The Conversation -- October 20, 2024
Presidential Race
Brianna Tucker, et al., of the Washington Post: “Vice President Kamala Harris criticized ... Donald Trump over the issue of abortion access at a rally in Atlanta on Saturday, pointing out that the family of Amber Thurman — a Georgia woman who died in 2022 after she did not receive proper medical care because of abortion restrictions — was in the audience.... Harris played a clip of Trump at an all-women Fox News town hall, in which the moderator said Thurman’s family had just participated in a call hosted by the vice president’s campaign. 'Oh, that’s nice,' Trump said in the clip. 'We’ll get better ratings, I promise.' Harris said Trump had 'mocked' Thurman’s family in the clip and later asked, 'Where is the compassion?'... Harris also repeated her assertion that Trump is exhausted from campaigning after several canceled appearances, and called into question Trump’s coherence.... At a smaller campaign event earlier Saturday in Detroit, Harris said that voters need to 'just watch' Trump’s rallies if they remain undecided.... In Atlanta, R&B singer Usher rallied for Harris.”
Nicholas Nehamas of the New York Times: “Vice President Kamala Harris let her T-shirt do the talking in Detroit on Saturday. The black shirt ... bore the words 'Detroit vs. Everybody.' The attire was a clear response to ... Donald J. Trump, who last week disparaged what is one of the nation’s largest majority-Black cities, portraying Detroit as a decaying harbinger of America’s future under Ms. Harris. In brief remarks to the crowd on the inaugural day of early voting in the city, Ms. Harris urged her supporters to reject Mr. Trump’s division and insults. 'We stand for the idea that the true measure of the strength of a leader is not based on who you beat down, it’s on who you lift up,' she said, saying that her campaign was seeking the kind of 'grit' and 'excellence' possessed by 'the people of Detroit.'... Speaking before Ms. Harris at the rally in Detroit, [singer & Detroit native] Lizzo also challenged Mr. Trump’s attacks on the city. 'They say if Kamala wins, this whole country will be like Detroit,' she said. 'Well, I say proud like Detroit. I say resilient like Detroit. This is the same Detroit that innovated the auto industry and the music industry. So put some respect on Detroit’s name.'”
Zachary Leeman of Mediaite: “NBC News correspondent Yasmin Vossoughian spoke with a panel of Arab American viewers, all of whom refused to back Vice President Kamala Harris in the upcoming election.” MB: I do understand their anger; however, there is not a whiff of a chance xenophobic Muslim-Ban Donald would be a better president for Arabs or Arab-Americans. "Gosh, you guys don't 'look American.' Off to the detention/deportation camp you go." Think clearly, people.
Benjamin Oreskes of the New York Times: “For [Nevada] Democrats [on the first day of early voting], Saturday culminated with an appearance in Las Vegas by former President Barack Obama, who has been visiting battleground states to energize Democrats. Speaking in a high school gym filled to capacity with 3,000 people and another thousand watching in an overflow area, according to the Harris campaign, Mr. Obama acknowledged the struggles Nevadans were facing — how people are 'treading water,' as he put it, from high housing and consumer prices.... 'I get why people are looking to shake things up,' he told the crowd. 'What I cannot understand is why anyone would think Donald Trump would shake things up in a way that’s good for you.' He added, 'We do not need a president who makes problems worse just to make his politics better.'” Democrats are holding several events in Nevada, including one with Senator Alex Padilla (Cal.) and Representative Nanette Barragán (Cal.) in Reno on Saturday and another with Gwen Walz & actor Jennifer Garner in Reno, scheduled for Sunday.
A Genuine New York Times Front-Page Headline: “At a Pennsylvania Rally, Donald Trump Descends to New Levels of Vulgarity. Michael Gold: “... Donald J. Trump on Saturday spewed crude and vulgar remarks at a rally in Pennsylvania that included an off-color remark about a famous golfer’s penis size and a coarse insult about Vice President Kamala Harris. The performance, 17 days before the election in a critical battleground state, added to the impression of the Republican nominee as increasingly unfiltered and undisciplined.... Mr. Trump opened his speech at the airport in Latrobe, Pa., with 12 minutes of reminiscing about the golfer Arnold Palmer, who grew up in the Western Pennsylvania town and for whom the airport was named. His monologue culminated in lewd remarks about the size of Mr. Palmer’s penis.... [After goading the audience to shout the word 'shit,'] Mr. Trump urged his supporters to vote, telling them that they had to send a crude message to Ms. Harris: 'We can’t stand you, you’re a shit vice president.'” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Funny how the Gray Lady can twist her sensible underthings in knots over vulgarities but quietly sip her tea & nibble on scones while contemplating the impending inauguration of a racist, nationalist dictator and his host of enablers in Congress and the courts. ~~~
~~~ The AP's report is here.
Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times tries to calm the anxieties of everyone who fears Donald Trump will try to steal the election if he loses. Yeah, he will. BUT “His ability to reverse a loss is limited to his ability to inspire others to commit crimes on his behalf. Remember, the Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022 clarified that congressional counting of the electoral votes is a formality and has no real bearing on the outcome. The Jan. 6 method is off the table. More important, Trump is not the president. He has no legal authority. If he loses, he’ll be just another private citizen.... Trump has a better chance of winning outright than he does of overturning a defeat.... [So] you might want to focus more on putting him out to pasture than on whether he can break out of the enclosure.”
MoDo Is Not Amused. Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: Cardinal “Timothy Dolan let a white-tie charity dinner in New York showcase that most uncharitable of men, Donald Trump. At the annual Al Smith dinner, Dolan suffused the impious Trump in the pious glow of Catholic charities. Dolan looked on with a doting expression as Trump made his usual degrading, scatological comments about his foils, this time cloaked as humor.... As he did in 2016 when he crudely attacked Hillary Clinton as she sat on the dais, Trump added a rancid cloud to what used to be a good-tempered bipartisan roast.... Instead of telling Trump he was over the line, Dolan enabled him in his blasphemous effort to cast his campaign as a quasi-religious crusade and himself as a saintly martyr saved by God.... Al Smith ... would have detested Trump, , a bigot cynically stoking racial fears and bloodthirsty impulses to get elected.... The pols on the dais looked like a Last Supper for this unnerving election. Hopefully, it’s not a Last Supper for the Republic.”
Kipp Jones of Mediaite: Donald Trump & Elon Musk insulted billionaire Mark Cuban (and Musk insulted not-billionaire Rachel Maddow), presumably because Cuban is supporting and campaigning for Kamala Harris. MB: I won't bother running down the insults, but you can read 'em at the link.
Jason Koebler of 404 Media: “An Elon Musk-funded group called Future Coalition PAC is targeting Muslim voters in Michigan and Jewish voters in Pennsylvania with diametrically opposed political advertisements about Kamala Harris. In areas of Michigan with relatively large Muslim populations, the Super PAC is painting Harris as a close friend of Israel and is suggesting that she is beholden to the beliefs of her Jewish husband Doug Emhoff; in parts of Pennsylvania with relatively large Jewish populations, the advertisements call Harris antisemitic and say she 'support[s] denying Israel the weapons needed to defeat the Hamas terrorists who massacred thousands.' Meanwhile, a related PAC also funded by Musk is microtargeting likely Black voters on Snapchat with ads that says Kamala Harris is trying to ban menthol cigarettes (surveys have shown that 81 percent of Black smokers use menthols, and big tobacco has disproportionately marketed menthol cigarettes to Black Americans).” Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~
~~~ Marie: I'm not familiar with 404 Media, but I've seen this story elsewhere, so I think it's solid. Update: I see Josh Marshall of TPM also cites 404's reporting, so we're in good company. So does digby, beneath a swell headline and subhead: "Move Over Roger. There's a new ratfucker in town." As for Elon, I know he's one of the richest people on the planet, but if money could buy that guy a conscience, I'd start a GoFundMe page for him. ~~~
~~~ Oh, not only immoral, but also criminal, according to election law expert Rick Hasen: ~~~
~~~ Rick Hasen on his Election Law Blog cites Hugo Lowell on X: “Elon Musk says on stage at a town hall that America PAC will be awarding $1 million every day until the election to a registered Pennsylvania voter who has signed his petition. Musk awarded the first $1 million this evening to someone at the town hall, bringing the guy onto the stage and handing him a jumbo check, lotto-style. Musk is essentially incentivizing likely Trump voters in PA to register to vote: Petition is to support for 1A [First Amendment] and 2A [Second Amendment], so basically R voters. But they also have to be registered to vote, so if they weren’t already, they would do it now.” ~~~
~~~ Hasen: “Though maybe some of the other things Musk was doing were of murky legality, this one is clearly illegal. See 52 U.S.C. 10307(c): 'Whoever knowingly or willfully ... pays or offers to pay or accepts payment either for registration to vote or for voting shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both…” (Emphasis [Hasen].) ~~~
~~~ And This. Arianna Coghill of Mother Jones: “On Thursday, [Elon Musk] tweeted to more than 200 million followers that he’s offering $100 to registered Pennsylvania voters who sign his pro-Trump petition.” MB: Here again, the offer incentivizes people to register to vote. So if $1MM to a few lucky voters is unlawful, then so is $100 to everyone who signs the petition. BTW, today is the last day one can register to vote in Pennsylvania.
Hugo Lowell of the Guardian: “Donald Trump’s campaign may be failing to reach thousands of voters they hope to turn out in Arizona and Nevada, with roughly a quarter of door-knocks done by America Pac flagged by its canvassing app as potentially fraudulent, according to leaked data and people familiar with the matter. The potentially fake door-knocks – when canvassers falsely claim to have visited a home – could present a serious setback for Trump.... The Trump campaign earlier this year outsourced the bulk of its ground game to America Pac, the political action committee founded by Elon Musk.... Paid canvassers are typically not as invested in their candidate’s victory compared with volunteers or campaign staff.... The Trump campaign took a gamble this cycle when it outsourced the bulk of its ground game to political action committees, after the Federal Election Commission earlier this year for the first time allowed campaigns to coordinate its voter turnout efforts with outside groups.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Wouldn't it be a terrible shame if these lowly temps were ripping off multi-billionaire Elon Musk and probable billionaire Donald Trump, who is himself the Scam King?
Marco Margaritoff of the Huffington Post: “Dominion Voting Systems released a pointed statement Saturday following remarks from billionaire Elon Musk and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who have reiterated debunked conspiracy theories that the 2020 election was stolen from Republican nominee Donald Trump.... Musk ... promoted the false assertion that Dominion manipulated the election in 2020 at his first solo event to support Trump’s campaign on Thursday, insinuating without proof that 'some very strange things' happened to people’s votes.... Dominion ... reacted strongly to Musk’s comments [citing what the company said were facts that countered Musk's claims].... Separately, Greene ... appeared on Alex Jones’ InfoWars network on Friday, where she claimed that a Dominion machine 'changed' the ballot of a voter in her district [this past week].” On its Website, Dominion debunked Greene's claim.
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Israel/Palestine, et al.
The New York Times' live updates of developments Sunday in Israel's wars are here. The Washington Post's live updates are here: “On Sunday morning, the Israel Defense Forces said it struck about 175 militant targets in Gaza and Lebanon in the past day. At least 73 people were killed when an Israeli airstrike pummeled a group of homes in the northern border town of Beit Lahia on Saturday, according to Gaza’s Civil Defense. Rescue operations continued through the night, with many people still buried under the rubble, said Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for the Civil Defense.”
Aaron Boxerman, et al., of the New York Times: “Israeli forces pounded targets in the northern Gaza town of Jabaliya on Saturday, killing at least 33 people and injuring dozens of others in the bombardment, a Palestinian emergency services group said.... Fighting also escalated in Lebanon on Saturday, as the Israeli military targeted several areas outside of Beirut in airstrikes that covered the area in clouds of dust.”
Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: “The leak of a pair of highly classified U.S. intelligence documents describing recent satellite images of Israeli military preparations for a potential strike on Iran offers a window into the intense American concerns about Israel’s plans. It also has U.S. officials working to understand the size of the improper disclosure. The two documents were prepared in recent days by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which is responsible for analyzing images and information collected by American spy satellites. They began circulating on Friday on the Telegram app and were being discussed by largely pro-Iran accounts. The documents, which offer interpretations of satellite imagery, provide insight into a potential strike by Israel on Iran in the coming days. Such a strike has been anticipated in retaliation for an Iranian assault earlier this month, which was itself a response to an Israeli attack.” CNN's story focuses on the leak.
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