, they just don’t care. Making people question election integrity is the point, and the chaos is the point, so should their Super Duper Couper lose, there’s something to complain and play victim about. […]
Scary shit! Wherever you are, check your registration, check it twice! Verify your requirements for the polls so you don’t show up without ID, only to find out the law has changed and now you need one! Vote early if you can, so you can check that your ballot was accepted, and “cure” it if it was not. [Good advice.] Tell your friends who are not Wonkette readers about what’s going on. Make a TikTok, so the youths will be informed. Write a postcard to a voter in a swing state!
Only 38 more days!
birgerjohanssonsays
It is relatively easy for us nerds to come up with memorable strings of digits as passcodes. For instance, Dr Who fans will recall 19741981.*
Everything SSADT and J S Vance says is aimed at firing up the maga fans, who believe anything.
But this is an odd strategy, as they need the undecided voters. Even if every maga hat believes there is a pedophile HQ in the cellar of that goddamn pizza shop, it is not enough of them to win the election.
Also, the “sanewashing” is a very real thing. We learn of every weird thing SSADT does, but the aversge Joe does not
Paul Ksays
Lynna @ every comment in this endless thread: I truly credit you as a big part of the reason I don’t live in despair. I keep absolutely up to date on reading here, usually several times a day. We need to hear the voices that are doing their best to keep reality alive, and those that are fighting against the tyranny of the rich, powerful, and full of shit. Others besides you comment here, of course, but you keep it stable, contribute most, and call out people who try to take things in destructive directions. Thank you for all you do!
JMsays
@275 birgerjohansson: If I gave them credit for a rational strategy I would say they are trying to drum up enough votes to make stealing the election practical. The more Trump loses the election by the harder it becomes to steal. He needs enough of the far right to think they have a chance that large groups can be raised for protests and riots. He needs to raise doubt in the minds of the general population and he needs it to be close enough to sell it to the judges and military. He isn’t trying to sell it to the few remaining undecided voters, he is trying to get enough of the far right out to vote. His own complaints that the vote was rigged makes them less interested in voting and he needs them all.
More realistically I don’t think they have a rational strategy at this point. Trump is going where he can get large crowds. Large crowds make him feel popular and successful like he was in 2016. Vance, honestly I don’t know what he is thinking at all. He has spent years selling himself the way you would expect of a politician. At the moment though he seems fixated on religious misogyny and he is willing to throw away any chance of national position or popularity to stick to that.
JMsays
TLDR News Global: China Finally Resorts to Fiscal Stimulus: But is it Too Late?
China has finally gone with financial stimulus. Something recommended by global organizations for years. The plan they have announced is trying to reinflate the housing bubble and isn’t likely to have any long term impact. If this is the first step to more direct consumer stimulus it could be good.
If China is just going to try to just rebuild the housing market it is very unlikely to work. Japan tried far more aggressive stimulus for decades with no success. If the people have no money they are not going to take out big loans for housing. All the worse in China where many are now unemployed and many own housing that has not been built yet. Plus, like Japan, the population is declining so people don’t expect housing prices to go up rapidly. The only thing working in China’s favor is that all of the big banks are under the governments thumb, if the government says issues mortgages they will.
More than 550 people who attended the P.E.I. International Shellfish Festival last weekend reported getting sick, according to the province’s chief public health officer.
“This is the biggest gastrointestinal illness outbreak we have on record,” Dr. Heather Morrison told CBC News on Friday.
Stool samples taken from people who ate food at the festival have tested positive for norovirus, Morrison said…
If I gave them credit for a rational strategy I would say they are trying to drum up enough votes to make stealing the election practical. […]
Yes. I agree. I will add, however, that I think some portion of Trump’s campaign staff (and perhaps Trump himself) expect him to lose, and they will try to claim that the election was stolen anyway (practical or not). Trump’s idea seems to be to sow doubt either way, and meanwhile he will continue to scam his millions of cult followers by spamming them with various grifts for years to come.
Reginald @279:
I don’t really want to understand him [JD Vance]. I just want him to lose and then go away.
Same. It gives me a headache to try to understand him. The closest I can come is “naked ambition with no moral center.”
Hurricane Helene killed at least 42 people and left millions without power across the Southeast before weakening on its way north Friday morning, officials said. Widespread damage was expected in Florida’s Big Bend region, where Helene made landfall as a Category 4 shortly after 11 p.m. ET on Thursday. It was the strongest storm to ever strike the area, which connects Florida’s panhandle and peninsula. […]
Inflation moved closer to the Federal Reserve’s target in August, easing the way for future interest rate cuts, the Commerce Department reported Friday. The personal consumption expenditures price index, a gauge the Fed focuses on to measure the cost of goods and services in the U.S. economy, rose 0.1% for the month, putting the 12-month inflation rate at 2.2%, down from 2.5% in July and the lowest since February 2021.
President Biden, frustrated with congressional inaction on gun violence and seeking to secure the issue as part of his legacy, said on Thursday that he was using his executive authority to improve school preparedness and to stem the tide of untraceable weapons and devices that make firearms more deadly.
Mr. Biden made the announcement at a packed and poignant ceremony in the East Room of the White House, where he was introduced by the mayor of Birmingham, Ala., Randall Woodfin. Mr. Woodfin’s brother was killed by gun violence, and his city has been grieving after a mass shooting left four people dead last week. Scores of activists and gun violence survivors attended.
The event was timed to the first anniversary of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, which Mr. Biden created last year after signing the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first major gun safety bill in nearly 30 years. It was also a chance for Mr. Biden to pass the baton to the official who heads that office: Vice President Kamala Harris, who is leaning into gun violence prevention as an issue as she campaigns to succeed Mr. Biden.
“We know how to stop these tragedies, and it is a false choice to suggest you are either in favor of the Second Amendment or you want to take everyone’s guns away,” said Ms. Harris, who spoke before Mr. Biden and who has said while campaigning that she owns a firearm for self-protection. “I am in favor of the Second Amendment, and I believe we need to reinstate the assault weapons ban.” […]
Republicans in August, amid a brief stock market downturn: Kamala Harris is directly responsible for the economy. Republicans in September: Never mind.
f all you know about the U.S. economy were based on Donald Trump’s campaign ads, you’d make some rather ugly assumptions about the status quo. Those assumptions would be wildly at odds with reality.
In fact, a Washington Post fact-check report scrutinized the former president’s newest ad — which claims, among other things, that there’s “a recession now headed our way” — and concluded: “This ad is stuck in the time warp. The Trump campaign may wish it was still running in 2022 and 2023, when the economic numbers were grimmer for Democrats. But that’s no excuse for pretending the situation has not improved significantly in the past year.”
Quite right. In fact, for those interested in the reality of the nation’s economic conditions, one of the most important things to remember is that it’s 2024, not 2022 — and this year, there’s plenty of good economic news to consider. The Hill reported:
U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) grew at an annualized rate of 3 percent in the second quarter, showing an impressive performance for the economy through an elevated interest rate environment set by the Federal Reserve. Three percent growth in the Commerce Department’s third estimate of GDP performance confirmed the second estimate, which also came in at 3 percent. Both were up from 1.6-percent growth in the first quarter.
White House National Economic Advisor Lael Brainard also took stock of the bigger picture and the revised data, concluding in a written statement: “We learned this morning that the economy has grown by 3.2% per year during Biden-Harris Administration — even stronger than previously estimated — and better than the first three years of the previous administration.”
That’s true, too. The standard Republican line about Trump’s economic performance is that 2020, when there was a recession as a direct result of a pandemic, shouldn’t count. But even if we exclude 2020, economic growth in the United States has been stronger under Biden/Harris than under Trump/Pence.
With fewer than 40 days remaining before Election Day, this probably isn’t the news Republicans wanted to see.
[…] [I snipped some text detailing other times when Republicans have issued incorrect statements or predictions about the economy.]
As September comes to end, Americans are no longer hearing much about the “Kamala Crash,” in large part because there’s been no crash. All of the Wall Street losses from earlier in the month have been regained, and economic growth in the United States continues to be quite good.
The results also pose a challenge for the former president and his allies, which they haven’t even tried to address: If voters are supposed to believe that Harris is directly responsible for the world’s largest economy, how much credit are Trump and the GOP prepared to give the incumbent vice president for 3% GDP growth?
As for the Republicans’ crystal ball, four years ago, Trump told supporters that Democratic policies would “unleash an economic disaster of epic proportions” and force the country “into depression.” He’s begun making nearly identical predictions ahead of Election Day 2024.
Everything Trump said was wrong — and he hasn’t even tried to explain why his predictions were so hilariously misplaced, or why anyone should believe his new predictions in light of his awful track record. [True!]
Second gentleman Doug Emhoff has been in Texas campaigning and fundraising for the Democratic ticket this week. He has been joined by former congressman Beto O’Rourke, and on Friday, Emhoff posted some photos from music legend Willie Nelson’s home at Luck Ranch. […]
Link
Photos and more details concerning Doug Emhoff’s campaigning in red states are available at the link.
In recent weeks, multiple Fox personalities have been in denial of objective reality that under the Biden-Harris administration, especially in recent months, violent crime has declined, inflation is steadily declining, oil and natural gas production are at record highs, and unauthorized border crossings have plummeted.
Statistics show violent crime has dropped under the Biden-Harris administration, but Fox is rejecting this data and claiming the opposite
On September 23, the FBI released its annual crime statistics estimates, which showed a 3% decline in violent crime nationwide, including an 11.6% drop in “murder and non-negligent manslaughter.” These statistics were widely reported, and The New York Times noted that this continues a pattern of declining murder rates under the Biden-Harris administration, with the decline in murders showing “the largest year-to-year decline since national record-keeping began in 1960.”
Yet Fox, which spent more than half the year running nearly 1,000 weekday segments on the bogus “migrant crime” narrative, has denied these statistics showing a drop in violent crime.
Fox News anchor Dana Perino: “So much for crime being down.” Perino, reacting to a chaotic video from Philadelphia, suggested it was evidence that statistics showing a drop in crime were not reflective of reality. Fox host Greg Gutfeld claimed, “The statistics that the FBI uses aren’t taken seriously because they’re limited. They don’t pass the smell test.” [Fox News, The Five, 9/24/24] [More examples at the link]
Inflation has plummeted from its peak more than two years ago, yet Fox claims it’s at “record highs”
Multiple measures of inflation have plummeted since their mid-2022 peak. Both the consumer price index and the personal consumption expenditures price index measures show 2.5% inflation — near the Federal Reserve’s 2% PCE target — and the producer price index measure shows a lower 1.7%. The improving inflation picture has at last galvanized the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, much to Fox’s displeasure. Yet Fox continues to cover inflation in a misleading manner, falsely claiming that it is currently at “record highs.”
Fox host Jesse Watters falsely claimed “inflation [is] at record highs.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 9/24/24]
Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt: “The truth is, inflation is high. That’s why prices are up.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 9/20/24]
Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo: Harris lacks a “plan to take inflation down because she doesn’t have an understanding of what took us to 40-year highs.” Prior to Bartiromo saying this, her program aired a graphic showing the annual CPI inflation measurement declining significantly from its peak of 9.1% more than two years ago to its current level of 2.5%. [Fox Business, Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, 9/20/24]
Data shows record-high oil and natural gas production under Biden-Harris, but Fox is telling you not to believe it
American energy production is experiencing record highs under the Biden-Harris administration. In addition, the U.S. is on track to be the world’s leading exporter of liquefied natural gas for the second year in a row and is the largest supplier of LNG to Europe. In 2023, U.S. crude oil production, at an average of 12.9 million barrels per day, surpassed the record set in 2019, and the Energy Information Administration has forecasted a new record of 13.25 million barrels per day this year.
Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade: “We’re not” leading in natural gas and oil production. Kilmeade continued: “Don’t let anybody tell you our oil and gas production is high.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 9/25/24]
Kilmeade falsely claimed there was double the daily production of oil under Trump compared to the Biden-Harris administration. [Blatant lies, as usual] Kilmeade said: “When she talked about there’s more oil production under us than under you, she’s wrong. It was 4 million barrels a day under Trump. It was 2 million barrels under Biden-Harris. So, that’s totally inaccurate.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 9/13/24]
Data shows fewer unauthorized border crossings, yet Fox is using legal immigration numbers to reject it
Report after report has shown that unauthorized border crossings in the Southwest have plummeted in recent months compared to previous years in the Biden-Harris administration. Even Fox News reported a huge drop in apprehensions at the border.
Yet Fox continues to challenge the data showing a huge drop in unauthorized border crossings by insisting that the number of people using the administration’s programs to entice immigrants to enter legally should be added to border crossing numbers. This denial of reality and goalpost shifting bears similarities to the rhetoric of Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance, who has been purposefully referring to authorized migrants as “illegal aliens” after stirring up hate against Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, with false smears.
Fox correspondent Bill Melugin: Data showing “illegal crossings … have been down significantly” is “not a true reflection of the amount of people who are being allowed into the country.” Melugin suggested that data showing unauthorized border crossings plummeting in 2024 isn’t genuine, citing programs from the Biden-Harris administration to increase legal immigration. [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 9/17/24] [More examples at the link]
JMsays
@282 Lynna, OM:
Reginald @279:
I don’t really want to understand him [JD Vance]. I just want him to lose and then go away.
Same. It gives me a headache to try to understand him. The closest I can come is “naked ambition with no moral center.”
If Vance’s strategy was just ambition he wouldn’t be so actively trying to anger women. He could court the religious right while being more circumspect. He could talk about religion and men needing to be strong and lead the household without all the weird controlling women and pregnancy stuff. This is a position unpopular among Republicans except for a small circle of religious right and terminally unpopular among everybody else.
Even if he is going in on Project 2025 there is no need to be so public about it right now. Win the election first, then talk about highly unpopular policy.
The Supreme Court on Friday refused an emergency appeal from Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign seeking to have his name added to New York’s ballot.
Kennedy has been trying to get his name off ballots in key battleground states since he suspended his campaign in August and endorsed former President Donald Trump.
But he has simultaneously tried to stay on the ballot in states like New York where his presence is unlikely to make a difference in the battle between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
The justices did not comment in rejecting the emergency appeal. There were no noted dissents…
The police officers who arrested a Black pastor while he watered his neighbor’s plants can be sued, a federal appeals court ruled Friday, reversing a lower court judge’s decision to dismiss the pastor’s lawsuit.
A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that the three officers who arrested Michael Jennings in Childersburg, Alabama, lacked probable cause for the arrest and are therefore not shielded by qualified immunity.
Qualified immunity protects officers from civil liability while performing their duties as long as their actions don’t violate clearly established law or constitutional rights which they should have known about.
Jennings was arrested in May 2022 after a white neighbor reported him to police as he was watering his friend’s garden while they were out of town. The responding officers said they arrested Jennings because he refused to provide a physical ID. Body camera footage shows that the man repeatedly told officers he was “Pastor Jennings” and that he lived across the street…
Wildfire investigators looking for the cause of blaze in western Colorado last month discovered the partially burned remains of a dog — leading to the conclusion that a man’s attempted cremation of his pet sparked a fire that damaged private property including a cabin.
Law enforcement arrested the man earlier this month and he is now charged with arson and trespassing, court documents show. Authorities say the cremation ceremony started the fire on Aug. 1 that’s estimated to have caused about $200,000 in damages and burned about 11 square miles (28 square kilometers), the Denver Post reported. The burn is now largely contained.
His dog, named Rocket, had been in a fight with another dog and was euthanized under court in Nucla, a town on Colorado’s western border with Utah, according to the arrest affidavit…
According to a Friday report from The New York Times, Derrick Anderson — a former Green Beret running for the House of Representatives in Virginia — has repeatedly featured a woman and her three daughters in campaign materials…
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
[Green Beret borrows a family but seen with his fiancé at a Mexican restaurant.]
Stolen convivir.
The V.P. debate will be aired this Tuesday. MSNBC will have thorough coverage. PBS News is also planning a simulcast of the 2024 Vice Presidential Debate, which is being hosted by CBS.
The 90-minute debate begins at 9 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, October 1.
Bekenstein Boundsays
Lynna@248:
Writers should be compensated for their work.
Yes, they should. But I don’t think this should be done in ways that exclude potential members of their audience, discriminating against some on the basis of socioeconomic status.
@252:
Trump, Zelensky meet to discuss ending Ukraine war
I thought there was a law against private citizens engaging in foreign diplomacy on behalf of the United States? And, right now, Trump is a mere private citizen …
Tethys@270:
I didn’t accuse Mano of anything, nor did I bork a closing tag — I even checked it in preview, where it appeared correctly, but it did not appear correctly when posted for some reason. The accusation was directed at the unnamed individual who was responsible for causing that — I didn’t name any names because I do not know who it was!
And in what way was I rude to Lynna? Pointing out that an unusable link was not usable is not rude. It’s merely a statement of fact. Is that what you are objecting to? (This accusation gains added irony when you note how rude Lynna’s response was. Whereas I intended no offense, it seems doubtful the same can be said of her.)
Reginald Selkirk@280:
550 people report illness after P.E.I. shellfish festival, health officials say
You’d think, if you’re organizing a festival for a type of food that’s notorious for being especially finicky for needing good hygiene to not make people sick, that you’d organize some good hygiene for that festival. :/ One misstep — 550 cases of food poisoning. Would you pilot a 747 full of passengers as cavelierly as you might a Cessna with no-one else aboard?
@281:
Basement-free buildings are better for the future climate
What’s with the text that’s highlighted to look like it’s a link, but isn’t actually a link?
That sounds hasty and poorly considered. Basements are prone to flood damage, but if there are tornadoes they are useful for shelter.
They also keep a more even temperature throughout the year, which can be useful. If anything, it’s the above-ground parts that are bad for the carbon footprint, because those are the parts that take more energy to heat and cool. On the other hand, people like windows to look outside through, and that let light in, which might be why those “earthship” style homes never became popular.
Brony@296:
Extreme accumulation of ammonia on electroreduced mackinawite: An abiotic ammonia storage mechanism in early ocean hydrothermal systems
I expect that no longer occurs because the water around the vent would now be oxygenated, and at vent temperatures the ammonia, if not also the mackinawite, would promptly oxidize?
But then, this process could still operate intermittently, whenever there’s a vent in an ocean basin that has become stagnant and unoxygenated. There were several such anoxic-depth events in the young Atlantic during the Jurassic as I recall.
Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance will hold a campaign event with Christian televangelist Lance Wallnau, who has claimed that Vice President Kamala Harris is the beneficiary of “witchcraft” and is the “devil’s choice” in the upcoming presidential election.
A Donald Trump campaign press release said Vance will be a “featured guest” at a town hall meeting in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, scheduled for Sept. 28. The event was billed as “part of the Courage Tour” and will be “hosted by The Lance Wallnau Show.”
Wallnau is a self-described “Christian nationalist” who refers to himself as a “prophet.” He has used his show to advance extremist ideas, attack Democrats, and promote GOP presidential nominee Trump.
“When I say ‘witchcraft’ I am talking about what happened tonight,” Wallnau tweeted after Trump’s poor performance against Harris in the Sept. 10 presidential debate. “Occult empowered deception, manipulation and domination.” [I have mentioned this desperate resorting to “witchcraft” as the explanation for Kamala Harris clearly defeating Trump on the debate stage, but this article goes into more detail … and now JD Vance seems to be on the same track.]
The claim echoed other attacks Wallnau has launched against Harris since she entered the race.
“She’s going to stir up the race wars by playing the race card,” he told his followers In a July broadcast. “She’s gonna stir up the gender wars by playing the woman against man. She’s going to go back and tear open the wounds in America to say Trump is an angry white racist with a dangerous MAGA movement.”
He added: “This is what the devil’s choice is.” [Ah, and the “devil” too. Sheesh. This stuff is so toxic.]
Wallnau also said that Harris represents “the spirit of Jezebel in a way that will be even more ominous than Hillary [Clinton] because she’ll bring a racial component and she’s younger.” [Yikes! “The spirit of Jezebel”!]
The Christian extremist has also blamed a “Trans Taliban” for opposition to Florida’s homophobic “Don’t Say Gay” legislation, and said that God will kill political leaders in retribution for criminal charges being filed against Trump. [God is always ready to kill someone, it seems.]
This won’t be Vance’s first appearance with a problematic preacher. The Ohio senator also participated in an event at Generation Church in Mesa, Arizona, whose lead pastor, Ryan Visconti, has made bigoted comments.
These include a social media post in July that argued opposition to “the abomination of gay marriage & abortion” are vital to make America “great again,” and a 2023 claim that “God wants homosexuals to repent and change.”
At the top of the GOP ticket, Trump has consistently struck up alliances with conservative Christian extremists throughout his political career. But evangelical supporters of Harris have pointed out how Trump’s public statements clash with traditional biblical teachings.
A recent ad from the group Evangelicals for Harris juxtaposed Trump conceding that he has never asked God for forgiveness with evangelist Billy Graham noting how central such requests are to Christianity. [Yeah, that’s not as incendiary as what Vance is doing. Chris Hayes pointed out this evening on his show “All In” that actuarial tables tell us that Trump’s age makes it more likely that, if the Trump/Vance ticket wins, Vance is more likely to become president. Is a religious extremist in the White House a good idea, I ask. Nope.]
The Rev. Lee Scott is a Presbyterian pastor and farmer in Butler, Pennsylvania, where a gunman attempted to assassinate Trump during a July rally. He told The Associated Press that while the easy thing to do is vote in silence, speaking out against Trump is a risk worth taking.
“I am tired of watching meanness, bigotry and recreational cruelty be the worldly witness of our faith,” Scott said.
They’re gathering by the thousands. They’re growing fast. They believe that Democrats are possessed by demons—and that Donald Trump must be president again at any cost.
Excerpts:
[…] Wallnau is a major leader in a coalition of Christians who believe that Trump is prophesied to play a critical role in the nation’s spiritual reformation—that the former president is destined to be a catalyst for the next Great Awakening, even. These Christians see Trump as a modern-day Cyrus the Great, the powerful empire builder and nonbeliever who is credited in the Old Testament with returning the Jews to the Holy Land. They believe that under Trump’s protection, American Christians will rise up, defeat their demonic enemies, and take their rightful place of power in the country.
This belief in a Trump prophecy has only grown stronger among the faithful since the former president survived an assassination attempt in July. It is so strong, in fact, that anything that could stand in Trump’s way—democratic or otherwise—is perceived as a force of evil that must be battled on a spiritual plane. […]
By speaking in tongues, throwing their hands up to the sky, singing God’s praises, anointing people with oil, blowing shofars, and calling upon God’s authority to defeat demons, neo-charismatics are commanding and assisting angels in the spiritual realm. Those angels, in Wallnau’s theology, are the ones waging the warfare against evil; earthbound Christians are aiding the army in a metaphysical sense. “We’re not warring with flesh and blood,” Wallnau told the crowd at the revival. “We’re warring with spirits working on people.” […]
During the COVID pandemic, neo-charismatic churches run by NAR prophets swelled in numbers as they remained defiantly open despite lockdown rules. They attracted converts from mainstream Christian parishes that remained closed, and politically ambitious prophets in this network soon became Facebook celebrities. Some gained real-world influence: Sean Feucht, a Christian singer who led massive COVID-era worship events across the country […]
At an earlier point in his career, Wallnau was a motivational speaker, and on his professional websites and online merchandise stores he’s still described as a “strategist” and “futurist.” But over the past several decades, he has become most well known for resurrecting a niche, ’70s-era Christian call to arms: a mandate for believers to conquer the “seven mountains of society”—family, religion, education, media, arts and entertainment, business, and government. […]
When the America First Policy Institute representative posited that Trump had lost his election because Christian men over the age of 60 hadn’t turned out in high-enough numbers, a bearded man behind me repeatedly yelled, his voice hot with anger, “We didn’t lose!”
[…] Wallnau led a prayer to expose hidden works of darkness affecting the election, before asking those who felt energized to raise their hands in prayer. He was anointing them, he said, to become poll workers.
Watching Wallnau lead these Michiganders through a kind of spiritual oath to “protect” the election, I felt a deep sense of dread. This seemed far more dangerous than any hype man screaming about the evils of the secular world. Wallnau’s vision for his great revival hinged on another Trump administration. The stakes meant that there was no room for a divergent outcome—or for anyone, really, who might disagree.
[…] The event that actually brought new life to the right-wing charismatic world came soon afterward, when Kamala Harris replaced Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket. […] And when millions of Americans believe that Harris is literally possessed by a demon, or that her party is acting on behalf of the devil, that could have repercussions for how they expect their elected representatives to govern—and how they might treat a Trump loss […]
The Justice Department filed a lawsuit Friday against Alabama and its secretary of state, arguing that an effort to remove voters from state rolls was taking place too close to the Nov. 5 general election in violation of federal law.
While states are allowed to clean up their voter registrations ahead of an election, federal law says that must happen more than 90 days before an election.
Alabama’s Secretary of State Wes Allen on Aug. 13 announced a crackdown on what his office called “noncitizen voters,” saying that more than 3,500 people who were registered to vote had been issued noncitizen identification numbers by the Department of Homeland Security. His office did not specify when those voters had received the ID numbers.
The Justice Department said Friday that the voter roll purge announcement in Alabama took place 84 days before the Nov. 5 election and therefore violated the National Voter Registration Act. […]
NBC News previously reported on concerns from voting rights advocates and attorneys who argue that measures which focus on preventing noncitizens from voting — an illegal and rare occurrence — mainly affect naturalized Americans.
In the Aug. 13 announcement, Allen’s office said he acknowledged that it was “possible” some of the 3,500 people had since become citizens and now eligible to vote.
The DOJ said Friday it had already found that some of the 3,521 individuals Alabama identified as having a noncitizen identification numbers have since become naturalized citizens, granting them the right to vote in elections.
Allen told NBC News in August that affected eligible voters could take steps to address the matter on Election Day.
“This update can be done by completing a form or going online. This step may be accomplished even at the polling place on election day,” he said in a statement at the time.
Noncitizen identification numbers are assigned to immigrants by U.S. Customs and Immigration Services to track their immigration files, employment eligibility and visa applications, among other things. Permanent residents who then become naturalized citizens will have had a noncitizen identification number at some point.
The DOJ lawsuit comes as Alabama kicked off its general election this month, becoming the first state to start sending out mail ballots on Sept. 11.
Since the last update in June, it seems that a few things have happened.
Russia launched an assault toward the city of Pokrovsk that threatens Ukraine’s ability to defend a large portion of Donetsk. Ukraine crossed the border into Russia, gaining control over 1,000 square kilometers of the Kursk region. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reorganized important sectors of the Ukrainian government and fought off growing political opposition. In the air and on the ground, drones continued to improve and redefine their role in this war. Ukraine triggered unbelievable explosions at ammunition storage facilities in Russia as disputes continued over Ukraine’s ability to use Western weapons deep inside Russia. Zelenskyy pissed off MAGA Republicans by visiting Pennsylvania, where 800,000 Polish Americans are deeply concerned about the possibility of Russia carrying its illegal war into NATO countries. And Donald Trump said something profoundly stupid that also happened to be about Ukraine. [Heh. Good summary.]
Catching up on all these topics—and a dozen more—isn’t possible in a single article. So think of this more as an overview of just a few areas intended to bring things up to date so that future Ukraine Updates can do what they do best: get way, way down into the weeds of how, why, and where.
In this war, three months is a long, long time.
IS VLADIMIR PUTIN LOSING HIS GRIP ON POWER?
There have been rumors in the past that Russians were growing tired of seeing hundreds of thousands of men shipped off to Ukraine, and hundreds of thousands returning with serious injuries. Or not returning at all. But as usual in Russia, recruitment for the illegal, unprovoked invasion of Ukraine has largely affected outlying ethnic districts, leaving the power base in Moscow and St. Petersburg only lightly affected.
Despite a few rapidly suppressed protests, talk of potential coups, and a lot of turnover in the military, Putin seems as thoroughly ensconced as ever. Even the two-day aborted coup by Yevgeny Prigozhin and his Wagner Group mercenaries appears to have left Putin unmoved — and Prigozhin won’t be trying again.
As is always the case, what’s going on within the Kremlin walls is a complete mystery, and any claim that Putin is on shaky ground is itself… shaky. Keep that in mind. [video at the link]
Vladimir Solovyov has been the host of multiple propaganda programs on Russia-1 for over a decade. He’s more than just a newscaster, but a media personality. Calling him the Sean Hannity or Tucker Carlson of Russia is underselling it […] This guy is just everywhere in Russia.
Solovyov has been one of the voices not only championing the invasion of Ukraine, but pushing for Russia to carry the war into NATO countries. He’s also supported the harsh treatment of dissidents and recommended the firing squad for poor military leaders. Above all, Solovyov has been a cheerleader for Putin. One of the programs he hosts is even titled “Moscow. Kremlin. Putin.”
This explains why a single suggestion that bringing the invasion to a conclusion might require Putin to “resign” is getting considerable attention among Russia watchers. Kremlinology is an art that pre-dates the Cold War, and practitioners are once again training their scopes toward Moscow to see if this remark indicates some kind of change in the winds of power. That includes some statements that seem about as overblown as most of the propaganda Solovyov churns out.
So, does any of this mean Putin is in trouble? Almost certainly not.
However, as The Times of London reports, dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza, one of the men who successfully lobbied for the passage of the Magnitsky Act, says that while Putin may seem like the one eternal fixture when discussing Russia, that’s not necessarily the case.
“Political change in Russia usually happens suddenly, unexpectedly, when nobody sees it coming, and nobody is ready for it,” Kara-Murza said.
Now would be good.
RUSSIAN FORCES CONTINUE TO ADVANCE IN DONETSK OBLAST
Until a few months ago, Ukraine had done an astounding job of holding back Russian forces near the occupied city of Donetsk. Even in the early days of Putin’s second Ukraine invasion, when the Russian military came pouring through areas to the north and east, Ukraine was largely able to hold Russian troops behind the lines that had been established following the 2014 invasion.
The way that Ukrainians held onto positions like those around the town of Avdiivka and Vuhledar, and the losses they inflicted on Russian forces that seemed locked in mindless efforts to advance, became legendary. However, when Russia finally captured—and utterly destroyed—Avdiivka in February, Ukraine fell back to positions that lacked the defensive infrastructure of those nearer to Donetsk. Within weeks, that single breach turned into a slow flood as Russia pushed through the former line at multiple locations.
Ukrainian forces, exhausted after months of fighting and facing Russian troops bolstered by continuing rounds of conscription, were forced to retreat along a broad front. Meanwhile, Ukrainian commanders complained of an ammunition shortage that had been exacerbated by the long delay in attaining more support from the United States. It took until April for Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson to stop blocking funds for Ukraine, and by then a lot of damage had been done. [ARRRRGGGGHHH! Too true. Mike Johnson did more damage than most people realize.]
Where previously Russian gains in this area had been measured in meters and Russian forces spent weeks contesting the same tiny crossroads, the pace of the Russian advance in the spring was considerably higher. It took weeks before new lines were formed near the recently captured village of Pervomaiske in April. From that position, Ukraine was able to establish a somewhat stable front that largely held through most of the summer. [map at the link]
But in August, Russia concentrated still more forces in the area and began a renewed push that, compared with much of their movement over the last two years, was positively explosive. Russian troops took Krasnohorivka in the first week of September. At the same time, it captured Karlivka and villages to the south. From there, Russian forces advanced kilometers each day, moving toward the cities of Pokrovsk and Selydov. A week after Krosnohoivka, Russia was in Novopokrovske and had partially occupied Hrodivka.
Since those losses, Ukrainian forces have managed to slow the Russian advance. However, Russia continues to press aggressively along this whole line. Since the fall of Avdiivka, Russia has progressed 35 kilometers toward the critical junction at Pokrovsk. Considering that took over 220 days, it’s not exactly a lightning advance (an overall rate of about 15 meters a day). However, about half that distance has come in the last four weeks. Also, since the width of this advance is around 20 km, it’s more of a bulge than a salient. Any effort by Ukraine to harry the advancing Russian force along the flanks will be difficult.
Though Ukraine is now reportedly moving in additional troops following its own mobilization bill in the spring, the ability to check the Russian advance short of Pokrovks remains a serious concern. Evacuation of the city was ordered in August, but residents largely ignored that order. Now the citizens of Pokrovsk are fleeing in droves as Russia inches toward the city along three major highways.
On Wednesday, Russian forces had reportedly reached rail stations on the south side of Selydove and were continuing to drive northwest toward the highway that runs NE from Pokrovsk. Should Russia capture the area south of Selydove, that town would become more difficult to hold, and losing that position would make it easier for Russian forces to use the major SE highway as a route into Pokrovsk.
Ukrainian forces are making a serious stand at the line roughly 8 km from Pokrovsk, but this is a difficult situation in which Russia has punched a large hole through a big section of the line. Ukraine is scrambling to defend itself while Russia continues its push.
UKRAINE’S INCURSION INTO KURSK IS STILL A GAMBLE
Even as the Russians were gathering force in Donetsk, Ukrainian forces attacked positions across the border in Russia’s Kursk Oblast in the first week of August. In a matter of days, the Ukrainian government announced that their forces were in control of over 1,200 square kilometers of Russian territory in a band over 40 km wide and reaching over 20 km into Russia.
Take that, Russians moving 15 meters a day.
In the first three weeks of combat in the region, Russia replied by moving forces in piecemeal, apparently unwilling to withdraw troops from the fighting in Donetsk. And a lot of those fits and starts were ass-kicked by what was in actuality not all that large a Ukrainian force. Russia’s attempt to remove the roughly 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers who crossed the border in the initial wave was also complicated by a well-timed HIMARS or two that simply shredded Russians at gathering points. [map at the link]
As a result, not only was Ukraine able to hold and fortify its positions inside Russia, but a large number of poorly-trained Russian forces that had been defending the border surrendered to Ukrainian troops.
HIMARS also continued to prove effective in both taking out Russian bridges over the Seym River and mopping up pontoon bridges that Russia built in an effort to prevent Ukraine from isolating the area between that river and the border.
For a couple of weeks there, it looked like the capture of a major Russian city was a serious possibility (though Ukraine likely never had enough troops in place to occupy a city of over 400,000). And Ukraine has had some fairly astounding wins in fending off Russia’s patchwork attempts to drive them back across the border.
The official strategy behind the incursion into Kursk, which has since been supported by the movement of additional armored Ukrainian forces in mid-September, was to prevent Russia from launching an invasion into Ukraine from the same area. But considering the relative number and quality of Russian forces in the region, it seems unlikely that any such move was planned for the near future. The official reason that Ukraine is there sounds like (cough) bullshit.
Ukraine’s real intention was more likely to both take the fight to Russia and, hopefully, force Putin to shift forces away from the Donetsk area to repel the Ukrainian advance. Zelenskyy reportedly ordered the move into Kursk over the objection of several Ukrainian military leaders who regard the entire enterprise as a big gamble.
Could Ukraine embarrass Putin enough in Kursk to make him change strategies in Donetsk and give Ukraine time to bring new troops and new weapons into the fight? While it’s still not clear, the answer looks to be “no.”
Ukraine has been militarily successful in its Kursk offensive, and there was an initial public relations boost in seeing Ukrainian forces fighting on Russian soil—especially in Ukraine. But rather than moving significant military forces into the area to counter Ukraine’s move, Putin has placed the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) in charge of fighting what he has labeled a “counterterrorist operation.” The mish-mash of FSB, border guards, and military units is not proving to be very effective in forcing Ukraine to retreat.
It may not matter. [video at the link]
Even though Russia hasn’t moved a large number of forces to the area, it’s not clear that Ukraine is willing to devote sufficient additional forces to expanding the incursion. As long as Ukraine seems content to just hold ground in Russia rather than driving for Kursk or some other substantial city, Putin is likely to categorize this as a problem-to-be-solved-later. That’s assuming that having a couple of thousand Ukrainian troops parked on Russian territory isn’t making the supreme dipstick unpopular within the Kremlin. [video at the link]
Meanwhile, even as Ukrainian forces inside Russia continue to pick off targets with apparent disdain, Ukrainian telegram channels are filled with calls that it’s time for this demonstration to end so that all possible forces can be devoted to holding Pokrovsk. For at least some in the Ukrainian military, it doesn’t seem that holding the territory in Kursk is generating leverage on Russia or slowing the assault in Donetsk. It’s not even clear that it continues to generate good PR. It may now be hurting Zelenskyy more than it is Putin.
The answer to this is way above my pay grade. […]
On Thursday, Zelenskyy continued his visit to the U.S. by meeting with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in separate meetings. Following the meeting, Harris said that no decision about how the war would end could be made without Ukraine leading the way. President Biden also reassured Zelenskyy that he fully expects Ukraine to win and Russia to lose. [Video of Harris and Zelenskyy delivering joint remarks.]
In contrast, Trump and running mate J.D. Vance have spent days attacking Zelenskyy and Ukraine, with Vance saying that Ukraine should be prepared to surrender territory for peace—which did not go down well with Zelenskyy.
“His message seems to be that Ukraine must make a sacrifice. This brings us back to the question of the cost and who shoulders it,” Zelenskyy said in response to Vance. “The idea that the world should end this war at Ukraine’s expense is unacceptable.” […] [Later, Trump and Zelenskyy did meet, see comments 268 and 271]
Trump claimed that “millions and millions” of Ukrainians were dead and that Ukraine had no one left to fight except “old men and children.” Much of Trump’s polemics on Ukraine seem to be coming off the propaganda he’s definitely not taking straight from Putin. [LOL at the dry humor from Mark Sumner]
Trump also spent an earlier speech on Wednesday praising Putin and Russia. “Biden says we will not leave until we win. What happens if [Russia wins]?” said Trump. “That’s what they do, is they fight wars. As somebody told me the other day, they beat Hitler. They beat Napoleon. That’s what they do.”
Trump seemed to miss that Russia has lost multiple wars and only survived World War II with tremendous aid from the United States. […]
My cousins are sitting in their bathrooms with their kids because Israel just unleashed hell. This is a densely populated area of Beirut. Absolute savagery. […] One of the two neighbourhoods threatened by the Israelis is next to my family’s area. They’re all Christians, unrelated to Hezbollah. […] One of the maps shared by the IDF of “Hezbollah strongholds” is a Christian monastery
/Video at the link of explosions outside their window.
Netanyahu approved the massive strikes while already at the United Nations. Sit with that one. He was speaking to the world while his army annihilated multiple (6-9) residential buildings by dropping massive bombs in a very densely populated part of Beirut.
And a reminder that the Israeli army’s central command is in the middle of Tel Aviv, in case you want to use ‘that’ argument.
[Reuters reporter tweet]: Israel military says the Lebanese government has so far not allowed Hezbollah to use Beirut airport for weapons transfers. It says it will not allow this to happen in case Hezbollah tries.
Lebanon only has one civilian airport so if the Israelis bomb Beirut airport there would be no way for anyone to even leave (and most people can’t anyway). We only have two land borders, Syria and Israel.
Now we know they’re actively thinking about the only airport we have, and they may […] not even touch it. Or they will bomb it tonight. And there’s nothing we can do about it. If that’s not terrorism I don’t know what is.
The Israelis are now bombing Beirut again. Roughly 90 min passed between when the IDF warned everyone to evacuate (where?) and when they started bombing. […] people were still running away on foot. Israel just bombed them.
Israeli has issued new evacuation orders after bombing Dahieh over 20 times in an hour. They are now telling people in Hadath (again) and Burj Brajneh to evacuate. 1000s of ppl are already on the streets with nowhere to go.
I can’t describe the feeling of being abroad and watching Israeli airstrikes hit your city over and over again and you’re checking on the group chats with people reacting seconds later while also trying to understand what’s happening because explaining it is part of your job.
Aljazeera https://aje.io/mycvl0?update=3207190
Israeli warplanes then bombed dozens of targets in the Burj el-Barajneh, al-Kafaat, Hadath, Laylaki, Choueifat, and Ghobeiry areas in southern Beirut, as well as targets near Beirut International Airport.
@#298 Bekenstein Bound said:
“And in what way was I rude to Lynna?”
@ #242 Bekenstein Bound said:
“Why did you bother linking to it then, knowing the link wouldn’t be useful? Better to just post the entire text of the thing and attribute it without a clickable link.”
Telling anyone how or what they should post is rude.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Hm. I’d assumed that explosion video in #305 was from Elia Ayoub’s relatives because it was unattributed. However, it was already in circulation. The New York Times verified the footage, whoever filmed it.
Wikipedia’s editors are debating how to title the event. The link will redirect to whatever they rename it to.
Today, a group of independent security researchers revealed that they’d found a flaw in a web portal operated by the carmaker Kia that let the researchers reassign control of the Internet-connected features of most modern Kia vehicles—dozens of models representing millions of cars on the road—from the smartphone of a car’s owner to the hackers’ own phone or computer. By exploiting that vulnerability and building their own custom app to send commands to target cars, they were able to scan virtually any Internet-connected Kia vehicle’s license plate and within seconds gain the ability to track that car’s location, unlock the car, honk its horn, or start its ignition at will.
After the researchers alerted Kia to the problem in June, Kia appears to have fixed the vulnerability in its web portal, though it told WIRED at the time that it was still investigating the group’s findings and hasn’t responded to WIRED’s emails since then…
For the first time in decades, the Food and Drug Administration has approved a new type of drug for schizophrenia.
The twice-a-day pill to be marketed by Bristol Myers Squibb will be called Cobenfy, though it had been referred to as KarXT during development. Its main advantage is that it appears to have fewer side effects than current medicines…
Comedian Roseanne Barr is all in on the right-wing conspiracy hype train.
During a leg of ex–Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s tour in Fort Worth, Texas, on Tuesday, the Trump-supporting actress echoed QAnon theories, insisting that Hollywood denizens are “gay as hell,” and likened liberals to “vampires” that “love the taste of human flesh.”
“You know they eat babies. That is not bullshit, it’s true,” Barr said. All the while, Carlson nodded along and giggled, seemingly in agreement.
In fact, Carlson prodded her to continue, echoing a similarly baseless and asinine theory that Haitian migrants in Ohio were eating people’s pets.
“It’s not just the dogs and the cats,” Barr said, not joking. “They are full-on vampires, and everybody still thinks I’m crazy. But I’m not crazy. They’re full-on vampires. They love the taste of human flesh, and they drink human blood. They do.”
Of course, according to Barr, Trump will be the antidote to all this madness…
birgerjohanssonsays
American version
“Have I Got News For You” US S01E02 Charlie Dent Rosebud Baker
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=cMXFRhr6Ri0
.
What Roseanne Barr forgot to say is, it is the jews in Hollywood that eats babies. /s.
birgerjohanssonsays
…and the reason the authorities never spotted the five million illegal aliens that voted for Biden is, they were using Romulan cloaking technology, smuggled to Earth by reptilians.
KGsays
Bekenstein Bound@298,
You need to disabuse yourself of the notion that anyone either here or at Mano’s owes you any service. Your behaviour in both cases reeks of entitlement.
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson was treated for second-degree burns at Northern Regional Hospital “following an incident at a campaign event” in Mount Airy on Friday night, according to Mike Lonergan, communications director for Robinson’s gubernatorial campaign…
Robinson’s burns stemmed from an accident at an automotive show and no foul play was involved, a law enforcement source told CNN.
Robinson, North Carolina’s Republican nominee for governor, had made several campaign stops around the state on Friday, according to a previously provided schedule and social media posts. His final stop was the Mayberry Truck Show and Parade in Mount Airy, where the incident occurred.
The campaign has not provided any further details about the incident…
birgerjohanssonsays
Why not the T-80?
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=8lfGG9kmgSo
(The video shows a T-72A, but you get the point)
As usual, the Soviet electronics lagged behind while the big steel components were adequate. (Crew survivability was never a priority in the Soviet system)
birgerjohanssonsays
“an accident at an automotive show”
I will love to see the details.
It would be hilarious if someone ignored safety routines because ‘safety is for sissies’.
Automotive shows are popular among the MAGA crowd because they think the automotive technology of the last century is somehow linked to the human XY gene that developed before the last ice age.
I like automotive shows, but I do not assign ideological value to them.
birgerjohanssonsays
The Guardian
European twin satellite mission bids to create total solar eclipse on demand
Trump’s basic continuity with the GOP that preceded him gets lost in all of his bluster and lack of self-control. Sure, cheating on his wife with a pornstar and trying to stay in power after losing the 2020 election, among other things, get attention. But in some sense, they’re the exception to the rule. On the majority of issues, the same tendencies that existed under the Bush Administration, remain.
Take the War on Terror. Over the past month, I’ve been covering the Trump campaign’s policy thinking on some of the issues that define this election: immigration and, in Trump’s view, law enforcement. On both, there’s strong evidence that a lot of what prompts Trump critics to call him an authoritarian is a throwback to some of the worst excesses of the War on Terror.
I wrote on Friday, for example, about denaturalization. Trump and those around him have been promising, if elected, to strip the citizenship of people who attend pro-Palestine rallies, painting them all with the extremely broad brush of supporting Hamas, the terrorist organization. Trump tried to effect a wave of denaturalizations during his first term; it was extremely costly, and very ineffective. But even then, that push toward denaturalizations focused on people who had lied to the government in the process of receiving citizenship.
What Trump is now proposing is different, and hearkens back to Bush-era proposals: stripping the citizenship of people deemed “terrorists” or terrorist supporters. In the Bush era, there were cases in which reviews of recently naturalized citizens who contributed money to Islamic charities that had later been found to support terrorist organizations led to their denaturalizations. These peoples’ citizenships were revoked because they were found to have misled the government while receiving a passport, but the initial review began because of what was regarded as a sinister ideological affiliation.
You see it in greater resolution with Trumpian legal planning around the domestic use of the military. For that, Trump allies have turned to work from Bush DOJ official John Yoo in 2001, in which he laid the legal groundwork for deploying the military domestically against terrorists. Trump allies have resurrected this work in the context of border enforcement, but the precedent they’re seeking to will into being would be incredibly broad.
The issue in all of this is that nothing prompts it. There isn’t a Fifth Column of supposed “terrorists” milling around major cities, universities, and the countryside. There’s no existential crisis, though there is a reaction which treats it as such.
[…] For the better part of a decade, I did all my banking through these apps, enjoying their slick user experience and lack of fees. The problem with every one of them, however, is that they’re not chartered banks. If the company behind the app went bankrupt, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) would not necessarily come to my rescue.
This disaster scenario was a hypothetical worry when I eventually settled for Chase and its FDIC insurance. For millions of others, it became a reality earlier this year when a company called Synapse collapsed and froze them out of their accounts. Users of Yotta, a popular savings app with a built-in lottery, and other apps that relied on Synapse to help manage their accounts couldn’t access their money for months. Now, as hundreds of thousands of Synapse customers’ dollars remain in limbo, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) are calling for banking reforms, and the FDIC is proposing changes to its rules.
Still, a growing number of people are embracing these financial technology, or fintech, services. More than a third of Gen Z and millennials used a fintech app or a digital bank as their primary checking account, according to a 2023 Cornerstone Advisors study.
So some questions are worth asking: Is it a bad idea to use an app like Venmo as your main bank? Are digital banks like Chime trustworthy enough?
The answer to both questions is yes. Venmo is not a bank, and using it as your primary checking account comes with some risks. Some fintech companies, like Chime, are just as big as traditional banks and offer some nice perks. Again, because they’re nontraditional, there are risks. […]
[…] Neobanks and money transmitters, briefly explained
The term fintech can refer to a lot of things, but when you’re talking about everyday services for everyday people, it typically refers to either neobanks or money transmitters. Chime is a neobank. Venmo is a money transmitter. They’re regulated in different ways, but because most of these companies issue debit cards, many people treat them like checking accounts. Fintech apps are not the same thing as FDIC-insured banks.
Neobanks are fintech companies that offer services like checking accounts in partnership with chartered banks, which are FDIC-insured. Neobanks sometimes enlist intermediaries known as banking-as-a-service, or BaaS, companies, which are not FDIC-insured. Still, you will often see the FDIC logo on neobank websites, just like you see it stuck to the glass doors of many brick-and-mortar banks. That logo instills trust, and thanks to their partnerships, neobanks can claim some FDIC protections. But because they do not have bank charters, these neobanks and BaaS companies are not directly FDIC-insured. Instead, neobank customers can be eligible for something called pass-through deposit insurance coverage.
Pass-through insurance is a simple concept that’s deceivingly complex in practice. Essentially, if you deposit money into an account with a neobank, like Chime, the funds get routed to a chartered bank, sometimes through one of those BaaS intermediaries. If the chartered bank fails, no problem: FDIC insurance kicks in, and you can recoup up to $250,000 of your deposits. If the intermediary fails or the neobank itself fails, you might be eligible for pass-through insurance — but you might not. In its explainer about when or if you’ll get your money back in these kinds of situations, the FDIC literally says, “It depends.”
[…] Money transmitters, also known as money services businesses, are even further removed from the perceived safety of the FDIC. Put bluntly, if you’re keeping all your money in a Venmo or Cash App account, you don’t qualify for FDIC insurance. Money transmitters are not neobanks or banks at all but rather completely different legal entities that are regulated by individual states as well as the Department of the Treasury. There are certain protections provided by these agencies, but FDIC insurance is not one of them.
So when an app like Yotta or Chime says on its website that it’s FDIC insured, it’s not a lie, but it’s not necessarily true either.
Venmo, to its credit, admits in the fine print of its homepage that its parent company PayPal “is not a bank” and “is not FDIC insured.” To confuse you even more, however, certain PayPal services that enlist a chartered bank partner, like a PayPal Mastercard or savings account, might qualify for FDIC insurance. Again, it depends.
[…] Fintech companies take careful steps to make banking with them feel safe. They include the FDIC logo on the website to provide customers with some peace of mind, even though the fine print on those protections is more complicated. They issue debit cards with the Visa or Mastercard logo to suggest that these cards play by the same rules as any big bank’s debit card. […]
This is actually the heart of the problem, as far as Sen. Elizabeth Warren is concerned. This month, she and Sen. Van Hollen asked regulators to ban neobanks and fintech companies from using the FDIC name and logo if they were only offering pass-through insurance. They also called for greater supervision of these companies under the Bank Service Company Act.
“The average consumer shouldn’t be expected to understand the intricacies of FDIC insurance in order to comfortably and safely save or invest their money,” Warren’s letter says. “Consumers must feel confident that they are dealing with a regulated and insured entity when they see the FDIC logo.”
[…] As many as 6 percent of Americans were living without a bank account in 2023, according to Federal Reserve data. That share grows to 23 percent for those making less than $23,000 a year. The unbanked population, which disproportionately comprises Black, Hispanic, and undocumented people, is at a greater risk of falling victim to predatory lending practices, including payday loans. Some fintech companies also offer short-term loans, though they’ve been criticized for being predatory as well.
Still, fintech companies offer the unbanked the ability to save money and build credit. For someone who can’t open a traditional bank account, Venmo can be a lifeline, since they can add funds to their Venmo balance and then pay bills using their Venmo debit card without needing a traditional checking account. If they have access to a smartphone, getting basic banking services is simple these days.
As I learned firsthand when testing out many of these services over the years, it’s very easy to sign up for and easy to deposit money into a fintech app. If you have a problem, however, help can be hard to find. Many fintech companies and neobanks, including Chime, lack brick-and-mortar locations, which means you can’t walk into a branch to get an issue resolved. In fact, poor customer service is a common complaint for these companies.
That means you should always research a company before giving money to it. Read the reviews and study the fine print. Obvious red flags include hidden fee structures and reports of customers not being able to withdraw their money. You should also consider trying services out with small sums rather than your life savings.
[…] Only gamble with what you’d be willing to lose.
[…] Trump on Friday threatened to prosecute Google if elected in November, alleging the search engine was “only” showing “bad” stories about him and “good” articles about Vice President Harris.
“It has been determined that Google has illegally used a system of only revealing and displaying bad stories about Donald J. Trump, some made up for this purpose while, at the same time, only revealing good stories about Comrade Kamala Harris,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
“This is an ILLEGAL ACTIVITY, and hopefully the Justice Department will criminally prosecute them for this blatant Interference of Elections,” he continued. “If not, and subject to the Laws of our Country, I will request their prosecution, at the maximum levels, when I win the Election, and become President of the United States!”
[…] In response to a request for comment on Trump’s post, Google pointed The Hill to its previous statement about the Media Research Center report.
“Both campaign websites consistently appear at the top of Search for relevant and common search queries,” a Google spokesperson said. “This report looked at a single rare search term on a single day a few weeks ago, and even for that search, both candidates’ websites ranked in the top results on Google.”
In what we can only assume is an effort to prove he’s not weird by standing next to people who may be even weirder than he is, JD Vance will be doing a town hall today with Christian extremist Lance Wallnau during a Monroeville stop on Wallnau’s “Courage Tour.”
What is the Courage Tour, you ask? Well, it’s an effort on the part of Wallnau and other far-right pastors (and Charlie Kirk) to undermine the Johnson Amendment by getting right-leaning churches in battleground states to host what are more or less pro-Trump revival meetings. As television has led me to believe that a “revival meeting” is where people do church outside in a tent with someone who is definitely scamming them in some capacity, this tracks.
Wallnau is a leader in the dominionist New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) movement and one of the authors of Invading Babylon: The 7 Mountain Mandate — a deeply disturbing Christian movement centered on them taking over the “seven spheres” of society — family, religion, education, media/entertainment, business, government, and science/technology (the science and technology mountain was added after COVID; media and entertainment used to be separate mountains). Once they do that, not only will they be in control of all of us … Jesus will come back!
Because of course.
The official website for the Courage Tour describes it as “marking the dawn of our nation’s Third Great Awakening.” It behooves me to mention that the Second Great Awakening ended in the Great Disappointment — when followers of William Miller were devastated after Jesus failed to come back on his predicted date of October 22, 1844, at least partly because many of them had trusted him so much that they’d already rid themselves of all their worldly possessions. Just saying!
Wallnau sees himself not just as a guy trying to practice his own religion in peace, but as engaging in “spiritual warfare” against the rest of us. Why? Because of how we are all demonic.
“The Left is loaded with demons,” Wallnau has said. “I don’t think it’s people anymore. I think you’re dealing with demons talking through people.”
It will not surprise you in the least that he has also said a number of completely batshit things about Kamala Harris. Aside from being “literally demonic,” Wallnau has claimed that Harris only beat Trump in the debate earlier this month because of “witchcraft.”
“When I say ‘witchcraft’,” he tweeted, “I am talking about what happened tonight. Occult empowered deception, manipulation and domination. That’s what ABC pulled off as moderators, and Kamala’s script handlers set up the kill box. One sided questions and fact checking sealed the box. Witchcraft. It’s not over yet, but something supernatural needs to disrupt this counterfeit momentum because the same public that voted in Obama is voting again and her deception is advancing.”
He has also repeatedly called Harris a Jezebel and accused her of having a “Jezebel spirit” — which, in addition to being a feminist website, a mediocre Bette Davis movie, and a lady from the Bible who is supposed to be especially evil but does not appear to have done anything more disturbing than the “good guys” of the Bible did (including God) apart from the fact that she did them while being a woman and having a different religion, has also long been used as a slur against Black women.
This has nothing to do with the election, but I sure would like to point out that he also once tweeted that “some people deserve to starve” … according to the Bible. [Screengrab of Walnut post is available at the link: “Some People Deserve to Starve: A Biblical View of Work and Welfare.”]
And that he once prayed “in tongues” for Trump not to be arrested. (Clearly not very effective!) [video at the link]
He also claims to have “prophesied” that Trump would win and was (he says) the first Christian leader to compare him to the Biblical character of King Cyrus.
This is what JD Vance is embracing today. This is what he is taking seriously. Not just a man, but an entire movement that thinks that more than half of the people in this country are literally possessed by demons who are talking for us ([…], that makes no secret of its desire to control every aspect of our lives (while he claims no interest in Project 2025) and eliminate the separation of church and state to the point where we are all forced to live in a theocracy.
Or, even worse, forced to live in a world in which they have dominion over all of the entertainment. Can you imagine? Every single movie and television show starring Kirk Cameron and Kevin Sorbo?
If the mere specter of that future does not disqualify Trump/Vance for a large majority of the country … I don’t know what we’re gonna do.
Region braces for intensification after Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah’s assassination
The Middle East was bracing for possible retaliation from Hezbollah or its allies after Israel and Hezbollah announced the death of Hasan Nasrallah, the militant group’s longtime leader. The Israel Defense Forces said it “eliminated” Nasrallah in a Friday strike on Hezbollah’s “central headquarters” that leveled several residential buildings in the southern suburbs of Beirut. Israel’s defense minister said the strike was one of “the most important countermeasures” in Israel’s history, as Hezbollah allies across the region called for a swift response.
[…] Abbas Nilforoushan, a top leader in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was also killed in Israel’s Friday strike in Beirut, Iranian state media reported.
Nilforoushan, a brigadier general, was the IRGC’s deputy chief of operations and the IRGC Quds Force commander for Syria and Lebanon.
[…] Iraq will observe three days of mourning for Hasan Nasrallah, the prime minister’s office said in a statement that lambasted Israel’s “aggression” and said Nasrallah and others had “devoted their lives to the cause of resisting the oppressive occupation.” Iraq said Israel’s attacks in Lebanon on Friday showed a “reckless desire to escalate the conflict,” urging the United Nations and others to deter the violence.
[…] Hamas offered its condolences following the death of Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah. The group said in a statement that Nasrallah was “martyred along with a group of his fellow leaders” and that Israel should bear “full responsibility for this ugly crime,” alongside the United States. It said Nasrallah’s life had been “full of sacrifices” for Palestinians, commending his “brave resistance.”
The Israel Defense Forces on Saturday released more information about Ali Karki, a Hezbollah commander of the southern front who it said was killed in the same strike on Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah.
Karki, the IDF said in a statement, had overseen “the buildup of weapons stockpiles and stationed thousands of operatives” along Lebanon’s southern border with Israel. Hezbollah has confirmed Nasrallah’s death but not yet commented on Karki.
[…] Hasan Nasrallah, a Shiite cleric who oversaw the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah for decades and became one of the most powerful and divisive leaders in the Middle East, revered by his followers as a savior and condemned by his foes as a terrorist, died Sept. 27 in Beirut. He was 64. […]
Helene’s rains pummel isolated mountain towns with landslides, flooding
Mountain communities in Tennessee and North Carolina were bracing Saturday for more flooding as Helene continued its destructive path, pushing dams to the brink, forcing residents to flee to higher ground and leaving some small towns entirely cut off from communication.
Officials were still waiting to get a complete assessment of the damage in areas isolated by landslides and flooding. Anxious relatives took to Facebook to search for loved ones in small communities outside of Asheville — nearly 500 miles from where Helene touched down. Images showed entire swaths of road destroyed by powerful, overflowing rivers.
Flash flood emergencies remained in effect across the Southeast, posing risks to more bridges and dams throughout the region. The North Carolina Department of Transportation said that “all roads” in the western part of the state “should be considered closed.”
[…] At least 40 people had been killed in five states — Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. About 4 million homes lost power, including in states as far north as Illinois and Ohio.
Extreme rainfall brought widespread — and, in some local spots, catastrophic — flooding that has left entire neighborhoods underwater. Some areas saw 4 to 5 months’ worth of rain in just a few days. According to the National Weather Service, the peak total in western North Carolina was 29.58 inches in Busick, which is about 24 miles northeast of Asheville.
By early counts, South Carolina suffered the greatest loss of life, registering at least 19 deaths to Georgia’s 11 and Florida’s seven. North Carolina reported two deaths initially and Virginia one. The toll from the storm is likely to rise, authorities cautioned, once flooding subsides and rescuers finish wading through the wreckage.
[…] Atlanta came under its first-ever flash flood emergency, as the mayor, Andre Dickens, beseeched residents to stay off the roads. In the small town of Canton, N.C., nestled in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, the mayor described the scene as “apocalyptic.”
At one point, 18 flash flood emergencies — the most dire flood alerts that signal an immediate life-or-death situation — were simultaneously in effect.
Authorities across the South reported receiving thousands of calls for help. In Erwin, Tenn., the Unicoi County Hospital didn’t have time to clear out Friday before the floods gushed in. More than 50 patients and staffers were marooned on the roof. For hours, fierce winds prevented helicopters from scooping them to safety. Photos showed ambulances immersed in murky water.
[…] The National Hurricane Center, in an advisory early Saturday, said the Southern Appalachians would continue to face dangerous flooding even as the risk of additional heavy rainfall subsided. Officials stressed the ongoing risks from runoff and scores of rivers that are above flood stage and still to crest.
Helene is predicted to continue to bring heavy rain and areas of flooding into early next week. Now a “post-tropical” system, the storm will linger over the Tennessee Valley until Tuesday of next week. That will keep showers and thunderstorms in the forecast there and in the Mid-Atlantic.
Vance’s comments criticizing Trump in 2016 have been widely and frequently reported. Vance suggested Trump might be “America’s Hitler” and called him “cultural heroin.” He criticized Trump for making immigrants and Muslims afraid.
But there wasn’t as much in that vein after Trump took office — at least publicly. What has come out has generally emerged from records of private comments Vance made.
When Vance first started his run for Senate, CNN reported that he had still been disparaging Trump privately in the summer of 2017, calling him a “moral disaster” and saying his administration had “no domestic policy agenda besides tax cuts.”
And now, Jamison reports this kind of criticism lasted well into Trump’s presidency — into Trump’s final year, in fact.
In direct messages sent in February 2020, Vance told someone he was corresponding with: “Trump has just so thoroughly failed to deliver on his economic populism (excepting a disjointed China policy).”
As Jamison notes, this is a contrast to what Vance would say just a year and a half later [Wow. That’s a quick flipflop] as an Ohio Senate candidate, when he said Trump “actually honored his promises.” Vance during the campaign would label Trump a “great president.”
[…] Vance’s office told The Post that his comments meant to refer to “establishment Republicans who thwarted” Trump’s agenda.
[…] Vance began emphasizing the difference between Trump’s unwieldy personal style and his actual policies. And in May 2019, he said at an event held by the American Conservative that Trump’s policy toward China had been a “wild success.”
“He’s certainly nailed the China issue in a way that no American president has for the past 20 or 30 years,” said Vance, who nine months later would privately label Trump’s China policy “disjointed.” [Cognitive dissonance.]
The other thing that struck me from The Post’s new reporting is how Vance essentially grants that he’s making political calculations — and not for the first time.
In the same private February 2020 exchange, Vance’s interlocutor suggested the two of them were both working toward similar political goals.
“You’re playing a strategic game,” Vance wrote, “the same as me.”
[…] Even when Vance began running for Senate in 2021, he gestured, not subtly, at the idea that he had to take his medicine and back Trump. He told Time magazine just a day after announcing his campaign that Trump is “the leader of this movement.”
He added: “And if I actually care about these people and the things I say I care about, I need to just suck it up and support him.”
It is not news that politicians make political calculations and adjust what they say to please the voters they need. This is Politics 101.
But politicians’ evolutions on Trump have often been particularly drastic, as Vance’s certainly is. That makes it logical to wonder what they truly understand themselves to be enabling. And for Vance, as he tries to ascend to an office a stop away from the presidency, that just became a more pertinent question.
Russia’s fight against the West and its values has taken aim this week at an “ideology” that the Kremlin and its allies say threatens the country’s very foundations: people not wanting to have children.
Lawmakers have proposed a ban on “propaganda of conscious refusal to bear children,” […]
It is the latest effort by authorities to combat the demographic strain of falling birth rates, exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, which the Kremlin says could threaten the country’s long-term outlook. In July, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called Russia’s declining birth rate “catastrophic for the future of the nation.”
The issues at the heart of it are not limited to Russia — indeed they have emerged as flashpoints in the U.S. presidential election — but the move this week is just the latest step in a Kremlin campaign to promote what it casts as “traditional values” as it reshapes Russian society around Putin’s war and embraces an existential clash with the United States and allies.
The bill would tackle what Volodin said was the promotion of the “ideology of childlessness” […] It will come with heavy fines, he said, of up to $4,300 for individuals and more than $53,000 for legal entities. “A close-knit and large family is the basis of a strong state,” Volodin added.
It’s not clear how exactly this legislation would be enforced if enacted, and what exactly would constitute a violation, but it comes amid an already unprecedented crackdown on dissent more than 2 1/2 years into Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor.
[…] “I view this bill extremely negatively from all points of view, as a lawyer, as a feminist and as a woman,” said Dariana Gryaznova, a Russian lawyer and expert in women’s rights who currently lives abroad. “Bills like these are essentially directed at curbing the freedom of speech, women’s reproductive rights and their freedom to choose.”
[…] The proposed legislation carries echoes of the Russian Supreme Court’s ban on the so-called international LGBTQ+ movement in late 2023, which raised the risk of arrests and prosecutions for the already embattled LGBTQ+ community in the country.
Other recent moves highlight the growing trend.
Lawmakers in Russia’s far-east Primorsky Krai adopted legislation Wednesday prohibiting “coercing” women to terminate pregnancy.
And the Russian parliament gave its initial backing Wednesday to legislation that would ban the adoption of Russian children by people from countries that allow gender transition.
[…] Since invading Ukraine, Russia has ramped up its fight against what it views as perverse personal freedoms championed by the West — on sexual identity, gender identity and now whether to have children.
[…] “A woman’s purpose is to procreate — this is an absolutely unique natural gift,” Putin said in March. Earlier this month, he said the government was creating conditions for women to achieve professional success while remaining “the real soul of a large family.” Combining the two is no easy task, the Russian leader said, “but our women know how to do it and remain beautiful, gentle and charming under such stress.”
He also officially declared 2024 the “year of the family,” something that some of the wives of the men he mobilized for the war in Ukraine told NBC News earlier this year they find ironic, as the country is losing a flood of young men on the front lines just as it’s facing plummeting birth rates.
Data published by statistics service Rosstat in September shows the birth rate plummeting to its lowest in a quarter century: 599,600 children were born in Russia in the first half of 2024, 16,000 fewer than in the same period in 2023 and the lowest number since 1999.
[…] Asked about the proposed ban, Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, told reporters last week that anything that interferes with increasing the birth rate should “disappear” from the lives of Russians. [Does this include the illegal invasion of Ukraine?] […]
Politics in a central European country of just 10 million people might not seem consequential. But that’s not the case in Austria, where there’s a good chance its election Sunday will be won by a far-right, pro-Russia party that was founded by former Nazis.
A win for the Freedom Party, or FPÖ, would not just have historical connotations — Austria was the birthplace of Adolf Hitler — it could tilt the balance of power between Russia and the West.
Though small, Austria has for centuries enjoyed outsized influence as a crossroads at the heart of Europe. Its neutral status, neither officially allied with NATO nor Russia, means that for centuries it has served as an arena for politicians, diplomats and spies trying to tilt the geopolitical balance.
So it’s not just that the FPÖ is criticized by opponents as xenophobic and racist, some Western onlookers are also alarmed by its staunch opposition to supporting Ukraine against Moscow. Though Austria is a member of the European Union, its far-right party leading the polls has strong links with Russian President Vladimir Putin […]
The FPO is seeking to form “an axis of far right-wing actors in the European Union,” […] The FPÖ is led by Herbert Kickl, 55, a wiry, acerbic provocateur in designer glasses.
[…] the FPÖ was founded in the 1950s by former members of Hiter’s paramilitary group the SS, although Kickl and his supporters reject the modern-day comparison.
Whatever the intention, these populist overtones will be familiar to American politics, or indeed that of Europe and much of the democratic world.
Kickl has capitalized on Europe’s migration crisis, in which hundreds of thousands of people have fled war, poverty and natural disasters in the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. […] Kickl’s vision is to build “Fortress Austria” and “Fortress Europe,” as he put it during a debate on Austrian public television Thursday night.
That would involve a dramatic overhaul of Austria’s immigration system, registering all new arrivals and detaining them in specialist facilities. The party is also proposing to introduce “remigration” of “unwanted strangers” — deporting migrants to their country of origin.
It’s all in the service of returning the “cultural identity and social peace of our homeland,” the FPÖ’s manifesto says, calling for Austria to be a place of “homogeneity” rather than “diversity.” […]
This has all caused widespread horror across the political spectrum, with opponents calling these policies xenophobic, racist and Islamophobic. Jewish commentators also accuse the party of using antisemitic tropes, with an opinion piece in the Jerusalem Post on Thursday labeling Kickl a “neo-Nazi” who “performs acrobatic feats” to dodge Austria’s strict laws against antisemitism.
Austria’s incumbent leader, Karl Nehammer, of the rival conservative Austrian People’s Party, has called Kickl a “right-wing extremist.” And Andreas Babler, leader of the left-wing Social Democratic Party, told Kickl during a TV debate last week that “I think you are extremely dangerous.”
[…] For Gabriela Bacher, an Austrian-American film producer and political campaigner, there are latent parallels between her homeland and former American President Donald Trump.
“After four years of Trump and MAGAism,” she told NBC News, “I came back here and realized it’s actually no better. It’s the same right-wing, populist attempt of trying to rattle people with fear mongering and hate and hate speech.”
[…] Others worry the FPÖ’s influence could extend far beyond its own borders.
It has for years been sympathetic toward Russia, not just calling for an end to Europe’s support for Ukraine but also advocating an end to the sanctions placed on Russia over its war. In 2016, party leader Heinz-Christian Strache signed a formal “cooperation pact” with Putin’s United Russia party. And a year later its appointed foreign minister, Karin Kneissl, danced with Putin at her wedding.
[…] analysts openly worried that the FPÖ’s presence in a E.U. government could see Western secrets leaked to Moscow.
This time, an FPÖ-led Austria could form a Ukraine-skeptical bloc with like minded neighbors, Slovakia and Hungary, the latter led by Trump ally Victor Orban, who proudly calls his nation an “illiberal democracy.” […]
The FPÖ’s return is far from certain, currently polling at 27%, narrowly ahead of the ruling Austrian People’s Party on 25% and the Social Democratic Party of Austria on 21%, according to European polling aggregator PolitPro. A coalition is almost certain — not an easy task […]
Bummer for everyone looking forward to reading more juicy discovery materials in the libelslander lawsuit of Smartmatic USA vs. Newsmax Media! The civil suit has been settled for an undisclosed amount, right in the middle of jury selection in Delaware, heading off the trial that was set to start on Monday […]
And the suing isn’t over yet! Smartmatic still has lots of suits pending over various 2020 STOLLEN ELECTION lies, against Fox Corp., Rudy Giuliani, OANN, and more. Forbes helpfully has a rundown of all the payups newsy-tainment channels may yet have to do for besmirching Smartmatic and Dominion’s good names with their cuckoo claims that their machines were making voter fraud. […]
How wackadoo were Newsmax’s claims? The wackadoo-iest! There were correspondents like Emerald Robinson claiming, “Smartmatic software is what was used by Hugo Chávez and his successors to fix elections in Venezuela,” and host Chris Salcedo claiming that Smartmatic software comes with a “directive” on “how you change the results” of an election.
Newsmax had on guests like failed Texas Republican congressional candidate Russell J. Ramsland Jr., who claimed that the 2018 US congressional election in Dallas, Texas, and the 2019 gubernatorial election in Kentucky were:
“rigged by voting machines with links to Smartmatic and using Venezuelan election-stealing software controlled by a George Soros operative, and that votes had been sent to CIA-funded databases in Spain where they were changed and sent back to the United States.”
What, no Italian space lasers?
The origin of these fictions was Trump’s loon lawyers, Rudy Giuliani (now twice disbarred, congrats), L. Lin Wood (disbarred), and Sidney Powell (still not disbarred!), plus other assorted nuts like the MyPillow guy, who all dragged the voting-machine companies into their wacko conspiracy theories, like that Dominion actually owned Smartmatic, that Smartmatic’s “DNA” was in Dominion voting machines, and also that a secret witness “Venezuelan whistleblower” told Sidney Powell:
“I was a direct witness to the creation and operation of an electronic voting system in a conspiracy between a company known as Smartmatic and the leaders of conspiracy with the Venezuelan government. This conspiracy specifically involved President Hugo Chavez Frias, the person in charge of the National Electoral Council named Jorge Rodriguez, and principals, representatives, and personnel from Smartmatic. […] The purpose of this conspiracy was to create and operate a voting system that could change the votes in elections from votes against persons running the Venezuelan government to votes in their favor in order to maintain control of the government.”
[Wow. They really worked at coming up with all those bogus details.]
In the real world, Newsmax knew full well that the claims were horseshit, surprise. Dominion and Smartmatic are competitors, they do not use the same software, their machines are not alive and therefore do not have DNA, and Hugo Chávez was not alive either, he died in 2013. Smartmatic voting machines were also only used in Los Angeles County, and the machines have never been involved in any kind of security breach anywhere.2
Chris Ruddy, Newsmax CEO, emailed someone November 12, 2020, admitting, “Newsmax does not have evidence of widespread voter fraud.” And Newsmax anchor Bob Sellers groaned to a producer, “How long are we going to have to play along with election fraud?” Until they smelled lawsuits on the horizon, as it turned out!
Still, Newsmax aired hour after hour of this arglebargle, in an attempt to poach viewers from Fox. And it worked. Newsmax’s viewership skyrocketed. Their average viewership was 58,000 viewers a night before the channel started its bogeyman campaign about the 2020 election, then it grew 900 percent after they started drumbeating the lies.
Eventually, though, threatening letters from lawyers freaked them out enough that they sent out anchor John Tabacco to hilariously “clarify” that “it has not reported as true certain claims about these companies.” Watch and have a chuckle! [video at the link]
Still, to this day, 63 percent of Republicans believe that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, and about a third of Americans overall still believe it.
However much Newsmax had to pay, it wasn’t enough.
US consumers may finally be getting some relief from their grocery bills — especially if they shop for food online.
Data by Adobe Inc. shows that online grocery prices fell 3.7% in August from a month earlier, the largest decline since the firm began tracking the numbers in 2014.
Online prices swing up and down faster and more then store prices but store prices are also down. NPR Why the price of eggs is on the rise again
Expect for egg prices. Farms specializing in egg production have had cases of avian flu over the last couple of years with several large ones this year. This is driving large increases in egg prices.
So you are a mail carrier just doing your job and deliverying the mail, and then, a 61 year old racist reacts violently when you happen to place in his mail box a flyer for Kamala Harris for President. Meet Russel Frank Valleau of MI, who has now been charged with assault and a hate crime for his actions.
CBS DETROIT) — A 61-year-old Farmington Hills man faces multiple criminal charges after he allegedly assaulted a female postal carrier Thursday evening upon receiving a flyer in the mail featuring Vice President Kamala Harris.
Investigators say Russell Frank Valleau was allegedly upset about receiving the particular piece of mail and told the postal carrier that he did not want that “Black b****” in his mailbox. He’s accused of yelling derogatory, racist and sexual remarks about Harris and the carrier, calling the postal carrier a “Black b****” and lunging at her with a knife.
The postal carrier used pepper spray on Valleau to stop the attack. Farmington Hills police later arrested him in a neighbor’s yard.
Woman was doing her job, and a racist mofo decides he wants to stab her with a knife. All because Valleau receives a Kamala Harris for President flyer in his mail box. You know I’ve received a flyer or two about from Trump’s campaigns. I wondered, “How the fuck did I get on that mailing list?” But I didn’t run out to attack the mail man for delivery that trash to me. […]
Did You See Kamala Harris Rip Trump Into Itty Bitty Pieces In Border Speech? [Violent metaphor not really needed.] It’s Damn Good
Kamala Harris visited the US-Mexico border in Arizona Friday and gave a speech on immigration policy that ripped Donald Trump for stirring up fear and hate against immigrants as a campaign tactic while doing nothing to address real problems.
It was a hell of a speech! And Harris was definitely taking a bit of a risk by addressing what has so far been Trump’s top issue, and doing so without being the least bit defensive. Instead, Harris argued that once you take away Trump’s hateful bluster, there really isn’t much else.
Harris spoke at the Douglas, Arizona, campus of Cochise Community College, and was introduced by Theresa Guerrero, whose son Jacob died after using drugs laced with fentanyl. We’ve cued the video below to the beginning of Harris’s speech: [video at the link]
Harris balanced a promise to be firm on border enforcement with more traditional Democratic appeals to pragmatism and compassion. She said the US must enforce laws against illegally crossing the border, but we also need to respect human rights, recognize that we need immigration, and offer a pathway to citizenship for people who have lived, worked, and paid taxes here for years, especially our Dreamers, young people brought to the country as children.
If you want a thesis statement for the speech, here it is right here: “I reject the false choice that suggests we must either choose between securing our border or creating a system of immigration that is safe, orderly, and humane. We can, and we must, do both. We must do both.”
Harris once again focused on how Trump deliberately torpedoed a tough, bipartisan immigration bill so he could run on stoking fear about the border instead. She pledged to sign it, if Congress will just pass the damn thing, but she didn’t stop there; she offered new details on how she would extend some of the executive measures that Joe Biden ordered in June, which have greatly reduced unauthorized border crossings. We’ll hit those policy proposals in a later post, because we really want to focus here on why this speech might just be a game-changer for how the immigration issue is discussed in this campaign.
No, we have no illusions that Trump will suddenly stop hatemongering or that Trumpers will realize he’s a charlatan. If anything, he’ll almost certainly ramp up the insane lies about immigrants, because that’s literally all he has. But Harris wasn’t speaking to Trumpers, and only partly to her own supporters. Rather, her remarks were aimed at persuadable people, and focused on just how empty Trump’s immigration rhetoric is.
Like any good practitioner of martial arts, she turned Trump’s seeming strength and momentum against him, and even if he doesn’t realize it, she left him flat on the floor.
Here’s her key indictment of Trump’s genuine emptiness when it comes to the issue: As president, he failed at doing anything to fix real immigration problems, but instead simply substituted hate for any kind of substance: [video at the link]
In the four years that Donald Trump was president, he did nothing to fix our broken immigration system as president. He did not solve the shortage of immigration judges. He did not solve the shortage of border agents. He did not create lawful pathways into our nation. He did nothing to address an outdated asylum system, and did not work with other governments in our hemisphere to deal with what clearly is also a regional challenge.
[I really like Kamala Harris’ presentation of all those facts. She did not just use vague promises or talking points.]
And then, this brilliant shoulder throw, tossing Trump’s record flat on its back:
And what did he do instead? Let’s talk about that. He separated families. He ripped toddlers out of their mothers’ arms, put children in cages, and tried to end protections for Dreamers. He made the challenges at the border worse, and he is still fanning the flames of hate and division.
And let me be clear: That is not the work of a leader. That is in fact an abdication of leadership. […] We cannot accept Donald Trump’s failure to lead.
Oh, it was good. “We should not accept scapegoating instead of solutions, or rhetoric instead of results.” As a Doktor of Rhetoric, I approve this message!
Harris didn’t just dismiss Trump as a paper tiger on immigration, though: She went on to call for serious immigration reforms that would actually address the problems at the border instead of pursuing a fascist fantasy of deporting everyone, which wouldn’t just be monstrous, but impossible to actually carry out.
“We must reform our immigration system to ensure that it works in an orderly way, that it is humane and that it makes our country stronger,” Harris said, calling for a pathway to citizenship, protections for Dreamers, and reforms to keep farmworkers safe and able to seek permanent residency too. Yeah, that’s going to stir up rightwing tirades about “amnesty,” and she should damn well point out that when Ronald Reagan granted a similar path to citizenship for people who had been here for decades, it was a huge success. […]
Tyrant Joe Biden Sending You Free COVID Tests Again, How Dare He?
Probably the spy software in the first round of tests has expired.
I’m glad to hear this. I need updated COVID tests. I just threw my expired tests away today.
COVID-19 still isn’t gone, in case you were wondering. It’s no longer a pandemic, but there’s been a late-summer surge of new cases — Yr Editrix caught it at the DNC in August, but she is well-vaccinated and was totally fine except having to sit in her room for five days (don’t tell anyone, it was kind of nice actually). And we’re heading into going-indoors season, so the Biden administration is once again making free COVID home test kits available through the mail, four of the kits per mailing address. You can order them online now and they’ll go out starting September 30, so hooray that there’s not going to be a government shutdown. (The Postal Service is an independent agency funded by selling stamps anyway, but darned if we know whether processing the test kit requests at HHS would have been slowed if there had been a shutdown.)
What’s that? Stop yapping and make with the URL? Well sure […] That link there takes you to COVIDtests.gov, which also has additional info about shelf lives and the extended expiration dates for tests that went out earlier. […]
Anyhow, since the end of the official health emergency, home COVID test kits now cost like $9.99 a pop, so having a few on hand gratis will definitely be helpful. (You can also often get them for free at your local library!) With the virus continuing to be out there, it’s just good sense to check and rule out COVID when a cold hits you like a ton of bricks (Dok raises hand and demands sympathy for all the coughing he’s done this week. Yes, I tested; not positive). And of course before you head off to visit people!
CNBC notes the tests can detect the COVID variants that are circulating right now, most of them descended from “the highly contagious omicron variant JN.1.” […]
“This is the seventh time over the last three years that the Biden-Harris administration has given families the opportunity to order the over-the-counter Covid-19 tests for free” through the government’s website.
[…] The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has detected “high” or “very high” levels of COVID in wastewater in nearly all US states, although the administration had actually been planning to roll out free test mailings in September anyway since we’re entering the time of year when people are heading indoors and traveling ahead of the holidays.
Also, if you haven’t gotten your annual COVID shot, which is how we should think of the things now, it’s getting to be that time again, with new formulations out from Pfizer and Moderna, updated to protect you against a severe case of the bug. Same for the flu vaccine.
You can safely get both the flu and COVID vaccines the same day; if you’ve had COVID recently, you can hold off a month or two, but remember to get the vaccine at some point so you’ll be in good shape for the whole winter. […]” COVID still killed more Americans than flu last year.
The newly updated COVID shots target the current viral baddies and should provide good protection across the variants that are known to be out there now.
And if you’re an old like Dok Zoom, you may also want a shot to protect against RSV, though that vaccine only needs to be received once, not annually. It’s recommended for everyone over 75, or for those 60 to 74 who are at higher risk, like me with my high blood pressure. […]
Stay healthy, get those test kits, update your vaccines as needed […] Oh yeah, and for the health of your democracy, make sure your voter registration is valid!
What we know about Helene
– Helene, a post-tropical cyclone, was expected to stall over the Tennessee Valley through the weekend, and could bring an additional 1 to 2 inches of rain across parts of the Ohio Valley.
– At least 53 deaths have been reported as a result of the storm, which made landfall Thursday night in Florida’s Big Bend region as a Category 4 hurricane. Seventeen people, including children, died in Georgia due to Helene, the governor said after viewing damage in Valdosta.
– More than 3 million customers are without power in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Virginia.
– That includes more than 1.7 million customers in the Carolinas, and 748,000 in Georgia, as the post-tropical cyclone unleashed life-threatening flooding and prompted evacuation warnings.
– A dam in Greene County, Tenn., on the border with North Carolina, is still intact after officials warned of an imminent breach and told residents downstream to move to higher ground.
– NBC News Lite, a lightweight version of NBCNews.com available in emergency situations when internet connectivity may be limited, has been turned on for readers in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama and North Carolina.
Re: Lynna, OM @ #335…
Ordered my COVID test kits yesterday. I’d been watching the news stories to see when it was going to be possible to place the order. As for a COVID shot…at my age (75), it’s twice a year. Planning to get the new shot in two weeks. It will be my 9th COVID shot. So far, I’ve managed not to catch it, but not counting on the streak to last forever.
It’s a dinosaur that roamed Alberta’s badlands more than 70 million years ago, sporting a big, bumpy, bony head the size of a baby elephant.
On Wednesday, paleontologists near Grande Prairie pulled its 272-kilogram skull from the ground.
They call it “Big Sam.”
The adult Pachyrhinosaurus is the second plant-eating dinosaur to be unearthed from a dense bonebed belonging to a herd that died together on the edge of a valley that now sits 450 kilometres northwest of Edmonton…
She described the horned Pachyrhinosaurus as “the smaller, older cousin of the triceratops.” …
A 3,775-year-old log unintentionally discovered under a farm in Canada may point to a deceptively simple method of locking climate-warming carbon out of the atmosphere for thousands of years, according to a study published Thursday…
Doing something as simple as burying wood underground in the right spot, these researchers say, may be a cheap and scalable way of doing just that…
whheydt @339: “I’ve managed not to catch it, but not counting on the streak to last forever.”
Same here. My plan is this: if I do catch a case of COVID, I plan to survive with minimal damage because I have been vaccinated. Hopefully, also no need for hospitalization.
Just days after Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida, the National Hurricane Center is warning residents on the Gulf Coast to monitor another tropical system
A low-pressure system is expected to develop over the western Caribbean Sea in the next couple of days. Environmental conditions are forecast to support gradual development, and a tropical depression or tropical storm could form by the middle of next week. The chance of formation is up to 50 percent over the next seven days…
If you’re on medicaid, your insurance might offer a pair of covid kits each month if requested.
[What I did.]: I called up a pharmacy for advice. They gave me a phone number for my insurer—who’d recently had a computer glitch booting folks off some relevant program that the pharmacy needed. After waiting a while on hold, the insurer queued my reinrollment, estimating 45 min. I called the pharmacy, who said it it hadn’t gone through yet and gave me a /better/ number for another of the insurer’s call centers (one with authority to bump me up the queue). I waited on hold and did that.
[Your experience hopefully starts here. =) ]: I called the pharmacy, and they had the kits ready for pickup that same afternoon for free.
/I’d caught a respiratory virus in July. Tested negative twice. My first influenza: same symptoms but briefer, sore throat then only a week of violent snotty coughing fits. Would not recommend.
Donald Trump could have destroyed the Affordable Care Act, but “he chose to build upon [it].” —Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) on “Meet the Press,” Sept. 15
Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) on Sept. 15 told viewers of NBC’s “Meet the Press” that […] Trump built up the Affordable Care Act, even though Trump could have chosen to do the opposite.
“Donald Trump had two choices,” Vance, Trump’s running mate, said. “He could have destroyed the program, or he could actually build upon it and make it better so that Americans didn’t lose a lot of health care. He chose to build upon a plan, even though it came from his Democratic predecessor.”
The remarks follow statements the former president made during his Sept. 10 debate with Vice President Kamala Harris in Philadelphia. Trump said of the ACA, “I saved it.”
The Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, has grown more popular as Americans have increasingly used it to gain health coverage. More than 20 million people enrolled this year in plans sold through the marketplaces it created. That makes the law a tricky political issue for Republicans, who have largely retreated from their attempts over the past decade to repeal it.
Both Vance’s and Trump’s statements are false. […] here’s a review of policies related to Obamacare that Trump pursued as president.
So What Did Trump Do With the ACA?
Most of the Trump administration’s ACA-related actions involved cutting the program, including reducing by millions of dollars funding for marketing and enrollment assistance and backing the many failed efforts in Congress and the courts to overturn the law. In June 2020, for example, the administration asked the Supreme Court to overturn the law in a case brought by more than a dozen GOP states. The high court eventually rejected the case.
“The fact the ACA survived the Trump administration is a testament to the strength of the underlying statutory framework, and that the public rallied around it,” said Sabrina Corlette, co-director of the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University.
Most ACA provisions took effect in 2014, during Barack Obama’s presidential administration.
Average premium costs, already rising when Trump took office, jumped for some plans in 2018, before beginning a modest decline for the rest of his term, according to statistics from KFF, a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News.
Some of those increases were tied to a 2017 Trump administration decision to stop making payments to insurers, which was intended to reduce deductibles and copayments for people with low to moderate incomes. By law, though, insurers still had to offer the plans.
Two months earlier, the Congressional Budget Office warned that stopping the payments could cause some insurers to leave the ACA marketplace — and that premiums would rise by 20% in the first year.
Most states, however, let insurers make up for the lost payments by increasing monthly premiums. That had the unintended effect of boosting federal subsidies for people who buy Obamacare plans, because the subsidies are tied to the cost of premiums.
“By accident, that gave people cheaper access to better coverage in the exchange plans,” said Joe Antos, a senior fellow emeritus with the American Enterprise Institute.
Some Republicans think Trump deserves credit for this inadvertent improvement. [LOL]
But Larry Levitt, KFF’s executive vice president for health policy, said that wasn’t the Trump administration’s intention.
“The one time when Trump improved the ACA, it was an unintended consequence of an attempt to weaken it,” he said. [Trump fails at sabotage.]
Meanwhile, the Trump administration expanded access to some kinds of less expensive health coverage that aren’t compliant with ACA rules, including short-term plans that generally have more restrictions on care and can leave consumers with surprise medical bills. Democrats call the plans “junk insurance.”
[…] Trump also supported congressional repeal-and-replace efforts, all of which failed — including on the memorable night when Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) helped kill the effort with a thumbs-down vote. The Trump administration never issued its own replacement plan, despite the former president’s many promises that he would.
Trump, during the debate with Harris, said that he has “concepts of a plan” to replace Obamacare and that “you’ll be hearing about it in the not-too-distant future.”
On “Meet the Press,” host Kristen Welker asked Vance when Trump’s plan would be ready. He didn’t answer directly but said it would involve “deregulating the insurance market.”
Critics say that’s code for letting insurers do business as they did pre-ACA, when sick people could be denied coverage or charged exorbitant premiums based on preexisting conditions.
Our Ruling
Vance’s assertion that Trump as president took steps to build upon the ACA and protect the health coverage of 20 million Americans is simply not supported by the record.
Trump administration policies, for example, didn’t buttress the ACA but often undermined enrollment outreach efforts or were advanced to sabotage the insurance marketplace. Also, Trump vocally supported congressional efforts to overturn the law and legal challenges to it.
By the numbers, Affordable Care Act enrollment declined by more than 2 million people during Trump’s presidency, and the number of uninsured Americans rose by 2.3 million, including 726,000 children, from 2016 to 2019, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That includes nearly three years of Trump’s presidency.
We rate Vance’s statement False.
Links to additional sources can be accessed at the main link.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain @347, thanks for the additional information and advice.
Sorry to hear you had to weather bouts of illness serious enough to prompt COVID testing.
I have not had trouble getting my free COVID tests, but a friend of mine had difficulties similar to what you describe. For the most part, patience and persistence finally won the day.
I have had problems related to my doctor’s office trying to charge me for vaccinations that are supposed to be free. The nurse’s advice: get your vaccination at a pharmacy and avoid the medical billing department of the doctor’s office (which seems to be permanently fucked up or at least unreliable).
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Re: Lynna @350:
I have had problems related to my doctor’s office trying to charge me for vaccinations that are supposed to be free.
Oh yeah. Me too.
In my case, it was a little clinic that was part of a larger hospital chain bureaucracy. After each of several shots, I’d received a bill for “immunization admin fee” and “administrative fee”. My insurer referred to it as “double billing”. They’d already paid and advised me to ignore the bills. Something about the hospital system using the wrong codes.
JD Vance suffered yet another embarrassing set back on the campaign trail, after being denied entry to a restaurant where he was supposed to speak – and being forced to address supporters in the parking lot instead.
According to reports, after showing up to Primanti Bros in North Versailles, Pennsylvania, a restaurant worker told the press that cameras were not allowed and that they did not want a “campaign event.”
The restaurant was reportedly full of customers waiting to greet Vance, who canceled their food orders after learning he wasn’t welcome.
Vance ended up glad-handing in the parking lot outside, according to NBC…
A U.S. Trademark Office tribunal has canceled a set of “Super Hero” trademarks jointly owned by comic giants Marvel and DC at the request of a London-based comic book artist, according to a Thursday order.
They didn’t show up in court to defend it so it isn’t clear if they somehow missed this or if they decided it wasn’t worth it. This has always been super iffy as being too generic and questions over how they jointly held the trademark but nobody with enough money ever went to the trouble to take it too court. It’s been an annoyance for competitors and certain RPG games for a long time but also easy to work around.
The United Nations is set to vote on a treaty later this year intended to create norms for fighting cybercrime — and the Biden administration is fretting over whether to sign on.
Big questions over civil rights and how they are protected in the treaty. Big enough that both the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce among other organizations think it’s a bad deal. With those two organizations opposed it’s very much both the left and right think it’s a bad idea. What worries the Biden administration is that if they walk away then Russia and China may get to decide what goes in the treaty.
A TikTok-fueled surge in inhalant use is endangering kids’ lives, researchers warn. In a new study, the researchers have collected and analyzed dozens of videos amassing millions of views that feature the trend, known as “chroming.”
Inhalant use has long been a persistent public health problem. The various vapors or gases used as inhalants cause a euphoric, if usually short-lasting, high, but long-term use can lead to complications like brain damage or even death. The researchers behind this new study say that TikTok has sparked a newfound interest in inhalants among children and teens. In recent years, several families have alleged that their children were gravely injured or killed by using inhalants after being encouraged to do so as part as a viral “chroming challenge” featured on the platform.
The scientists analyzed 109 chroming-related videos on the social media platform that collectively had over 25 million views. They looked for details like the creator’s age and gender, any specific inhalants mentioned, and whether the creator discussed repeated use and addiction. Permanent markers appeared to be the most popularly referenced inhalant, with about a third of videos discussing them, followed by air dusters, nail polish, paint thinners, and gasoline, the researchers found. More than half of the videos also alluded to addiction. The team’s findings will be presented this weekend at the American Academy of Pediatrics 2024 National Conference & Exhibition…
The two environmental activists who threw a can of tomato soup on Vincent Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” painting have been sentenced to two years in prison.
In October of 2022, Phoebe Plummer, then 21, and Anna Holland, then 20, entered London’s National Gallery museum and proceeded to douse the well-known work with soup. Both activists, who are affiliated with the group Just Stop Oil, then glued themselves to the wall next to the painting and used the subsequent social media spectacle to broadcast their concerns about climate change to the world. The two activists were sentenced Friday in Southwark crown court in London for having caused an estimated £10,000 of damage to the painting’s frame, The Guardian reports…
“one of the biggest” of its kind ever recorded in Ireland. […] The practice of storing butter in bogs dates as far back as the Iron Age and is recorded as taking place as recently as the 16th and 19th century. […] preserving butter for centuries […] “It does taste like butter, an unsalted butter at that. I had a sliver and I’m still here to tell the tale,”
[…]
“They tend to be the size of a mixing bowl […] rather than what was found. [In] kegs, churns, or even baskets and animal bladders, or indeed the skins of various animals. This one only had a small piece of wood […] which could indicate that it was stored in a wooden box but […] has disintegrated over time.”
The original motivations behind the creation of bog butter are unclear. One widespread theory is that food products were buried in bogs to hinder spoilage. Peat bogs, being low temperature, low oxygen, highly acidic environments, have excellent preservative properties. […] pathogen and bacterial counts of meat buried in peat bogs for up to two years were comparable to levels found in control samples stored in a modern freezer
Well, RFK’s freezer anyway. Watch out for bog bodies.
One dollar will be worth a lot more than that — as a rare 1776 continental dollar coin is set to go to auction next month…
The continental dollar was the first pattern coin struck for the United States. Believed to be designed by Benjamin Franklin, the continental dollar concepts were translated into coins by Elisha Gallaudet, a New York engraver. Gallaudet was thought to have made them at a makeshift private mint in New Jersey, the Smithsonian Museum said, and the coins were issued in silver and pewter.
The silver versions of the coins are extremely rare and only two are known to exist, according to the Professional Coin Grading Service, a rare coin grading company. About 20 pewter continental dollars exist in mint condition, said PCGS. In 2008, a pewter continental dollar was auctioned for the record price of $264,500. In 2015, a silver continental dollar was auctioned off for a record $1,527,500.
The recently discovered coin is set to be auctioned on October 3, said the auction house, and is estimated to go for £20,000 (about $26,360) to £30,000 (about $39,540)
Lauren Boebert accused a journalist of “bias” and being “partisan” for stating climate change and warming temperatures will impact the water supply in her home state.
The Colorado Republican butted heads with a journalist from Colorado Public Radio, saying she was “extremely disappointed in the bias” of the interview, which covered inflation, immigration and climate change.
Boebert, who is running for re-election in the 4th Congressional District in Colorado, told reporter Ryan Warner: “I’m extremely disappointed in the bias of your questions already. It’s very unfortunate that we are having this time together to communicate policy and every one of your questions is so far skewed and is so partisan.”
Warner had asked Boebert what she believes a representative’s role is when it comes to preserving Colorado’s water needs “in the face of climate change.”
“Wow,” Boebert replied. “There’s certainly a reason I don’t listen to CPR news, and this is…” …
whheydtsays
Re: Reginald Selkirk @ #359…
passing by the utter cluelessness and denial of observable facts in Boebert’s statements, it is questionable that she can be described as “running for re-election in the Colorado 4th district” since that isn’t where she was originally elected to Congress.
You’re walking down the street. You feel something, and you reach down and – someone is picking your pocket! You grab his hand, and demand, “stop that!”
“Let’s be fair,” he replies. “Let’s split the money.”
The Texas Supreme Court dealt a final blow Thursday night to Attorney General Ken Paxton’s hail-Mary attempt to quash the State Fair of Texas’ newly implemented no-gun policy in an order issued 13 hours before the festivities began Friday morning.
In an unsigned decision, the all-Republican high court denied Paxton’s request for a temporary injunction against the firearms ban, meaning fairgoers — except peace officers — must leave their weapons behind before they enter Dallas’ Fair Park.
Justice Jimmy Blacklock ridiculed the state’s legal arguments in a scathing, five-page concurring opinion signed by Chief Justice Nathan Hecht and Justice Evan Young, spearing the attorney general for “tak(ing) no position” on whether the state fair has the authority to ban firearms and for failing to substantiate its assertion that the city of Dallas, not the fair, directed the policy change…
‘DWTS’ contestant Barry Williams feels ‘connected to multiple generations’
‘The Brady Bunch’ actor Barry Williams tells Fox News Digital what it feels like to gain support from so many fans on “Dancing with the Stars”
Barry Williams is getting real about the past relationships and hook-ups shared between his “Brady Bunch” costars.
“We all hooked up with each other at some point,” the 69-year-old actor told Us Weekly. “Not necessarily while we were filming.”
“I dated Maureen [McCormick], and Chris [Knight] dated Eve [Plum] and Michael [Lookinland] and Susan [Olsen] had a little mock wedding at one point. So, yes, we all hooked up,” he added…
If she wins in November, Vice President Kamala Harris may face a hostile, Republican-controlled Senate in no mood to confirm the senior Cabinet officials she’ll need to run her administration.
Anticipating that scenario, Harris’ team is exploring whether to keep in place some of the Biden administration officials who’ve already been confirmed by the Senate and wouldn’t need to face the gauntlet again, four people familiar with her transition planning said.
There is also that Harris has not had much time to put together a plan. Not only the Cabinet but a bunch of secondary positions like ambassadors, anything that has to go through Senate confirmation might be asked to stay. It’s likely to be a very on the fly thing because the exact split in the Senate will matter.
She will also face a very politically dicey situation with Merrick Garland. He is surely somebody Harris would like to replace because he is unpopular in Democratic circles. At the same time, getting a new attorney general through will be one of the hardest jobs and the DOJ may already be tied up in election law suits. Even finding somebody willing to take the job could be hard.
Jeansays
Reginald Selkirk @361
Actually, it’s as if after a home invasion, you are asked to give up to the invader one bedroom and one bathroom and ignore that the invader killed your son and assaulted your daughter. And you need to give the invader a set of house keys. And you can’t call 911 if something goes wrong.
Bekenstein Boundsays
birgerjohansson@349:
FiveThirtyEight: New Polling – Kamala Harris On The Way To Victory In November
And yet their web site is still only giving her 58% odds … worryingly low.
birgerjohanssonsays
“I Learned About the World’s Craziest Far-Right Ideologies So You Won’t Have To”
One Israeli strike hit an industrial area 500 metres (yards) from Beirut airport
[…]
More than 1,000 people have been killed and more than 6,000 wounded as a result of Israeli attacks in the past two weeks, the health ministry said, and about one million Lebanese have been displaced by the strikes, including hundreds of thousands since Friday
[…]
Hezbollah gave no immediate indication of who might succeed Nasrallah. […] Hezbollah continued its cross-border rocket fire on Saturday, setting off sirens and sending residents running for shelter deep inside Israel. Israeli missile defences blocked some of them […] Hezbollah has said it would cease fire only when Israel’s Gaza offensive ends.
[…]
Lebanon’s transport ministry asked an Iranian plane not to enter Lebanese airspace after Israel warned air traffic control at the Beirut airport that it would use “force” if it landed […] it was not clear what was on the plane
When Israel announced that it had killed Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah […] the news was dismissed by many Lebanese as enemy propaganda.
[…]
People crammed into minibuses, strapped suitcases and blankets to their cars, and headed north—out of the danger zone. Those with no place to go moved into the streets, sleeping on sidewalks and in city squares
[…]
Hezbollah confirmed its leader’s death—and in Beirut, all hell broke loose. Across the city, people ran into the streets, firing gunshots into the sky—some in celebration, others in anger, seeking revenge. The Lebanese army deployed Humvees and tanks in anticipation of potential violent demonstrations. Many wept bitterly.
[…]
While some people in Lebanon view Hezbollah as a destabilizing force due to its sectarian nature and ties to Iran, others see the organization as playing a critical role in Lebanon’s security, governance, and regional alliances. It maintains a strong resistance posture against Israel, which many view as essential for Lebanon’s stability.
[…]
In a statement on Saturday, U.S. President Joe Biden said the United States “fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself against Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and any other Iranian-supported terrorist groups.”
KGsays
The two activists were sentenced Friday in Southwark crown court in London for having caused an estimated £10,000 of damage to the painting’s frame – Reginald Selkirk@356 quoting gizmodo
I don’t agree with their methods, but the sentence is manifestly excessive; it’s part of an authoritarian crackdown on all types of peaceful protest in the UK. Many of the participants in the recent racist riots got off more lightly. And incidentally, how can you do £10,000 worth of damage to a frame?
As surging water from Hurricane Helene inundated the Tampa Bay area Thursday, Tampa General Hospital stayed dry, thanks to a temporary floodwall that protected the hospital.
In a video posted by the hospital, which sits on an island in Hillsborough Bay, a fence several feet tall keeps the floodwaters at bay as Helene churns through the area.
The floodwall was made by AquaFence, a Norwegian company that supplies industrial-grade, watertight barriers that can be rapidly deployed in a flood.
“We can confirm the AquaFence worked effectively to prevent the storm surge in Tampa Bay from flooding the TGH main campus on Davis Islands,” Jennifer Crabtree, vice president of corporate communications and chief of staff at the hospital, wrote in a statement.
The AquaFence does not require fill, such as sand, to fortify the barrier. It is made of modules that can be linked to protect entire buildings or be placed in front of entrances. With straps anchoring the modules to the ground, the wall stays put in high winds. And as the floodwaters rise, the floodwall stabilizes to grow stronger with more water…
The Justice Department revealed an indictment Friday charging a Florida man with threatening to kill his political opponent in 2021.
William Robert Braddock III, 41, of St. Petersburg, Florida, was charged with threatening two people, one of whom the DOJ said was his primary opponent in the 2022 election for Florida’s 13th Congressional District. Braddock allegedly threatened to “call up my Russian-Ukrainian hit squad” and make the primary opponent disappear, according to the indictment.
The DOJ indictment did not name the alleged victims.
One of Braddock’s primary opponents and the race’s eventual winner, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., contended in 2021 court documents that Braddock was stalking her and wanted her dead.
A Florida court in 2021 granted Luna and a conservative activist and friend of hers, Erin Olszewski, a temporary restraining order.
Braddock terminated his campaign in 2021 shortly after the judge granted the injunction…
California Rep. Adam Schiff (D) introduced a bill on Friday that would prevent sitting presidents from dismissing criminal prosecution against themselves, including through coercion of an attorney general or anyone acting on the president’s behalf.
The Investigative Integrity Protection Act seeks to require a three-judge court hearing before any charges against a president are dropped, according to a release. The legislation would only allow the court to grant a dismissal after considering whether the attorney general was appointed with the intent of dismissing any criminal prosecution against the president.
A Department of Justice inspector general would also be inquired to investigate any inquiries and immediately report findings to Congress under the proposed bill…
StevoRsays
Good satirical if also deeply terrifying in tems of its implications 5 mins long Juice media Honest Government Ad | TRUMP 2024 here with some good info at the end worth noting.
Newly released messages appear to undercut vice-presidential nominee JD Vance’s claims that he had a change of heart about former President Donald Trump once he witnessed his achievements in office…
However, The Washington Post obtained direct messages Vance reportedly exchanged privately on Twitter, in which he slammed Trump — a man he later deemed “the best president of my lifetime,” for his myriad shortfalls as commander-in-chief.
“Trump has just so thoroughly failed to deliver on his economic populism (excepting a disjointed China policy),” Vance reportedly wrote in February 2020…
[…] Before Trump, it would have been impossible to imagine a former president helming a publicly traded company while running for office again. However, the Trump presidency shattered every norm as Trump used his office to line his pockets.
A second Trump presidency will be worse, without a doubt, particularly because the federal courts, now stuffed with Trump appointees, are happily weakening the meager guardrails that remain.
While the name “Trump Media” connotes some sort of multi-faceted media empire, it’s really just Truth Social […] Truth Social is, to put it bluntly, not terribly popular. Its audience keeps plummeting, and even Trump has returned to posting on X, a rival platform with an audience nearly 100 times that of Truth Social. The stock was comically overvalued, pegged at $7 billion despite Truth Social posting millions of dollars of losses and having nearly no revenue.
None of that seems to matter to die-hard Trump fans, who poured money into the stock with what one stock analyst called a “quasi-religious fervor.” They’re happy to excuse the losses, making statements like “I did it more as a statement to President Trump and to show support at the time,” said Teri Lynn Roberson to ABC News. “I wasn’t really looking to make a lot of money,” said Roberson, who bought five shares of the company after it went public in March.
That’s probably the best attitude, given that top executives at Trump Media started selling off their shares as soon as possible, eating huge losses in their quest to get out from under the failing stock. Trump still owns his shares, representing roughly 57% of the company. Until Sept. 19, Trump could not sell shares, as he and other company insiders were in a six-month lock-up period. Toward the end of the lock-up period, Trump said he wouldn’t be selling his shares, a statement that goosed the stock price a bit at the time.
In a typical company, this might be seen as a vote of confidence from the founder, a willingness to risk their own fortunes. But Trump has far darker reasons to hold on to his stock. If Trump wins the election, the chances that investors will pony up and buy Trump Media stock increases. People could buy access to the president by throwing money at his company, which he would be running from the White House.
As Abdallah Fayyad explained at Vox, it is easy to imagine someone who has maxed out their campaign contributions deciding to show support for Trump by investing in Trump Media instead. This is, of course, not speculation.
During Trump’s first term, millions of dollars poured into his hotel in Washington, D.C., with Republicans pretending that they were just staying there because it was the most convenient location. However, they’ve barely stayed in that hotel since it changed hands and became a Waldorf Astoria in 2022.
And why would they? It’s no longer a way to show Trump their support by helping him profit financially. Trump has shifted his focus as well, instead selling access to Mar-a-Lago to the tune of $1 million per membership.
Trump Media is an ethical nightmare, but at least it’s a publicly traded company, which comes with transparency and oversight. Trump’s push into the crypto market, on the other hand, is opaque and unregulated—the perfect vehicle for a corrupt former president to get spectacularly more corrupt if he’s elected again.
The crypto project, with the uninspired name of World Liberty Financial, serves as a way for Trump to give all his failsons—now including Barron, who is the “visionary” behind the project—a fake job that still comes with real money. The fact that all of Trump’s adult sons—none of whom have worked in the financial sector—are heading the project is one way to tell that this crypto effort will just be another grift. [video at the link]
Additionally, no one seems to actually know what this crypto company will do, even after a two-hour livestream launching the effort. Even Trump doesn’t seem quite sure. When trying to explain it, here’s what he came up with: “Crypto is one of those things we have to do… Whether we like it or not, I have to do it… It’s crypto, it’s AI, it’s some of the other things,” he said in an interview on X. Got it.
Where some of Trump’s other ventures, like Trump steaks, Trump bottled water, and Trump vodka, might have appealed to the masses if they were any good, Trump’s relatively newfound affinity for crypto is wholly tied to that financial sector’s affinity for right-wing politics. It’s also a way for him to court the crypto vote and contrast himself with the Biden-Harris administration, which has cracked down on crypto scams and prosecuted people like Sam Bankman-Fried for defrauding investors out of billions of dollars.
The crypto sector has spent over $100 million during the 2024 election cycle thus far, hoping to usher in an era of less oversight and fewer consumer protections. Trump is the superior political choice if you want less regulation of the financial markets.
The conservatives on the Supreme Court have already seriously dented the Securities and Exchange Commission’s ability to address violations by ruling that they must conduct full-fledged jury trials rather than use an in-house administrative process. Those same conservatives also just struck down the Chevron doctrine, which required courts to defer to agency interpretations of statutes.
Under Biden, the current head of the SEC, Gary Gensler, has called the crypto sector “rife with fraud and hucksters and grifters.” If Trump wins in 2024, he could weaken the SEC without legislation or court action simply by installing people who won’t impose fines or pursue scammy crypto companies. […]
Trump certainly shouldn’t have a private business in a regulated industry like securities when he would have the power to weaken regulations over his own business. […]
The only way to stop this is to ensure Trump doesn’t win. Of course, he’ll still continue to hawk whatever products will help him fleece his supporters, but at least he won’t be able to do it from the Oval Office.
“Bread and circuses” (or bread and games; from Latin: panem et circenses) is a metonymic phrase referring to superficial appeasement. It is attributed to Juvenal (Satires, Satire X), a Roman poet active in the late first and early second century AD, and is used commonly in cultural, particularly political, contexts. In a political context, the phrase means to generate public approval, not by excellence in public service or public policy, but by diversion, distraction, or by satisfying the most immediate or base requirements of a populace,[1] by offering a palliative: for example food (bread) or entertainment (circuses).
RFK Jr. Loses Three Ballot Access Lawsuits In Setback For Electoral Ratf*cking And Victory For Democracy
Friday was a rough day in the ratfucking mines for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The plague enthusiast saw not one, not two, but three of his legal challenges to his ballot status in New York, Michigan, and Wisconsin rejected by the courts. Score a tiny, tiny victory for the sane among us.
These particular ratfucking efforts required Typhoid Bobby to take two wildly contradictory stances on ballot access for his recently dead presidential campaign. In New York, RFK Jr. had sued to keep his name on the ballot despite his having dropped out of the race. But in Wisconsin and Michigan, the squinty jackass had sued to force his name off the presidential ballot. (This already worked in North Carolina, and it was disgusting.) Did you go cross-eyed reading those sentences? Because we went cross-eyed writing them.
Yes, it is confusing and incredibly stupid. Not that we would expect intellectual consistency from a chemtrails conspiracy theorist who opposes water fluoridation like we’re all still living in 1953 […]
First, New York. Kennedy’s name had been taken off the ballot last month after a judge determined that he lied about being a New York resident on his nominating petitions. It turns out the address he used was the home of some random friend in Katonah from whom he rented a room in May, and where he had spent precisely one night since.
Kennedy’s excuse for this deception was that even though he moved to California in 2014 to live with his actress wife, he always intended to come back to New York someday, and isn’t that the same thing as actually living there now, in the present? And besides, he argued, the 100,000 New Yorkers who signed his nominating petition deserved the opportunity to vote for him. […]
every state judge who heard his argument had the same reaction: Are you fucking kidding me? So he tried appealing all the way up to the Supreme Court. On Friday SCOTUS announced it would not take up the case. Since only four justices needed to sign on to take it, we can assume that at least three of the conservatives had a rare moment of sanity.
The dumbest part of this is that New York is no swing state; Kamala Harris is on track to win it easily. All Kennedy could do was narrow her margin, which might appeal to both his and Donald Trump’s ego. Which we suppose is reason enough to tie up the courts with nonsense.
RFK Jr. was taking the complete opposite tack in Michigan, suing to keep his name off the ballot after the state Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson determined too bad, bub, it was stayin’. On Friday a panel from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that removing Kennedy’s name from the ballot less than six weeks before the election would be too disruptive, what with ballots already being printed up and the absentees mailed out. […]
Kennedy was campaigning in Michigan on Thursday night, where he seemed to know he was about to lose the case. So he told the crowd to not vote for him:
“My name is going to be on the ballot,” Kennedy said during the Thursday town hall. “But I am asking people not to check my name, but to check Donald Trump’s name because that’s the only way I am going to get to Washington.”
Untrue! He could visit Washington anytime he wants. He’s a Kennedy, he can absolutely afford a hotel room.
It was a similar story in Wisconsin, where on Friday the state supreme court rejected Kennedy’s attempt to get his name off the ballot there. The mechanism by which he wanted his name removed, though, was a little different.
From Slate:
Wisconsin officials, who have already printed ballots and begun mailing them out, say it is far too late to remove Kennedy’s name. But the candidate has proposed a work-around: He argues that county clerks should be required to cut out and place a sticker over his name on each ballot—all 4 million of them.
[…] But an even bigger issue was how disruptive a sticker would be to the literal counting process. […]
Election officials and county clerks were floating some dire scenarios. Ballot tabulating machines are calibrated to a ballot’s exact weight, and they might reject ballots weighed down by even an extra fraction of an ounce. Or a machine could interpret the sticker’s presence as some sort of voter error and reject legitimate ballots. Or machines might react differently from each other, which would invalidate some ballots in one jurisdiction and not another. And on and on and on, world without end, amen.
The end result would have been laborious hand counts, which would have slowed down certification, been less accurate, and probably invited a whole bunch of lawsuits from both Democrats and Republicans while Donald Trump screamed “FRAUD” over and over like a tornado warning alarm and the rest of us banged our heads against the wall with ever-increasing force.
In other words, it would have gone exactly as the Republicans want, the ratfuckers.
Kennedy did win one effort a couple of weeks ago in North Carolina, where that state’s insane supreme court ordered clerks to destroy three million ballots and redesign and reprint them without Kennedy’s name. This despite the fact that RFK Jr. filed his appeal to have his name removed five days after the deadline for such requests in August, and clerks across the state warned that the order would mean ballots would not get printed and mailed out in time to meet both state and federal law. Which will make the vote count there chaotic and invite all sorts of other lawsuits down the line. So score one for the ratfuckers there.
So a bad week for Bobby legally, but we did find learn the gag-inducing news from the 31-year-old reporter that he has been virtually banging that the 70-year-old has impressive sexual stamina [Referring to FaceTime sex]. So, there’s that.
Donald J. Trump’s attacks calling Kamala Harris “mentally impaired” and “mentally disabled” were criticized on Sunday by Democrats and Republicans.
[…] Trump’s series of demeaning insults calling Vice President Kamala Harris “mentally impaired” and “mentally disabled” drew rebukes Sunday morning from Republicans and Democrats alike.
Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said on CNN that he thought “the better course to take is to prosecute the case that her policies are destroying the country.” Former Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, an anti-Trump Republican running for Senate there, called the remarks “insulting” both to Ms. Harris and to “people that actually do have mental disabilities.” Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois, a Democrat, decried Mr. Trump’s “name-calling” and added, “Whenever he says things like that, he’s talking about himself but trying to project it.”
[…] The day after Vice President Kamala Harris visited the southern border and pledged to crack down on asylum and beef up security, former President Donald J. Trump unleashed a string of sharply personal attacks on her at a rally on Saturday, expressing contempt for her intelligence and calling her “mentally disabled.”
In a dark, often rambling speech lasting longer than an hour, Mr. Trump — whose advisers have urged him to focus on policy issues rather than on personal jabs — notably escalated his attacks against Ms. Harris. Mr. Trump, who has often questioned President Biden’s mental abilities, told supporters at a rally in Prairie du Chien, Wis., that “Joe Biden became mentally impaired; Kamala was born that way.”
The big night opened with Maya Rudolph as an electrifying Vice President Kamala Harris and James Austin Johnson as a former President Donald Trump stumped by her popularity.
Former President Donald Trump recently reissued his loyalty test to religious Americans, declaring that he can best protect their freedoms while preemptively blaming members of certain faiths should he lose the presidential election in November.
Jews and Catholics can vote for him and ace the test, but those who don’t, he says, “need their head examined.” If he loses, Trump added, “Jewish people would have a lot to do with the loss.”
Among the Jewish leaders appalled at Trump’s remarks was Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism — an umbrella group for more than 800 Reform synagogues in North America.
“Your words preemptively blaming Jews for your potential election loss is of a piece with millennia of antisemitic lies about Jewish power,” Jacobs said in a social media post. “It puts a target on American Jews. And it makes you an ally not to our vulnerable community but to those who wish us harm. Stop.”
Trump’s speeches for years have hewed to divisive “us” versus “them” messaging, but tying those themes to specific religious Americans who oppose him is out of line and even dangerous, according to rhetoric experts, religious leaders and academics. [Example at the link]
[…] “Jewish Americans and Jewish leaders around the world recognize that President Trump did more for them and the State of Israel than any President in history,” Leavitt [Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt] said via email. “The bottom line is that Kamala Harris and Joe Biden cave to Far-Left extremists and terrorists while President Trump will protect Jewish Americans and put American citizens first.”
Trump’s latest provocative comments came in a span of four days. His warnings about Jewish voters were in Sept. 19 speeches to Jewish donors and the Israeli-American Council in Washington. His remarks about Catholics came on Sept. 22 in a post on Truth Social.
Matthew Boedy, who studies religious rhetoric as a professor at the University of North Georgia, said Trump has adopted spiritual warfare rhetoric, which is commonplace in certain Christian circles.
“Those who gave him that rhetoric saw Satan or evil as the enemy. Now that enemy is anyone — Jew, Christian, Muslim — who stands in his way,” Boedy said via email, calling it dangerous to democracy and religion. [Yep]
“Trump always makes his religious followers — especially Christians — choose. They have to choose him over pluralism, over morality, over evangelism,” said Boedy, a Protestant. [Yep]
[…] Gibson [David Gibson, director of the Center on Religion and Culture at Jesuit-run Fordham University] also suggested that Trump’s tough stance on immigration, which includes calls for mass deportations, is at odds with Catholic teaching.
“Catholics listening to the increasingly Nativist rhetoric on immigration from Trump and even his running mate, JD Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, ought to have their hearts examined if they support that,” Gibson said.
Professor Jennifer Mercieca, a historian of American political rhetoric at Texas A&M University, said typical politicians seek to connect to voters based on shared policy beliefs, not by demanding religious loyalty.
[…] “It’s especially dangerous to attempt to divide people based upon religious identity,” said Mercieca, author of ″Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump.” “The kind of language Trump is using here is more like that used by an authoritarian personality cult leader.” [Duh]
Trump’s recent comment about blaming Jews if he loses came at an event that also featured Jewish megadonor Miriam Adelson, widow of the late casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. She introduced Trump as “a true friend of the Jewish people.”
Among the pro-Trump statements provided to The Associated Press by Leavitt was one from Ellie Cohanim, who served during the Trump administration as deputy special envoy for combating antisemitism.
Trump “is absolutely correct in challenging our assumptions about voting on auto-pilot and failing to comprehend that the Democrat Party, which has been hijacked by its far-left base, is no longer a home for the Jewish people,” Cohanim’s statement said.
Adelson and Cohanim represent the portion of U.S. Jews that strongly supports Trump. In 2020, he received about 30% of Jewish Americans’ votes compared to 70% for Biden, according to AP VoteCast. […]
“Some Jews will vote for President Trump and some will vote for Vice President Harris,” the AJC [American Jewish Committee] added. “None of us, by supporting the candidate we choose, is voting for the enemy.’”
To the left of center, a harsh denunciation of Trump came from Lauren Maunus, political director of IfNotNow — an organization of U.S. Jews that has accused the Israeli government of oppressive policies toward Palestinians and protested Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.
“Trump doubled down on his longstanding pattern of scapegoating Jews,” Maunus said. “Make no mistake: This is a clear and flagrant instruction to his fanatical base of extremists to target Jews with retributive violence if he should lose.” […]
Posted by readers of the article:
One of the old anti-Semitic smears is the dual loyalties canard. I think that’s what the Trump team is invoking.
———————
Conservative news sources can offer a glimpse of the biblical link between Israel and evangelical Christians. Baptist preacher and Fox News contributor Robert Jeffress recently told the network about what he sees as connections between current war and biblical descriptions of the end times.
“The Bible predicts the final world conflict will happen on the plain of Megiddo in Israel when the superpowers assemble together to do battle,” he explained. “Well, I think we can see now how a regional conflict could quickly escalate into a worldwide conflict. And that is going to happen one day.”
—————————-
You would think, considering they admittedly made up the claims that Haitian immigrants are eating people’s pets, that Jews and Catholics would be concerned about Trump and Vance bearing false witness.
—————————-
Trump blaming the Jews, or others, is a treat, it is preemptive punishment. He is telling the Jews what will happen to them, and what life will be life, if they don’t support him. It’s a not so very veiled threat.
Support me and vote for me, or this is just a taste of what will happen to you if I win and you didn’t support me.
——————-
It’s a message to Trump’s followers to punish Jews if he loses.
A court ruling striking down a Republican-imposed abortion ban in Georgia comes too late for Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller.
It’s not every day when a judge references “The Handmaid’s Tale” in a high-profile court ruling, but that’s precisely what happened when a judge struck down Georgia’s six-week abortion ban. NBC News reported:
A judge in Fulton County, Georgia, struck down the state’s six-week abortion ban Monday, allowing the procedure to resume and making it legal up to 22 weeks of pregnancy. The state law, known as the LIFE Act, was signed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in 2019 but didn’t take effect until July 2022, after it faced a legal challenge and the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade.”
[…] it was quite a ruling from Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who concluded that the meaning of “liberty” in Georgia includes “the power of a woman to control her own body, to decide what happens to it and in it, and to reject state interference with her healthcare choices.”
McBurney added that the Republican-imposed ban was “extreme” in its “narrowing of the window of time within which women have the legal ability to end a pregnancy from roughly twenty weeks (i.e., viability) down to a mere six weeks, a point at which many — if not most — women are completely unaware or at best unsure if they are pregnant.”
He went on to write that “for many women, their pregnancy was unintended, unexpected, and often unknown until well after the embryonic heartbeat began. Yet that’s too late under the LIFE Act’s strictures: these women are now forbidden from undoing that life-altering change of circumstances — before they even knew the change had occurred.”
“For these women, the liberty of privacy means that they alone should choose whether they serve as human incubators for the five months leading up to viability. It is not for a legislator, a judge, or a Commander from The Handmaid’s Tale to tell these women what to do with their bodies during this period when the fetus cannot survive outside the womb any more so than society could — or should — force them to serve as a human tissue bank or to give up a kidney for the benefit of another,” McBurney concluded. [video at the link]
With this in mind, women in Georgia can, for now, terminate unwanted and/or dangerous pregnancies up to 22 weeks.
But in the meantime, it’s also worth emphasizing that McBurney’s ruling, while heartening and progressive, comes too late for some — because there’s ample evidence to suggest that Georgia’s poorly named LIFE Act was responsible for the deaths of at least two local women. […]
What kind of would-be leader lies about a deadly natural disaster? When it comes to Donald Trump and Hurricane Helene, it’s not a rhetorical question.
When it comes to hurricanes, Donald Trump’s record is an embarrassment. Indeed, some of the low points of the Republican’s failed presidency were directly related to his bizarre reactions to brutal storms: From “Sharpiegate“ to “big water,” from his odd unfamiliarity with Category 5 hurricanes to lobbing paper towels as if he were having fun shooting free throws, the GOP candidate’s background is tough to defend.
But it wasn’t just a matter of gaffes and photo ops gone awry. As a New York Times report explained, “As president, he viewed federal aid through the prism of his personal politics, threatening to withhold money from governors of blue states whom he saw as enemies, and promising ‘A-plus’ treatment for his allies.”
But that doesn’t mean his record can’t get worse. NBC News reported:
Former President Donald Trump falsely claimed that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp hasn’t been able to reach President Joe Biden to discuss Hurricane Helene’s impacts on his state. “He has been calling the president, but has not been able to get him,” Trump said at a news conference at a furniture store in Valdosta, Georgia.
[Blatant lies … aired on most of the major media outlets.]
Hours earlier, the Republican governor said the opposite, describing the helpful and constructive conversation he had with Biden and letting the public know that he appreciated the president’s offer of support.
It’d be easier to overlook if this were Trump’s only break with reality, but it is not. The former president also falsely argued that the Biden administration and North Carolina’s Democratic governor are “going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas,” which is absurd on its face and made worse by the fact that Asheville and the surrounding area is heavily Democratic.
When NBC News asked the Republican to substantiate his aid-related conspiracy theories, he walked away.
Trump also baselessly accused Vice President Kamala Harris of staging a photograph of her talking on the phone with FEMA officials, and his claims immediately fell apart. [Sheesh]
Alas, we can keep going. Trump told reporters that “nobody” could have forecast Hurricane Helene, which isn’t true, before he added that it’s “late in the season for the hurricanes,” which also isn’t true. [JFC]
My personal favorite was Trump, during an appearance in Georgia, telling reporters, “We’re not talking about politics now,” even as he talked about politics. As an Associated Press report summarized, “Donald Trump repeatedly spread falsehoods Monday about the federal response to Hurricane Helene despite claiming not to be politicizing the disaster as he toured hard-hit areas in south Georgia.”
Part of the problem, of course, is that the GOP nominee was lying to the public about an important crisis five weeks before Election Day. Another part of the problem was Trump’s apparent instinct to try to divide people rather than pulling people together in a time of need.
[…] What kind of would-be leader lies about a deadly natural disaster?
At a campaign event last week, Republican Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, Trump’s controversial running mate, insisted that the “most important thing” is “having a person of character” in the Oval Office. […]
[…] “The United States has indications that Iran is preparing to imminently launch a ballistic missile attack against Israel. We are actively supporting defensive preparations to defend Israel against this attack. A direct military attack from Iran against Israel will carry severe consequences for Iran,” a senior White House official said in a statement.
The US is prepared to do whatever it can to help Israel intercept anything Iran directs its way, similar to how the US offered its assistance in April, when Iran launched a wave of drones and missiles towards Israel — the vast majority of which were successfully intercepted, a US official said.
The US anticipates that the forthcoming attack from Iran against Israel could be similar in scope and scale to the one in April, a US official told CNN.
In that attack, Iran launched a wave of drones and missiles towards Israel – the vast majority were successfully intercepted.
[…] During a short video message, Hagari said Israeli military planes are currently “scanning the sky” for any imminent threat from Iran.
[…] Tensions between Israel and Iran have ratcheted up significantly in recent weeks as Israel has stepped up its efforts against Hezbollah in Lebanon, an Iran-backed militant group. Israel on Monday launched a ground operation in southern Lebanon targeting Hezbollah. […]
Other reporting indicates that the ground operation is limited in scope. Israel had to call up reserves to get it done. Hezbollah has issued statements saying that it has not see Israeli ground troops so far.
New York Times: North Carolina Officials Begin Post-Helene Election Planning
Four days after historic floods battered western North Carolina, the difficulties facing county officials who are trying to stage a presidential election in the area have begun to take shape.
A preliminary check of election offices in North Carolina’s flooded west showed that offices in 14 counties were closed, with officials unsure when they would open, the State Board of Elections said late Monday. One office in Haywood County, just west of hard-hit Asheville, could not be reached.
While the region is largely rural, it holds a healthy share of the state’s nearly 7.7 million registered voters. Some 570,000 registered voters live in the 11 counties where less than half of the electrical power had been restored as of Monday afternoon. They include 145,000 Democrats and 185,000 Republicans.
One of the hardest hit counties, Buncombe, is home to Asheville, the region’s Democratic stronghold. In most counties, however, Republicans or unaffiliated voters are dominant.
Election officials face a panoply of problems. The remnants of Hurricane Helene struck the region shortly after absentee ballots were put in the mail, and the U.S. Postal Service has suspended mail service to virtually all of western North Carolina.
Those ballots would have been dispatched earlier, but they had to be reprinted after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. quit the presidential race and sued to have his name removed from ballots.
County officials also are likely to encounter trouble finding accessible sites for early voting, which begins Oct. 17. Finding voters who were displaced will be yet another headache. So will be registering voters, as the deadline for registering is Oct. 11.
Michael Bitzer, an elections expert at Catawba College, said that “counties have been preparing for early voting sites that may no longer exist.”
“They had reserved polling places that may have been swept away in the floodwaters,” he said. “They have voters who requested an absentee ballot and cannot receive that ballot, let alone the poll workers and the major disruption to their lives.”
In 2018, after Hurricane Florence ravaged 28 counties along the North Carolina coast, the state extended the voter registration deadline and spent $400,000 for a campaign to locate displaced voters and educate other residents about voting options. […]
What Is Blaccent And Why Do People Keep Using It?
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=8mXaccYFKRQ
I did not understand that Black vernacular/AAE was still this commonplace, nor that it is still strongly looked down upon when practiced by Black people.
The 39th U.S. president has the distinction of becoming far more esteemed as a public figure since he left office in 1981. He is renowned for his inspiring dedication to public service for more than four decades, building shelter for the needy, teaching Sunday school, writing books, and setting a laudable example through his generous spirit.
Carter’s lifelong selflessness is the stuff of legend. [details at the link]
A cartoon showing Jimmy Carter racing to a polling booth in his wheelchair closes the article. The caption is: “He’s not stopping until he votes for Kamala!”
birgerjohanssonsays
This Week’s Sky at a Glance, September 27 – October 6 – Sky & Telescope – Sky & Telescope
Second gentleman Doug Emhoff did an interview with MSNBC’s Jen Psaki this weekend. The two covered a wide range of topics, including reproductive rights and antisemitism on the right.
Emhoff has publicly advocated for men to step up and be more proactive in the fight for abortion rights, something he says goes back to his relationships with the women in his life.
“After the Dobbs decision came down. [Kamala] called me right away. She was actually on Air Force Two and said, ‘Dougie, they actually did it,’” Emhoff recalled.
Emhoff relayed how shortly after he spoke with his wife, his then-23-year-old daughter Ella texted “We need to fight.” He received a similar response from his mother. “My 80, now 83-year-old mother is somehow going to enjoy more rights than Ella? It’s wrong.”
“This is all because of Donald Trump,” Emhoff said. “He ran on a platform of appointing Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade. They did just that. And he is for a national abortion ban.”
“Make no mistake: Where he says, ‘I will be the protector of women,’ that is yet more lies and more gaslighting,” Emhoff continued. “We should be furious about this gaslighting and turn this anger into action. ”
Emhoff also told Psaki about the first time he met Gwen Walz, backstage in Philadelphia where her husband, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, was to be introduced as Harris’s running mate. It was a whirlwind and overwhelming experience Emhoff knew well. “I said, ‘Look, nice to meet you. We have, we went through this exact same thing, four years ago. I know exactly how you’re feeling and just how Jill [Biden] was there for me, and said, ‘don’t worry, I’ve got your back.’”
Widespread devastation left behind by Hurricane Helene came to light Monday across the South, revealing a wasteland of splintered houses, crushed cargo containers and mud-covered highways in one of the worst storms in U.S. history. The death toll topped 130.
A crisis was unfolding in western North Carolina, where residents stranded by washed-out roads and by a lack of power and cellular service lined up for fresh water and a chance to message loved ones days after the storm that they were alive.
At least 133 deaths in six Southeastern states have been attributed to the storm that inflicted damage from Florida’s Gulf Coast to the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia.
The toll steadily rose as emergency workers reached areas isolated by collapsed roads, failing infrastructure and widespread flooding. During a briefing Monday, White House homeland security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall suggested as many as 600 people hadn’t been accounted for as of Monday afternoon, saying some might be dead.
President Joe Biden said he will travel to North Carolina on Wednesday to meet with officials and take an aerial tour of Asheville. […]
Government officials and aid groups worked to deliver supplies by air, truck and even mule to the hard-hit tourism hub of Asheville and its surrounding mountain towns. At least 40 people died in the county that includes Asheville.
A woman cradled her child while people around her gathered on a hillside where they found cellphone service, many sending a simple text: “I’m OK.”
The North Carolina death toll included one horrific story after another of people who were trapped by floodwaters in their homes and vehicles or were killed by falling trees. A courthouse security officer died after being submerged inside his truck. A couple and a 6-year-old boy waiting to be rescued on a rooftop drowned when part of their home collapsed.
Rescuers did manage to save dozens, including an infant and two others stuck on the top of a car in Atlanta. More than 50 hospital patients and staff in Tennessee were plucked by helicopter from the hospital rooftop in a daring rescue operation.
Several main routes into Asheville were washed away or blocked by mudslides, including a 4-mile (6.4-kilometer) section of Interstate 40, and the city’s water system was severely damaged, forcing residents to scoop creek water into buckets […]
Helene roared ashore in northern Florida late Thursday as a Category 4 hurricane and quickly moved through Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee. The storm upended life throughout the Southeast, where deaths were also reported in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia.
[…] Mike Toberer decided to bring a dozen of his mules to deliver food, water and diapers to hard-to-reach mountainous areas.
“We’ll take our chainsaws, and we’ll push those mules through,” he said, noting that each one can carry about 200 pounds (90 kilograms) of supplies. [Pack mules. Good idea.]
Western North Carolina suffered relatively more devastation because that’s where the remnants of Helene encountered the higher elevations and cooler air of the Appalachian Mountains, causing even more rain to fall.
Asheville and many surrounding mountain towns were built in valleys, leaving them especially vulnerable to devastating rain and flooding. […]
Climate change has exacerbated conditions that allow such storms to thrive, rapidly intensifying in warming waters and turning into powerful cyclones, sometimes within hours.
[..] Tropical Storm Kirk formed Monday in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and is expected to become a “large and powerful hurricane” by Tuesday night or Wednesday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. The storm was located about 800 miles (1,285 kilometers) west of the Cabo Verde Islands with maximum sustained winds of 60 mph (95 kph). There were no coastal watches or warnings in effect, and the storm system was not a threat to land.
When Ohio Sen. JD Vance began his racist attacks against Springfield, Ohio’s Haitian immigrant community, one business owner stood up and defended them—Jamie McGregor. His impassioned defense went viral.
“I wish I had 30 more,” said McGregor to PBS about his Haitian employees. “Our Haitian associates come to work every day. They don’t have a drug problem. They will stay at their machine. They will achieve their numbers. They are here to work. And so, in general, that’s a stark difference from what we’re used to in our community.”
McGregor’s implication is clear: Mostly white locals hadn’t been up to the task, but legal immigrants are.
Now, the Republican, two-time Donald Trump voter is under siege by his own people.
[…] McGregor has faced “death threats, a lockdown at his company and posters around town branding him a traitor for hiring immigrants.” The FBI has visited, warning of credible threats of violence against him and his family.
One message left on his company’s voicemail said, “The owner of McGregor Metal can take a bullet to the skull and that would be 100 percent justified.” Another said, “Stack all 20,000 Haitians inside Jamie McGregor’s factory at once and force him to praise the benefits of foreign labor while being crushed to death by Black bodies themselves being crushed to death.” [Addicted to fantasies of violence?]
He has bought a gun for the first time, and had to pull his daughter out of school for shooting lessons. “I can’t imagine living my whole life like this,” McGregor told the Times. “You know, it’s got to end. It’s got to stop—hopefully after the election.’’
It is a sad reality that conservatives suddenly see the light when they themselves are under duress or hardship. McGregor had been happy to vote for Trump twice before despite his rank hateful anti-immigrant rhetoric and actions. But of course, that was supposed to affect other people elsewhere. He was one of the good guys, until he wasn’t. MAGA conservatism brooks no dissent.
Let’s not forget that Vance and Trump know they’re trafficking in lies, but they don’t care. [video at the link]
“The American media totally ignored this stuff until Donald Trump and I started talking about cat memes. If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do,” Vance said, though the emphasis is mine.
They don’t care enough to even hide the fact that they’re lying, they don’t care about the immigrant communities that are now being targeted for hateful attacks, and they certainly don’t care about their own supporters caught in the crossfire. Heck, there is a special kind of fury directed at them for being “traitors” to their racist cause.
In fact, that is their entire campaign at this point. This was Trump yesterday, called out on his lies about the Biden administration refusing to send aid to Republican counties in response to Hurricane Helene. [video at the link]
They know these lies hurt people. They don’t care.
One of the keys to understanding Donald Trump’s worldview is acknowledging one of his core, conspiratorial beliefs: The former president believes just about just about everything in American society — from elections to the judicial system to the Emmys — has been “rigged” by nefarious forces he never identifies. [Maybe he doesn’t believe it, but he just repeats it over and over because some part of his lizard brain knows he is a loser and that he is is ignorant beyond repair.]
With this in mind, it’s not surprising the Republican has told anyone who would listen that his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris was, of course, “rigged.” Indeed, Trump sat down this week for a Fox Nation interview with Kellyanne Conway, who heard him continue to whine about the debate he lost three weeks ago.
But that’s not all he said: In the same on-camera exchange, the GOP nominee also made a prediction on the eve of the vice presidential debate. Asked by his former White House aide about the prospects for additional debates, Trump said:
“I would love to have two or three more debates, I like it, I enjoy it. But they’re so rigged and so stacked. You’ll see it tomorrow with JD, it’ll be stacked.”
As the video makes clear, the former president, who has suggested targeting ABC’s broadcast license because he didn’t like his recent debate defeat, was not kidding. [video at the link]
To the extent that reality still has any meaning, the vice presidential debate has not been rigged against the Republican nominee. Last month’s Trump-Harris debate wasn’t “stacked,” either. The larger question, however, is why the former president is already attacking a debate that hasn’t happened yet.
The answer, of course, is that Trump realizes that his running mate might fare poorly, so he considers it smart to attack the integrity of the event in advance.
As regular readers know, it’s a process I like to call preemptive delegitimization.
Fearing possible election defeats, for example, the Republican has consistently taken steps to delegitimize the process to explain away potential losses. Fearing possible legal setbacks, he’s also repeatedly tried to delegitimize the justice system to invalidate potential adverse outcomes. And fearing possible debate defeats, he’s done the same thing, making pre-emptive excuses for possible failure ahead of his recent debate with President Joe Biden, and then doing it again ahead of his debate with Harris.
Trump approaches effectively every challenge with the same thought: “If I fail, it can’t be my fault.”
This week, Trump took the next logical step and extended his pitiful bubble to include his running mate.
NBC News confirmed that the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest federation of unions, has launched a seven-figure ad campaign in support of the Democratic presidential ticket. The focus will be on seven states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
[…] How can Trump — the sleaziest person ever to run for president, who has already been convicted on 34 felony charges and impeached twice, whose failures of character and leadership were experienced directly by the American public during his four years at the helm — be running neck-and-neck with a young, talented, intelligent person with a commendable record of public service? […]
[…] Reich answers this question by first dismissing some explanations that we continue to hear to try to make sense of this baffling situation. First, he does not think that polls are understating voters’ support for Harris and overstating their support for Trump, because given how everyone knows how awful Trump is people are likely more reluctant to admit that they plan to vote for him. Second, he doesn’t think that the corporate media’s interest in portraying a close race is the reason, since he says “more Americans appear to be tuning out politics altogether.” Third, he doesn’t think that inflation and economy are the reason, because “given that the American economy has rebounded, inflation is way down, interest rates are falling, wages are up, and the job engine continues, you’d think voters at the margin would be moving toward her rather than toward Trump.”
Reich’s explanation for the current tight state of the race is what he calls “asymmetric information.” This explanation is essentially based on the fact that nearly every American knows and has made up their mind about Trump, but they don’t yet know Harris or remain undecided about her. Trump is exploiting this asymmetry in a few key ways, so that when it comes to choosing between him and Harris voters — particularly, I assume, those low-information voters in key swing states — will choose “the devil they know.” How this works, per Reich:
This requires, first, that Trump suck all the media oxygen out of the air so Harris has fewer opportunities to define herself positively.
Americans who have become overwhelmed by the chaos are tuning out politics altogether, especially in swing states where political advertising is nonstop. And as they tune out both Trump and Harris, Trump is the beneficiary, because, again, he’s the devil they know.
In other words, Trump is running neck-and-neck with Harris not despite the mess he’s created over the last few weeks but because of it.
[…] Reich points out that the other part of Trump’s asymmetric information strategy involves him and his allies flooding the airwaves and social media with negative ads about Harris, which are then amplified by the right-wing ecosystem of Fox News, Newsmax, and Sinclair radio. He points out that Trump’s campaign has given up trying to portray him positively.
Instead, the ads aired by Trump and his allies in swing states are overwhelmingly negative about Harris — emphasizing, for example, her past support for gender transition surgery for incarcerated people.
Researchers on cognition have long known that negative messages have a bigger impact than positive ones, probably because in evolutionary terms, our brains are hard-wired to respond more to frightening than to positive stimuli (which might explain why social media and even mainstream media are filled with negative stories).
[…] Reich adds one final ingredient to the asymmetric information explanation — which is one we talk about a lot around here: racism and misogyny.
I can’t help wondering how many Americans who continue saying they “don’t know” or are “undecided” about Harris are concealing something from pollsters and possibly from themselves: They feel uncomfortable voting for a Black woman.
Having said all this, I’m cautiously optimistic about the outcome of the election. Why? Because Trump is deteriorating rapidly; lately he’s barely been able to string sentences together coherently.
Harris, by contrast, is gaining strength and confidence by the day, and despite Trump’s attempts to shut her out, more Americans are learning about her. As she gets more exposure, Trump’s “devil-you-know” advantage disappears.
Perhaps it’s more accurate to say I’m nauseously optimistic, because, to be candid, I go into the next five weeks feeling a bit sick to my stomach. Even if Harris wins, the fact that so many Americans seem prepared to vote for Trump makes me worry for the future of my country.
CBS News is getting creative as it attempts to conduct Tuesday’s Vice Presidential debate fairly and productively.
The network said this week it will feature a QR code on screen during the live prime-time showdown between Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) for at least a portion of their debate.
The code will redirect viewers to a CBSNews.com blog that will offer live, real-time fact checking of claims made by Vance and Walz during the 90 minute forum.
Tuesday night’s moderators, Margaret Brennan and Norah O’Donnell, will not offer such fact checks live on air, network leaders told The New York Times this week. […]
Somebody Should Ask JD Vance About The Fascist Who Installed His Operating System
Yes, this is about that Maddow piece last night.
To preview tonight’s vice presidential debate between human being Tim Walz (D) and […] JD Vance (R), Rachel Maddow last night took a long look at yet another set of bizarre, disturbing things Vance has said on rightwing podcasts, a genre that may never be fully mined. And yikes, there’s no bottom to the weirdness mine.
Tenured Radicals! Free Love, Too!
Maddow started in her beloved goofy roundabout fashion with the story of drugstore magnate Charles R. Walgreen, who in 1935 sparked a panic about “Reds” at the University of Chicago because his niece argued about politics with him. Walgreen tried to get the Illinois Legislature to shut the university down because it was indoctrinating innocent young people not only with communism, but also with “free love.” (It was a long intro! Here’s part of it, which includes the Vance clips mentioned below. Full transcript of the segment here.)
Maddow briefly sketched out some other attempts to shut universities down, noting that they’ve all had ties to unsavory fascist (or fascist-adjacent) figures, then brought things into the present with clips of JD Vance complaining about how universities “are fundamentally corrupt and dedicated to deceit and lies,” ideas he expounded on in a 2022 speech called “The Universities are the Enemy” at the National Conservatism Conference, that creepy bunch of rightwing thought leaders we’ve mentioned previously at Wonkette.
She also treated us to snippets of Yale Law graduate Vance attacking “elite” universities, especially Harvard, and suggesting their endowments should be seized by conservative leaders, to save America. [Yikes] Not only that, but he calls for government imposing “economic pain” on corporations that espouse positions conservatives think are harmful, again, because America is in peril. One host Vance spoke with said it’s time to take “extraconstitutional” actions, to which Vance readily agreed, “Yes, that’s exactly right.” And that gets us to Maddow’s real story, focused on Curtis Yarvin, an authoritarian rightwing blogger who’s been surprisingly influential among rightwing tech dudes like Peter Thiel, Vance’s personal leash-holder.
Who Formatted JD Vance’s Floppies?
Here’s the rest of the segment, featuring Vance talking with rightwing podcaster Jack Murphy in 2021 [That’s recent in my opinion] about “the current American leadership class” and its entire culture, including the institutions it has “corrupted,” like universities and pretty much all of government.
Our leaders right now are so corrupt and so vile that, if you assimilate into their culture, you’re assimilating into like garbage liberal elite culture. You’re not assimilating into traditional American culture.
That culture is so dangerous that conservatives will need to “totally replace, like, rip out like a tumor the current American leadership class, and then reinstall some sense of American political religion.” (Emphasis added.)
[video at the link]
Murphy noted some that tumor-removal can be done “with votes,” but it’s a really big job that might require … well, some of that “extraconstitutional” action, not that Vance spelled it out. Instead, Vance suggested viewers Do Their Own Research and consult the political thought leader who inspired him (and Thiel, and other rightwing tech bros):
MURPHY: So, these institutions are corrupted and rotted to the core. This elite ideology is everywhere and in all the things. What other options do we have besides voting them out, which we’re seeing is ineffectual?
VANCE: Yeah. So, again, this is, like, a tough question, but this is maybe the question that confronts us right now.
The video then cuts to Vance’s suggestion for what to do beyond voting: “I — there’s this guy Curtis Yarvin, who’s written about some of these things.”
Maddow then offers some clips of a speech by Yarvin, a blogger who has for nearly two decades advocated a “reboot” or “reset” of American government that would eliminate all our cultural rot — that means you and me and anyone who watches Rachel Maddow, for starters — and make America all better again, as Vox explained in a 2022 profile of Yarvin’s creepy ideas.
[Yarvin] stands out among right-wing commentators for being probably the single person who’s spent the most time gaming out how, exactly, the US government could be toppled and replaced — “rebooted” or “reset,” as he likes to say — with a monarch, CEO, or dictator at the helm. Yarvin argues that a creative and visionary leader — a “startup guy,” like, he says, Napoleon or Lenin was — should seize absolute power, dismantle the old regime, and build something new in its place.
If the Maddow piece worries you, then you should absolutely follow up by reading the Vox story, as well as this more recent New Republic piece about Yarvin and his “Weird, Terrifying Techno-Authoritarian Ideas.” [More embedded links to sources are available at the main link.]
‘It All Needs To Be Destroyed’
Yarvin is a guy, kids, who made a funny joke in 2008 about how all the “not productive” people in San Francisco could be rounded up and then finally made useful to the city: “convert them into biodiesel, which can help power the Muni buses.” Just kidding, only serious.
The Maddow segment offers a few clips from one of Yarvin’s speeches (which coulda used onscreen captions, since the audio wasn’t great), in which he offers a cute acronym for how to fix America: “RAGE,” which stands for “Retire All Government Employees” because people who know stuff are the source of all our woes. A government, he explains, is “just a corporation which owns a country, nothing more, nothing less” (which, no, it damned well isn’t), so why not just do a corporate takeover and “delete” the old version? “We haven’t been able to do that with our government for 200 years,” Yarvin said. “So it’s gotten a little bit stale.”
The Constitution? Elections? Bill of Rights? Hey, tough, when there’s a new boss, there’s new rules so you can do a complete reorganization.
While he’s at it, Yarvin would yank out all the supporting institutions that keep American society going — and going the wrong way, obviously.
The other thing about getting rid of your government is you can’t just say, well, the limits of the government are the limits of the formal government. You have to say, well, what is the system actually?
And it includes a lot of things that are called NGOs, things that are called universities, things that are funded by the state. It’s a very, very large system. And it all needs to be destroyed.
Happily, Yarvin says, there are “a lot of talented Americans who actually know how to run things and make things work and are generalists,” so you’d just put them in power to replace the corrupt folks who messed everything up! No, you would not elect them, don’t be silly. People would make bad choices.
And, finally, you need a CEO. And a national CEO is what’s called a dictator. It’s the same thing. There’s no difference between a CEO and a dictator. If Americans want to change their government, they are going to have to get over their dictator phobia.
And that’s Curtis Yarvin, the guy “who’s written about some of these things” and has some very specific plans for ripping out the American ruling class like a tumor. Can’t leave it there, or any of its institutions, because tumor, right? You have to excise everything.
So yeah, can’t imagine why Vance only suggested that people read up on Yarvin, and then he and Murphy shared an uncomfortable giggle. Maddow summarizes:
This is literally a pro-dictatorship, pro-monarchy philosophy that is not just about ending the US system of government, deleting the US government, but then using the power of a dictator to dismantle universities, dismantle businesses, to dismantle all of civil society, to instead install a whole new system controlled by the state that serves just the desires of the dear leader.
Probably something to ask Vance about at the debate tonight, since he’s the one who’d become the chief executive if Trump is finally felled by a hamberder three weeks into a second term.
birgerjohanssonsays
One week to the Nobel Prize in Physics. Sabine Hossenfelder speculates.
“Who Will Win This Year’s Nobel Prize in Physics? My Speculations”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=KMTNHqEpTnw
(Yes I know she borked the transgender issue. Her strength is in other fields of knowledge)
Iran launched an unknown number of missiles at Israel this evening, with lights briefly lighting up the skies over the cities of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. A military spokesman said that Israel’s air defense system was “fully operational, detecting and intercepting threats wherever necessary.”
[…] Israel earlier announced the invasion of southern Lebanon, launching what it calls a “limited, localized and targeted” ground operation aimed at pushing Hezbollah forces farther away from the border.
[…] Intense Israeli strikes have killed more than 1,000 people and displaced as many as 1 million in recent weeks, Lebanese officials say. The country “is facing one of the most dangerous stages in its history,” its prime minister said this morning.
President Joe Biden called for a cease-fire “right now,” but U.S. officials appeared to offer their support to a limited Israeli operation just days after Washington outlined a truce proposal.
Home Front Command has warned residents in central Israel to stay close to “a protected space,” in an alert through their application.
“Minimize moving around the area and avoid gatherings,” the warning read. “It is required to stay next to a protected space.” […]
whheydtsays
Re: Lynna, OM @ #404…
Hmmm…. I might accept Trump as monarch if he can get out on the field in the SCA and win a Crown Tournament.
[…] Trump continued his rhetorical assault against Springfield’s Haitian immigrants on Thursday. And Friday. And Saturday. [Embedded links to sources are available at the main link.] Two days later, the GOP candidate sat down with Kellyanne Conway for a Fox Nation interview in which — you guessed it — he once again said that Springfield “is going to be destroyed” by its immigrant population.
The consequences of the Republicans’ misinformation and disinformation — bomb threats, closed buildings, canceled events, et al. — have been well documented. But they’re also not going away. The New York Times reported:
For Jamie McGregor, a businessman in Springfield, Ohio, speaking favorably about the Haitian immigrants he employs has come to this: death threats, a lockdown at his company and posters around town branding him a traitor for hiring immigrants. To defend himself and his family, Mr. McGregor has had to violate his own vow to never own a gun.
McGregor, whose business makes parts for cars, trucks, and tractors, has spoken publicly about the valuable contributions his Haitian employees have made to his operation — which in turn has led people to threaten to kill him. His children and his elderly mother have been targeted with hateful calls, too.
[…] McGregor is a lifelong Republican who voted for Trump twice. But he nevertheless told the truth about some of his employees, and now he fears for his family’s safety.
He’s not alone. The Washington Post published a striking letter to the editor from a local resident who’s lived in Springfield for 35 years. “Because Donald Trump and JD Vance have appropriated the town as a set for their racist falsehoods, Springfield lives under a pall of fear,” the local woman wrote, adding, “You know who is not afraid to go out and about in Springfield? Proud Boys. Neo-Nazis. People handing out Ku Klux Klan fliers. … These far-right groups clearly feel as though they have not just permission, but encouragement, from the Republican candidates. It is unsettling to live in this menacing atmosphere.” [Springfield is starting to look like what Trump and Vance envision for the entire nation.]
The author concluded, “Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance hope to make every town Springfield, where the angry are emboldened by lies and the people they seek to punish live in fear. As someone who has lived through this transformation, trust me: You don’t want to live in Trump’s America.”
Meanwhile, Politico reported that Vance, who ostensibly represents Ohio in the U.S. Senate, still hasn’t spoken to Springfield’s mayor — who also happens to be a Republican.
The same article quoted Mike DeWine, Ohio’s Republican governor, who expressed dismay over the lies from his party’s presidential ticket.
“Yeah, after a while, because it got cumulative, and then you keep thinking, ‘Well, they’re going to stop this,’” the governor said. “Well, they didn’t stop this, they just keep going.”
The word “disqualifying” is often overused. Once in a while, though, it’s applicable.
The New Yorker staff reporter Susan Glasser said out loud what many a mainstream journalist refuses to speak. Donald Trump’s policy positions are just a magical wand.
A journalist shames the mainstream media. [video at the link]
In an era dominated by sensationalist headlines and shallow political analysis, it’s rare to find a journalist brave enough to challenge the political establishment and the media’s complicity in misleading narratives. Susan Glasser, a staff writer for The New Yorker, [offered] a critique not only of Donald Trump‘s vacuous policy claims but also of the mainstream media’s failure to hold him to account adequately. Her commentary highlights the media’s complicity in elevating Trump’s so-called “magic wand” solutions while simultaneously applying a different standard to more progressive figures like Kamala Harris.
In the video, Glasser exposes a glaring double standard in how the press treats political figures. Kamala Harris, for instance, is frequently scrutinized and pressed for detailed policy proposals, while Trump is given a pass for making sweeping, unrealistic claims without any substantive follow-through. Trump’s proposals, such as ending the war in Ukraine within 24 hours or reviving the economy through massive tariffs, are not based on concrete plans. Yet the media rarely questions the specifics of how he would achieve these lofty goals.
This double standard is not just a failure of journalism—it is a betrayal of public trust. The media is supposed to be a watchdog, holding those in power accountable. But too often, mainstream outlets shy away from hard-hitting critiques of right-wing figures like Trump. Instead, they allow Trump’s vague and often misleading rhetoric to dominate the discourse, all to maintain so-called “balance” or avoid accusations of bias.
One of the most telling examples of this failure is the way the media continues to treat Trump’s economic legacy. Trump frequently claims that the economy was stronger under his administration, and the media dutifully repeats these claims without context. In reality, Trump’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic contributed significantly to the economic downturn, including supply chain disruptions and a surge in corporate profiteering that led to “greedflation.” Corporations took advantage of the chaos, raising prices under the guise of supply chain issues, even as the underlying problems eased. The media, rather than challenge this narrative, allowed Trump to frame himself as a savior of the economy despite his role in its collapse.
Moreover, Trump’s promises to impose tariffs to boost the economy are a classic example of his “magic wand” approach to policy. His supporters believe these tariffs will punish China and bring back jobs to the U.S. However, what Trump fails to mention—and what the media often ignores—is that American consumers ultimately pay tariffs in the form of higher prices. Instead of asking hard questions about the real economic impact of these tariffs, the media often lets Trump’s simplistic rhetoric go unchecked.
This lack of scrutiny has profound consequences. As Glasser points out, millions of Americans have internalized Trump’s false narratives. People believe the economy was better under Trump, not because of any real improvement in their material conditions, but because Trump’s message has been repeated without challenge. […]
This is a failure of individual journalists and the entire media ecosystem. The mainstream media often takes its cues from the right-wing press, adopting its framing and narratives. When the right accuses Kamala Harris of not providing enough policy specifics, the mainstream media parrots this claim without acknowledging the hypocrisy of not demanding the same level of detail from Trump. This creates a skewed playing field, where progressive politicians are held to an impossibly high standard while right-wing figures are given a free pass. [yep]
The result is a distorted political landscape where the public is misinformed and misled. Critical thinking is more important […] the media must also do its part by refusing to accept simplistic, magical solutions without challenge.
Glasser’s commentary is fresh air […]
We can only begin to restore some semblance of truth to our political discourse by challenging these misleading narratives.
As of midnight last night, 45,000 dockworkers down the Eastern Seaboard and the Gulf Coast are on strike — the first International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) strike to affect all of those ports since 1977. As it stands, the strike could cost the American economy billions of dollars a day, which is why some are asking Joe Biden to step in and Taft-Hartley Act that whole situation in order to stop the strike before it can cause any harm.
Biden, to his great credit, says he will not do that, because he believes in collective bargaining. But given the impact that this could have on the economy and our daily lives (stock up on bananas, which reportedly will be the first things affected), it’s understandable that people are nervous. It also doesn’t help that there is a lot of misinformation going around about how much the workers are currently making and what have you.
So let’s talk about what’s really going on.
What Are The Longshoremen’s Demands?
They want the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), which represents the ocean carriers that employ them, to guarantee a $5 an hour increase every year for the next six-year contract — which would mean a 77 percent increase over the next six years — and a stronger promise to not automate the ports.
The USMX is currently offering a 50 percent increase over the next six years and for the language in the Master Contract dealing with automation and semi-automation to remain the same.
Why Do They Think They Deserve So Much?
Longshoremen worked throughout COVID — as “essential workers” — and because of that, shipping companies made bank. The workers are just asking for their fair share of the money that would not have been made had it not been for their hard work.
[…] “Since USMX would rather leak our wage demands to the media, instead of reporting on the record billion-dollar profits of their member companies, I can say ‘yes, we are looking for a much higher percent increase in our wages’. Our ILA members never stopped working during the Covid pandemic, even with ILA longshore workers dying or becoming gravely ill. The companies that employ ILA pay their executives billion-dollar bonus while our longshore workers work all year, around the clock, in brutal conditions of freezing cold and scorching heat. Why shouldn’t we ask for a $10 an hour increase? The ILA longshore worker deserves it, and the companies have the money to pay it.”
But Aren’t They All Making $150,000 A Year?
Uh, no. No they are not. The starting wage for an ILA dockworker is $20 an hour. The last Master Contract they had got them a wage increase of a dollar an hour each year for the six-year term of the contract.
Here is a graph direct from the Master Contract itself showing the actual pay scales, with those at the very top earning an hourly wage of $39 an hour, which translates to $81,000 a year for absolutely backbreaking work. Workers can earn more than that through overtime and taking shifts that pay more, but the “Oh, they’re all making six figures already!” thing is absolute nonsense. [Graph available at the link]
They are now asking for a $5 increase per hour, per year, due to cost of living increases and because they deserve their share of the incredible profits the shipping industry has been raking in. That’s fair! It’s at least a fair starting point, and it does seem that they are more flexible about that than they are about automation.
Let’s Talk About Automation!
One of the ways that the USMX has been working to turn sentiment against the dockworkers is by portraying their demand to limit automation as an unreasonable bulwark against progress — progress that would lower costs for you, the consumer.
But if you will notice, automation and robots and AI don’t always mean lower prices for consumers, just as cheap labor and even slave labor do not mean lower prices for consumers. As deeply as some may want to believe it, companies don’t actually fuck over workers and pass the savings on to you, the consumer. They don’t. They pass the profits onto their shareholders, as they are obligated to do. They are obligated to charge you the most they can get away with charging you, so that they can then give that money to those who have invested in their company.
You may notice that some people are complaining that, for instance, the port in Rotterdam in the Netherlands is fully automated, wondering why we can’t have that. One reason is that it was incredibly expensive to build, another is that we have a very different economic system than the Dutch. Their poverty rate is half of ours, due to their robust social safety net. While workers certainly did protest the automation of the port in Rotterdam, they were not completely fucked by it to the degree workers here would be.
If you’re in the Netherlands and you lose your job, the government will give you 75 percent of your pay and help you find a new job, and in the meantime you don’t have to worry about losing your healthcare. It’s not perfect, but it’s certainly less precarious.
OK, But Why Can’t They Wait Until After The Election?
Because their contract expired last night at midnight. That is how these things work.
I’ve seen more than a few people pointing out that this is going to hurt Kamala Harris’s chances, because it will increase inflation and this will be blamed on the current administration. I’ve seen a few others suggest that ILA President Harold Daggett is in cahoots with Trump and is doing this to throw the election to him, or that they are being ungrateful to Biden, who has been the most pro-union president in decades.
But the fact is, they have six-year contracts that ended last night at midnight. There wasn’t a lot of wiggle-room for time. It was either strike now or accept a contract they didn’t feel was good enough and wait another six years to strike.
Two things can be true. It can be true that dockworkers deserve better than what is being proposed and have good reason to strike, and Daggett can be friendly with Trump in a way that makes a lot of us uncomfortable. (Including me! I certainly do not like it! But I care more about the rank and file workers who still deserve good pay and a secure job.)
We cannot feasibly have that kind of mass automation until we have some kind of a plan in place for how to take care of everyone or even simply function in a nation where there is less work that needs to be done. We don’t have that. We don’t have the things they have in the Netherlands or in most other places.
Maybe if we get on that, we can have things like automation.
[…] Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney — whom you may recall from Trump’s grand jury — struck down the state’s six-week abortion ban on Monday, on the grounds that the law violated the right to privacy in the state’s constitution. Also on the grounds that pregnant people “are not some piece of collectively owned community property.”
[…] The judge specifically pointed out that the right to privacy in the Georgia state constitution is stronger and more explicit than the one in the United States Constitution. Citizens of Georgia also have a right “to be let alone,” so long as they are not bothering anyone else.
[…] This is actually not the first time that Judge McBurney has struck the law down. He first did so in 2022, though his decision was overturned by the state supreme court. It is possible that they could do that again.
For now, however, the law will revert to what it was before the passing of the LIFE Act, which was that abortion was legal before 20 weeks. So congratulations to everyone who won’t die or go into sepsis as a result of this stupid abortion ban, for however long McBurney’s ruling is allowed to stand.
in nearly four decades of battling Hizbollah, only recently has Israel truly turned the tide. What changed […] is the depth and quality of the intelligence that Israel was able to lean on in the past two months
[…]
As Hizbollah grew in strength, including in 2012 deploying to Syria to help Assad quell an armed uprising against his dictatorship, it gave Israel the opportunity to take its measure […] who was in charge of Hizbollah’s operations, who was getting promoted, who was corrupt, and who had just returned from an unexplained trip.
[…]
the militant group’s forces had grown to keep pace with the drawn-out conflict. That recruitment also left them more vulnerable to Israeli spies placing agents or looking for would-be defectors.
[…]
Obituaries […] peppered with little nuggets of information, including which town the fighter was from, where he was killed, and his circle of friends posting the news on social media. Funerals were even more revealing, sometimes drawing senior leaders
[…]
the secretive group suddenly had to stay in touch and share information with the notoriously corrupt Syrian intelligence service, or with Russian intelligence services, who were regularly monitored by the Americans.
[…]
Once a Hizbollah operative is identified, his daily patterns of movements are fed into a vast database of information, siphoned off from [hacked] devices […] Any break from that routine becomes an alert for an intelligence officer to sift through
[…]
“Israel had a lot of capabilities, a lot of intelligence stored waiting to be used,” […] Nasrallah [was lulled] into thinking that the two arch-rivals were involved in a new sort of brinkmanship, with well-defined red lines that could be managed until Israel agreed a ceasefire in Gaza […] “[Hizbollah] […] kept one, if not both, hands tied behind their back and did nothing approaching their own full capability.”
[…]
In the days after October 7, Israeli warplanes took off with instructions to bomb a location where Nasrallah had been located […] The raid was called off after the White House demanded Netanyahu do so
/Biden did not have advance notice of last week’s airstrikes.
Jeansays
Lynna @411
Jon Stewart talked about this yesterday and gave some examples of the double standard (youtube link to last night show).
Iran’s attack on Israel tonight was about “twice the scope” of its attack in April, in terms of the ballistic missiles used, according to the Pentagon.
In a press briefing, Maj Gen Patrick Ryder says two US Navy destroyers fired approximately a dozen interceptors towards Iranian missiles.
He does not confirm whether they hit any of the missiles used in the attack – adding that information was yet to be established…
Pete Rose, baseball’s career hits leader and fallen idol who undermined his historic achievements and Hall of Fame dreams by gambling on the game he loved and once embodied, has died. He was 83…
A 17-time all-star, the switch-hitting Rose played on three World Series winners. He was the National League MVP in 1973 and World Series MVP two years later. He holds the major league record for games played (3,562) and plate appearances (15,890). He was the leadoff man for one of baseball’s most formidable lineups with the Reds’ championship teams of 1975 and 1976, with teammates that included Hall of Famers Johnny Bench, Tony Perez and Joe Morgan.
But no milestone approached his 4,256 hits, breaking his hero Ty Cobb’s 4,191 and signifying his excellence no matter the notoriety which followed. It was a total so extraordinary that you could average 200 hits for 20 years and still come up short. Rose’s secret was consistency, and longevity. Over 24 seasons, all but six played entirely with the Reds, Rose had 200 hits or more 10 times, and more than 180 four other times. He batted .303 overall, even while switching from second base to outfield to third to first, and he led the league in hits seven times…
wiring that had come loose from the battery […] would cost peanuts for Lifeward to fix up, but it refused to service anything more than five years old […] Others lost their sight when [their] manufacturer of a bionic eye stopped supporting the devices.
[…]
In absence of strong regulations called right to repair laws, manufacturers aren’t obligated to […] make third party repairs possible. […] “A $100,000 product you can only use as long as the battery lasts, that’s enraging.”
In 2014, a bizarre crater was found in Siberia’s Yamal Peninsula. Since then, several more similar holes have been located. Geologists who studied the sites concluded they were the result of explosions.
Those must have been some blasts, as these are not mere potholes. Some of the craters measure as deep as 165 feet (50 meters). High levels of methane were detected in the regions of the craters, leading scientists to believe the combustible gas—large amounts of which are trapped beneath the Siberian permafrost—was being released as the area’s average temperature rose. But further study established melting permafrost alone wouldn’t have caused the blast.
Now, we finally know what likely happened, thanks to a team of chemical engineers. Publishing their findings in Geophysical Research Letters, the scientists wrote that rapid underground pressure changes played a key role in things going kablooey.
“There are very, very specific conditions that allow for this phenomenon to happen,” said Ana Morgado, a chemical engineer at the University of Cambridge, who worked on the study, in a press release. “We’re talking about a very niche geological space.”
As Morgado and her colleagues began examining the composition of the ground in and around the craters, they realized the explosion wasn’t the result of chemical reactions, and must have had a physical source.
They found their answer in the multilayered ground of the peninsula. At the top is soil that thaws and refreezes as the seasons change. Beneath that lies the permafrost, which, as its name suggests, stays permanently frozen. Beneath those is where things get interesting, and potentially explosive.
During the last ice age, sea waters regressed as glaciers formed. The salt left behind resulted in cryopegs, a geologic layer that doesn’t freeze due to the high levels of salt left behind. In the Yamal Peninsula, the cryopegs are about 3 feet (1 meter) thick, and can be as deep as 165 feet (50 meters) underground. Even deeper underground, below the cryopegs, lies another layer filled with crystalized methane…
Iran launched ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday, causing sirens to sound all over the country, the Israel Defense Forces said. … Approximately 180 missiles were fired toward Israeli territory, the IDF said after the attack. No fatalities were reported, but Israel’s emergency services said it had treated two people with minor injuries caused by shrapnel.
At least 134 people have died as a result of the devastation Hurricane Helene has brought to Southeastern states, including dozens in flood-stricken North Carolina.
Migrant crossings at the US-Mexico border remain at their lowest levels since 2020, according to new federal data obtained by CNN, as Republicans and Democrats spar over border security.
It more the case that Republicans refuse to back even bipartisan solutions that would improve border security.
An image of the actual letter is available at the link.
The letter came from a Pennsylvania government office that didn’t exist, informing Elizabeth Bennett of a program that didn’t exist, either.
“You have been selected as a Wayward Steward ® exchange home for homeless immigrants and victims of foreign wars,” read the letter, credited to the “Pennsylvania Congressional Office of Immigration Affairs,” which arrived at her suburban Philadelphia home on Thursday. “Using property records and income records, we have determined that you are capable of housing (5) refugees ranging from ages 1 month to 90 years.”
Bennett, 62, quickly identified the hoax –— after a split second, she recalled to Semafor, when she imagined how her family would put up refugees in “a minimum of one bedroom” with “US Government approved bunk beds.” She called the number on the letterhead, which went to a helpline for benefits. (As of Friday afternoon, the number has been disconnected.) She confirmed that the PCOIA (the acronym that appeared on the envelope) didn’t actually exist. […]
[…] – In 2016, Trump faced Hillary Clinton and called for her prosecution.
– In 2020, Trump faced Joe Biden and called for his prosecution.
– In early 2024, Trump expected a rematch against Biden and again called for his prosecution.
– And now in late 2024, Trump is facing Kamala Harris and calling for her prosecution.
It’s not just Democratic presidential candidates, of course. In addition to the incumbent vice president, the Republican has also sought criminal prosecutions against Google, Pelosi, those who criticize judges and Supreme Court justices, anyone whom he believes “cheats” in the upcoming election, and anyone whom he believes “cheated” in the last election. […]
Chait added in his piece that Trump views crime “as an activity that definitionally encompasses all political or media activity disadvantageous to him and excluding all activity by him or his allies.”
The next time the GOP nominee references “law and order,” be sure to keep this in mind.
The former mayor of Mexico City is largely expected to follow in the footsteps of outgoing president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the leader of Morena, the ruling party.
Claudia Sheinbaum officially took office Tuesday as Mexico’s first female president and the first of Jewish heritage during a historic inauguration ceremony Tuesday afternoon.
At the Legislative Palace of San Lázaro in Mexico City, attendees swarmed Sheinbaum, taking selfies and greeting her, as she approached outgoing president Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Ifigenia Martínez, president of Mexico’s Chamber of Congress. […]
Video at the link.
Jill Biden attended the ceremony.
tomhsays
This is a sample of what Democrats are up against. I’ve snipped some of the detailed debunking to save space.
WaPo: 24 hours of MAGA misinformation A small sampling of the inundation of false and dubious claims flowing from Donald Trump and his allies.
Analysis by Aaron Blake / October 1, 2024
We’re now in the final full month of the 2024 campaign, and that means politicians and their allies are frantically seeking votes for their side. And for one side, in particular, that means an increasing onslaught of wild claims, conspiracy theories and outright falsehoods.
That side, of course, is Donald Trump’s. The president who set new benchmarks for false and misleading claims — more than 30,000 of them during his term, in fact — leads a MAGA movement that increasingly shamelessly treats misinformation as a political strategy. Democrats have their faults on this front, too, but there is simply no comparison to Trump’s approach to politics, an approach that so many influential people on his side have also gradually adopted as their own.
The barrage is so constant that it often leaves journalists with a dilemma. How do you tell the story when Trump says for the umpteenth time that he was Michigan’s Man of the Year (an honor the state doesn’t actually award)? Is it a headline every time Trump repeats this fantasy, or do you note the many previous fact checks? Does debunking it just promote it? Trump will often make dozens of false, misleading or baseless claims at a single rally alone, creating a problem of sheer volume as well.
Well, we thought a good way was to walk through a 24-hour period of MAGA misinformation on Monday.
To be sure, this list is not exhaustive. But we sought to highlight the biggest claims from the most prominent individuals (including Trump), along with the most ridiculous claims that gained traction on the right.
1:18 a.m.: Elon Musk promotes a headline claiming former secretary of state John F. Kerry wants to “change” the First Amendment. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) later promote Musk’s tweet, with Lee adding that Democrats “want to end free speech as we know it.” (Kerry did not say he wants to change the First Amendment. He correctly noted that the First Amendment was a major impediment to cracking down on misinformation…)
1:21 a.m.: Musk promotes a post alleging Democrats are flying undocumented immigrants into swing states to win elections. (There is no evidence of this, and it doesn’t make sense
for a host of reasons.)
7:16 a.m.: Trump ally Dinesh D’Souza claims a new ad for Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign features “paid actors pretending to be former Trump supporters.” (….The report D’Souza cited from Sky News Australia relied on a random X user whose claim had already been debunked.)
10:10 a.m.: Politico’s Adam Wren reports that a new ad from Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.), who is running for governor, features a doctored image of his opponent in front of supporters holding “no gas stoves!” signs. (The signs actually featured the candidate’s name. Braun’s campaign later added a disclaimer saying elements of the ad had been “digitally altered or artificially generated.”)
11:02 a.m.: Trump claims on Truth Social that he was forced to use a 750-seat theater for a Wisconsin rally because the Biden administration wouldn’t provide him more Secret Service protection while it was also protecting the president of Iran at the U.N. General Assembly. Trump claims “50,000 people” were turned away. (…..the theater Trump spoke in was actually around 300, and just a “few hundred more people” were unable to get in.)
11:42 a.m.: Trump claims the federal government and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) are “going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas” affected by Hurricane Helene. (When pressed for evidence of this, Trump offered none and merely said, “Take a look.”)
12:41 p.m.: Trump claims a photo of Harris being briefed on Helene is “FAKE and STAGED” because her earphones are not plugged into her phone. Many allies repeat the claim. (You can’t see the port of the phone where earphones would be plugged in.)
1:04 p.m.: Cruz claims on X that “425,431 criminal illegal aliens are roaming the streets because Kamala Harris has utterly failed at her job.” (Completely distorts various statistics and exaggerated Harris’s job.)
1:57 p.m.: Trump says at a news conference in Georgia about Helene: “Nobody thought this would be happening, especially now. It’s so late in the season for that.” (Late September is close to the peak of hurricane season, which lasts through November.)
2:03 p.m.: Trump claims Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) “has been calling the president, hasn’t been able to get him.” (Kemp himself had said hours earlier that he had spoken with President Joe Biden on Sunday and cast Biden as being helpful.)
7:13 p.m.: House Republicans’ campaign arm, the National Republican Congressional Committee, claims “Kamala Harris allowed 13,000 illegal migrants convicted of MURDER to live in the U.S.” (The data pertain to noncitizens who crossed the border at any point in recent decades, not just during the Biden administration — and including the Trump administration. Similar data from 2015 suggest the vast majority of those convicted of crimes were already in the country back then.)
7:56 p.m.: Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) echoes the above false claims, as many other Republicans (including Cruz) have in recent days, claiming Harris is “letting in 13,000+ illegal aliens convicted of murder.”
10:06 p.m.: Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) denies on CNN that Trump proposed “one violent day” to send a message about zero tolerance for crime. (Trump used precisely those words, suggesting “one really violent day” and then saying “one rough hour.”)
10:07 p.m.: Donalds in the same interview says crime is “massively up.” (….data is imperfect. But the full thrust of it indicates crime is not massively up relative to where it’s been over the past 10 years. In fact, FBI data released earlier Monday showed crime continued to trend downward in the first six months of 2024.)
Democratic Sen. Jon Tester of Montana and Republican nominee Tim Sheehy debated on Monday night amid a tight race for a seat that could determine control of the Senate. During the debate, Tester tied himself to a ballot initiative to amend the state constitution to protect the right to abortion until viability.
“Well, the bottom line is this—whose decision is it to be made?” Tester said. “Is it the federal government’s decision? The state government’s decision? Tim Sheehy’s decision? John Tester’s decision? No. It’s the woman’s decision. Tim Sheehy has called abortion ‘terrible’ and ‘murder.’ That doesn’t sound to me like he’s supporting the woman to make that decision.”
Montana is one of 10 states with abortion-related initiatives on the ballot in November. At the debate, Sheehy didn’t speak to his state’s initiative—which he has criticized in the past—likely because he knows his anti-abortion position is unpopular. Instead, Sheehy resurrected a debunked lie frequently trotted out by anti-abortion extremists, saying that Democratic lawmakers wouldn’t “even entertain a ‘born alive’ bill. When a baby is born alive, they refuse to enshrine protection for that life.”
“That ‘born alive’ statement that Tim Sheehy just made is total bunk. It’s a lie,” Tester was quick to respond. “It doesn’t happen. Those lives are already protected, Tim. You know it. You’re saying it to try to politicize this issue more than it already is.”
“The bottom line is this: If we want situations not to happen, like just happened in Georgia—with a woman dying because doctors were afraid to treat her, because she was afraid to go get help—then he’s your man,” Tester continued. “If you want somebody who’s going to make sure that women can make their own health care decisions, I’m your guy.” […]
On the eve of the vice presidential debate, Rachel Maddow used her MSNBC show to speak to the fundamental, right-wing political philosophy animating Republican candidate Sen. JD Vance.
“I have debated whether or not to talk about this on the show, because I feel like it, it gives me the ughs,” Maddow explained. “But I also feel like this is an important thing to know about the Republican vice presidential nominee and what he has to offer and why he was brought onto the ticket.”
Maddow played clips of Vance attacking the government, as well as institutions of higher education which he has described as places filled with “deceit and lies, not to the truth.” She showed some of his many calls to “seize the institutions of the left.”
In the first half of her extended monologue, she illustrated how Vance’s rhetoric—and the right’s general attacks on higher education—mirrors the work done by pro-fascists, like Nazi-sympathizer Elizabeth Dilling, also known as the “female Führer,” in the 1930s and ’40s. [video at the link]
“[Vance] comes wholly from this very, very obscure, eccentric, right-wing subculture of tech billionaires and his relationship with this eccentric Silicon Valley pro-dictatorship philosophy has been pretty widely discussed in print,” Maddows says, turning her focus onto Vance’s dedication to the radical far-right-wing thought-cauldron of his benefactor Peter Thiel and other tech billionaires.
She highlights Vance’s citations of Curtis Yarvin—a right-wing blogger fascist that Thiel and the tech bro movement love. Vance has pointed to Yarvin as someone who has written about the radical solutions needed to topple our government and replace it.
Maddow played a clip where Yarvin explains a simple plan for action that he calls “RAGE—Retire All Government Employees.” Yarvin believes that the country should be run like a Silicon Valley business. “You need a CEO, and a national CEO is what’s called a dictator,” Yarvin told an audience in 2012. “There’s no difference between the CEO and the dictator. Americans want to change the government. They have to get over the dictator-phobia.”
“They’re gonna have to get over their ‘dictator-phobia,’” Maddow repeats. “What do you do with this level of radicalism trying to take over in Washington right now, and trying to convince the far right that they’ve got to stop being afraid of wielding this kind of power this way? What do you do with this at the debate tomorrow, in the campaign in general?” Maddow asks.
She adds, “I don’t know, but we got to do something with it.” [More video at the link]
larparsays
@Reginald Selkirk #424
Kelce has thrown 3 passes with 1 completion and 1 interception. (total career) : )
Also, the comparison between a CEO and a dictator is idiotic. A CEO is accountable for what they do which is not the case for a dictator. And a CEO has to get the best results for the shareholders; in a country, the shareholders would be the citizen which would need to receive the benefits from the CEO actions. This is not at all what they are talking about.
These idiots just want simple solutions for complex problems because they don’t understand how things work and/or they don’t want to know. And they want to be in control and have power and money. And, obviously, they think they would benefit the most from whatever chaos they create.
Re: Reginald Selkirk @ #440…
Sigh… Just once I’d like to see a bankruptcy court decline to accept a petition from a church. Do it on the grounds that the court may not run the church and by accepting the bankruptcy petition that’s just what the court would be doing.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain @439, thanks! Sorry I borked a link.
In other news, I watched the Vice Presidential debate as much as I could stand to do so. JD Vance is a slick liar, and I mean very slick. For that reason alone, a lot of people will think he won the debate.
Here are some other people’s take on debate: Walter Einenkel:
Democratic Gov. Tim Walz cornered Republican Sen. JD Vance during Tuesday night’s debate when the subject of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol came up.
“I think there’s a lot of agreement,” Walz said of the debate, “but this is one that we are miles apart on. This was a threat to our democracy in a way that we had not seen, and it manifested itself because of Donald Trump’s inability to say. He is still saying he didn’t lose the election.”
Walz then asked Vance, “Did he lose the 2020 election?”
Vance refused to answer the question. “Tim, I’m focused on the future,” he said. “Did Kamala Harris censor Americans from speaking their mind in the wake of the 2020 COVID situation—“
“That is a damning, that is a damning non-answer,” Walz responded.
Damning indeed. [video at the link]
Unfortunately, that damning moment came late in the debate and I think a lot of people would have tuned out by then.
During the vice presidential debate Tuesday night, Sen. JD Vance was asked about comments he made in September when he said he would have helped try to subvert the election results. [video at the link]
Vance: What President Trump has said is that there were problems in 2020, and my own belief is that we should fight about those issues, debate those issues, peacefully in the public square and that’s all I’ve said, and that’s all that Donald Trump has said.
But that isn’t true. In his appearance at All-In Summit, Vance said that during the congressional election certification process, he “would have asked the states to submit alternative slates of electors.”
Allies of Trump offered up fraudulent electors after millions of votes had been cast for President Joe Biden in 2020, binding electors to vote for him to become president. If the scheme had proceeded as Trump wanted, legal votes would have been nullified and the outcome of the election would not have represented the will of the public.
At the debate, Vance also characterized Trump’s call to his supporters to march on the Capitol as peaceful, but Trump described the planned event at the time as “wild.” He was later impeached for inciting the attack and currently faces federal charges for his attempt to overturn the election.
Some observations:
– Vance pivoted away from every opportunity to defend Donald Trump, focusing his attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris instead. I bet Trump didn’t love that.
– Walz focused both on defending the Biden-Harris administration and attacking Trump.
– Vance leaned heavily into the “Why didn’t Harris fix things the last four years?” narrative that Trump was supposed to deploy during his one debate with Harris. The problem with that line, of course, is that Trump didn’t accomplish all the things he claimed he’d do, like build a wall paid for by Mexico, when he was actually president. Does it matter? Nope. But it’s a safe attack line, and one that is difficult to defend with “Republicans control the Senate and sabotaged the bipartisan border deal.” In politics, if you’re explaining, you’re losing.
– As you’d expect, Republicans are losing their minds over CBS’ mild fact checks, because they love screaming “Why do they keep pointing out our lies?” Vance himself whined, “The rules were that you were not going to fact-check me.” That’ll be brutally memed and is a top moment from the debate, akin to George H.W. Bush looking at his watch.
– Media false equivalency at work: Walz misstating exactly when he was in China 35 years ago is totally the same thing as Vance endangering an entire immigrant community in Springfield, Ohio, by lying about them eating their neighbors’ pets. [Yep. I agree. False equivalency. Also very painful to watch.]
– Walz crushed the segment on abortion, with Vance literally admitting that women don’t trust Republicans on abortion. Vance also lied about his past support for a national abortion ban. Fortuitously, the moderators and candidates lingered on the issue for an extended period of time. The issue is so toxic for Republicans that Trump quite literally lost his mind on his Truth Social:
EVERYONE KNOWS I WOULD NOT SUPPORT A FEDERAL ABORTION BAN, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, AND WOULD, IN FACT, VETO IT, BECAUSE IT IS UP TO THE STATES TO DECIDE BASED ON THE WILL OF THEIR VOTERS (THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE!). LIKE RONALD REAGAN BEFORE ME, I FULLY SUPPORT THE THREE EXCEPTIONS FOR RAPE, INCEST, AND THE LIFE OF THE MOTHER. I DO NOT SUPPORT THE DEMOCRATS RADICAL POSITION OF LATE TERM ABORTION LIKE, AS AN EXAMPLE, IN THE 7TH, 8TH, OR 9TH MONTH OR, IN CASE THERE IS ANY QUESTION, THE POSSIBILITY OF EXECUTION OF THE BABY AFTER BIRTH. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!
– The gun segment offered a shockingly civil and substantive discussion on the problem of gun violence. The country would be a lot better off if that was the energy lawmakers in Congress brought to the issue. Also, Walz had the best line in that exchange.
“Just because you have a mental health issue, doesn’t mean you’re violent. I think what we end up doing is looking for a scapegoat. Sometimes it just IS THE GUNS.”
– Vance quite successfully sold himself as a reasonable, human-like politician [Only if one didn’t pay attention to the details, but I agree that for most viewers, Vance came off as polished and reasonable. It was horrible. The smile behind which no kindness lies. Snake] while Walz is naturally nice, which is why he’s so popular nationally. The two wanted to seem nice and reasonable. Problem is, only Walz is that, Vance quite literally got the job by promising Trump he’d overturn the election given the chance.
– Walz’ defense of the Affordable Care Act was stellar. Vance was boxed in by Trump’s “concepts of a plan” flub. He had some BS lined about how Democrats fearmonger about a second Trump presidency and how Trump saved the law, but the reality is that Trump was a single vote away from repealing the ACA. Had Sen. John McCain not unexpectedly flipped, we’d have no ACA today. We don’t need to fearmonger when we have reality showing us what will happen.
– This gets its own bullet point: Vance claimed Trump saved the ACA. [video at the link] Yes, he really said that. [OMG, to see Vance so casually, convincingly and slime-ishly lie about that!]
– Debate moderators challenged Vance on his undemocratic efforts to overturn the 2020 elections. Vance’s revisionist response was beyond gaslighting. It was a completely different timeline paired with a transition to crying about made up liberal “censorship” as the real danger to democracy. If nothing else, this was more disqualifying than anything else Vance said. And as Vance refused to admit that Trump lost in 2020, Walz nailed him with a hilarious, “That’s a damning non-answer!”
– I don’t pretend to understand how people perceive candidates. Al Gore smashed George W. Bush in 2000, and people decided they’d rather “have a beer” with Bush. If that test applies in Tuesday’s debate, Walz is quite easily the more likable candidate, far more so than the fast-talking emo makeup-wearing Yale lawyer.
– If this debate has any impact on the race, it won’t be because of those watching it to the end (political junkies), or an increasingly ridiculous punditry. It will be because of the meme war. And as such, I’m guessing the Zoomers will have a lot more material to mock Vance than Walz. [I hope so.] [Example: “Vance looks like the guy you casually keep your hand over your drink while he tries to impress you about crypto at the bar.”]
But really, watch the polling stay exactly the same all the way through Election Day.
Guys, this thing is going to be won on effort. Let’s finish strong!
A few excerpts from Wonkette’s live coverage of the debate:
[…] Now JD Vance is mad because Margaret Brennan factchecked and said the migrants in Springfield were legal, and JD was like GRRRRRRRR NO IT DOESN’T COUNT BECAUSE I DON’T LIKE THE WAY THEY GOT LEGAL, KAMALA KAMALA KAMALA and Margaret Brennan audibly rolled her eyes and cut their mics. […]
[…] JD Vance is against all reasonable gun laws. […] JD Vance says his heart goes out to people who have to deal with “all this stuff.” (He means dead children.)
Now he says ILLEGAL GUNS RUN BY MEXICAN DRUG CARTEL BECAUSE KAMALA.
And increase security in schools. Common sense. Bipartisan.
Tim Walz’s turn, and he’s talking about good common-sense gun solutions.
[…] JD Vance says don’t blame immigrants for high housing prices, blame KAMALA HARRIS for making immigrants jack up the housing prices.
JD Vance says houses are expensive because of illegal immigration and not enough drill-baby-drilling.
Tim Walz wants to know if we are going to drill-baby-drill on the same federal lands as we’re building new houses. Also notes that federal lands are there for a reason, are protected for a reason.
Walz wants Vance to tell him which economists are saying houses are expensive because of immigrants?
Vance says there’s a Federal Reserve study, but he admits that some of why houses are expensive is Kamala Harris.
Walz also wants to know what regulations JD Vance wants to get rid of that would make housing more affordable. The ones about fire safety? What?
[…] This debate is the sanewashing of JD Vance and everybody is participating.
[…] Vance says he’s really proud to have the support of normal mainstream Democrats like RFK Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard LOL good Lord.
“Kamala Harris is engaged in censorship on an industrial scale.”
This is fucking insane. This is the JD Vance we all know.
[…] Tim Walz says uh no, glad we’ve been so nice to each other today, but Donald Trump did try to overthrow the government and overturn an election, and his people did attack the Capitol. Says to deny what happened on January 6 is unacceptable.
“When this is over, we need to shake hands and the winner is the winner.”
JD Vance gets to respond, so he can lie. Says Trump totally peacefully gave up power, on January 20! You know, after the coup attempts had been exhausted!
JD Vance says Democrats are the real election deniers because they said 2016 was stolen because Russians bought “500,000 dollars of Facebook ads.”
That is not what happened in 2016.
[…] Closing statements! This’ll be canned stuff. Walz says Trump’s first inaugural address was about “American carnage,” and then she showed us that for four years. Says JD Vance has made clear that he’ll stand with Trump.
“Kamala Harris is bringing us a new way forward.” Is bringing back joy. Etc.
Vance says nobody talked about energy (yes they did) and he wants people to be able to turn on their heat, because of Kamala Harris. He wants people to be able to eat food, and they can’t, because of Kamala Harris. He wants to know why Kamala Harris hasn’t used her time as the vice president of the world to fix all the things. Etc.
JD Vance closes by saying he’s rooting for everybody whether they vote for him or Tim Walz. Because he’s such a normal good guy!
OK, good debate, everybody! Let’s memoryhole this forever.
Nobody talked about Ukraine, and how Trump would throw it under the bus.
Unrelated to the above: Why the hell was I blocked from accessing this site for over 48 hours by Cloudflare? It didn’t even give me the option to solve a captcha or something to get by it. Fucking overzealous netkkkop monopoly. Now I’ve had to catch up on 3 days worth of stuff here all at once, and omigod look at the goddamn time …
@444 Bekenstein Bound: It wasn’t a Cloudflare issue. PZ Myers said the Freethoughtblogs site was down. He didn’t say if it was a hardware issue or software issue.
…
In January, Northwestern professor Vinayak Dravid unveiled a new technique for looking at atoms, using a membrane that holds gas molecules, which can then be examined under powerful electron microscopes. The new method allowed the molecules to be seen at 0.102 nanometer resolution, about the same size of the smallest molecules.
In the journal PNAS, Liu, Dravid, and their colleagues described how they used the technique to observe hydrogen molecules entering palladium. In real time, they saw tiny water bubbles forming on the palladium’s surface…
To confirm they were observing water, they measured the energy lost from electron scattering during the process. The result was identical to what’s found in the oxygen-bonding process of water.
Because they were able to see what was happening on such a tiny scale, the engineers could begin futzing with the process, getting a more exact idea of the conditions necessary for palladium to generate water. They discovered that exposing the metal to oxygen before hydrogen slowed the reaction rate, while the reverse occurred when hydrogen was added first…
A new law in Louisiana criminalizing medication abortion—and, consequently, rendering the life-saving medication for postpartum hemorrhage much more difficult for doctors to access in the state’s hospitals—took effect on Tuesday.
The law, which Gov. Jeff Landry (R) signed in May, adds the most common medication abortion pills (mifepristone and misoprostol) to the state’s controlled dangerous substances list as a Schedule IV drug—even though a substance must be addictive to be classified as such. Anyone in possession of the drug without a prescription could face prison time. The law offers a supposed exception for pregnant people who are imminently about to use the pills to terminate a pregnancy, but Pregnancy Justice warned Jezebel in May that it’s unclear how law enforcement would determine this…
An unexploded U.S. bomb from World War II that had been buried at a Japanese airport exploded Wednesday, causing a large crater in a taxiway and the cancellation of more than 80 flights but no injuries, Japanese officials said.
Land and Transport Ministry officials said there were no aircraft nearby when the bomb exploded at Miyazaki Airport in southwestern Japan.
Officials said an investigation by the Self-Defense Forces and police confirmed that the explosion was caused by a 500-pound U.S. bomb and there was no further danger. They were determining what caused its sudden detonation…
That last line needs work. Detonation is always sudden.
On Oct. 2, an annular solar eclipse will be visible from parts of the Southern Hemisphere. Although much of South America will see a partial solar eclipse, some observers will witness a “ring of fire” around the moon from within a narrow path of annularity.
The observer’s location will dictate when the ring of fire will be visible…
Early on in the vice presidential debate, Sen. JD Vance described climate change as “a very important issue.” For a fleeting moment, that seemed encouraging.
The moment didn’t last. The Ohio Republican quickly added that many Americans “are justifiably worried about all these crazy weather patterns. I think it’s important for us, first of all, to say Donald Trump and I support clean air, clean water.”
Part of the problem with that answer was the simple fact that air and water quality in the United States got worse, not better, during Trump’s presidency. But just as notable was the disconnect between the question and the answer: In the GOP senator’s mind, the key to understanding climate change is focusing on air and water quality, as if they’re all the same thing. They’re not, no matter how many times the former president — and now his running mate — pretend otherwise.
But if the JD Vance’s approach to the climate crisis was a mess, Trump’s was worse. NBC News reported on the former president’s remarks at a press conference in Milwaukee, where he delivered “sometimes hard-to-follow comments.”
‘Global warming wasn’t working because the planet’s actually gotten a little bit cooler recently. But climate change covers everything. It can rain, it can be dry, it can be hot, it can be cold. Climate change. Everything is — look, and I’m — I believe I really am an environmentalist. I’ve gotten environmental awards. But I want clean, beautiful air and clean, beautiful water. That’s all. Crystal clean water,’ Trump said at one point during the event.”
None of this made any sense. The planet hasn’t gotten cooler; the climate crisis and the weather aren’t the same thing; the climate crisis is also unrelated to air and water pollution; and no sane person could seriously describe Trump as “an environmentalist.”
But he said all of this with a straight face anyway. [video at the link]
But that’s not all he said. In the deadly aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Trump also suggested no one cares about climate change anymore. Two days earlier, he told a Pennsylvania audience that the climate crisis is “one of the great scams of all time.”
Eight years ago this week, Hillary Clinton reminded voters that then-candidate Trump referred to climate change as “a Chinese hoax.” The former secretary of state was correct — he really was on record saying that — but Trump denied it. Two years later, the then-president even conceded, “I don’t think it’s a hoax.”
At the time, the GOP nominee seemed to realize that much of the American electorate was concerned about the intensifying effects of global warning, so it made political sense for him to distance himself from overt climate denialism.
In 2024, however, Trump just doesn’t care. He now seems to believe that overt climate denialism will not stand in the way of his White House ambitions at all.
This is causing no shortage of international anxieties. As a Politico report summarized this past weekend, “Pro-climate government officials and environmental activists have had months to think about a strategy for preventing a second Donald Trump presidency from disrupting their efforts to save the world. They’ve come up with one main idea: Hope Vice President Kamala Harris wins.”
Tensions in the Middle East reached a new level when Iran targeted Israel with a ballistic missile attack. Asked about the developments, Donald Trump thought largely about himself.
The former president not only claimed that the violence “would have never happened” were he still in office — a baseless assertion, to be sure — the Republican added there were no similar events during his White House term.
That, of course, was problematic in important ways. After all, many of us still remember the fact that Iran was responsible for a January 2020 missile attack that targeted U.S. forces stationed in Iraq. It was in response to a drone attack that killed Iranian general Quasem Soleimani.
The attack injured several dozen American servicemembers, many of whom were diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries. The Pentagon ultimately approved Purple Hearts for 39 U.S. soldiers wounded in the attack.
Trump, the then-president, dismissed the importance of the injuries to his own country’s troops — he called them little more than “headaches” — prompting the Veterans of Foreign Wars to ask Trump to apologize for minimizing the service members’ injuries. Trump ignored the request.
Nearly four years later, he did it again. The Washington Post reported:
Former president Donald Trump once again downplayed the traumatic brain injuries suffered by American soldiers in an Iranian missile strike on an air base in Iraq in 2020, describing them as “a headache,” in response to a question at a campaign event in Milwaukee on Tuesday.
As difficult as this was to believe, five weeks before Election Day, the Republican Party’s presidential nominee downplayed the importance of American troops who had traumatic brain injuries in response to an Iranian missile attack. Trump did this out loud, on camera, on purpose, and on the record.
“So, first of all, ‘injured.’ What does ‘injured’ mean?” the GOP candidate asked rhetorically. “Injured means — you mean because they had a headache? Because the bombs never hit the fort. So just so you understand, there was nobody ever tougher on Iraq.” (Yes, he confused Iran and Iraq.)
The first time Trump made comments like these, the VFW called the “headache” comments “misguided.” Nearly four years later, they have not improved with age.
But making matters worse is the larger context. It was, after all, just six weeks ago when the former president, hoping to impress a party megadonor, downplayed the significance of the Medal of Honor — comments the Veterans of Foreign Wars described as “asinine” — before sparking a related controversy with a political appearance at Arlington National Cemetery.
As regular readers know, Trump has also reportedly denigrated those who serve in the military and condemned fallen American heroes as “suckers.” (He denies doing so.) Trump has also complained bitterly about American military leaders, reportedly disparaged wounded veterans, blamed military leaders for failed missions he approved, feuded with Gold Star families, and famously declared in reference to American prisoners of war, “I like people that weren’t captured, okay?”
What’s more, as a candidate, Trump liked to say he “felt” like he had served in the military because his parents sent him to a military-themed boarding school as a teenager. He went so far as to boast that his expensive prep school gave him “more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military,” which was a precursor to Trump pointing to bone spurs as part of an apparent effort to dodge the draft.
It was implausible that the Republican candidate could make matters worse — right up until he expressed indifference to troops with traumatic brain injuries.
About a third of the way into the vice presidential debate, the discussion turned to Springfield, Ohio — a community torn apart by a racist and false conspiracy theory promoted by both members of the Republican Party’s presidential ticket. It was against this backdrop that Sen. JD Vance, who ostensibly represents the city, referred to “millions of illegal immigrants” and parts of the country that have been “destroyed by Kamala Harris’ open border.”
The Republican senator was peddling a multi-layered lie: The border isn’t “open”; the vice president isn’t responsible for the nation’s immigration laws; and Springfield’s Haitian immigrants entered the country legally. Indeed, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic nominee, took the opportunity to note that his rival had “vilified a large number of people who were here legally.”
At that point, one of the debate’s moderators, CBS News’ Margaret Brennan, told viewers, “To clarify for our viewers, Springfield, Ohio, does have a large number of Haitian migrants who have legal status, temporary protected status.”
[JD Vance] was not having it. The New York Times referred to it as the debate’s “fact-checking flashpoint,” and NBC News’ report summarized it this way:
At Tuesday’s debate, things grew heated around Springfield after CBS News moderators Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan interjected to note the Haitian immigrants in Springfield have legal status before trying to move on. Vance objected, speaking over the moderators and preventing them from asking their next question.
“The rules were that you guys weren’t going to fact-check,” the senator complained.
In reality, even that wasn’t quite true: As the Times’ report noted, CBS News executives had indicated ahead of the event “that the moderators may choose to clarify a fuzzy point if they determined it had been left unclear.”
Or put another way, Vance lied about fact-checking after having lied about immigration policy.
But the on-air clash had a larger significance. The Ohio Republican wasn’t upset because the debate moderators were wrong; he was upset because the debate moderators were telling the public the truth.
And as Vance made clear over the course of the evening, telling the truth simply wasn’t part of his debate strategy.
Much of the post-event analysis has focused on the fact that the young senator appeared polished, smooth and well-prepared for much of the debate, while Walz, who missed some opportunities, seemed nervous and at times unsteady. Those assessments are largely fair. But more important than the GOP candidate’s presentation and style was the fact that he spent much of the evening peddling an alternate reality with little resemblance to the real world.
I recently wrote a book about Republican efforts to rewrite recent history, and even I was amazed at Vance’s brazenness when it came to waging war against the recent past.
The GOP nominee lied about Trump and the Affordable Care Act. He lied about the “peaceful” transfer of power after Trump’s 2020 defeat. He lied about his earlier support for a national abortion ban. He lied about his party’s regressive 2017 tax breaks. This is a small sampling from a much longer list of obvious falsehoods.
A separate New York Times analysis said Vance showed “a knack for revising history,” which was a polite way of saying the senator spent the evening lying to the electorate about matters large and small. A Washington Post report added that Vance “dominated on the falsehood meter.”
No wonder he seemed quite agitated about moderators telling the truth: Vance was busy trying to pull a con on the American electorate, and the CBS News anchors were interfering with his scam.
A couple of weeks ago, Vance conceded that he’s willing to “create stories” to advance his goals. It was hard not to think of this line during this year’s only vice presidential debate.
Pennsylvania farmers Bob Lange and wife Kristina Chadwick Lange are lifelong Republicans. They’ve never voted for a Democrat for president. Bob […] is also an elected Republican official in the charming Chester County community of Willistown. The couple owns and operates Willisbrook Farm and Sugartown Strawberries on the rural Western fringes of the Main Line. They are entering their busiest time of year: pumpkin and hayride season. But when it comes to politics, 2024 is different. Bob and Kristina are both voting for Kamala Harris for president. And that’s the exact message they delivered in a Kamala Harris campaign ad, after which things turned ugly.
It all started at the beginning of summer, back when Joe Biden was still in the race. Bob came across a survey on the internet in which he was asked something along the lines of, “If you’re a Republican who voted for Donald Trump twice, would you vote for him a third time?” He clicked “No.” And that was that. He didn’t think anything else of it. That is until the Kamala Harris campaign reached out and asked him if he’d be willing to appear in a commercial that would air in Pennsylvania and perhaps some other key states. He said sure.
[…] “Originally, I just sat on the sideline while they talked to Bob,” says Kristina. “But I kept thinking, Don’t forget to talk about this and Don’t forget to talk about that, so finally I just decided that I was going to get in there and do this.”
And so she did, the final result being this: [video at the link]
Bob voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020. Kristina went Trump in 2016 but abstained in 2020. Kristina tells Philly Mag that she felt that “Trump failed America” when it came to the COVID crisis […] For Bob, Trump was his reluctant choice in 2020. “But after January 6th, I said never again,” Bob says.
“I already knew he was mean spirited,” admits Bob. “Condemning John McCain. The way he treated Gold Star families. Just one thing after another. But then he instigated what happened on January 6th, and that was it for me.”
[…] And then came Kamala Harris.
“She really energized me,” says Kristina. “[…] I’ve come to respect her.”
The ad campaign began last week, only intended to target certain rural markets. But on Tuesday, unbeknownst to Bob and Kristina, the hosts of MSNBC’s popular Morning Joe show talked about the “Republicans for Kamala” movement. They aired the entire commercial. Nationally. Frequent Morning Joe pundit Al Sharpton chimed in with some thoughts.
This national attention led to an eruption of posts on X that made all sorts of claims about the couple, including that they were actually Democrats and paid actors. Some leaned more into the QAnon realm, ridiculously suggesting that they were pedophiles.
Bob and Kristina were blissfully unaware of all of this until Tuesday night, when Kristina sat down to check the farm’s email account. And there, she was horrified to see hate mail. Lots of hate mail. The couple wasn’t sure how haters and trolls even found them, since the commercial only uses their first names, and their businesses aren’t identified in the ad. But it turns out that the Kamala Harris campaign sent out a press release last week that didn’t just use their full names and the name of their businesses — it even linked to their website.
Philly Mag has reviewed some of the messages sent to the couple, and it’s fair to characterize the content as nothing short of disgusting and vile. Some of the messages included threats. And those are just the emails. Then came the phone calls. Comments on the farm’s social media accounts.
“It’s really been exhausting,” says Kristina.
The couple went to the police, who confirm they are investigating. But, as tends to happen in these cases, the emails and phone calls seem to have come from anonymous sources. Naturally, Bob and Kristina have concerns for their personal safety and the safety of their property, and so they remain armed at all times. According to Bob, the police have set up extra patrols to keep an eye on things.
We asked the couple if they regret making the commercial in light of what’s happening to them now.
“Absolutely not,” insists Kristina. “Not for one second. It’s very scary, but we as Republicans must stand up.”
“If we don’t stand up,” interjects Bob, “I don’t want to think about the consequences.”
We’ll readily admit that JD Vance surprised us last night in his debate with Tim Walz. We expected him to lie a lot about everything, and he certainly didn’t disappoint in that area. But weirdly, Vance also kept telling lies that, once you did a little fact-checking, undermined themselves and actually support Democratic positions.
To be sure, the fact-checks weren’t built into Vance’s lies; we still have to add those. When he was lying about healthcare, for instance, he claimed nobody should worry about Donald Trump’s concepts of a plan to reverse the Affordable Care Act, because there are already legal protections in place for people with preexisting conditions. The fact-check, of course, is that those protections are in the ACA, so yeah, eliminating it would unprotect them.
Something similar happened very early on in the debate, when Vance was asked, in the context of the climate-driven disaster of Hurricane Helene, what a potential Trump-Vance administration would do to “try and reduce the impact of climate change.”
Vance quickly trotted out the standard deflection that he and Trump both support “clean air and clean water,” which isn’t an answer at all. But Vance then pretended that he would go along — just for the sake of argument, you know — with what he framed as a potentially fringe theory, saying, “One of the things that I’ve noticed some of our Democratic friends talking a lot about is a concern about carbon emissions — this idea that carbon emissions drive all the climate change.”
It was cute that he framed the scientific consensus for decades as if it were a nutty notion that “some” Democrats occasionally speculate about. Vance immediately cast doubt on it as “weird science” that he was only conceding to for the sake of argument, because he seems to have thought he had a real killer comeback: So in this hypothetical world where greenhouse gases might cause global warming, Vance said,
If you believe that, what would you want to do?
The answer is that you want to reshore as much American manufacturing as possible, and you want to produce as much energy as possible in the United States of America, because we’re the cleanest economy in the entire world. […]
So if we actually care about getting cleaner air and cleaner water, the best thing to do is to double down and invest in American workers and the American people.
Well, yes. That’s precisely the point of Biden and Harris’s industrial policy, which is all about building a domestic supply chain for clean energy and technology. And as a matter of fact, contrary to what Vance went on to claim, those policies have been followed by record growth in construction of new manufacturing plants in the USA.
Literally what Vance was demanding Biden and Harris do — or rather, THE HARRIS ADMINISTRATION, as he thundered over and over — they are already doing.
That’s just one of several points in the 74-page policy document the Harris campaign released last week (when the New York Times was falsely saying Harris’s policies lacked substance). Here, have a happy little chart from page 55, based on Federal Reserve data. Since the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the CHIPS and Science act, we’re building new manufacturing capacity like crazy: [chart at the link]
As Walz replied, yes, that’s what we’re already doing:
We’ve seen massive investments — the biggest in global history. [… We’ve] seen that the Inflation Reduction Act has created jobs all across the country:
Two thousand in Jeffersonville, Ohio. Taking the EV technology that we invented and making it here. Two hundred thousand jobs across the country. The largest solar manufacturing plant in North America sits in Minnesota.
He also added that there’s no need to think there’s a “false choice” between economic growth and clean energy, because the energy transition is driving growth:
You can do that at the same time you’re creating the jobs that we’re seeing all across the country. That’s exactly what this administration has done. We are seeing us becoming an energy superpower for the future, not just the current [moment].
Walz also pointed out that Vance, before going full MAGA, actually had considered climate change a threat, but now he’s on the ticket of a liar who calls climate change a “hoax” and who has promised to erase the progress we’ve made, in exchange for Big Oil donations. Vance knows damn well it’s not a hypothetical.
In another lie, Vance falsely claimed that the administration is “spending hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars of American taxpayer money on solar panels that are made in China,” which simply is the reverse of the truth: Since 2022, American solar imports are just plain not coming from China, thanks in part to tariffs meant to exclude them. (Yes, those tariffs were initially imposed by Trump and continued under Biden.) [Graph at the link]
But tariffs are only part of the story; as Jigar Shah, head of the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office, pointed out during the debate, we’re already doing what Vance claimed we need to do. Thanks to the manufacturing credits in the IRA, Shah noted, “By 2026, 80% of solar deployment will come from modules made in the United States.”
Well hell, good for us, huh?
So thanks, Mr. Vance! Assuming that the scientific consensus on climate is true, which it is, we’re doing a pretty good job of moving in the right direction. Maybe if we can develop some technology that translates bullshit into reality, you could find a policy job in the Harris-Walz administration.
Why the hell was I blocked from accessing this site for over 48 hours by Cloudflare? It didn’t even give me the option to solve a captcha or something to get by it. Fucking overzealous netkkkop monopoly.
You saw a page from Cloudflare in lieu of FTB. If you had read the page, you would have seen it was telling you that while your browser and Cloudflare’s middleman infrastructure were working (green circles), FTB’s server had an error (red circle).
It was not blocking you in particular, and there was no feature they could offer that would make FTB responsive.
Your tendency to voice minor frustration in the form of slapdash paranoid accusations deserves some quiet reflection.
birgerjohanssonsays
NEW INFORMATION: Major Conservative Poll (Rasmussen Reports) Cited by Media Secretly Worked With Team Trump
For those who’ve kept an eye on Donald Trump’s rhetoric over time, he has some unmistakable tells. When the former president tells stories, for example, about big, burly men who profess their love for him while crying, he’s lying. When he vows to release information in “two weeks,” he’s lying.
And similarly, when the Republican uses the word “exoneration,” he’s lying. Take his latest comments about his classified documents scandal, for example.
“I was exonerated from my case,” the GOP candidate said at a news conference in Milwaukee. “That was a big case, as you know. Down in Florida we had a, I don’t know the judge, but a brilliant judge. Totally brilliant judge. And I was exonerated. And fully exonerated.”
So, a few things.
First, the idea that U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon is a “totally brilliant judge” is impossible to take seriously. As a New York Times report summarized in June, in reference to the documents case, “Judge Cannon has exhibited hostility to prosecutors, handled pretrial motions slowly and indefinitely postponed the trial, declining to set a date for it to begin even though both the prosecution and the defense had told her they could be ready to start this summer.”
She also repeatedly gave observers reason to question her competence, lent credence to questions that legal experts consider absurd, refused to assign pretrial motions to a more experienced magistrate judge for reasons that were difficult to defend, and justified procedural delays by pointing to logjams that she had created.
“Brilliant” is not the first adjective that comes to mind.
Second, Cannon didn’t “exonerate” Trump. Rather, the controversial Trump-appointed judge threw out the charges based on misguided concerns about special counsel Jack Smith’s appointment. She did not, however, rule on the merits of the felony charges against the Republican candidate.
And third, let’s not lose sight of the amazing larger pattern.
In March 2018, Trump claimed that the House Intelligence Committee had completely exonerated him in the Russia scandal. That wasn’t true.
In June 2018, Trump said the Justice Department inspector general’s office had “totally” exonerated him in the Russia scandal. That was both wrong and kind of bonkers.
In February 2019, Trump claimed that the Senate Intelligence Committee had also exonerated him in the Russia scandal. That also wasn’t true.
In March 2019, Trump claimed the judge in a Paul Manafort trial exonerated him, too. That also wasn’t true.
In June 2021, Trump claimed he’d been “totally exonerated” by testimony from former White House counsel Don McGahn, which was largely the opposite of the truth.
In February 2023, Trump insisted that a special grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, had rewarded him with “total exoneration.” That not only didn’t happen, that same special grand jury criminally indicted him soon after.
In June 2023, Trump published an item to his social media platform, declaring that he’d been “totally exonerated” in the classified documents scandal. That was also the opposite of the truth.
In June 2024, Trump claimed to have been “exonerated” for referencing the “very fine people” he saw protesting in Charlottesville. That wasn’t true, either.
In July 2024, Trump claimed “total exoneration” in the hush-money-to-a-porn-star case — the one in which he was ultimately found guilty of multiple felonies — which didn’t make any sense at all.
And in October 2024, Trump again claimed that he’d been “fully exonerated” in the classified documents scandal, which was still completely wrong.
There’s no great mystery as to the former president’s motivations. The GOP nominee has faced a series of controversies, each of which has caused political damage, and he’s been desperate to convince the public that he’s been cleared — in every instance — of any meaningful wrongdoing.
But either Trump doesn’t know what “exonerated” means or he has spent years trying to deceive the public about his culpability in a variety of serious scandals […]
Ahead of the vice presidential debate, Donald Trump held a couple of odd events in Milwaukee, including a news conference in which he reflected on recent assassination attempts. The New York Times highlighted one of the former president’s stranger comments:
Saying that the Secret Service had been burdened by the security needs of the recent U.N. General Assembly, Mr. Trump complained that officials “said that we have to guard the United Nations, which meant the president of North Korea, who is basically trying to kill me.” He added, “So they want to guard him, but they don’t want to guard me.”
[WTF?]
It was an odd comment on its face, in large part because Kim Jong Un hasn’t tried to kill Trump and has no reason to do so.
But as curious as the rhetoric was, this was not the only strange thing Trump has said recently about attempts on his life.
Late last week, for example, the GOP candidate suggested to a Michigan audience that the assassination attempts against him might have been caused by foreign opposition to his tariff proposals.
Two days earlier, Trump suggested — without a shred of evidence, of course — that Iran might have been involved in two recent attempted assassinations against him.
A New York Times report explained that the former president had received an intelligence briefings about threats from Iran, and intelligence officials were tracking a potential Iranian assassination plot against him, “but officials have found no evidence to link Iran to either the Pennsylvania gunman or the man who the authorities say tried to shoot Mr. Trump at his golf course in Florida” last month.
In other words, it appears Trump might’ve just thrown some relevant details together and started connecting dots in a bizarre and baseless way.
Two days earlier, Trump issued a ridiculous written statement, accusing the Justice Department of “downplaying” an alleged assassination plot, and alleging that federal officials have a conflict of interest “since they have been obsessed with ‘Getting Trump’ for so long.”
The rant, which made odd references to his Russia scandal and referred to Jan. 6 as a “hoax,” went on to say, “OUR JUSTICE SYSTEM IS CORRUPT AND DISCREDITED, especially as it pertains to the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.”
[…] In July, after he was shot in the ear, Trump started blaming his critics for the shooting — again, without any evidence — and amplifying conspiracy theories.
Trump eventually blamed the Biden administration for the attempt on his life — officials “weren’t too interested in my health and safety,” he told television personality Phil McGraw — and after another conservative media ally questioned whether the shooting might’ve been an “inside job,” the former president responded, “You do have to wonder.”
You do not, in fact, have to wonder.
Reginald Selkirksays
WNBA playoff update
They are in the semifinals at present. This is a “best of 5” series.
The Minnesota Lynx and the Connecticut Sun are tied at 1 win apiece.
The New York Liberty lead the Las Vega Aces 2-0.
The next games will be played on Friday, Oct 4, 2024.
Mining giant Fortescue says it’s time to walk away from the ‘proven fantasy’ of net zero
And I was sure what was coming — “we can’t do it”, “climate change is a hoax”, and “we need fossil fuels”. So, I damn near did a spit take with my coffee when the first paragraph was:
Australian mining tycoon Andrew Forrest, founder and executive chairman of Fortescue, says it is time for the world to walk away from the “proven fantasy” of net zero emissions by 2050 and to embrace “real zero” by 2040 instead.
Head snap — WTF? Did he really say that? It gets better:
“All those leaders who say to me, say to the world, say to their kids, ‘oh you know we can’t do it, my company can’t do it, I can’t do it, you don’t understand we can’t actually do it,’” Forrest said in an exclusive interview.
“What they are really saying is that you can’t do it. And I’m saying to each of those chief executives and those political leaders who use the words ‘I can’t,’ OK, what about you get off the stage and let on a young girl or wiser leader who can. Someone with a bit of ticker because the technology is there,” he continued.
Oh, snap — I like this guy. Now, I don’t know anything about him and he may, for all I know, be talking out both sides of his mouth but I hold out hope.
The “real zero” he talks about is setting a goal by 2040 of having annual carbon removals equal 100% of annual carbon emissions by 2040. That means no increase of CO2 in the air after that date — at least it stops the bleeding.
We need to do more but hitting his 2040 target is better than anyone thinks we will achieve from current commitments. He appears to be committing to burning no fossil fuels by 2040 and possibly sooner.
This is at least more concrete and responsive commitment language. Let’s see if it plays out in reality and can drag others along.
In Tuesday’s vice presidential debate, Sen. JD Vance repeated a strange lie about healthcare that Donald Trump made during his debate last month with Kamala Harris. Vance was asked to expound on Trump’s vague claim that he had “concepts of a plan” to replace the Affordable Care Act with something much better that would cover everyone and cost less. Could Vance please say how that would work, and would he “guarantee that Americans with pre-existing conditions won’t pay more?”
Astute Wonkette readers already know that Vance can’t guarantee that, because he says Republicans will return to the bad old days when private health insurance was affordable only if you were young and healthy, while insurers routinely denied coverage for folks who were at higher risk because they might actually need healthcare.
Tim Walz explained that the whole reason the ACA can offer affordable private insurance plans is because 1) individual premiums are subsidized by taxes, and 2) everyone is in the same risk pool, and the premiums paid by young healthies help cover the costs of everyone else. If you segregate by risk, it’s no longer affordable for those who’ll need it, period. [Yep. That’s how insurance works.]
But Vance also flat out lied about what happened during the Trump years, claiming incorrectly that Trump “salvaged Obamacare, which was doing disastrously until Donald Trump came along.” Vance expanded on that lie, saying that
“when Obamacare was crushing under the weight of its own regulatory burden and healthcare costs, Donald Trump could have destroyed the program. Instead, he worked in a bipartisan way to ensure that Americans had access to affordable care.”
[Oh my JFC. Hooting laughter.]
None of that is true, as we’ll discuss in some detail because I spent about a third of 2017 following Donald Trump’s failed efforts to kill Obamacare, before he finally said the hell with it and did Big Fat Tax Cuts for Rich Fuckwads instead.
After campaigning on replacing the ACA with a terrific plan that he never got around to announcing, Trump found himself elected, and instead of revealing his big plan that never existed, left it to congressional Republicans to come up with a plan he could say was his all along. [Trump likes to take credit for other people’s work.] The House came up with a terrible “American Health Care Act” that would have rolled back Medicaid expansion and screwed over poor and disabled kids and allow the sale of “junk insurance” that had low premiums but covered very little. You may have noticed no one remembers it, not even the name. Senate Republicans came up with a halfassed “Better Care Act” that, as the name implies, would have been much worse.
Neither passed, and eventually the Senate went ahead with a “skinny repeal” bill that would have repealed many parts of the ACA with no replacement at all and which would have left 16 million Americans with no coverage. But then they’d pass a replacement, you bet! Things never got that far, because John McCain voted Thumbs Down on skinny repeal, joining Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, and every last Democrat to leave the ACA in place.
Ah, but Trump wasn’t finished yet, and here’s where Vance’s lie about him “salvaging” the ACA is especially vile, unless it was just a verbal typo and he meant “savaging” it. As the attempts to repeal Obamacare slogged forth, Trump also tried to kill it with executive actions that knocked out parts of what made it work. He chopped weeks off the annual open enrollment period, eliminated advertising to let people know it was available, and eliminated federal “navigators” who helped people select plans, although quite a few blue states ramped up their own outreach efforts to make up for it.
Every day, in every way, Trump tried to chop away federal support and change rules in ways that would make the ACA more cumbersome, but then a funny thing happened. Trump sought to make the costs of individual insurance plans on the exchanges go up so the system would collapse of its own weight. But the ACA salvaged itself, because even when premiums went up, the ACA also required that the federal subsidy keep pace, so costs didn’t really increase for subscribers. It was one resilient dang program. [True!. All true.]
As a Congressional Budget Office assessment explained in September 2018,
Although premiums have been increasing, most subsidized enrollees buying health insurance through the marketplaces are insulated from those increases because their out-of-pocket payments for premiums are based on a percentage of their income; the federal government pays the difference between that percentage and the premium for a benchmark plan.
Insurers’ uncertainty over continued federal support was the main source of those rate increases, but the CBO estimated that the market would stabilize all the same.
And by golly, it did. The ACA was designed to survive market turbulence, and darned if a lot of those features didn’t also make it resistant to intentional ratfucking. It kept doing what it was designed to do, though not as well, until Joe Biden was elected and got to work fixing the damage Trump did, as well as boosting the premium subsidies to make it more affordable (again). The ACA is now covering more people than ever, and the number of Americans without health insurance is at an all-time low.
In 2017, Luckey co-founded defense tech company Anduril, last valued at $14 billion, with Trae Stephens, Matt Grimm, Joe Chen, and Brian Schimpf. He made it clear he had no hesitation about Anduril building weapons.
“Societies have always needed a warrior class that is enthused and excited about enacting violence on others in pursuit of good aims,” he told Gash. “You need people like me who are sick in that way and who don’t lose any sleep making tools of violence in order to preserve freedom.” …
Notice how he conflates the “warrior class” with the “arms dealer class.”
As he got up to leave, Gash tried to gift him a leather-bound collection of “The Lord of the Rings,” which is where Luckey got the name “Anduril.” But Luckey politely declined. “I cannot fit that on my motorcycle,” he said.
[…] – Israel vowed Iran “will pay” for its missile attack and an Israeli official told NBC News the country would retaliate swiftly. Tehran urged the U.S. to “step aside” and warned of “a far more crushing response,” as fears grew of all-out war in the Middle East.
– The Israeli military announced the deaths of eight soldiers in Lebanon today and said that infantry and armored units would join its invasion of the country’s south targeting Hezbollah. The Iran-backed militant group said this morning that it had repelled Israeli forces from a Lebanese border town.
– Nearly 200 ballistic missiles were intercepted by Israeli and U.S. forces but one Palestinian was killed in the occupied West Bank. Damage was reported at a school in central Israel, with missle fragments falling in several sites.
– The Iranian president has threatened further retaliation should Israel strike back, saying if Israel “persists in its actions, we will respond with greater force.” Biden says he does not support an attack on Iran’s nuclear sites, but plans to announce new sanctions on the country.
– Israel conducted new strikes overnight on the Lebanese capital, Beirut, after weeks of intense aerial bombardment that Lebanese officials say has killed more than 1,000 people and displaced around 1 million.
Khawla was fleeing Lebanon for Syria and had just crossed over the border when she began to go into labor with her fourth child.
“I was giving birth on the border, surrounded by displaced families who shared the same pain and fear,” Khawla said. “But when I heard my daughter’s cry, everything stopped.
Her story was shared by the United Nations’ Population Fund, or UNFPA, and she was not identified with a surname. According to the UNFPA, Khawla was taken to a Damascus hospital where she named her newborn daughter Amal — the Arabic word for “hope.”
An estimated 11,600 pregnant women are in desperate need of medical care and basic needs as thousands flee Israeli bombings in Lebanon, according to the UNFPA. Laila Baker, the agency’s regional director, described the situation as “heart-wrenching” as it says 520,000 women and girls are placed at risk.
“The interruption of essential life-saving health services for women and girls is deeply concerning. The need for protection is urgent,” Baker said. “It is a matter of life or death, including for UN staff.”
The United States organized a flight from Beirut to Istanbul on Wednesday to allow Americans to leave Lebanon amid the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said. […]
Hamas’ military wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, took responsibility for the terror attack in Tel Aviv yesterday, a stabbing and shooting that killed seven people and injured several others.
Israeli police said yesterday that two suspects attacked civilians at a rail station in Jaffa, adding that both suspects were “neutralized.” Al-Qassam said that one of its members stabbed an Israeli soldier and took the weapon used in the attack. […]
[…] – The death toll from Hurricane Helene has risen to 176 and hundreds are still missing as a result of the storm and its aftermath, with many caught in historic flooding across southeastern states.
– Parts of North Carolina have been devastated, with entire communities destroyed. At least 90 people are known to have died in the state.
– Power connections are being restored but 1.3 million energy customers are still without power, from Florida to Virginia.
– President Joe Biden is set to visit North Carolina today. Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris will visit Georgia. Republican nominee Donald Trump visited Georgia yesterday. Biden announced he’s directed the DoD to deploy up to 1,000 active duty soldiers to reinforce the North Carolina National Guard, aiding in the delivery of supplies, food and water to isolated communities.
– If you would like to help donate to survivors from Helene several organizations including the Red Cross and the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster are seeking assistance from the public.
– NBC News Lite, a lightweight version of NBCNews.com available in emergency situations when internet connectivity may be limited, has been turned on for readers in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama.
NBC News contributor Dr. Kavita Patel, a primary care physician who served in the Obama administration, said hospitals in North Carolina are working in “Third World conditions” in the wake of Helene’s wrath.
She described the shortages hospitals are facing as the state slowly recovers but still grapples with power outages and a shortage of critical supplies.
“What’s really amazing is that these medical personnel, even friends of mine that are doctors in that area, are resorting to things like Amazon wishlist,” she said on Andrea Mitchell Reports this afternoon.
“They’re asking for those tablets to help sanitize and kind of make drinkable their water supplies. So I mean, we’re dealing with literally kind of Third World conditions in a developed country like the United States, but that’s what can happen when Mother Nature and these unexpected forces all collide,” she added. […]
On Wednesday, Judge Tanya Chutkan unsealed the 165-page motion filed by Special Counsel Jack Smith in the federal government’s effort to fight former President Donald Trump’s immunity defense in his criminal prosecution related to his alleged efforts to interfere in the 2020 election.
In August, Smith filed a superseding indictment against Trump that was tailored to reflect the Supreme Court’s ruling in Trump v. United States on the issue of presidential immunity. A superseding indictment replaces a previous existing indictment, and in the new version, Smith brought the same four charges he had brought before.
The 165-page motion that was unsealed Wednesday afternoon still contains substantial redactions, but does give a roadmap of the evidence that the government believes shows that Trump “resorted to crimes to stay in office,” making a “private criminal effort” that was separate and distinct from his official presidential duties, and therefore not protected by presidential immunity.
Trump had objected to the release of this motion, arguing that its release would constitute interference in the upcoming November election.
Read the motion below. [Motion available at the link.]
Followup to comment 474: This release of information is so recent that there is not yet much analysis available online, not in written form anyway.
Nicole Wallace referenced page 142, which has new information related to Mike Pence. Tune in to the live stream of MSNBC, or turn on your television, to get good coverage. MSNBC hosts and guests are doing a good job of presenting some of the new material, and some of the work Jack Smith did to present an accurate timeline, often in a narrative format.
[…]
Part of the brief focuses, for example, on a social media post that Mr. Trump sent on the afternoon of the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, telling supporters that Vice President Mike Pence had let them all down. Mr. Smith laid out extensive arguments for why that post on Twitter should be considered an unofficial act of a desperate losing candidate, rather than the official act of a president that would be considered immune from prosecution under a landmark Supreme Court ruling this summer.
After Mr. Trump’s Twitter post focused the enraged mob’s attention on harming Mr. Pence and the Secret Service took the vice president to a secure location, an aide rushed into the dining room off the Oval Office where Mr. Trump was watching television. The aide alerted him to the developing situation, in the hope that Mr. Trump would then take action to ensure Mr. Pence’s safety.
Instead, Mr. Trump looked at the aide and said only, “So what?” according to grand jury testimony newly disclosed in the brief.
Much earlier, the brief says, one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers gave him an “honest assessment” that his false claims that the election had been marred by widespread fraud would not hold up in court. But Mr. Trump seemed not to care.
“The details don’t matter,” the brief quotes Mr. Trump as saying.
Around the same time, the brief says, Mr. Pence also sought to convince Mr. Trump he had lost the election. During a private lunch in mid-November 2020, for example, Mr. Pence suggested to Mr. Trump that he accept defeat and run again in the next presidential race, but Mr. Trump did not want to hear about it.
“I don’t know,” the brief quotes him as saying, “2024 is so far-off.”
WaPo: Republicans keep inventing new ways to scapegoat immigrants It used to be false claims about crime. Now, including in the vice-presidential debate, it’s false claims about crime and housing and drugs and guns.
Philip Bump / October 2, 2024
Snipped details on “immigrant crime” which have been repeatedly debunked.
It is also not true that immigrants crossing into the United States illegally are a central conduit for the dangerous drug fentanyl. There has been a surge in overdoses linked to fentanyl — which, again, began under Trump. Since the drug frequently enters the United States across the southern border, Republicans have for years linked it to illegal immigration.
But unlike other drugs, such as marijuana, fentanyl is relatively easy to hide. That means it’s easier to smuggle in vehicles, rather than having to be carried by people walking across the border, which in turn means it’s faster to get it to distribution points. So most of the fentanyl seized at the border is found not on illegal border-crossers but at vehicle checkpoints.
Since it’s much easier for Americans to cross the border into the United States, American citizens are often recruited to do the smuggling. The New York Times just reported on this pattern, finding that more than 80 percent of those sentenced for crimes involving fentanyl smuggling are U.S. citizens.
During Tuesday night’s vice-presidential debate, Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), attempted to blame high housing costs on immigrants.
“We have a lot of Americans that need homes,” he said. “We should be kicking out illegal immigrants who are competing for those homes, and we should be building more homes for the American citizens who deserve to be here.”
Pressed on the point by debate moderators, Vance promised to share what he described as “a Federal Reserve study” linking housing costs to immigration. Instead, Vance shared a portion of a speech in which the speaker suggested that immigration might help drive price inflation — but as economist Justin Wolfers pointed out, a portion Vance didn’t share said immigration may have helped lower inflation.
Vance is right that constraints on housing supply are a key factor in housing costs and availability. But those are generally a function of zoning rather than oversaturation. The people who would be building those new homes Vance seeks? Often immigrants.
Vance also claimed that the Biden administration’s policies were spurring a surge in illegal firearms.
“We’ve seen a massive influx in the number of illegal guns run by the Mexican drug cartels,” Vance claimed. “So that number, the amount of illegal guns in our country is higher today than it was 3½ years ago.”
This is backward. Cartels smuggle guns out of the United States, as CBS News and others have reported. In 2023, border agents stopped seven times as many weapons at the border — heading south — than they had in 2019.
The reason guns move from the United States to Mexico was summarized in a 2013 report on the subject.
“Mexico does not manufacture small arms, light weapons or ammunition in sizeable quantity,” it indicated. “Moreover, Mexico has some of the most restrictive gun legislation in the world.” Its neighbor to the north, though, makes guns readily available for citizens and immigrants alike.
[Cartels look at the US as a giant supermarket for guns. Virtually anyone can buy guns here.]
In summary, then, it’s not true that violent crime is being pushed higher by immigrants, in part because Trump and his allies often wildly overstate the number of immigrants who’ve started living in the United States under the Biden administration. It’s not true that immigrants are the primary conduit for fentanyl into the country or for illegal firearms. It’s not true that immigrants are the central driver of housing costs — or even necessarily a significant one.
Again, we can cede the point raised at the beginning of this article, the one often raised by Republicans: An undocumented immigrant who commits a crime does result in a crime that wouldn’t have been committed had that undocumented immigrant not been in the United States.
It would be interesting, though, to consider how the right’s view of the situation might change if we simply replace the phrase “undocumented immigrant” with “gun.”
Bekenstein Boundsays
JM@447:
It wasn’t a Cloudflare issue.
The thing that got in my way and wouldn’t let me pass had their name and logo all over it. So yeah, it was, unless it was brazenly misrepresenting its own identity.
Regardless, what happened to me was blatantly incorrect and I ask that it not be repeated.
Lynna@464:
For those who’ve kept an eye on Donald Trump’s rhetoric over time, he has some unmistakable tells.
Yeah, when he lies he has some easily recognizable facial and vocal tics. For one, his mouth will open, and for another, sound will come out. :)
Lynna@468:
Australian mining tycoon Andrew Forrest, founder and executive chairman of Fortescue, says it is time for the world to walk away from the “proven fantasy” of net zero emissions by 2050 and to embrace “real zero” by 2040 instead.
Now watch for the company’s shareholders and board of directors to oust him so fast his head will spin …
To save power, NASA has switched off another scientific instrument on its long-running Voyager 2 spacecraft.
The space agency said Tuesday that Voyager 2’s plasma science instrument — designed to measure the flow of charged atoms — was powered down in late September so the spacecraft can keep exploring for as long as possible, expected into the 2030s.
NASA turned off a suite of instruments on Voyager 2 and its twin Voyager 1 after they explored the gas giant planets in the 1980s. Both are currently in interstellar space, or the space between stars. The plasma instrument on Voyager 1 stopped working long ago and was finally shut down in 2007.
Four remaining instruments on Voyager 2 will continue collecting information about magnetic fields and particles. Its goal is to study the swaths of space beyond the sun’s protective bubble…
almost everyone in America knows Trump […] nearly 90% of voters say they do not need to learn more about Trump to decide their vote.
But they don’t yet know Harris, or remain undecided about her. […] Trump is exploiting this asymmetry so that when it comes to choosing between Trump and Harris, voters will choose the devil they know. This requires, first, that Trump suck all the media oxygen out of the air so Harris has fewer opportunities to define herself positively.
Americans who have become overwhelmed […] tune out both Trump and Harris, Trump is the beneficiary, because, again, he’s the devil they know.
Ehh. That would require fearful voters to posit that there could exist a devil worse than Trump, in the present day, in the US, as a politician, running against him, and has already been VP for years without their awfulness coming to light, to be the ominous mystery candidate we have today.
Not that it matters because the ‘devil you know’ actually loses to generic opponents.
Yes, a generic candidate is almost always going to best an actual candidate in a poll, because generic candidates aren’t defined and don’t have real records.
whheydtsays
Re: Beckenstein Bound @ #480…
Blaming Cloudflare is like shooting the messenger when you don’t like the message. The error page clearly showed that ones own network connection was fine. Cloudflare was working fine. The Free Thought Blogs server was not responding.
I would suggest a class on networking, but I don’t know if it will do any good if you are this bad at understanding the data presented to you.
whheydtsays
Re: Beckenstein Bound @ #480…
More detail… Here is a trace route from one of my systems to the Free Thought server, just to give you an idea of how many different pieces of equipment are between ones own PC and the server you’re after:
pi@ddc5test:~ $ traceroute freethoughtblogs.com
traceroute to freethoughtblogs.com (104.21.234.50), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1) 1.733 ms 1.897 ms 1.963 ms
2 10.61.211.19 (10.61.211.19) 15.040 ms 15.399 ms 10.61.211.18 (10.61.211.18) 15.750 ms
3 po-105-rur202.fairfield.ca.sfba.comcast.net (162.151.31.165) 14.583 ms 23.015 ms 23.150 ms
4 po-200-xar01.fairfield.ca.sfba.comcast.net (68.87.192.25) 22.992 ms po-200-xar02.fairfield.ca.sfba.comcast.net (68.87.193.37) 23.123 ms po-200-xar01.fairfield.ca.sfba.comcast.net (68.87.192.25) 23.112 ms
5 po-2-xar02.fairfield.ca.sfba.comcast.net (69.139.199.102) 23.167 ms 23.155 ms 23.275 ms
6 be-397-ar01.hayward.ca.sfba.comcast.net (96.108.99.9) 24.614 ms 16.399 ms 12.301 ms
7 be-397-ar01.hayward.ca.sfba.comcast.net (96.108.99.9) 12.391 ms be-36341-cs04.9greatoaks.ca.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.93.141) 13.010 ms be-397-ar01.hayward.ca.sfba.comcast.net (96.108.99.9) 12.525 ms
8 be-36321-cs02.9greatoaks.ca.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.93.133) 13.080 ms be-36331-cs03.9greatoaks.ca.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.93.137) 12.728 ms be-36311-cs01.9greatoaks.ca.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.93.129) 16.713 ms
9 50.242.151.238 (50.242.151.238) 17.848 ms 25.067 ms be-2211-pe11.9greatoaks.ca.ibone.comcast.net (96.110.32.246) 16.253 ms
10 173.245.54.4 (173.245.54.4) 17.431 ms 17.610 ms 66.208.229.106 (66.208.229.106) 17.035 ms
11 104.21.234.50 (104.21.234.50) 26.568 ms 173.245.54.2 (173.245.54.2) 26.771 ms 173.245.54.4 (173.245.54.4) 26.976 ms
(The equivalent command in MS Windows is “tracert”, but it doesn’t give you as much information as the Linux “traceroute”.)
Jeansays
Also there’s a bunch of websites that will tell you if a website is up and running or down and the few I tried were showing that freethoughtblogs.com was down. So it’s not even at the level of a networking class but simple basic internet usage…
BB @480, “Regardless, what happened to me was blatantly incorrect and I ask that it not be repeated.”
Are you trying to take this personally? I couldn’t access FreeThoughtBlogs either. There was something amiss with the server.
whheydtsays
Re: Jean @ #485…
There is also the basic command “ping”. To be fair, traceroute is useful to find out where the failure is, while ping will quickly tell you that there is a problem.
[…] Within an hour of making the request on Sept. 24 — before Helene ravaged the western part of the state — most of the council had responded with supporting votes. But come 9 a.m. the next morning, one member had yet to cast a vote: Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the Republican nominee for governor.
Cooper has deployed more than 700 members of the North Carolina National Guard, who have helped rescue more than 400 people and dozens of animals in western North Carolina, where flooding and mudslides have crippled road networks, left more than 1,000 people homeless and dozens dead. Guardsmen and other volunteers have delivered hundreds of pallets of water and food since the storm started. Meanwhile, dozens of shelters are housing more than 1,100 people. And President Joe Biden approved Cooper’s request for expedited federal support.
Council members had 48 hours to vote via email. Robinson’s vote never came. Despite not weighing in, Robinson has spent recent days needling the Democratic governor to do more — a posturing that has drawn criticism from some members of his own party.
On Sunday, Robinson called on Cooper to send more resources and National Guard personnel to lead additional search-and-rescue teams. In a social media post on Tuesday, he added: “North Carolina must follow the lead of successful governors like [Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis]. Cut the red tape. Stop waiting on federal resources and allow private industry in to assist with rescue and recovery efforts, and repair infrastructure immediately.”
Jordan Monaghan, a spokesman for the governor, said Robinson’s comments give a false impression of the scope of the relief efforts.
“An online disinformation campaign by the lieutenant governor during an unprecedented crisis is unhelpful, causes confusion in areas with limited communications and potentially puts lives at risk,” Monaghan said in a statement.
“State, federal and local partners are leading a massive, coordinated response to a catastrophic storm,” Monaghan said. “The governor declared a state of emergency well before this storm hit, has led public briefings from the Emergency Operations Center since last week, and continues to visit affected regions to coordinate more resources. Resources from across the state and country are deployed to help the people and communities of western North Carolina.” […]
An exceptional autumn heat wave, which began in the southwestern United States last week, sent temperatures soaring to 117 degrees in Palm Springs, Calif., on Tuesday — matching the highest temperature ever observed in the United States during October.
Meet Marcus. Marcus Will Now Explain ‘What Is Vice President?’ To Idiot Republicans. Listen To Marcus.
Civics lessons!
One of the Trump/Vance campaign’s favorite (only) rhetorical tricks in running against Kamala Harris has been to blame her for all ills that have ever befallen American society, real or imagined, since she has after all been the supreme leader of the universe lo these past four years, AKA the vice president.
We saw it in JD Vance’s debate performance, as he bemoaned Kamala-flation and Kamala-nomics and Kamala-xican immigration policy and maybe even Kamal-ate change, we don’t know. […]
Last night, Donald Trump, whose senile brain is getting ever more confused about what the conspiracy theories he believes actually say, repeated his new lie that Kamala Harris has a special app — he said this weekend that most people don’t know what phone apps are, which means he doesn’t know what an app is — between her and the cartel heads, telling them where to drop off illegal immigrants. You know, because that’s what cartel leaders do on Saturdays.
The app! The app! Robyn explained it here, so you won’t be sad and ignorant like a common Trump. [Excerpt from that explanation: […] You cannot apply for asylum on the CBP One app, you cannot apply for parole or be granted legal status. All CBP One can get you is an appointment that could potentially lead to an interview to apply for asylum, and it could take up to six months to get one. That being said, the CBP One app has jack shit to do with why there are Haitians in Springfield. Haitians have Temporary Protected Status […]]
But regardless, Kamala did it! President Vice President Lord Emperor Dictator For Life Kamala Harris! Whose name they all still refuse to learn to pronounce!
Of course, most of them (probably) know that the vice president isn’t an all powerful leader, or even a person who sets policy. […]
We say “probably” because you have to allow for extremely stupid Republican variables like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, and their intellectual equals.
But here’s the thing: Trump, Vance, other Republicans, and right-wing media do this because they believe with 100 percent certainty that their base voters are too abjectly stupid to know what the vice president does for a living. […] They have absolute contempt for their voters, so they feel free to spread bullshit like this, confident that hardly anybody they’re trying to reach ever took high school civics.
Marcus, a guy in Jacob Soboroff’s MSNBC focus group of college students in Michigan during the veep debate, he took civics. And Marcus is your new fucking hero. Here is Marcus’s message to idiots who never took civics on the question of “What Is Vice President?” [video at the link]
Marcus said:
“[I]f anybody took high school civics class, they’d know what the vice president can do and what the vice president can’t do. I want to make a quick point: Neither candidate on that stage talked about what executive action they’re going to take on day one, to do what they want. Nor were they asked. Because they know that they can’t. That’s not how the vice presidency works. You don’t get to do what you want, you do what the president delegates you to do.”
Yay, Marcus went to school! Marcus for president of explaining to Republicans why they’re goddamned fools! […]
Law enforcement authorities from 12 countries arrested four suspects linked to the LockBit ransomware gang, including a developer, a bulletproof hosting service administrator, and two people connected to LockBit activity.
This joint action also led to seizures of LockBit infrastructure servers and involved police officers in Operation Cronos, a task force led by the U.K. National Crime Agency (NCA) behind a global LockBit crackdown and an investigation that began in April 2022.
According to Europol, a suspected LockBit ransomware developer was arrested in August 2024 at the request of French authorities while on holiday outside of Russia.
The same month, the U.K.’s National Crime Agency (NCA) arrested two more individuals linked to LockBit activity: one believed to be associated with a LockBit affiliate, while the second was apprehended on suspicion of money laundering.
In a separate action, at Madrid airport, Spain’s Guardia Civil arrested the administrator of a bulletproof hosting service used to shield LockBit’s infrastructure…
“These actions follow the massive disruption of LockBit infrastructure in February 2024, as well as the large series of sanctions and operational actions that took place against LockBit administrators in May and subsequent months,” Europol said…
Nicholas Dames has taught Literature Humanities, Columbia University’s required great-books course, since 1998. He loves the job, but it has changed. Over the past decade, students have become overwhelmed by the reading. College kids have never read everything they’re assigned, of course, but this feels different. Dames’s students now seem bewildered by the thought of finishing multiple books a semester. His colleagues have noticed the same problem. Many students no longer arrive at college—even at highly selective, elite colleges—prepared to read books.
This development puzzled Dames until one day during the fall 2022 semester, when a first-year student came to his office hours to share how challenging she had found the early assignments. Lit Hum often requires students to read a book, sometimes a very long and dense one, in just a week or two. But the student told Dames that, at her public high school, she had never been required to read an entire book. She had been assigned excerpts, poetry, and news articles, but not a single book cover to cover…
JMsays
@480 Bekenstein Bound:
The thing that got in my way and wouldn’t let me pass had their name and logo all over it. So yeah, it was, unless it was brazenly misrepresenting its own identity.
Regardless, what happened to me was blatantly incorrect and I ask that it not be repeated.
Cloudflare is a piece of software in the chain that displays the Freethoughtblogs site but the message you saw wasn’t say that Cloudflare had a problem, it said Cloudflare couldn’t get Freethoughtblogs to send it to you. Blaming Cloudflare is like blaming the warning signs that block you from trying to cross a collapsed bridge.
Cloudflare can itself fail but that wasn’t the problem this time.
Thousands of Bank of America customers reported trouble accessing their bank accounts Wednesday afternoon as the financial institution faced a widespread outage.
On social media, customers said they could not view their account balances. Those who could view their accounts said they were met with an alarming $0 balance.
Speaking of outages, Bank of America is having a one. It’s not all customers but significant in size. It seems to be an issue with an updated interface not a something in the actual bank information. Some customers are getting getting in and seeing $0 balance though, apparently because some bit of the software chain between the bank and the customers is stupidly showing zero when it can’t connect properly.
The Republican vice presidential nominee says he doesn’t understand the interest in his beliefs about the 2020 race. So, let’s try explaining it to him.
When it comes to election denialism, Republican Sen. JD Vance of Ohio has not always been shy. The year after Donald Trump’s defeat, for example, ahead of his own first bid for elected office, Vance claimed, in reference to the 2020 election, “There were certainly people voting illegally on a large-scale basis.”
That wasn’t even close to being true, but it was a sign of things to come. Indeed, in the months and years that followed, the Ohioan continued to publicly question — without, of course, presenting any evidence — the integrity of the last presidential race. As recently as last month, Vance admitted that had he been vice president in January 2021, he would’ve ignored the legal path that then-Vice President Mike Pence followed and instead “asked the states to submit alternative slates of electors.”
But at this week’s vice presidential debate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz asked his GOP rival, “Did [Trump] lose the 2020 election?” Vance refused to answer — and the Harris campaign quickly turned his dodge into a campaign ad.
A day later, as NBC News reported, he dodged the question again.
At an event in Michigan, Vance was asked about his dodging questions last night about who won the 2020 election. He said didn’t answer because he’s focused on the current election.
As part of the same exchange, the GOP vice presidential nominee accused news organizations of being “obsessed“ with the election from four years ago. [video at the link ... Vance is still smarmy]
I have a hunch the young senator is smart enough to know why his views on the 2020 race matter, and he’s only pretending to be confused, but just for the sake of conversation, let’s say Vance is genuinely baffled as to why his perspective matters. Maybe he sincerely has no idea why this question keeps coming up, and why people care about his refusal to answer.
So let’s explain it to him.
Part of the problem, of course, is Vance’s unexplained shift. He went from someone who was only too pleased to undermine public confidence in the integrity of the 2020 election to someone who no longer wants to talk about it. Why did he change his posture? As it turns out, he doesn’t want to talk about that, either.
Another piece of the puzzle is understanding the senator’s comfort levels with evidence and reality. Vance, by any fair measure, is still very new to politics, having only taken office last year. Before he’s elected to the nation’s second highest office, Americans deserve to know whether he values the rule of law and the will of the electorate.
These aren’t abstract concepts. Either he accepts election results, or he doesn’t. Either he believes Americans settle their differences at the ballot box, or he doesn’t. Either he’s prepared to honor legal guardrails, or he isn’t. Given the weight of these issues, “I’m focused on the future” isn’t a credible response.
But perhaps most important of all is his refusal to acknowledge the simple fact that these underlying questions are not entirely retrospective in nature. Donald Trump, right now, refuses to say whether he’ll accept the results of this year’s contest. On a routine basis, the former president falsely tells the public that his foes are cheaters and election results are suspect — unless he says otherwise.
Headed into Election Day 2020, Trump went to outrageous lengths to lay the groundwork to reject results he didn’t like, and four years later, he’s doing it again. This time, he has plenty of company: House Speaker Mike Johnson, as recently as last week, said he’ll accept the 2024 results — but only if they meet his amorphous and undefined standards.
It’s against this backdrop that Trump’s running mate refuses to acknowledge the obvious outcome of the 2020 race, pretending the past irrelevant.
But if you’ll forgive a cliché, I believe it was Faulkner who famously wrote, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”
Interesting postscript: The Russians are still dependent on railroads because the productivity of their agriculture is too low to build big roads everywhere. I recognise this from the Soviet era but did not expect it to still be the case.
And a war machine that is still tied to the rail network for logistics will have vulnerabilities that now are becoming obvious.
An embarassing note on parochial music ‘experts’.
Swedish Radio had a large number of (Swedish) music critics and music media people vote on the best song ever.
Instead of something from The Beatles, Madonna etc they voted for Robyn’s ‘Dancing On My Own’.
While a perfectly good song, it is just not on the level of ‘Yesterday’ or ‘Stayin’ Alive’.
I keep criticising Brits and Americans for being parochial, and now this (blushes of embarrassment).
Abba’s Björn Ulvaeus remarries with Sandi Toksvig officiating | Abba | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/sep/22/abbas-bjorn-ulvaeus-remarries-with-sandi-toksvig-officiating
A feel-good story. Brit readers will be familiar with Danish-British Toksvig, from -among other things – the program QI. Ulvaeus et al have not been into drugs or endorsed nazis, so I am posting this in case American musicians need role models. Especially the “do not endorse nazis” bit.
For the convenience of readers of The Infinite Thread, here are a couple of links back to the previous set of 500 comments:
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/07/06/infinite-thread-xxxii/comment-page-8/#comment-2237116
Why Texas Republicans are souring on crypto
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/07/06/infinite-thread-xxxii/comment-page-8/#comment-2237095
Trump ally Laura Loomer falsely asserts “the ATF is letting illegals buy guns”
Thank you, Lynna.
BTW I overlooked the “be kind to cats day” four days ago. :(
In a cringeworthy pitch, Trump told women they’ll “no longer be thinking about abortion” in his second term. The closer one looks, the worse it appears.
Donald Trump has a habit of flip-flopping after meeting with wealthy potential donors. Take his approach to vaping, for example.
Update on the Mark Robinson scandal(s):
Link
Would-be assassin wrote note indicating intention to kill Trump
Spending deal averts shutdown and funds the government into December
Cartoon: the unbelievable Trump
https://www.wonkette.com/p/well-of-course-theyre-selling-mypillows
Well Of Course They’re Selling MyPillows For $14.88
Very subtle!
It is appalling to see how many doofuses online are praising Mike Lindell for what they see as praising Nazi slogans. Lindell may not have intended the Nazi association, but the effect is the same as if he had. Also, Lindell did include in his advertisement an image of Christ with a crown of thorns … a sharp contrast to whole soft pillow sell.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/live-joe-biden-and-a-bunch-of-cool
Video at the link.
Followup to comment 8.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/mark-robinson-attempts-desperate
New York Times link
Trump Media stock scrapes new 52-week low in heavy trading after DJT lockup lifts
Trump Media’s share price has fallen more than 80% since the company surged in its public trading debut in late March.
Link
SpaceX Plans To Send Five Uncrewed Starships To Mars in Two Years
Unsupportable waste of resources.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/florida-pretty-sure-no-student-old
Florida Pretty Sure No Student Old Enough To Learn About Bodies, Or Consent, Or …
Or contraception, or domestic violence, or gender identity, or … or fluids!
‘Europe’s Oldest Battlefield’ Just Got Stranger With New Evidence of Outsiders Involved
New Yorker link
The Pursuit of Gender Justice
For the first time, the International Criminal Court has concluded that an armed group specifically targeted women.
More at the link.
It’s okay if it is based on religion?
Octopuses seen hunting together with fish in rare video — and punching fish that don’t cooperate
The permian mass extinction:
During the second phase of the Siberian traps flood magma eruption layers deep underground of coal and salt were heated to 800°C and led both to extra release of CO2, and release of toxic halogene gases that ruined the ozone layer.
The combination of global warming, acid rain, UV-induced infertility of plants and loss of oxygen in the ocean was utterly devastating.
These conditions have been revealed by current research and give a better explanation than ‘mere’ flood magma eruptions.
What does the world use as their decimal separation? A decimal point or comma?
.https://www.facebook.com/share/2PdDqvEzerKtwswA/
Erratum! The link does not work!
Try this link instead.
Period or comma as decimal separator.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/P78emNcduzFZvdxG/
Goddammit! I don’t know how to link correctly to facebook.
Now I am off to find some kittens on Youtube. : (
“Skepticrat 233 Debaiting the Hook Edition”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=PiLyTSamGLs
‘The Trump Campaign Amplified Laura Loomer a Dozen Times on Their Own Webpage’
.https://meidasnews.com/news/the-trump-campaign-amplified-laura-loomer-a-dozen-times-on-their-own-webpage
Yes! The person even MTG thinks is a kook. This is beautiful.
JD Vance mocked for another botched photo opp — as he blames Harris for eggs costing $4 while standing in front of a $2.99 display
My criticism goes broader than that.
1) This notion that the President of the United States is personally responsible for everything that happens during his term is just absurd. A few years ago, the pandemic screwed up a lot of supply chains. Also, the price of eggs in particular probably got jolted by a few rounds of bird flu in the last few years. I don’t see how you tie those to the president, unless you can make the case that he did a really bad job of managing those things.
2) Kamala Harris isn’t the president. She may have some input, but she doesn’t make the decisions on policy.
So, the fact that is is straight-out lying aside, the type of argument Vance is trying to make is just stupid.
Good news!
Small-molecule drug shows potential for hard to treat cancers
.https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-09-small-molecule-drug-potential-hard.html
The KRAS gene is mutated in 17-25% of cancers.
This drug is effective against 13 of the 17 most common KRAS mutations.
‘New origami-inspired system turns flat-pack tubes into strong building materials’
https://techxplore.com/news/2024-09-origami-flat-tubes-strong-materials.html
The Guardian
Trial begins into Italian stabbing that has cast grim spotlight on femicide
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/23/trial-begins-into-italian-stabbing-that-has-cast-grim-spotlight-on-femicide
Death toll from Israeli strikes rises to 356, Lebanon says, as fears of escalation grow
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/sep/23/middle-east-crisis-live-hezbollah-israel-war-lebanon-evacuations-latest
Harris pushes for another debate, Trump relitigates the last one
Donald Trump doesn’t just want to avoid a rematch against Kamala Harris, he also wants to keep exploring conspiracy theories about the previous debate.
Mark Robinson still thinks he can be North Carolina’s next governor
Video at the link.
Posted by readers of the article:
https://www.wonkette.com/p/ftc-cracks-down-on-middlemen-jacking
FTC Cracks Down On Middlemen Jacking Up Prices Of Your Medications
Prescription Benefit Managers — only in America!
KG @ # 499 in previous thread: … French imperialism largely escapes the attention of anti-imperialists, just as Russian and Chinese imperialism does, because so many “anti-imperialists” are, in practice, merely anti-American-imperialism.
There seems to be enough Russian money supporting “mere anti-American-imperialism” that ideology plays a secondary role in much of that. I feel very sure that two “progressive” organizations which I personally know the leaders of (and have participated in demonstrations led by) now sustain themselves on well-laundered rubles, and I have serious suspicions about certain other groups I know less of.
These in turn keep up a flood of (familiar, and not wholly unjustified) rhetoric that has persuaded other activists I know and formerly respected – and whom I don’t think receive a single kopek – to turn their eyes away from certain problems caused by Moscow. A lot of the “why can’t we just get along?” verbiage regarding China still seems sort-of sincere and even possible, but much includes the same sort of one-sidedness I see in Putin puppets.
It took me some serious effort to set aside my own reflexive anti-militarism and support arming Ukraine, so I partly understand why so many others continue in their customary reactions, but I had really thought more of “us” had learned better than to paint one side black and one side white.
SaveAFox: Ruby fox
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZA8IHgaUvl8
(loud, happy fox noises)
Satellite images suggest test of Russian “super weapon” failed spectacularly
Key Nebraska Republican opposes changing how the state awards electoral votes, blocking Trump push
Oops. Trump’s campaign mixes up state of Georgia with country of Georgia
Trump Promises Immigrants He Wants to Deport Will Get Serial Numbers
Now who could possibly mistake that for a Nazi dog whistle? /s
JD Vance attempted to make a relatable TikTok in which he played a hunting video game while taking a jab at Tim Walz.
/This is an alterNet blog repeating from a Daily Show writer’s BlueSky video posts, which are playable below the article.
CA7746, SC @ # 45, quoting JDV: … the closest Tim Walz has ever gotten to real combat.
Juvenile Delinquent Vance has previously admitted that his own short term in Iraq did not involve even witnessing combat.
NBC News:
New York Times:
Washington Post:
NBC News:
New York Times:
Cartoon: Pants down
An asteroid will soon enter Earth’s orbit as a temporary ‘mini-moon’
The asteroid is expected to spend about two months orbiting the planet, starting Sunday, as it gets temporarily caught by Earth’s gravity.
Sky News: Luxury cars tracked into Russia
It’s a simple method for getting the cars into Russia, similar scams are done for other luxury goods. They are sold to poor countries near Russia that don’t share a border. They are then resold to some shady transport firm that ships them up to the Russian border. Then somebody from Russia comes out, puts Russian plates on the car and drives them in. On a small scale this sort of thing is very hard to stop but it makes them rare enough and expensive enough in Russia to achieve the goal.
Newsweek: Ukraine Map Shows Russian Advances Near Four Key Towns
Russia continues to make small advances at high costs in Ukraine. In Kursk Ukraine is more blocking Russian attempts to push them back. Ukraine has made some small advances here and there across the front in both Ukraine and Kursk but they mostly seem to be grabbing easy land where they can setup defensive lines for the winter.
Forbes: The Kremlin Pulled Sailors Off The Decrepit Aircraft Carrier ‘Admiral Kuznetsov’ And Sent Them To Fight, And Die, In Ukraine
The Kuznetsov is Russia’s only aircraft carrier so symbolically this is a big deal. Practically the ship isn’t really functional and probably isn’t worth Russia repairing at this point. If the Russians are doing this to their aircraft carrier they are probably doing it to other ships also. A lot of the Russian Navy’s big ships are cold war left overs that would be destroyed if taken into a conflict at sea today. Taking the crew from those ships into Ukraine likely seems like an easy source of men.
Thought this discussion on PBS Newshour just seen was worth sharing :
Source : https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/middle-east-experts-discuss-whats-behind-the-escalating-israel-hezbollah-conflict
^ Convo continues obvs!
Lynna@22: Maybe it’s for the best that Florida is going to be at the bottom of the ocean in a few more decades. :/
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
“Voter Registration Spikes Among Young People | Kamala Harris Has A Gun |How Trump Stays Healthy”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=SdjSIU2usEU
Pierce R. Butler@39,
The Ukraine war has divided the British left – although the Gaza genocide has led to some papering over the rift. I don’t know whether the main “progressive” anti-American-imperialist organisations in the UK are ruble-funded – my hunch is that they are not, and are providing their services to Putin free of charge, because if they were taking the ruble, this would have become public by now. I’ve abandoned a decades-long membership in CND over their de facto pro-Putin line (i.e. no arms to Ukraine), and practically lost quite a close friend (we haven’t completely severed ties, but as this was very much a friendship based in political discussion and activity, it’s on ice by mutual agreement). In his case, I’ve diagnosed him as a “transferred nationalist” (Orwell’s term, from his Notes on Nationalism), with the transfer in his case being to China – he’s managed to convince himself that the Chinese Communist Party is “building socialism” (rather than a largely hereditary, highly patriarchal and ethnonationalist Han Chinese oligarchy now topped by the personal dictatorship of Xi Jinping). Since China in practice supports Putin’s war, that war must be justified, or at least, all NATO’s fault.
By coincidence, there’s an interesting Guardian article today on New Caledoonia/Kanaky.
Jimmy Kimmel:
‘ALL CAPS KANGAROO’
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=2XoqttCWIMY
Re. @ 61
“Ignoarrogant” is a great word.
Stephen Colbert:
‘PM Justin Trudeau On “Canada’s Trump” And The Rise Of Far-Right Xenophobia In Canada’
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=AKL1l88DkGI
The Guardian
Sweden accuses Iran over ‘revenge’ messages after 2023 Qur’an burnings
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/24/sweden-accuses-iran-over-revenge-messages-after-2023-quran-burnings
Test.
I will see if a map comes up at the link.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/hsqxMDQMM7aGFKiA/
Trump hack continued into last week
Meh, not a reliable source. They could be lying about that just to spread chaos.
Elon Musk removes X block button as users fear return of ‘creeps’
Musk just wouldn’t understand, being a creep himself.
Trump Withdraws Support, GOP Pulls Funding From ‘Black Nazi’ Mark Robinson
Awesome QI Moment – The return of General Melchett (also, why Brit soldiers had a moustasche)
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Eu3VeS2BdNg
Zelenskyy called JD Vance ‘too radical’ and recommended he ‘read up on the history of the Second World War’
I see his point.
Jill Stein paid $100,000 to a Republican consulting firm led by a suspected January 6 rioter
MAGA Sheriff Faces Consequences for Threatening Own Constituents
I see fascists are stealing the language of others like they do.
“JD Vance Rips Media For Debunking Haiti Story, Says Let People Speak Their ‘Truth'”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jd-vance-media-debunking-let-people-speak-their-truth_n_66f2971be4b0199dbefae802
Their “truth”? Their garbage bigoted gossip disparaging gossip about migrants and refugees you mean Vance you right-wing shitstain you.
Discovery of Giant Magnetic Halo Around Milky Way Could Shift Our View of Galactic Evolution
This Might Be the Weirdest Rock Ever Found on Mars
Campaign news, as summarized by Steve Benen:
With six weeks remaining in the election cycle, the oft-bankrupted business mogul keeps careening from one money-making scheme to another, without regard for merit or dignity.
Followup to Reginald @68.
As Republicans abandon Mark Robinson, JD Vance downplays scandal
Link
Newly Exposed Russian Disinfo Sites Echoed GOP’s False Narratives About Non-Citizen Voting
FFS.
Opinion: No wonder the Arizona GOP left Kari Lake off its ‘Team Unity’ billboard
Re : Lynna 79
The political right has little to say about abortion as a single issue. Over the years abortion is why my parents are silent about everything else that affects me in their politics. Think of the children cooties that left them incompetent and ignorant about what they actually believe about everything, including abortion.
And they’re wrong on their own theology. That religion supposedly puts a lot of value on choice and sin, and they have to force it on others. While their own book says it’s a fine if you kill someone else’s unborn. Craven and cowardly.
These people are sociopaths. They have no notion of standing on principles, or caring about other people. It is all about what they themselves will get out of any deal.
GOP Representative Dodges Questions About Hiring His Lover
(Bolding by me for emphasis)
I have questions. The first is: do I understand correctly that his “lover” and his “fiancee” are two separate people? He’s cheating on his wife before he is even married?
Lincoln Project teams with Sam Elliott for Harris ad
Link
“It’s time to be a man and vote for a woman.”
Video at the link. It’s a good one. 1:15 minutes.
Farron Cousins;
‘Trump Is Panicking As His MAGA Monster Turns Against Him’
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=sc80_-4J2oo
Trump endorsed anti-LGBTQ+ author put on leave from school choice group after his ‘gay porn past’ is discovered
Israel Deliberately Blocked Humanitarian Aid to Gaza, Two Government Bodies Concluded. Antony Blinken Rejected Them.
Blinken told Congress, “We do not currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting” aid, even though the US Agency for International Development and others had determined that Israel had broken the law.
More at the link.
Who’s Paying Melania To Show Up For Her Husband’s Campaign?
Every day she’s hustling.
Opinion: Call Arizona for Kamala Harris now, based on new Times poll
It seems a bit early to me, new stuff could still happen.
Comer says Harris should prove she’s a gun owner by telling Americans ‘what type’ she has
Comer should go fuck himself.
The president delivered his final talk to the United Nations on Tuesday after decades in foreign policy.
Washington Post link
Texas jury clears ‘Trump Train’ for surrounding 2020 Biden-Harris bus
I dare say if the trial was in a civilized state, the verdict would have been different.
God Awful Movies
‘GAM475 Am I Racist?’
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=4xUrjDlYkfA
Considering the people who made the documentary, the answer seens to be “yes”.
Russia, Iran and China are using AI in election interference efforts, U.S. intelligence officials say
Hurricane watch ordered for Florida as Tropical Storm Helene moves closer
Tropical Storm Helene is forecast to become a hurricane Wednesday and will strengthen as it crosses the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
Video at the link.
Why did Trump reference immigrants and ‘their serial numbers’?
Donald Trump apparently believes it’ll be easy to deport undocumented immigrants because the local police know of them — and “their serial numbers.” Huh?
If you have to elect a 78-year-old why not try Cher?
White Dudes for Harris join battle for Trump’s most reliable voters
Presidential Debate South Park Style #donaldtrump #kamalaharris
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=oWgh81vV36k
Jon Stewart on Israel, Lebanon & The Widening Mideast War [PREVIEW] | The Daily Show
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=me7eu2UwStw
Back to the Cold War: Russia uses Mexico as a hub for spying on the U.S.
Haitian group in Springfield, Ohio, files citizen criminal charges against Trump and Vance
Maddow explains the many ways Harris and Trump ‘are not the same’
Video at the link.
Chutkan rebuffs Trump effort to upend Jan. 6 case schedule
‘World first’ ruby grown in jewellery setting in lab
I think they should file a civil case for damages as well.
IANAL.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/not-running-for-president-rfk-jr
Not-Running-For-President RFK Jr. Demands US Supreme Court Manager Let Him Back On New York Ballot
Will his brain worm please make up RFK Jr.’s mind.
Followup to comment 79.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/sherrod-browns-gross-republican-opponent
Embedded links are available at the main link.
New York Times link
Zelensky Addresses the Security Council, Calling for Attention to Stay on Ukraine
“Russia can only be forced into peace.” President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine urged the Council members to sustain their backing for his country’s resistance to Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Fox News buries the Mark Robinson story while Hannity does cleanup for Trump
More at the link.
Trump isn’t a normal candidate. Media coverage should reflect that, by Rachel Maddow.
It’s not just “policy differences.” Vice President Kamala Harris and the GOP nominee are running fundamentally different campaigns.
NBC News:
‘Send them back!’: Racist chants are still a staple of Trump rallies</a.
Meet the 10-year-old teaching science on social media
Man charged with attempted assassination of Trump at Florida golf course as case is assigned to Judge Aileen Cannon
WaPo:
GOP asks court to change voting rules in one state, with impact for all
By Patrick Marley and Colby Itkowitz / September 24, 2024
The odds at FiveThirtyEight are slipping back in Trump’s favor. NC has tipped back into the R column. I demand to know what keeps causing this! Every time Harris gains, something intervenes after about one week to push things back toward a likely Trump victory — an outcome the world literally cannot afford and that therefore must not happen.
What is it that keeps intervening in Trump’s favor one week after anything helps Harris? Whatever that thing is it has to be hunted down and destroyed. It is endangering hundreds of millions of lives.
Re: Bekenstein Bound @118:
Traditional media loves a horse race.
/During the summer anti-Biden blitz, there was a briefly circulated conspiracy theory about media CEOs that turned out to be unsupported.
Kansas Water Facility Switches to Manual Operations Following Cyberattack
Scientists grow ‘lost tree’ mentioned in Bible using mysterious 1,000-year-old seed
Danica Patrick sends fiery six-word message to America’s critics as she endorses candidate in 2024 election
Someone should tell her that there is no bigger critic of America today than Donald Trump. To hear him describe it, the country has become an absolute “shithole” in the last 4 years.
Judge lets over 8,000 Catholic employers deny worker protections for abortion and fertility care
How is it that only employers have freedom of religion, and not employees?
This is definitely my parents at the least.
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2024/09/motivated-ignorance-as-identity-maintenance
“Motivated ignorance” due to the cost of possessing knowledge. Don’t want to know.
I have a brother here that took a little while to get a political fix on but his online shows have lots of anti-DEI and he’s reactive towards inclusion.
Trump tells women he ‘will be your protector’ as GOP struggles with outreach to female voters
Creepy creep is creepy.
Random dinosaur discovery doco w Dan Snow Into Dinosaur Valley (2022) An hour and 6 mins long. Broadcast a week or three ago on SBS TV in Oz.
Thank you, StevoR.
.
“Don’t break the 4th wall, just make it disappear” .https://youtube.com/watch?v=shgljvAUwjw
How people perceive images and sounds to immerse themselves in a narrative. Most examples are taken from the anime Frieren, but the lessons are ubiquitous.
Interview with a good British astronaut who also presented a space science doco as noted here Tim Peake talks Secrets Of Our Universe, space tourism, and the green economy | Jeremy Vine – ten and a half mins.
Aussie Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong interviewed on Israeli -Hezollah Lebanon conflict, Aussie policies on that & more 7.30 Report news doco:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-25/australians-urged-to-leave-lebanon/104397332
On the one hand, Joe Biden is rallying global support for Ukraine. On the other, Donald Trump is publicly mocking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Mitch McConnell is the latest to trash Trump plan that will raise prices
‘I have £7 in my bank account’: how the two-child benefit cap changed Britain | Children | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/sep/25/i-have-7-in-my-bank-account-how-the-two-child-benefit-cap-changed-britain
Labour under Keir Starmer is infinitely more competent than the conservatives, but seems to be Conservative-lite in their values.
.
BTW I was wathcing an image on Facebook. On the top: “These are hunters” showing two foxes in their habitat.
Underneath: “These are parasites” showing horseback fox hunters with fox carcasses.
I read the author: “Jeremy Corbyn”.
I decided to start following him on Facebook.
Unlike Sir Keir, there is no question about his values.
Yum!
World’s oldest cheese found on 3500-year-old Chinese mummies | New Scientist
.https://www.newscientist.com/article/2449451-worlds-oldest-cheese-found-on-3500-year-old-chinese-mummies/
Oh FFS!
Actually yeah, it really is.
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-25/ben-hood-abortion-bill-supporters/104397276
Also LNP douchebag MP Ben Hood, dude, that’s not a thing that actually happens. That’s a lie you’ve fallen for and you’re in our (my) state Parliament. Again, fer fucks sake.
Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS adn fampously cats are like comets they do what they please and are hard to predict :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2024-09-25/comet-tsuchinshan-atlas-a3/104344142
Oz-centric natch.
Twice as many women as men were buried in the megalithic necropolis of Panoría, study reveals
https://phys.org/news/2024-09-women-men-megalithic-necropolis-panora.html
.
Medicinal tree successfully grown from 1,000-year-old seed found in cave https://phys.org/news/2024-09-medicinal-tree-successfully-grown-year.html
Kimmel (And His Wife!) Respond To Trump’s Bizarrely Belated Attack
Video at the link.
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-24/black-swan-bird-flu-outbreak-preparation-extinction-threat/104327598
Owen Jones – 14 pages of names of those killed horribly.Aged zero – 12 minutess & 10 secs long.
^ WARNING : Disturbing. Do I even need to type this? Coz, yeah, obvs.
Thailand legalizes same-sex marriage in a first for Southeast Asia
Followup to Reginald @125.
“Words as Aggression – Annals of the Semantics of Trumpism,” by Josh Marshall
Link
Also out of date and growing every day, hour, minute obvs too..
@Reginald Selkirk : Thanks. Good news.
Infowars’ Assets Will Finally Be Auctioned to Benefit Sandy Hook Families
Labelling Trump’s lies as ‘disputed’ on X makes supporters believe them more, study finds
Stupid people are stupid, film at eleven.
Tho’ seems Thais still need to wait till 2025 :
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-25/monumental-step-as-thai-king-signs-same-sex-marriage-into-law/104392450
How many countries now?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_status_of_same-sex_marriage
36 – 39 if you have atime machine..
World still not ended.
Loving couples still, loving couples..
Source : https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2024-05-30/what-20-years-of-data-tell-us-about-same-sex-marriage
Tesla Full Self Driving requires human intervention every 13 miles
Confessions of a (Former) Christian Nationalist
When religion is placed at the service of a political party, it corrupts both.
Ty Cobb on Cannon getting alleged would-be Trump assassin’s case: ‘You can’t make this up’
In my opinion, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon should not even be in a position to have cases assigned to her. She has displayed too much incompetence.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/hopefully-these-are-the-two-worst
WaPo:
Trump vows to blow ‘to smithereens’ any country that attacks a U.S. presidential candidate
By Marianne LeVine / Sep 25, 2024
2024 Electoral Map Based on New Polls in Every State! September 25, 2024
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=CXMgnGQAIg4
The race is depressingly close for an election where one candidate is a fascist in everything but name. But Harris has a small advantage.
Study provides new insights into development of ovarian follicles and previously unknown variations
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-09-insights-ovarian-follicles-previously-unknown.html
Americans taste delicious Finnish Military Food
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=mCYnW_51rIE
Don’t ever hand your phone to the cops
@146
Because according to the right, the MSM is a leftist controlled organ that lies about everything. If they say something is false, it MUST be true.
Army IG opens investigative inquiry into 3-star general’s ties to the New Apostolic Reformation
More at the link.
Link
More at the link.
This is neat and I was already thinking about it.
“GTP before ATP: The energy currency at the origin of genes”
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0005272824004845
A question I’ve considered is if there was a point where the output of the purine pathway came into existence, what was it? And what made it?
At the very least we can wonder if ATP or GTP came first.
I’ve been thinking about it from the view of an aspartate accumulation leading to ATP maybe. But that could be the replicator making ATP preferentially when the environment might lead to a different bias, like GTP.
Ribosomes run on GTP, and some ATP but GTP does the most direct work in each round of amino acid addition. The molecular highways that ribosomes use to move around, microtubules, use GTP in their dynamic elongation and contraction cycles.
Interesting.
Fox enjoying a tummy scratching.
.https://www.facebook.com/share/r/DUyVGurRpjUuxxKi/
Mrrrwghhh!
And since the replicator itself is a nucleotideish I’m thinking about the output being different things as you move back in the purine pathway. And the environment is doing different things with it.
The first ring. The ring getting a bicarbonate stuck on it and moving it looks like a biosynthic platform to me.
‘The Doorway to the Underworld is Growing and We Can’t Stop It’
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ic7Aai6Uopg
The Cthonians are coming!
SaveAFox
Sophie fox tells the boys who’s boss!
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=BPGc3lO4abs
The power of one: Study finds solitary carnivores outkill group hunters
Data integrity concerns flagged in 130 women’s health papers — all by one co-author
Where did viruses come from? AlphaFold and other AIs are finding answers
Canada’s Trudeau survives no-confidence vote in parliament
@Reginald Selkirk 167
That requires a login. Do you have another link? I’m curious about which protein domains they found. They might match something interesting in other databases.
NIST proposes barring some of the most nonsensical password rules
@169
The virus family involved was flaviviruses – dengue, Zika, hepatitis C and others.
The protein of interest was a viral entry protein.
Congress passes temporary bill to avoid shutdown as lawmakers punt spending decisions to December
Only until December? They couldn’t keep it going until a new administration is functioning at the end of January?
Trump May Have Just Handed Jack Smith a Massive Win
* They missed something here. Biden was not a sitting president in 2020. If you parse Trump’s statement as “the most votes of any sitting president running for reelection” the objection does not hold.
Re: Reginald Selkirk @ #172…
The Congressional Republicans want another chance to stick their oar in the budget and screw things up after they know that the Democrats will be taking over before said Democrats control the House. I predict another CR for the time from Dec. 20 to sometime in late January or early February as the Democrats aren’t going to go along with Republican bomb throwing at a time when the know they’ll have control of the House in less than a month.
Biden administration pledges new glide bombs to Ukraine ahead of Zelenskyy White House meeting
Harris’ Arizona office damaged by apparent gunfire, police say
@Reginald Selkirk
Thank you. The membrane association is not surprising. Viruses need ribosomes and membranes get in the way.
Washington Post: arbitration hearings open
This isn’t over the current fighting, this is about the 2014 annexation of Crimea and Russia building a bridge that controls access to the Sea of Azov. The bridge blocks large container ships and has been used to control shipping and block Ukrainian fishermen. I think the whole thing is funny happening during a war. If Russia wins the war they will keep control no matter what the court rules and if Ukraine wins they will open the straight. The whole thing only matters if there is some negotiated settlement to the war but that is enough to keep the case going forward.
Virus protein domains go to 2 groups; of “Virus Hallmark Proteins”; “replication associated VHPs” which are older, and “Structural VHPs”. I wonder if the above count as “Membrane associated”?
“The logic of virus evolution”
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1931312822003134
Followup to comments 172 and 174.
GOP leaders rely on Dems (again) to prevent a government shutdown
The problem is not just that House Republican leaders relied on Democrats to prevent a government shutdown. It’s also the familiarity of the circumstances.
NBC News:
Some reports predict a Category 4 storm, and a devastating 15-foot storm surge. We will see.
Good news, as provided by whitehouse.gov:
New York City Mayor Eric Adams indicted on federal charges, by Associated Press.
Link
More at the link, including details of some of Higgins’ past racist comments.
Link to post on X/Twitter
Video at the link.
Sky Captain@119:
How are they putting a thumb on the scale for Trump though? Most of what they report about him should repel everyone who isn’t a MAGA fanatic and further cement the MAGA fanatics’ loyalty to him, but not move anyone from one camp into the other I would expect.
Lynna@142: I don’t see the full article at your link. It stops after “Perhaps most simply the words are, as a number of observers have put it, creepy.” How do I view the full article? (Without signing up for anything or paying any money, obvs.)
Lynna@158:
So, basically your standard-issue supervillain org, like SPECTRE or COBRA or HYDRA. Gotcha.
Ah, that’s just a classic supervillain trope. They always have a big map in their lair. Usually with pins or areas that light up as the ringleader briefs the minions on the mechanics of his evil scheme for world domination. Watch almost any James Bond movie, or any movie featuring Lex Luthor as the antagonist, for ample examples.
Tomh@152:
and Lynna@159:
World War III moving a little closer … especially if the orange turdblossom gets back in.
Rewriting History: Archaeologists Discover a Lost African Civilization As Big as Troy
https://scitechdaily.com/rewriting-history-archaeologists-discover-a-lost-african-civilization-as-big-as-troy/
Marocco, Northwest africa.
About the legality of booby-trapped pagers.
.https://www.facebook.com/share/v/hBAFS8VSzAu4PiNn/
Jimmy Kimmel:
“Trump Throws Fit Over Kamala’s McDonald’s Job, Iran Threats & Do Men Know About Reproductive Rights?”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=W-hEGN4zrEk
Bekenstein Bound@118, 186,
I’m not convinced the media or pollsters are “putting a thumb on the scale for Trump” as far as polls go (as opposed to “sanewashing” Trump’s absurd lies, word salads and fascist outbursts). My hunch is that there has simply been little change in what their samples are telling pollsters over the past month, and what change there has been (perhaps about 1% nationally) has favoured Trump, as the Democratic Convention and the debate fade from public attention. The great majority of those intending to vote for Trump are not going to be swayed – they have already shown they are irredeemable bigots and haters. If the polls are right (and of course they could be wrong in either direction) the result will be very close, and probably decided by which side gets their vote out more effectively. In that context, the large number of small donations and volunteers Harris got give some grounds for optimism – but the fascists will try their best to intimidate voters and fix the counts. Meanwhile Netanyahu is doing his best to drag the USA into war with Iran, which he presumably thinks will favour Trump – I’ve no idea whether he’s right.
Re: Bekenstein Bound @186:
What KG said. Also in general, the thumb doesn’t need to sway voters to the other side. Republicans just need to seem less catastrophic than they are, such that unenthusiastic conservative folks aren’t so horrified they stay home and unenthusiastic liberals/progressives aren’t so horrified that they go vote.
A while back, there was a story about focus groups explaining Republican policies to conservative voters who then could not believe what the party was proposing.
Eh, I’m tired, vacillated on writing anything at all, chose poorly I think. Should’ve stopped at the first sentence. =)
Just think about that one for a minute!
10 nasty software bugs put thousands of fuel storage tanks at risk of cyberattacks
Caitlin Clark’s record year of basketball ends in playoff sweep
The Fever lost two in a row of a best-of-three series to the Connecticut Sun, so they are out if it now. Clark says she plans to play golf during the off season.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain@192,
No, I think your #191 was useful – it does seem unlikely there are many people at this stage who are actually prepared to switch from Trump to Harris or vice versa, rather than on whether to vote at all.
Jared Kushner’s Shady Firm Exposed for the Saudi Scam It Is
BB @186:
Josh Marshall’s post is part of a “member newsletter.” One does have to pay a fee to view those. Nothing I can do about that.
The text I posted in comment 142 is most of that member newsletter post.
Republicans abandon subtlety, turn against Ukraine’s Zelenskyy
When Russia invaded Ukraine, the U.S. position was largely bipartisan. Now, Republicans are turning against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
A related video tops the article. The video includes a good discussion of threats against nuclear power plants, of Zelensky’s jabs at Trump (without mentioning Trump’s name), Putin’s actual goals, etc. Trump and Vance’s rhetoric is “flippant.”
Just when it seemed things couldn’t get much worse for Rudy Giuliani, the former Republican mayor was officially disbarred in Washington, D.C.
Comment 183 presents details of current Mayor Eric Adams being indicted.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo/trump-unique-dual-threat-to-military-and-civilian-life
Mark Robinson’s political hopes sink as more staffers abandon ship
Cartoon: Jump in
Vermin (2023) – IMDb also known as Infested. French film with real spiders in the scenes.
.https://m.imdb.com/title/tt26744289/
Followup to comment 184.
Rep. Clay Higgins’ Extremely Racist Tweet Is Only the Tip of the Iceberg
His record includes allegedly putting a gun to the head of one of his ex-wives, voting for a neo-Nazi, and assaulting an unarmed Black man while working as a cop.
Followup to comment 202.
Oh Fiddlesticks, Half Mark Robinson’s Employees Quit AGAIN.
This time at the lieutenant governor’s office, not the campaign office!
https://www.wonkette.com/p/oh-fiddlesticks-half-mark-robinsons
Souce : https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/missouri-executes-man-despite-prosecutors-victims-family-saying-he-should-be-spared
David Pakman show:
“New poll proves Shocking Reality about Trump supporters”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=VlC2vOmAq-s
Meh. It is no shock to me they believe anything they are told. Many seem just one notch away from Qanon.
A deepfake caller pretending to be a Ukrainian official almost tricked a US Senator
Melania Trump reflects on FBI’s Mar-a-Lago search: ‘It made me angry’
Oh boo hoo. The FBI had a warrant to search for stolen documents. And they found some.
“They’re eating pets!”
South Korea sets a compensation plan for dog meat farmers before the 2027 ban
Farron Cousins:
“Mentally Unstable Trump Wanders Off, Hugs Air During Unhinged Rally”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=DeTqR8UQWKY
@ 212
Don’t worry, the MSM will sanewash that as well.
Trump’s Newest Grift Just Dropped
Followup to comment 183.
Caption for a New Yorker cartoon that shows passengers in a subway train: “This train will not be stopping at City Hall, because we’d rather just steer clear of that whole mess.”
FFS.
Even now, Trump and Vance aren’t yet done with Springfield, Ohio
Trump ground game operation now largely run by Elon Musk-backed group
Exclusive: America Pac has up to 400 employees in each of the seven key states, with the campaign dependent on it.
JD Vance’s past remarks on car seats deterring people from having kids go viral
Jimmy Kimmel mocks Trump’s ‘McFit’ over Harris’ job at McDonald’s
Video at the link.
Trial begins over claims Newsmax defamed Smartmatic in 2020 election reporting
Blow to China’s military plans after new nuclear submarine ‘sinks’
From BBC: World’s longest-serving death row inmate acquitted in Japan at 88 after the evidence was found to be fabricated
https://bbc.com/news/articles/c5y9x6zrkrro?utm_campaign=YT+Comm+Sept+24&utm_medium=bitly&utm_source=YouTube2024
I will test if a shorter link would work:
https://bbc.com/news/articles/c5y9x6zrkrro
CNBC: Crude oil prices drop
Saudi Arabia had long been trying to get OPEC to keep prices higher. It hasn’t worked for some time and now the Saudis have decided to get more money for themselves, even if it pushes oil prices down. Combine with other sellers increasing production and China not buying as much because their economy is crashing. Oil prices look to be down for some time and gas prices at the pump will follow the trend.
This is good news for Harris. The economy is doing well but rise in oil prices tends to make people feel the economy is doing badly quickly, a slow decline through the election will help her.
Meet Fur Farm rescue fox Athena
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=AKlIuKlIO7o
Brazilian researchers discover new way to purify liquid argon for neutrino experiments
Republican anger clouds Zelensky-Biden ‘victory plan’ meeting
But Biden isn’t running for anything.
Ignorant doofus remains an ignorant doofus: How did the senator from Alabama’s [Tommy Tuberville’s] latest fight with the U.S. military turn out? About as well as his previous fights.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/oregon-sen-ron-wyden-has-simple-innocent
Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden Has Simple, Innocent Plan To F*ck Up The Hack Partisan Supreme Court :)
What fun we have!
https://www.wonkette.com/p/james-comer-pretty-sure-zelenskyy
Harris blasts Trump for broken promises to union workers
Why would he bother meeting with a dead person?
Yup – pretty much excatly what I’ve been saying, here and elsewhere. It’s important to understand that to Trump and Vance it doesn’t matter that the lie has been repreatedly exposed as such. Including this lie in the debate was not a mistake, but part of a plan. Trump didn’t follow through as he was supposed to with an attack on Harris over immigration, but that’s of secondary importance.
@214
Trump launches a new business venture during his campaign: $100,000 watches
This Fully AI-Generated Political Ad Is Both Hilarious and Terrifying
Lauren Boebert attacks Democrats on House floor claiming they ‘hate Christmas’
@ 233
I’d have a jewelry appraiser look those things over before dropping $100k on those gaudy eyesores.
Guess who is calling for Harris to drop out immediately
without giving any real reason? –
http://theartsinarizona.org/SenPotatoBrain.png
@220
Newsmax reaches settlement with Smartmatic regarding 2020 election claims
Israel kills Hezbollah commander in Beirut strike, Netanyahu vows to continue ‘with full force’
@96, 181
Hurricane Helene closes in on Florida with catastrophic winds and flooding
Drug-free nasal spray blocks, neutralizes viruses, bacteria
Sky Captain@191:
And how are they managing that? Even while, nowadays, saying all of the quiet parts out loud and being widely denounced by, among others, the top-tier Dem candidates themselves?
I could see this explaining 2016 — I knew exactly what Trump represented and how dangerous that was, and so did some others, but it wasn’t widely known or believed and the case could still be made that it was just an act to rile up the base and get out the vote. After his term, and especially the coup attempt on January 6, 2021, plus the rhetoric (and Project 2025) since then? No way, José. By now every moderate liberal and every moderate conservative must have heard some of the shit being spewed by the Trump far right, including during the recent debate wherein Trump blood-libeled Haitians among other things. So why is the race still so close?
Lynna@198:
Why did you bother linking to it then, knowing the link wouldn’t be useful? Better to just post the entire text of the thing and attribute it without a clickable link.
On weird and perhaps-related note: Vox appears to have implemented a fake paywall for some reason. A smattering of articles there now purport to be “member exclusive”, but I am able to read them without a login and without having taken any explicit circumvention action (disable CSS, google cache, google translate, etc.) … I do have anti-paywall addons in my browser, but surely they would take days or even weeks to be updated to add Vox. So it looks like the “paywall” is actually a bluff? Why do this?
Re: Bekenstein Bound @242:
Ah yes, the days of dapper nazi alt-right interviews and small town ‘economic anxiety’ profiles.
Empathetic MAGA interviews are still going on.
CNN – Inside the MAGA boat parade (2024-09-18)
People who weren’t watching social media footage at the time, or closely following political news, or the hearings, might only have the vague impression of a rowdy unwelcome frat party with a few violent belligerents. I’ve been pretty plugged in yet only saw the weapon list and ammo suitcases mentioned on THIS thread; it wasn’t even in the hearings.
Republican stories have room to be worse is what I’m saying.
Cruelty to immigrants doesn’t horrify the primary conservative demographic: insular financially-secure old straight white men and their wives. They need to hear of policies that directly hurt them personally to care. Sabotage to Social Security, Medicare, Veterans Affairs. Trump’s crassness and criminality and gaffes don’t affect them. The Access Hollywood tape didn’t sink his career.
The liberals got pet memes.
tldr. What’s the Heritage Foundation? /s
The Project 2025 Song (a la Schoolhouse Rock)—Conservatives who roll their eyes at wokeness would be cool with that aside from the blink-and-you-miss-it Medicare bit.
And leftists have had years of anti-Biden news on social media which carried over to Harris, especially the framing a vote for her as an endorsement for the admin arming genocide. Graphic suffering. Didn’t help that the DNC snubbed a dissenting State Rep from speaking. If the admin doesn’t change its policy to allay that, Republican stories need to be Gaza-level chilling for them.
My memory might’ve conflated two Jan 6 weapon lists? Like a concise tally.
– Buzzfeed’s compilation of charges from prosecutors. It had a “panoply of weapons” paragraph for miscellaneous items.
– MotherJones’ list of weapons confiscated at the magnetometers.
Still incomplete. Buzzfeed lacked the the crossbow and Molotovs guy.
Earth’s REAL Lost Continents
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=NmFUFnMj5Jw
Is There A Rainforest In West Virginia?
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=pVYrTl9Zcjg
The Guardian
Alabama executes death-row prisoner with nitrogen gas
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/26/alabama-nitrogen-gas-execution-alan-miller
Crossposted from Ghoulish AI
This is an article I think PZ (and the rest of us) might be intereste in:
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/amanda-marcotte/111672/rfk-jr-s-tour-with-jordan-peterson-make-america-healthy-again-shows-why-alt-medicine-went-maga
BB @242:
Writers should be compensated for their work. When I can, I pay the fee for access to really good analysis and/or writing. I am living at the poverty level … and that’s in the USA, where health care is always an issue. I cannot afford to support local newspapers and writers who post online as much as I would like.
I avoid paywalls when I can.
Other people read and post to this thread. You are not the only reader. I do not tailor my posts for you. Some of the other readers are likely to have a yearly subscription to Josh Marshall’s/Talking Points Memo’s member newsletter. The right thing to do is to provide the link. Subscribe if you can.
Also, you can just fucking figure it out for yourself if you go to the website. You do not need to harass me about it.
I have been working to keep this thread useful for years. I do not earn a fee for doing this. I do not appreciate nitpicking regarding whatever mistakes I have made.
I am imperfect. Always will be. Do you want the job?
Democrats responded to Eric Adams’ indictment the way you’d expect members of a responsible political party to respond. Republicans, however, did not.
Why Harris’ support from retired U.S. military leaders matters
The highly decorated four-star general who commanded U.S. forces in Afghanistan has endorsed Kamala Harris, and he has plenty of related company.
Followup to Reginald @233.
Why Trump’s newest merchandising opportunity is so ridiculous
The Republican candidate has launched an astonishing number of merchandising opportunities lately. The $100,000 watches are arguably the most outlandish.
Trump, Zelensky meet to discuss ending Ukraine war
Link
Harris slams ‘proposals for surrender’ in appearance with Zelensky
Musk’s X blocks links to JD Vance dossier and suspends journalist who posted it
Followup to Reginald @233 and to my comment 251.
Let’s (Not) Go Shopping With The Trumps!
If the economy is so bad, why are they selling such expensive crap?
Tropical Storm Helene live updates: At least 22 dead as storm churns over Southeast
Helene made landfall as a dangerous Category 4 hurricane in Florida’s Big Bend region at about 11:10 p.m. ET on Thursday.
Maggie Smith, acting legend of ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Downton Abbey’ fame, dies at 89
She won Oscars for her performances in “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” and “California Suite.” […] known to younger viewers for her role in the “Harry Potter” films.
Trump Camp Says State Menstrual Surveillance Programs are A-OK
Link to Member Newsletter at Talking Points Memo.
Well, Stephen Miller did say that Trump would not say anything against states setting up menstrual surveillance and travel restriction programs.
Stevie Nicks’ new abortion-rights anthem
Video at the link.
Link
Trump, of course, would consider that heroic first responder a sucker.
Dame Maggie Smith, star of Downton Abbey, has died at 89
Looking back at the public’s failure to assess the threat of the Republican party.
Dear gods, Pew’s 2022 percentage of Democrats with a very unfavorable view of the Republican party: 54%.
/Caption: That’s the /partisan/ Democrats (folks who lean Dem would drive it lower).
/*Squint* Measuring pixels on the chart, it looks like 33% of partisans were merely unfavorable.
/The data was collected from June 27 to July 4. Half of the Jan 6 hearings aired in that timespan. Still that was years into Trump admin and covid hostility to public health. SCOTUS’ Dobbs decision was Jun 24, leaked in May.
Their survey a year later only offered numbers for the general public.
Pew – Party favorability ratings (2023-09-19)
NPR – What is the 2024 election all about, anyway? (2024-01-13)
Lynna re. #248 #242
I just wanted to counter the negative comment to say, as has been mentioned before by others, that I appreciate what you do here and how you do it. And I’m sure that’s the case for the vast majority of people who read this thread whether or not the post here.
Jean @265, Thank you!
In other news, Fox News goes to war against Harris for using big words
I took Harris to mean that she was taking into account all of the factors that might affect the whole of the housing issue, or of other issues her upcoming administration wanted to address.
Cartoon: NOAA
Trump makes meeting with Ukrainian president all about Trump
I Feel Compelled to Point Out That Donald Trump Sounds Absolutely Insane. That’s a link to a paywalled article by Charles Piece on Esquire’s website.
Here is some commentary that is available without paying:
Link
@Bekenstein Bound
Your comment to Lynna was very rude, just like your rude outburst on Mano’s blog where you accused him of tampering with your post after you borked the closing tag. Congrats on being the first person to get themselves banned under his new comment policy.
This is Lynna’s thread, has been for many years, and she does a fantastic job of compiling accurate news and reporting in one thread.
Thanks Lynnna for your efforts! (And the others who also contribute)
I rarely comment here, but I do read and appreciate the thread regularly.
Followup to comment 268.
Heroic Ukrainian President Resists Urge To Gouge Out Donald Trump’s Eyeballs
You know he was thinking it. [That is Wonkette’s characteristic hyperbole when referring to Zelensky’s look of long-suffering in Trump’s presence. I would not use gouging out eyeballs even as a metaphor. Let’s dispense with the violent metaphors when possible.]
Tethys @270, Thank you!
In other news: MAGA Election Deniers Continue Their Voter-Roll Purging Spree
Check your registrations, everybody!
[Wonkette will let you read articles even if you don’t sign up or sign in. Just look for their “Nah, just let me read it” option. And you may have to also choose “continue reading” to finish an article. Subscribe if you can.]
I checked my voter registration, and I requested and received my mail-in ballot. So all good here.
Back to the Wonkette article:
It is relatively easy for us nerds to come up with memorable strings of digits as passcodes. For instance, Dr Who fans will recall 19741981.*
*Tom Baker era.
Lynna @269:
Nice.
Re: Tethys @270:
I appreciate the context.
Everything SSADT and J S Vance says is aimed at firing up the maga fans, who believe anything.
But this is an odd strategy, as they need the undecided voters. Even if every maga hat believes there is a pedophile HQ in the cellar of that goddamn pizza shop, it is not enough of them to win the election.
Also, the “sanewashing” is a very real thing. We learn of every weird thing SSADT does, but the aversge Joe does not
Lynna @ every comment in this endless thread: I truly credit you as a big part of the reason I don’t live in despair. I keep absolutely up to date on reading here, usually several times a day. We need to hear the voices that are doing their best to keep reality alive, and those that are fighting against the tyranny of the rich, powerful, and full of shit. Others besides you comment here, of course, but you keep it stable, contribute most, and call out people who try to take things in destructive directions. Thank you for all you do!
@275 birgerjohansson: If I gave them credit for a rational strategy I would say they are trying to drum up enough votes to make stealing the election practical. The more Trump loses the election by the harder it becomes to steal. He needs enough of the far right to think they have a chance that large groups can be raised for protests and riots. He needs to raise doubt in the minds of the general population and he needs it to be close enough to sell it to the judges and military. He isn’t trying to sell it to the few remaining undecided voters, he is trying to get enough of the far right out to vote. His own complaints that the vote was rigged makes them less interested in voting and he needs them all.
More realistically I don’t think they have a rational strategy at this point. Trump is going where he can get large crowds. Large crowds make him feel popular and successful like he was in 2016. Vance, honestly I don’t know what he is thinking at all. He has spent years selling himself the way you would expect of a politician. At the moment though he seems fixated on religious misogyny and he is willing to throw away any chance of national position or popularity to stick to that.
TLDR News Global: China Finally Resorts to Fiscal Stimulus: But is it Too Late?
China has finally gone with financial stimulus. Something recommended by global organizations for years. The plan they have announced is trying to reinflate the housing bubble and isn’t likely to have any long term impact. If this is the first step to more direct consumer stimulus it could be good.
If China is just going to try to just rebuild the housing market it is very unlikely to work. Japan tried far more aggressive stimulus for decades with no success. If the people have no money they are not going to take out big loans for housing. All the worse in China where many are now unemployed and many own housing that has not been built yet. Plus, like Japan, the population is declining so people don’t expect housing prices to go up rapidly. The only thing working in China’s favor is that all of the big banks are under the governments thumb, if the government says issues mortgages they will.
To Understand JD Vance, You Need to Meet the “TheoBros”
I don’t really want to understand him. I just want him to lose and then go away.
550 people report illness after P.E.I. shellfish festival, health officials say
Basement-free buildings are better for the future climate
That sounds hasty and poorly considered. Basements are prone to flood damage, but if there are tornadoes they are useful for shelter.
Paul K @276, Thank you!
JM @277:
Yes. I agree. I will add, however, that I think some portion of Trump’s campaign staff (and perhaps Trump himself) expect him to lose, and they will try to claim that the election was stolen anyway (practical or not). Trump’s idea seems to be to sow doubt either way, and meanwhile he will continue to scam his millions of cult followers by spamming them with various grifts for years to come.
Reginald @279:
Same. It gives me a headache to try to understand him. The closest I can come is “naked ambition with no moral center.”
NBC News:
Link
Video at the link.
NBC News:
Good news.
New York Times:
As elections near, economic growth exceeds expectations (again)
Republicans in August, amid a brief stock market downturn: Kamala Harris is directly responsible for the economy. Republicans in September: Never mind.
What a nice time.
Link
Photos and more details concerning Doug Emhoff’s campaigning in red states are available at the link.
More here: https://www.tiktok.com/@douglasemhoff
More here :https://x.com/DouglasEmhoff/status/1839675364055888130
Fox News personalities have rejected data showing a reduction in violent crime, record energy production, plummeting inflation, and fewer unauthorized border crossings
@282 Lynna, OM:
If Vance’s strategy was just ambition he wouldn’t be so actively trying to anger women. He could court the religious right while being more circumspect. He could talk about religion and men needing to be strong and lead the household without all the weird controlling women and pregnancy stuff. This is a position unpopular among Republicans except for a small circle of religious right and terminally unpopular among everybody else.
Even if he is going in on Project 2025 there is no need to be so public about it right now. Win the election first, then talk about highly unpopular policy.
Supreme Court refuses to order New York to include RFK Jr. on the presidential ballot
Court revives lawsuit of Black pastor who was arrested while watering his neighbor’s flowers
A man trying to cremate his dog sparked a wildfire in Colorado, authorities say
Childless GOP Candidate Borrows Friend’s Wife and Kids for Photo Ops
[Green Beret borrows a family but seen with his fiancé at a Mexican restaurant.]
Stolen convivir.
Yes. Thank you Lynna.
“Extreme accumulation of ammonia on electroreduced mackinawite: An abiotic ammonia storage mechanism in early ocean hydrothermal systems”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10576140/
Ammonia in the vent.
Waves and smiles to Brony at 295.
In other news: Cartoon: V.P. debate preview
The V.P. debate will be aired this Tuesday. MSNBC will have thorough coverage. PBS News is also planning a simulcast of the 2024 Vice Presidential Debate, which is being hosted by CBS.
The 90-minute debate begins at 9 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, October 1.
Lynna@248:
Yes, they should. But I don’t think this should be done in ways that exclude potential members of their audience, discriminating against some on the basis of socioeconomic status.
@252:
I thought there was a law against private citizens engaging in foreign diplomacy on behalf of the United States? And, right now, Trump is a mere private citizen …
Tethys@270:
I didn’t accuse Mano of anything, nor did I bork a closing tag — I even checked it in preview, where it appeared correctly, but it did not appear correctly when posted for some reason. The accusation was directed at the unnamed individual who was responsible for causing that — I didn’t name any names because I do not know who it was!
And in what way was I rude to Lynna? Pointing out that an unusable link was not usable is not rude. It’s merely a statement of fact. Is that what you are objecting to? (This accusation gains added irony when you note how rude Lynna’s response was. Whereas I intended no offense, it seems doubtful the same can be said of her.)
Reginald Selkirk@280:
You’d think, if you’re organizing a festival for a type of food that’s notorious for being especially finicky for needing good hygiene to not make people sick, that you’d organize some good hygiene for that festival. :/ One misstep — 550 cases of food poisoning. Would you pilot a 747 full of passengers as cavelierly as you might a Cessna with no-one else aboard?
@281:
What’s with the text that’s highlighted to look like it’s a link, but isn’t actually a link?
They also keep a more even temperature throughout the year, which can be useful. If anything, it’s the above-ground parts that are bad for the carbon footprint, because those are the parts that take more energy to heat and cool. On the other hand, people like windows to look outside through, and that let light in, which might be why those “earthship” style homes never became popular.
Brony@296:
I expect that no longer occurs because the water around the vent would now be oxygenated, and at vent temperatures the ammonia, if not also the mackinawite, would promptly oxidize?
But then, this process could still operate intermittently, whenever there’s a vent in an ocean basin that has become stagnant and unoxygenated. There were several such anoxic-depth events in the young Atlantic during the Jurassic as I recall.
This is sort of a followup to JM @289. JM discussed how JD Vance courts the religious right.
JD Vance to campaign with preacher who claims Harris is ‘devil’s choice’
See also: Sent by God
They’re gathering by the thousands. They’re growing fast. They believe that Democrats are possessed by demons—and that Donald Trump must be president again at any cost.
Excerpts:
Lynna literally used the word harass above Bekenstein Bound. That is repeated unwanted behavior. Generally considered rude.
Link
Otherwise all that ammonia means I can mentally subtract glutamate as an ammonia donor during biosynthesis tentatively. I can focus on other things.
Ukraine Update: Pokrovsk, Kursk, Putin, Zelenskyy, by Mark Sumner
Scathing Atheist 606 Eli’s Birthday Edition
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=dTkbuKm9NYM
Elia Ayoub (wrote “Hezbollah: 10 Things You Need To Know” at xxxii p8 #471):
https://spore.social/@ayoub/113210381807521537
09-27 12:08
/Video at the link of explosions outside their window.
https://spore.social/@ayoub/11321077216273825809-27 13:48
https://spore.social/@ayoub/11321158134749050009-27 17:13
https://spore.social/@ayoub/11321174491507427109-27 17:55
https://spore.social/@ayoub/11321229921911993209-27 20:16
https://spore.social/@ayoub/11321213196104029909-27 19:34
Aljazeera
https://aje.io/mycvl0?update=3207190Wikipedia – 2024 Hezbollah headquarters strike
@#298 Bekenstein Bound said:
“And in what way was I rude to Lynna?”
@ #242 Bekenstein Bound said:
“Why did you bother linking to it then, knowing the link wouldn’t be useful? Better to just post the entire text of the thing and attribute it without a clickable link.”
Telling anyone how or what they should post is rude.
Hm. I’d assumed that explosion video in #305 was from Elia Ayoub’s relatives because it was unattributed. However, it was already in circulation. The New York Times verified the footage, whoever filmed it.
Wikipedia’s editors are debating how to title the event. The link will redirect to whatever they rename it to.
Flaw in Kia’s web portal let researchers track, hack cars
A new kind of drug for schizophrenia promises fewer side effects
Tucker Carlson Just Hit a New Low
American version
“Have I Got News For You” US S01E02 Charlie Dent Rosebud Baker
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=cMXFRhr6Ri0
.
What Roseanne Barr forgot to say is, it is the jews in Hollywood that eats babies. /s.
…and the reason the authorities never spotted the five million illegal aliens that voted for Biden is, they were using Romulan cloaking technology, smuggled to Earth by reptilians.
Bekenstein Bound@298,
You need to disabuse yourself of the notion that anyone either here or at Mano’s owes you any service. Your behaviour in both cases reeks of entitlement.
NC Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson hospitalized with second-degree burns following incident at campaign event
Why not the T-80?
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=8lfGG9kmgSo
(The video shows a T-72A, but you get the point)
As usual, the Soviet electronics lagged behind while the big steel components were adequate. (Crew survivability was never a priority in the Soviet system)
“an accident at an automotive show”
I will love to see the details.
It would be hilarious if someone ignored safety routines because ‘safety is for sissies’.
Automotive shows are popular among the MAGA crowd because they think the automotive technology of the last century is somehow linked to the human XY gene that developed before the last ice age.
I like automotive shows, but I do not assign ideological value to them.
The Guardian
European twin satellite mission bids to create total solar eclipse on demand
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/sep/28/european-twin-satellite-mission-bids-to-create-total-solar-eclipse-on-demand
the mission will also act as a pathfinder for other formation spaceflights that could transform studies of gravitational waves, exoplanets and black holes.
Love the unloved
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/LcpWK46b2r8vX6MB/
As long as Sabine Hossenfelder stays away from social issues she seems pretty reliable.
‘How Jailbreakers Try to “Free” AI’
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=CIQe2jdYAJ0
‘Jailbreaking’ sounds like it was inspired by William Gibson’s Neuromancer.
BTW general AI is sooo far away. Do not worry about it, concentrate on the usual fascists and oligarchs.
War On Terror, Redux
Apps like Venmo and Chime don’t have fees. But they have bigger problems.
Trump threatens to prosecute Google over search results
Followup to comment 299.
JD Vance To Do Town Hall With Christian Nationalist Who Thinks We Are All Literal Demons
Washington Post link
Region braces for intensification after Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah’s assassination
Washington Post link
Helene’s rains pummel isolated mountain towns with landslides, flooding
It looks like Vance’s politically expedient Trump conversion happened significantly later than we previously knew. But that’s not the only point. That’s a Washington Post link.
Hmmm. Sounds like JD Vance might be comfortable with this Russian idea: Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the lower house of parliament and an ally of President Vladimir Putin, said a new bill would tackle the “ideology of childlessness.”
A far right party with Nazi roots is on the brink of power in Austria
Elections will be held on Sunday. Its leader, Herbert Kickl, has been branded as “Volkskanzler” or “People’s Chancellor,” by his party, a term the Nazis used to describe Hitler.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/smartmatic-and-newsmax-settle-libelslander
Bloomberg: US Online Grocery Prices Plunge the Most on Record in August
Online prices swing up and down faster and more then store prices but store prices are also down.
NPR Why the price of eggs is on the rise again
Expect for egg prices. Farms specializing in egg production have had cases of avian flu over the last couple of years with several large ones this year. This is driving large increases in egg prices.
Lying about McDonalds?
http://youtube.com/post/UgkxEXp9-VqE6XuLrwR8_skYAF4TBPOqAbAv
Cartoon: Thanks but no thanks
Link
https://www.wonkette.com/p/did-you-see-kamala-harris-rip-trump
Did You See Kamala Harris Rip Trump Into Itty Bitty Pieces In Border Speech? [Violent metaphor not really needed.] It’s Damn Good
https://www.wonkette.com/p/tyrant-joe-biden-sending-you-free
Tyrant Joe Biden Sending You Free COVID Tests Again, How Dare He?
Probably the spy software in the first round of tests has expired.
I’m glad to hear this. I need updated COVID tests. I just threw my expired tests away today.
Live updates: Hurricane Helene claims 53 lives, submerges historic village and closes hundreds of roads in North Carolina
More at the link.
“Effortless skill, mixed salads and a certain impatience with life:
Michael Palin remembers Maggie Smith ”
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2024/sep/28/michael-palin-remembers-maggie-smith
Senior Tories fear next leader won’t survive long |
‘Like celebrity reality TV where you don’t recognise the celebrities’:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/sep/28/like-a-celebrity-reality-tv-show-where-you-dont-recognise-the-celebrities-senior-tories-fear-next-leader-wont-survive-long
Re: Lynna, OM @ #335…
Ordered my COVID test kits yesterday. I’d been watching the news stories to see when it was going to be possible to place the order. As for a COVID shot…at my age (75), it’s twice a year. Planning to get the new shot in two weeks. It will be my 9th COVID shot. So far, I’ve managed not to catch it, but not counting on the streak to last forever.
In which the passive voice is put to hard labor.
David Attenborough narrating the “evolutionary disadvantaged” Cybertruck
(video 00:34)
Paleontologists unearth giant skull of Pachyrhinosaurus in northern Alberta
A cheap, low-tech solution for storing carbon may be sitting in the dirt
whheydt @339: “I’ve managed not to catch it, but not counting on the streak to last forever.”
Same here. My plan is this: if I do catch a case of COVID, I plan to survive with minimal damage because I have been vaccinated. Hopefully, also no need for hospitalization.
Tropical storm could form in Gulf of Mexico next week, development odds increasing
“Aeon Flux Animated Show Explored – This 90’s Underrated Dark, Mature & Brave Cartoon Is A Rare Gem!”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=ntnXocGoakg
Re: Lynna @335:
If you’re on medicaid, your insurance might offer a pair of covid kits each month if requested.
[What I did.]: I called up a pharmacy for advice. They gave me a phone number for my insurer—who’d recently had a computer glitch booting folks off some relevant program that the pharmacy needed. After waiting a while on hold, the insurer queued my reinrollment, estimating 45 min. I called the pharmacy, who said it it hadn’t gone through yet and gave me a /better/ number for another of the insurer’s call centers (one with authority to bump me up the queue). I waited on hold and did that.
[Your experience hopefully starts here. =) ]: I called the pharmacy, and they had the kits ready for pickup that same afternoon for free.
/I’d caught a respiratory virus in July. Tested negative twice. My first influenza: same symptoms but briefer, sore throat then only a week of violent snotty coughing fits. Would not recommend.
Vance rewrites history about Trump and Obamacare
Links to additional sources can be accessed at the main link.
FiveThirtyEight: New Polling – Kamala Harris On The Way To Victory In November 🙂
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=ReGXyYNhx5s
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain @347, thanks for the additional information and advice.
Sorry to hear you had to weather bouts of illness serious enough to prompt COVID testing.
I have not had trouble getting my free COVID tests, but a friend of mine had difficulties similar to what you describe. For the most part, patience and persistence finally won the day.
I have had problems related to my doctor’s office trying to charge me for vaccinations that are supposed to be free. The nurse’s advice: get your vaccination at a pharmacy and avoid the medical billing department of the doctor’s office (which seems to be permanently fucked up or at least unreliable).
Re: Lynna @350:
Oh yeah. Me too.
In my case, it was a little clinic that was part of a larger hospital chain bureaucracy. After each of several shots, I’d received a bill for “immunization admin fee” and “administrative fee”. My insurer referred to it as “double billing”. They’d already paid and advised me to ignore the bills. Something about the hospital system using the wrong codes.
JD Vance suffers latest campaign fail after being denied entry into restaurant
Primanti Brothers says Vice President Nominee JD Vance was not turned away for visit
Who are you going to believe? JD Vance, or any other person on the planet?
Reuters: US Trademark Office cancels Marvel, DC’s ‘Super Hero’ marks
They didn’t show up in court to defend it so it isn’t clear if they somehow missed this or if they decided it wasn’t worth it. This has always been super iffy as being too generic and questions over how they jointly held the trademark but nobody with enough money ever went to the trouble to take it too court. It’s been an annoyance for competitors and certain RPG games for a long time but also easy to work around.
Politico: White House agonizes over UN cybercrime treaty
Big questions over civil rights and how they are protected in the treaty. Big enough that both the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce among other organizations think it’s a bad deal. With those two organizations opposed it’s very much both the left and right think it’s a bad idea. What worries the Biden administration is that if they walk away then Russia and China may get to decide what goes in the treaty.
Experts Warn of Growing Inhalant Trend on TikTok as ‘Chroming’ Gains Popularity”>
Judge Throws the Book at Climate Activists Who Threw Soup on Van Gogh Painting
Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” paintings vandalized hours after activists sentenced for similar incident
This is not effective advocacy. I hope they enjoy prison.
Reginald Selkirk @343:
Farmer uncovers 22kg slab of ancient bog butter (48 lbs)
Wikipedia – Bog butter
Well, RFK’s freezer anyway. Watch out for bog bodies.
Rare 1776 continental dollar coin found inside toffee tin to be auctioned
Lauren Boebert gets into spat with journalist as she accuses him of ‘bias’ for saying climate change is fact
Re: Reginald Selkirk @ #359…
passing by the utter cluelessness and denial of observable facts in Boebert’s statements, it is questionable that she can be described as “running for re-election in the Colorado 4th district” since that isn’t where she was originally elected to Congress.
Trump meets Ukraine’s Zelenskyy at Trump Tower, says Russia’s war must end with ‘fair deal’
You’re walking down the street. You feel something, and you reach down and – someone is picking your pocket! You grab his hand, and demand, “stop that!”
“Let’s be fair,” he replies. “Let’s split the money.”
Texas Supreme Court deals final blow to Paxton’s crusade against state fair’s no-gun policy
Barry Williams says ‘Brady Bunch’ costars ‘all hooked up with each other’
Yahoo: Harris’ team is considering keeping Biden Cabinet officials if she wins and Democrats lose the Senate
There is also that Harris has not had much time to put together a plan. Not only the Cabinet but a bunch of secondary positions like ambassadors, anything that has to go through Senate confirmation might be asked to stay. It’s likely to be a very on the fly thing because the exact split in the Senate will matter.
She will also face a very politically dicey situation with Merrick Garland. He is surely somebody Harris would like to replace because he is unpopular in Democratic circles. At the same time, getting a new attorney general through will be one of the hardest jobs and the DOJ may already be tied up in election law suits. Even finding somebody willing to take the job could be hard.
Reginald Selkirk @361
Actually, it’s as if after a home invasion, you are asked to give up to the invader one bedroom and one bathroom and ignore that the invader killed your son and assaulted your daughter. And you need to give the invader a set of house keys. And you can’t call 911 if something goes wrong.
birgerjohansson@349:
And yet their web site is still only giving her 58% odds … worryingly low.
“I Learned About the World’s Craziest Far-Right Ideologies So You Won’t Have To”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=0XaTbc4p_go
Wow. This was a weird, dark ride. ‘The Wolves of Vinland’ would be the creeps the nazis reject as too weird.
Reuters
ForeignPolicy
I don’t agree with their methods, but the sentence is manifestly excessive; it’s part of an authoritarian crackdown on all types of peaceful protest in the UK. Many of the participants in the recent racist riots got off more lightly. And incidentally, how can you do £10,000 worth of damage to a frame?
How the AquaFence protected Tampa’s hospital during Helene
Florida congressional candidate charged with threatening to kill primary opponent
Opinion: Harris is wrong about Project 2025. Our plan is good for America.
Schiff introduces bill that would stop presidents from dismissing prosecution against themselves
Good satirical if also deeply terrifying in tems of its implications 5 mins long Juice media Honest Government Ad | TRUMP 2024 here with some good info at the end worth noting.
JD Vance said Trump ‘thoroughly failed to deliver’ his economic agenda in uncovered 2020 messages
Why Trump’s crypto scheme could be his shadiest grift yet
https://x.com/patriottakes/status/1840221223097180214
Video at the link.
Video is also available here
https://www.wonkette.com/p/rfk-jr-loses-three-ballot-access
RFK Jr. Loses Three Ballot Access Lawsuits In Setback For Electoral Ratf*cking And Victory For Democracy
New York Times link
Donald J. Trump’s attacks calling Kamala Harris “mentally impaired” and “mentally disabled” were criticized on Sunday by Democrats and Republicans.
‘Saturday Night Live’ Season 50 premiere reflects a re-energized election season
The big night opened with Maya Rudolph as an electrifying Vice President Kamala Harris and James Austin Johnson as a former President Donald Trump stumped by her popularity.
YouTube link to SNL cold open
The late Maggie Smith in the Carol Burnett Show 1975
.https://www.facebook.com/share/v/i5HViRQ9GuHZ5QjR/
Some Republicans distance themselves from Trump’s latest attack on Harris’ mental fitness
In other words, some don’t.
What Are People In Reykjavík Reading?
Strange Discovery Finds Earth’s Crust ‘Dripping’ Into The Planet’s Belly : ScienceAlert
.https://www.sciencealert.com/strange-discovery-finds-earths-crust-dripping-into-the-planets-belly
Jews and Catholics warn against Trump’s latest loyalty test, by Associated Press
Posted by readers of the article:
Springfield may have cleared up the cat story, but JD Vance will not give it up.
.https://youtube.com/shorts/p1svtALAjlY
Judge strikes down Georgia’s abortion ban, but not quickly enough for some
A court ruling striking down a Republican-imposed abortion ban in Georgia comes too late for Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller.
Trump caught lying repeatedly about response to Hurricane Helene
What kind of would-be leader lies about a deadly natural disaster? When it comes to Donald Trump and Hurricane Helene, it’s not a rhetorical question.
White House believes Iran is preparing imminent ballistic missile attack against Israel
Other reporting indicates that the ground operation is limited in scope. Israel had to call up reserves to get it done. Hezbollah has issued statements saying that it has not see Israeli ground troops so far.
Scientists discover planet orbiting closest single star to our sun (Barnard’s Star) 6 light years away.
https://phys.org/news/2024-09-scientists-planet-orbiting-closest-star.html
New York Times: North Carolina Officials Begin Post-Helene Election Planning
Freya, the original crazy cat lady
.https://www.facebook.com/share/p/dXSCku3NLxJypn4F/
What Is Blaccent And Why Do People Keep Using It?
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=8mXaccYFKRQ
I did not understand that Black vernacular/AAE was still this commonplace, nor that it is still strongly looked down upon when practiced by Black people.
President Jimmy Carter turned 100 years old on Tuesday.
A cartoon showing Jimmy Carter racing to a polling booth in his wheelchair closes the article. The caption is: “He’s not stopping until he votes for Kamala!”
This Week’s Sky at a Glance, September 27 – October 6 – Sky & Telescope – Sky & Telescope
https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/observing-news/this-weeks-sky-at-a-glance-september-27-october-6/
Venus is close to the horizon after sunset. The expected comet will not become visible for a week, provided it survives the close passage of the dun.
Video at the link.
Link
Supplies arrive by plane and by mule as Helene’s death toll climbs
Ohio Republican branded a ‘traitor’ after debunking Trump’s lies
The vice presidential debate hasn’t happened yet, but Donald Trump is taking steps to preemptively delegitimize it — just in case JD Vance loses.
Link
Robert Reich:
Link
Commentary:
Link for the “commentary” quoted in comment 401
CBS News to broadcast QR code for live fact checking of vice presidential debate
https://www.wonkette.com/p/somebody-should-ask-jd-vance-about
Somebody Should Ask JD Vance About The Fascist Who Installed His Operating System
Yes, this is about that Maddow piece last night.
One week to the Nobel Prize in Physics. Sabine Hossenfelder speculates.
“Who Will Win This Year’s Nobel Prize in Physics? My Speculations”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=KMTNHqEpTnw
(Yes I know she borked the transgender issue. Her strength is in other fields of knowledge)
Live updates: Iran launches missiles at Israel after Lebanon ground operation
Re: Lynna, OM @ #404…
Hmmm…. I might accept Trump as monarch if he can get out on the field in the SCA and win a Crown Tournament.
Link
whheydt @407, I don’t accept the idea of Trump being in charge of anything. And that even includes his own household.
New Polling (Bloomberg) Shows Landslide For Harris: Harris Wins Six Of Seven Battleground States.
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=nEJ4Dtzs6MA
Link
https://www.wonkette.com/p/hey-why-are-the-dockworkers-striking
Why Are The Dockworkers Striking?
Followup to comment 387.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/judge-kills-georgias-six-week-abortion
Important translation
.https://www.facebook.com/share/p/WLjVRMf9tmbUm4Gi/
How Israeli spies penetrated Hizbollah
/Biden did not have advance notice of last week’s airstrikes.
Lynna @411
Jon Stewart talked about this yesterday and gave some examples of the double standard (youtube link to last night show).
Iran launches barrage of missiles at Israel
UK to finish with coal power after 142 years
Pete Rose, MLB hits leader who was caught betting on baseball games, dies at 83
Paralyzed man unable to walk after maker of his powered exoskeleton tells him it’s now obsolete
A pause from election news.
Chipmunk hunting season for the mighty predator!
.https://www.facebook.com/share/r/vwPA9qZrN5fUNEBn/
Harris’ economic speech lacked anger and racism. What’s wrong with her?
(satire from Rex Huppke)
Chemists Finally Unravel the Mystery of Siberia’s Explosive Craters
Must Girlfriend Watch Boyfriend Throw Ball?
(roll-eyes) Kelce catches the ball, not throws it.
Republicans EXPLODE In Epic Tantrum Over Colossal Naked Trump Statue.
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=bmEm1flcKa4
It is technically a marionette.
(The image is partly pixellated, with a few tiny pixels)
NBC News:
Update from NBC News:
CNN:
It more the case that Republicans refuse to back even bipartisan solutions that would improve border security.
Republican shenanigans and fuckery: A fake government letter in PA warns of forced refugee resettlement
An image of the actual letter is available at the link.
Same old drivel from Trump:
Link
Claudia Sheinbaum sworn in as Mexico’s first female president in historic inauguration
The former mayor of Mexico City is largely expected to follow in the footsteps of outgoing president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the leader of Morena, the ruling party.
Video at the link.
Jill Biden attended the ceremony.
This is a sample of what Democrats are up against. I’ve snipped some of the detailed debunking to save space.
WaPo:
24 hours of MAGA misinformation
A small sampling of the inundation of false and dubious claims flowing from Donald Trump and his allies.
Analysis by Aaron Blake / October 1, 2024
Link
Video at the link.
Followup to comment 404.
Watch Rachel Maddow break down JD Vance’s radical, far-right ideology
@Reginald Selkirk #424
Kelce has thrown 3 passes with 1 completion and 1 interception. (total career) : )
‘Top 10 Synthesizer Riffs Of All Time’
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=fvBhnXKGz_Q
God Awful Movies returns…this time with TWO guest masochists.
.
“GAM 476 The Clot”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=fA5N5D2slAA
Lynna @434
Your link is somehow broken.
Also, the comparison between a CEO and a dictator is idiotic. A CEO is accountable for what they do which is not the case for a dictator. And a CEO has to get the best results for the shareholders; in a country, the shareholders would be the citizen which would need to receive the benefits from the CEO actions. This is not at all what they are talking about.
These idiots just want simple solutions for complex problems because they don’t understand how things work and/or they don’t want to know. And they want to be in control and have power and money. And, obviously, they think they would benefit the most from whatever chaos they create.
Working link for Lynna @434:
Watch Rachel Maddow break down JD Vance’s radical, far-right ideology
Facing more clergy abuse lawsuits, Vermont’s Catholic Church files for bankruptcy
Re: Reginald Selkirk @ #440…
Sigh… Just once I’d like to see a bankruptcy court decline to accept a petition from a church. Do it on the grounds that the court may not run the church and by accepting the bankruptcy petition that’s just what the court would be doing.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain @439, thanks! Sorry I borked a link.
In other news, I watched the Vice Presidential debate as much as I could stand to do so. JD Vance is a slick liar, and I mean very slick. For that reason alone, a lot of people will think he won the debate.
Here are some other people’s take on debate:
Walter Einenkel:
Unfortunately, that damning moment came late in the debate and I think a lot of people would have tuned out by then.
Oliver Willis:
Daily Kos Staff:
A few excerpts from Wonkette’s live coverage of the debate:
https://www.wonkette.com/p/stuff-him-in-a-couch-coach-walz-your
Nobody talked about Ukraine, and how Trump would throw it under the bus.
Unrelated to the above: Why the hell was I blocked from accessing this site for over 48 hours by Cloudflare? It didn’t even give me the option to solve a captcha or something to get by it. Fucking overzealous netkkkop monopoly. Now I’ve had to catch up on 3 days worth of stuff here all at once, and omigod look at the goddamn time …
Scientists find plausible geological setting that may have sparked life on Earth
.https://phys.org/news/2024-10-scientists-plausible-geological-life-earth.html
British conservative leadership contest.
“Badenoch, Cleverly, Jenrick, Tugendhat: four ways for the Tories to reach the same wilderness”
.https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/oct/02/badenoch-cleverly-jenrick-tugendhat-tories-wilderness
@444 Bekenstein Bound: It wasn’t a Cloudflare issue. PZ Myers said the Freethoughtblogs site was down. He didn’t say if it was a hardware issue or software issue.
US economy
.http://youtube.com/post/UgkxdHzXe7gjwHCS7RcrP6bI2g0qCfEu2JmJ
Expert looks at $100K Trump Watch
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=edAnwu-e79M
Supreme Court Scandal BLOWN OPEN by Secret LETTERS that Just Surfaced
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=DlhlRLN_0TU
Good luck vetoing a Supreme Court decision, especially with the loony tunes justices you appointed.
Scientists Witness the Birth of Water Molecules at the Smallest Scale Yet
Postpartum Care in Louisiana Threatened After State Officially Criminalizes Abortion Pills
A US bomb from World War II explodes at a Japanese airport, causing a large crater in a taxiway
That last line needs work. Detonation is always sudden.
What time is the annular solar eclipse on Oct. 2?
Trudeau survives second parliamentary confidence vote
In Helene’s aftermath, Trump’s views on climate change get worse
Trump downplays importance of troops with brain injuries (again)
Good analysis from Steve Benen:
Link
Philly-Area Republican Couple Threatened After Filming Kamala Harris Ad
Sabine Hossenfelder:
‘New Theory of Consciousness Explains Why Zombies Don’t Exist’
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=8kolJoTf-Ew
https://www.wonkette.com/p/jd-vance-makes-pretty-good-argument
Comet A3 has reached perihelion today, and if it does not fall apart it may become spectaular in the next few weeks.
.
Scientists Have Discovered a Dietary Compound (Phytoene) That Increases Longevity
.https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-have-discovered-a-dietary-compound-that-increases-longevity/
Re: Bekenstein Bound @444:
You saw a page from Cloudflare in lieu of FTB. If you had read the page, you would have seen it was telling you that while your browser and Cloudflare’s middleman infrastructure were working (green circles), FTB’s server had an error (red circle).
It was not blocking you in particular, and there was no feature they could offer that would make FTB responsive.
Your tendency to voice minor frustration in the form of slapdash paranoid accusations deserves some quiet reflection.
NEW INFORMATION: Major Conservative Poll (Rasmussen Reports) Cited by Media Secretly Worked With Team Trump
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=5hdPBQiwHio
As Donald Trump falsely claims he was “fully exonerated” in his classified documents scandal, it’s worth asking whether he knows what “exonerated” means.
From North Korea to Iran to trade tariffs, the more Donald Trump talks about recent assassination attempts, the stranger his comments become.
WNBA playoff update
They are in the semifinals at present. This is a “best of 5” series.
The Minnesota Lynx and the Connecticut Sun are tied at 1 win apiece.
The New York Liberty lead the Las Vega Aces 2-0.
The next games will be played on Friday, Oct 4, 2024.
This Swedish Camouflage is Making Ukrainian Vehicles Nearly Invisible
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=TMu_8ypmxvc
And then every once in a while someone steps up – Fortescue Mining takes a stand
Trump Did Not ‘Salvage’ Obamacare. It Just Survived All His Attempts To Kill It.
Palmer Luckey: Every country needs a ‘warrior class’ excited to enact ‘violence on others in pursuit of good aims’
Notice how he conflates the “warrior class” with the “arms dealer class.”
Israel plans swift retaliation for Iran missile attack; eight Israeli soldiers killed in clashes with Hezbollah
Hurricane Helene updates: Biden directs up to 1,000 soldiers to assist in aid efforts as 176 people dead in stormaftermath
Being jealous of a New York City rat.
.http://youtube.com/post/UgkxCaPv5vapGLDBRnqPbbphXyf_jO2qbc1e
Well, well, well.
Judge Chutkan unsealed Jack Smith’s motion. And, holy shit, is it damning.
Judge Chutkan Just Unsealed Jack Smith’s 165-Page Motion Objecting to Trump’s Immunity Claims — Read It Here
The motion is also available here:
https://www.scribd.com/document/775599581/gov-uscourts-dcd-258148-252-0
Followup to comment 474: This release of information is so recent that there is not yet much analysis available online, not in written form anyway.
Nicole Wallace referenced page 142, which has new information related to Mike Pence. Tune in to the live stream of MSNBC, or turn on your television, to get good coverage. MSNBC hosts and guests are doing a good job of presenting some of the new material, and some of the work Jack Smith did to present an accurate timeline, often in a narrative format.
https://www.msnbc.com
You may have to sign in to view the livestream.
MSNBC offers the video stream for 10 minutes. Then it wants a sign in.
However they also have an audio stream which is unlimited.
Clips may later be added to the YouTube Deadline White House playlist.
Re: #474 A few details from the the brief.
NYT:
Republicans Have A Nazi Problem
WaPo:
Republicans keep inventing new ways to scapegoat immigrants
It used to be false claims about crime. Now, including in the vice-presidential debate, it’s false claims about crime and housing and drugs and guns.
Philip Bump / October 2, 2024
Snipped details on “immigrant crime” which have been repeatedly debunked.
[Cartels look at the US as a giant supermarket for guns. Virtually anyone can buy guns here.]
JM@447:
The thing that got in my way and wouldn’t let me pass had their name and logo all over it. So yeah, it was, unless it was brazenly misrepresenting its own identity.
Regardless, what happened to me was blatantly incorrect and I ask that it not be repeated.
Lynna@464:
Yeah, when he lies he has some easily recognizable facial and vocal tics. For one, his mouth will open, and for another, sound will come out. :)
Lynna@468:
Now watch for the company’s shareholders and board of directors to oust him so fast his head will spin …
NASA switches off instrument on Voyager 2 spacecraft to save power
Robert Reich – Donald Trump is gaining on Kamala Harris in the polls. I have some theories why
Ehh. That would require fearful voters to posit that there could exist a devil worse than Trump, in the present day, in the US, as a politician, running against him, and has already been VP for years without their awfulness coming to light, to be the ominous mystery candidate we have today.
Not that it matters because the ‘devil you know’ actually loses to generic opponents.
Poll: Trump trails generic Democrat by 8 points in 2018
Poll: voters prefer a generic Democrat over Trump in 2020
Biden and Trump both underperform generic opponents, poll finds in 2023
Re: Beckenstein Bound @ #480…
Blaming Cloudflare is like shooting the messenger when you don’t like the message. The error page clearly showed that ones own network connection was fine. Cloudflare was working fine. The Free Thought Blogs server was not responding.
I would suggest a class on networking, but I don’t know if it will do any good if you are this bad at understanding the data presented to you.
Re: Beckenstein Bound @ #480…
More detail… Here is a trace route from one of my systems to the Free Thought server, just to give you an idea of how many different pieces of equipment are between ones own PC and the server you’re after:
pi@ddc5test:~ $ traceroute freethoughtblogs.com
traceroute to freethoughtblogs.com (104.21.234.50), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1) 1.733 ms 1.897 ms 1.963 ms
2 10.61.211.19 (10.61.211.19) 15.040 ms 15.399 ms 10.61.211.18 (10.61.211.18) 15.750 ms
3 po-105-rur202.fairfield.ca.sfba.comcast.net (162.151.31.165) 14.583 ms 23.015 ms 23.150 ms
4 po-200-xar01.fairfield.ca.sfba.comcast.net (68.87.192.25) 22.992 ms po-200-xar02.fairfield.ca.sfba.comcast.net (68.87.193.37) 23.123 ms po-200-xar01.fairfield.ca.sfba.comcast.net (68.87.192.25) 23.112 ms
5 po-2-xar02.fairfield.ca.sfba.comcast.net (69.139.199.102) 23.167 ms 23.155 ms 23.275 ms
6 be-397-ar01.hayward.ca.sfba.comcast.net (96.108.99.9) 24.614 ms 16.399 ms 12.301 ms
7 be-397-ar01.hayward.ca.sfba.comcast.net (96.108.99.9) 12.391 ms be-36341-cs04.9greatoaks.ca.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.93.141) 13.010 ms be-397-ar01.hayward.ca.sfba.comcast.net (96.108.99.9) 12.525 ms
8 be-36321-cs02.9greatoaks.ca.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.93.133) 13.080 ms be-36331-cs03.9greatoaks.ca.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.93.137) 12.728 ms be-36311-cs01.9greatoaks.ca.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.93.129) 16.713 ms
9 50.242.151.238 (50.242.151.238) 17.848 ms 25.067 ms be-2211-pe11.9greatoaks.ca.ibone.comcast.net (96.110.32.246) 16.253 ms
10 173.245.54.4 (173.245.54.4) 17.431 ms 17.610 ms 66.208.229.106 (66.208.229.106) 17.035 ms
11 104.21.234.50 (104.21.234.50) 26.568 ms 173.245.54.2 (173.245.54.2) 26.771 ms 173.245.54.4 (173.245.54.4) 26.976 ms
(The equivalent command in MS Windows is “tracert”, but it doesn’t give you as much information as the Linux “traceroute”.)
Also there’s a bunch of websites that will tell you if a website is up and running or down and the few I tried were showing that freethoughtblogs.com was down. So it’s not even at the level of a networking class but simple basic internet usage…
BB @480, “Regardless, what happened to me was blatantly incorrect and I ask that it not be repeated.”
Are you trying to take this personally? I couldn’t access FreeThoughtBlogs either. There was something amiss with the server.
Re: Jean @ #485…
There is also the basic command “ping”. To be fair, traceroute is useful to find out where the failure is, while ping will quickly tell you that there is a problem.
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who has called on Gov. Roy Cooper to deploy more resources to help people in western North Carolina, was the only Council of State member to not vote on Cooper’s request to declare a state of emergency, records show.
Followup to comment 455.
Washington Post:
https://www.wonkette.com/p/meet-marcus-marcus-will-now-explain
Meet Marcus. Marcus Will Now Explain ‘What Is Vice President?’ To Idiot Republicans. Listen To Marcus.
Civics lessons!
Seth Meyers sums up the last days:
“Vance Lies About Obamacare, Jan. 6, Abortion; Trump Backs Out of 60 Minutes Interview: A Closer Look”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=eWSPmAVAp_g
Stephen Colbert:
Vance-Walz Debate Was “Normal” | Worn Out Trump Says “There’s No Hope” |It’s Fat Bear Week!
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=mnkHcmSKtJ4
Benedick Arnold
“Trump Exposed in Damning 2020 Election Report, Pressured Pence Relentlessly &.J D Vance’s Untruths”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=z2iAyVHlmD4
Jimmy Kimmel
Built by Jimmy Carter
.https://www.facebook.com/share/p/GpFftxQ1QcyKr9Yx/
Boris Johnson Plots Shocking Comeback to UK Politics
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ti4XUJSClA8
Next time, use a wooden stake and a mallet!
Police arrest four suspects linked to LockBit ransomware gang
The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books
@480 Bekenstein Bound:
Cloudflare is a piece of software in the chain that displays the Freethoughtblogs site but the message you saw wasn’t say that Cloudflare had a problem, it said Cloudflare couldn’t get Freethoughtblogs to send it to you. Blaming Cloudflare is like blaming the warning signs that block you from trying to cross a collapsed bridge.
Cloudflare can itself fail but that wasn’t the problem this time.
Independent: Bank of America is down: Users report their accounts showing empty balance during widespread outage
Speaking of outages, Bank of America is having a one. It’s not all customers but significant in size. It seems to be an issue with an updated interface not a something in the actual bank information. Some customers are getting getting in and seeing $0 balance though, apparently because some bit of the software chain between the bank and the customers is stupidly showing zero when it can’t connect properly.
Vance’s views on the 2020 race matter, whether he likes it or not
The Republican vice presidential nominee says he doesn’t understand the interest in his beliefs about the 2020 race. So, let’s try explaining it to him.