;)
The Conversation -- October 31, 2024
Phil Hands of the Wisconsin State Journal.Marie: The last couple of days, contributors to the Comments section have suggested several articles and essays that sound like important, worthwhile reads. I have not been able to get to the recommended stories on accounta going half-blind these last few days. Anyway, I recommend that you give the suggestions a look-see.
How Donald Trump & Greg Abbott are protecting women, whether they like it or not: ~~~
“Josseli Barnica is one of at least two pregnant Texas women who died after doctors delayed emergency care. She’d told her husband that the medical team said it couldn’t act until the fetal heartbeat stopped.... Neither [woman] had wanted an abortion, but that didn’t matter. Though proponents insist that the laws protect both the life of the fetus and the person carrying it, in practice, doctors have hesitated to provide care under threat of prosecution, prison time and professional ruin.”
Tara Suter of the Hill: “The Economist announced Thursday that the outlet is backing Vice President Harris over former President Trump in the upcoming election.... 'While some newspapers refused to back a presidential candidate this year, today The Economist is endorsing Kamala Harris,' Economist editors wrote in the endorsement published early Thursday. 'Tens of millions of Americans will vote for Mr. Trump next week. Some will be true believers. But many will take a calculated risk that in office his worst instincts would be constrained.' The writers added later that if Trump were to win election, 'Americans would be gambling with the economy, the rule of law and international peace.'”
Voter Suppression, Incompetent Judges Edition. Ian Millhiser of Vox: “On Friday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit handed down an astoundingly poorly reasoned opinion claiming it is illegal for a state to count a ballot mailed before Election Day but that arrives for counting afterward. Eighteen states, plus the District of Columbia, currently count at least some late-arriving ballots. The opinion in Republican National Committee v. Wetzel is difficult to parse. Important sections of it appear to be missing several paragraphs, as the decision makes logical leaps without explaining key concepts. It reaches some of its central conclusions without citing a legal authority ... to support those conclusions. If this opinion were submitted as part of a law school exam, the student would risk a failing grade.... The one good thing about the Wetzel opinion is that the Fifth Circuit didn’t give it immediate effect, so it is very unlikely to impact the current election. Still, there are two good reasons to be troubled that a federal appeals court handed down such a cocamamie decision. One, is that Wetzel is emblematic of the many bad election decisions we can expect to be handed down in the coming days.... [The other is that] the three judges involved in the case, Kyle Duncan, James Ho, and Andy Oldham, are widely viewed as potential Supreme Court nominees if Trump becomes president again — certainly, the three of them have all auditioned very hard for such a promotion.” Thanks to Akhilleus for the link.
Will Oremus & Trisha Thadani of the Washington Post: “An attempt by Philadelphia’s district attorney to block Elon Musk and his pro-Trump super PAC from continuing a $1 million daily giveaway to registered swing-state voters was put on hold Thursday morning. A hearing on the motion ended without a ruling, after lawyers for the billionaire and his America PAC filed late Wednesday to have the case moved to federal court. Lawyers for Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner signed an order Wednesday compelling Musk to appear at City Hall on Thursday for the hearing, but the billionaire, who has become a key backer of ... Donald Trump, did not attend. Musk’s attorneys argued that the proceeding was moot since the case was no longer in the judge’s jurisdiction.... The case now moves to federal court, where Krasner said he will push for it to be speedily remanded to the district court, perhaps as soon as Thursday afternoon.”
Colby Itkowitz of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump on Wednesday lodged claims of voter fraud in Pennsylvania, a state critical to his election prospects. But Democratic officials and voting rights advocates said that Trump’s allegations are wildly exaggerated and that the problems he and Republicans are focused on are not only common, but also proof that election safeguards are working as intended. For months, Trump has been using misinformation to lay the groundwork to claim a stolen election if he loses, just as he did in 2020.... Experts and officials say the Pennyslvania claims are in keeping with his insistence that the only way he can lose this year is if the other side cheats....” Read on for details. The ABC News story is here.
digby finds another statue "honoring" Trump, this one for his "lifetime of sexual assault." Thanks to RAS for the link.
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Presidential Race
MJ Lee & Samantha Waldenberg of CNN: “Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday distanced herself from President Joe Biden’s comments that seemingly referred to Donald Trump’s supporters as 'garbage,' setting off a political firestorm a week before Election Day.... Asked if she has spoken to the president about his comments, Harris said that Biden called her Tuesday evening but that the president’s comments 'didn’t come up.' 'Listen, I think, first of all, he clarified his comments, but let me be clear: I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for. You heard my speech last night and continuously throughout my career. I believe that the work that I do is about representing all the people whether they support me or not,” Harris said on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews. The vice president also repeated what she has said on the trail, including that she will 'represent all Americans' if elected.” ~~~
~~~ Andrew Howard of Politico: “Vice presidential nominee Tim Walz brushed aside President Joe Biden’s 'garbage' comment from Tuesday, stressing in a pair of interviews that a Harris administration will be inclusive. 'The vice president and I have made it absolutely clear that we want everyone as a part of this,' Walz told George Stephanopoulos on 'Good Morning America.' 'Donald Trump's divisive rhetoric is what needs to end.... Walz ... emphasiz[ed] that Biden clarified his remarks after the fact on Tuesday. And he made a point to emphasize that Vice President Kamala Harris, not Biden, is on the ticket.” ~~~
~~~ It's the Punctuation, Stupid. Marie: C'mon, people, it's not that hard. Biden is reported to have said, “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.” The reporters made an error in punctuation. Biden did not disparage Trumpbots (Okay, “Trumpbots” is a slur, and I don't retract it.) What Biden meant was, “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter's.” That is, “supporter[apostrophe]s.” Or in a Spanish construction, “la basura de su partidario” -- “the garbage of his his supporter”. Oh, lookie there. The fake scandal just went poof. I am the punctuation magician. English is a difficult language. ~~~
~~~ Update: I thought I conjured up "supporter's." Oops! Turns out the White House got there first. ~~~
~~~ Peter Baker of the New York Times: “In the final days of a coin-toss election..., [President] Biden has twice caused headaches for his vice president with ill-timed gaffes.... The president, whose career-long blooper reel is extensive enough that he once called himself a 'gaffe machine,' suggested last week during a brief stop at a New Hampshire campaign office that he wanted to imprison Mr. Trump. 'We got to lock him up,' he said. Catching himself, he quickly added, 'Politically lock him up.' But the damage was done.... Keeping Mr. Biden in the White House did not keep him from tripping up.... During his video call with Latino supporters on Tuesday..., [he said,] 'The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters — his, his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.'... The White House later released a transcript rendering Mr. Biden’s comment with an apostrophe, meaning 'his supporter’s' demonization....
“[Vice President] Harris has already been trying to stand apart from Mr. Biden and present herself as an agent of change. She did not include Mr. Biden in her Tuesday night rally even though she held it on what amounts to his own backyard.... Mr. Trump’s complaints may ring hollow to many since he has practiced the politics of division for years, regularly disparaging his opponents as 'vermin' and the 'enemy from within' and threatening to use the military to round up liberal opponents. Just last month, he said Ms. Harris was surrounded by terrible people.... “They’re scum...,” he said. “They are absolute garbage.” ~~~
~~~ AND Aaron Blake of the Washington Post caught it, too: “It may come down to the placement of an apostrophe, and it’s worth a parse.... [That Biden's reference was only to Hinchcliffe] is entirely plausible. The context is clearly Biden talking about Hinchcliffe’s remark. Biden often speaks in non sequiturs, failing to finish his thoughts and shifting course midsentence, including in the Delaware comments that preceded his 'garbage' remark. It’s basically the entire premise of Dana Carvey’s Biden impersonation on 'Saturday Night Live.'... It’s also plausible that Biden did step in it here.... If there’s a lesson in all of this, it’s that Democrats should probably be glad the guy who keeps stepping in it like this isn’t actually leading their ticket anymore.” MB: Exactly what I thought the moment I heard about Biden's comment.
Maggie Astor of the New York Times: “Arnold Schwarzenegger endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday, saying that Donald J. Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election were disqualifying and that electing Ms. Harris was the only way to reduce division and anger among Americans. Mr. Schwarzenegger, the actor and bodybuilder who served as governor of California as a Republican from 2003 to 2011, said in a lengthy statement on social media that he hated what United States politics had become and was tempted to 'tune out,' and echoed the sentiments of many voters in writing that he didn’t like either party at the moment.”
⭐ On Halloween Eve, the Sadist Issues a Warning. Nicholas Nehamas & Erica Green of the New York Times: “... Donald J. Trump said at a rally on Wednesday that he would protect American women 'whether the women like it or not.'.... Speaking near Green Bay, Wis., Mr. Trump told the crowd that his advisers had urged him to stop using a well-worn rally line about his desire to protect women, saying they had called it 'inappropriate. In recent months, Mr. Trump has boasted on social media and in his speeches that he would protect women in America by making their communities safer and by making sure they won’t 'be thinking about abortion.'... On Wednesday, he delivered similar remarks but added a new twist as he described onstage what he had told his advisers: 'I said, well, I’m going to do it whether the women like it or not. I am going to protect them.'...
“The former president’s remarks on Wednesday mean that, for many voters, his closing message is being defined, in part, by racist jokes about Puerto Rico told by a comedian at his rally in New York this week and, now, a striking display of machismo.... [Vice President Harris's campaign] sent out a news release that blared: 'In Wisconsin, Trump reminds women how little he values their choices.'... Over the course of the campaign, Mr. Trump and his allies have made a series of misogynistic, sexualized attacks against Ms. Harris.... Mr. Trump has been accused by roughly two dozen women of sexual misconduct.” The NBC News story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Don't kid yourself: "whether the women like it or not" is meant to be menacing. It is meant to frighten, to threaten. Trump gives women no choice; he will use the power of his office to force us to submit. It's a threat of rape; it's sadistic. Overturning Roe v. Wade was just the beginning, he warns. This is the equivalent of the rapist telling his victim, "Just lie back and enjoy it." ~~~
~~~ The photo accompanying the NYT article shows Trump wearing an orange traffic-safety vest at the Green Bay rally. I didn't get the signficance of that; in fact, I thought the vest would make him an easier assassin's target, so not too smart. Well, it seems he was pretending to be a sanitation worker because he was so upset by Biden's "garbage" remark. Trump's trick-or-treat outfit is even less convincing than his McDonald's apron was last week. (At least with the apron, he was wearing as much makeup as Ronald McDonald does.) Man of the People? I don't think so. ~~~
~~~ Brett Samuels of the Hill: “Former President Trump on Wednesday climbed into a campaign-themed garbage truck in his motorcade in Wisconsin in an effort to draw attention to comments made by President Biden in which he seemingly called Trump supporters 'garbage.' 'How do you like my garbage truck? This truck is in honor of Kamala and Joe Biden,' Trump said from the passenger seat of the truck, which was adorned with a Trump campaign sticker and Trump flag.”
Hamed Aleaziz of the New York Times: “Last month..., Donald J. Trump was still promising to reinstate what he called his 'famous travel ban' on some Muslim countries. He falsely claimed over the summer that Vice President Kamala Harris 'wants to deposit thousands of jihadist sympathizers in Minnesota.' And he said Democrats have a plan to 'turn the Midwest into the Middle East.' The anti-Muslim scaremongering is a cornerstone of Mr. Trump’s political identity, dating back at least to his 2016 campaign when he said he would create a registry of Muslims and embraced an apocryphal story about Gen. John J. Pershing executing Muslim rebels in the Philippines with bullets dipped in pig fat. But in the final stretch of the presidential race, Mr. Trump is trying to persuade a potentially decisive group of Arab and Muslim voters that they should vote for him, even though he has spent years insulting and demonizing them.... Mr. Trump is exploiting Democrats’ weakness among Arab and Muslim Americans because of the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s assault in Gaza.”
Everything Will Go Very Smoothly. Rebecca O'Brien of the New York Times: “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told supporters on an online organizing call this week that ... Donald J. Trump had 'promised' him 'control' of the nation’s public health agencies, should Mr. Trump win the election next week. The Trump campaign, however, would confirm no such commitments. 'President Trump announced a Trump-Vance transition leadership group to initiate the process of preparing for what comes after the election,” Steven Cheung, a campaign spokesman, said in a statement. 'But formal discussions of who will serve in a second Trump Administration is premature.'”
Chris Cameron & Jazmine Ulloa of the New York Times: “Nicky Jam, a Puerto Rican musician who endorsed ... Donald J. Trump last month, withdrew that endorsement just days after racist remarks against Puerto Rico and Latinos made by a speaker at Mr. Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday drew widespread outrage. The reggaeton star had stood by Mr. Trump’s side at a campaign event in Las Vegas in September as he endorsed the former president. Before Nicky Jam took the stage, Mr. Trump praised the musician’s looks, apparently believing him to be a woman. 'Do you know Nicky?' he asked the crowd. 'She’s hot. Where is Nicky?' When Nicky Jam came to take the stage, Mr. Trump looked a bit befuddled. In a video posted on social media on Wednesday, Nicky Jam said he had supported Mr. Trump because he believed that he would be best for the economy.” The CBS News story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Sorry, Nicky Jam, your endorsement was stupid from the git-go.
Jimmy Kimmel wants you to send this along to any friends who might be contemplating voting for Trump. The URL is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy0zq8YzY9w But watch the video yourself, too; it's pretty good: ~~~
Tributes to Trump. Gabe Cohen of CNN: “Two political statues have mysteriously popped up in Washington, DC, drawing crowds of onlookers.... Last week, an unknown artist placed a bronze replica of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk – topped with an emoji-like poop, the size of a basketball – along the National Mall near the US Capitol. 'This memorial honors the brave men and women who broke into the United States Capitol on January 6th, 2021 to loot, urinate and defecate throughout those hallowed halls in order to overturn an election,' a plaque below the statue reads. 'President Trump celebrates these heroes of January 6th as “unbelievable patriots” and “warriors.” This monument stands as a testament to their daring sacrifice and lasting legacy.'... On Monday, a bronze statue of a tiki torch appeared in Freedom Plaza, just a couple of blocks from the White House. The statue [is] called 'The Donald J. Trump Enduring Flame.'... 'This monument pays tribute to President Donald Trump and the “very fine people” he boldly stood to defend when they marched in Charlottesville, Virginia,' a plaque below it reads. 'While many have called them white supremacists and neo-Nazis, President Trump’s voice rang out above the rest to remind all that they were “treated absolutely unfairly.” This monument stands as an everlasting reminder of that bold proclamation.'” With photos.
Oliver O'Connell of the Independent: “A former pageant queen has claimed that Donald Trump 'jumped' on her 'grabbing her body everywhere' in an incident at a New York hotel in 1993. Beatrice Keul, 53, told the Daily Mail that the former president and current Republican nominee invited her up to his suite at the Plaza Hotel for a 'private talk'.... 'He kissed me on the lips and on the neck. He tried to lift my dress. He was grabbing and touching my body everywhere he could,' Keul said.... At 6’1” tall, she believes it was only because of her height and strength that she could fight him off.... Keul worked at a Swiss bank in Zurich and modeled part-time when she won second place in the Miss Switzerland 1992 pageant going on to participate in the final round of the Miss Europe competition in Istanbul that same year. She then received an invitation from the Donald J Trump American Dream Pageant to compete, including an all-expenses-paid trip to New York and Atlantic City. Keul came forward with the story now after finding all the documentation concerning her trip to New York in a box as she prepared to move.... Keul’s story is backed up by her friend Pascal Claivaz, a Swiss writer, who said she told him about the incident around 2004.” There's a Jeffrey Epstein element to the story, too.
Annals of Journalism, “Ctd.” Dan Froomkin of Press Watch: “The Washington Post has no future as an independent news organization as long as Jeff Bezos owns it. Bezos’s decision to kill an editorial endorsement of Kamala Harris last week led to a massive reader revolt ... and raised new doubts about how the paper would handle the centibillionaire’s extraordinary conflicts of interest in the future.... Clearly, the once-widely-held view that billionaire ownership could be the salvation of great newspapers is no longer operative. Bezos has to go and so do his hand-picked lickspittles.... Bezos must relinquish ownership of the Post to a nonprofit organization, devoted to journalistic independence. There are several excellent precedents for this....” Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. See also his commentary in yesterday's thread. ~~~
~~~ Steven Waldman in the Columbia Journalism Review: “Bezos is simply too financially compromised to be the owner of one of the most important news outlets in America, especially one operating in the nation’s capital. Just this morning, the Post reported that ... Donald Trump asked Amazon’s CEO in August for a corporate contribution, saying he was going to win and that it was in Amazon’s best interest to help him. (No contribution was made.)... There is a way he could quickly regain admiration and strengthen democracy: donate the Washington Post to a public charity dedicated to maintaining its quality and independence.... This would also provide a model for others—adding more proof that local news can be viable with the proper ownership structure.”
Jake Lahut of Wired: “Workers say they were tricked and threatened as part of Elon Musk's get-out-the-vote effort.... In Michigan, canvassers and paid door knockers for the former president, contracted by a firm associated with America PAC, have been subjected to poor working conditions: A number of them have been driven around in the back of a seatless [and seatbeltless] U-Haul van, according to video obtained by WIRED, and threatened that their lodging at a local motel wouldn’t be paid for if they didn’t meet [steep] canvassing quotas.... The video from inside the van shows a bumpy ride, with a cage separating the mostly Black door knockers from their driver.... One door knocker alleges that they didn’t even know they were signing up for anything having to do with Musk or Trump.... 'Then, after I signed over an NDA, is when I found out we are for Republicans and with Trump,' [the worker said].” MB: The story is firewalled. It was my “last free article.”
Dan Mangan & Lora Kolodny of CNBC: “Elon Musk must attend an emergency court hearing in Philadelphia on Thursday morning to address a bid by the city’s top prosecutor to stop the Tesla CEO and his political action committee from continuing to award $1 million prizes to registered voters in the swing state of Pennsylvania, a judge ordered Wednesday. Also on Wednesday, attorneys for Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner revealed in a court filing that his lawsuit against Musk, who is an ally of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, and the America PAC had 'triggered an avalanche of [social media] posts from Musk’s followers,' many of whom 'made antisemitic attacks on Krasner.'” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Unless a story specifically involves ethnicity, a normal person doesn't stop and think, "Gosh, I wonder if that person is Jewish" or "maybe that guy is Black." Clearly, Trump backers & Elon bros are not normal. The potentially-unlawful prize story has nothing whatever to do with anybody's ethnicity. So someone might say the particular backers who "made antisemitic attacks on Krasner" are "garbage."
David Nakamura of the Washington Post: “The Justice Department’s ability to monitor local jurisdictions for voting rights irregularities on Election Day, already curtailed by the Supreme Court, is facing a new hurdle: opposition from Republicans who are seeking to block federal authorities from polling sites.... While the Justice Department has the legal right to request access to polling sites, inflamed partisanship and ideological extremism have contributed to greater resistance to such activities in some GOP-controlled states, legal experts said. Those states have attempted to politicize the process and cast federal monitors as partisans from the Biden administration who cannot be trusted. Republican leaders in Missouri and Florida, which flatly banned federal monitors in the 2022 midterm elections, said in recent interviews that their positions have not changed and that Justice officials likely would be rebuffed again if they request access to voting locations for Tuesday’s presidential election.”
Here's bad news for democracy & voting-rights advocates and anyone who fears the corrupt Supreme Court will find a way to hand over the presidency* to Donald Trump: ~~~
~~~ Mark Sherman of the AP: “The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed Virginia to resume its purge of voter registrations that the state says is aimed at stopping people who are not U.S. citizens from voting. The justices, over the dissents of the three liberal justices, granted an emergency appeal from Virginia’s Republican administration led by Gov. Glenn Youngkin. The court provided no rationale for its action, which is typical in emergency appeals. The justices acted on Virginia’s appeal after a federal judge found that the state illegally purged more than 1,600 voter registrations in the past two months. A federal appeals court had previously allowed the judge’s order to remain in effect.... Trump had criticized the earlier ruling, calling it 'a totally unacceptable travesty' on social media.... The Justice Department and a coalition of private groups sued the state earlier in October, arguing that Virginia election officials, acting on an executive order issued in August by Youngkin were striking names from voter rolls in violation of federal election law.... Court records indicated that at least some of those whose registrations were removed are U.S. citizens.” ~~~
~~~ Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post: “This is a misreading of the underlying law, a departure from the court’s usual standards in deciding when to intervene — and a chilling signal about what else the conservative justices might do in the event of other election disputes that reach the high court.... The purge was conducted with minimal protections to ensure accuracy.... And that, not surprisingly, resulted in what appear to be clear errors.... If the justices were willing to step in here, where intervention was so unnecessary, so unwise and so out of the ordinary, where else will they interfere in this election? Tuesday’s order is a troubling omen in troubling times.”
Kelly Rissman of the Independent: “Rudy Giuliani’s sexual assault case hearing spiraled into chaos for two hours that ended with the former New York City mayor being muted by the judge.... At one point, Lev Parnas, a Ukrainian businessman and former Giuliani associate-turned-critic, tried to be admitted to the virtual meeting — a move that the ex-mayor vocally objected to. The judge didn’t let Parnas in. Justin Kelton, [plaintiff Noelle] Dunphy’s lawyer, said he was a potential witness in the case.... The judge asked whether Giuliani ... was representing himself in the case or whether [Adam] Katz was.... Giuliani replied: 'Can I talk to Mr Katz about it? I am confused.' [Giuliani at one point said Katz represented him, but he asked the judge to allow him to make remarks himself. Judge Nicholas Moyne relented but said,] 'Please do not go on a soliloquy....,' and urged him to avoid 'personal attacks.' That’s when the hearing went off the rails. The former Trump lawyer made a series of salacious attacks against Dunphy.... Moyne directed his staff to mute Giuliani. Even with his sound turned off, Giuliani kept talking.” ~~~
~~~ Mind you, the guy who doesn't know how to behave in a courtroom is the same guy Trump invited to speak at his Nazi rally this past weekend: ~~~
~~~ Alex Galbraith of Salon: “Rudy Giuliani claimed that Hamas trains toddlers to kill Americans during an unhinged speech in support of Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.... 'Hamas isn't there for us,' Giuliani said, suggesting without evidence that ... Kamala Harris wants to resettle Gazan refugees in the U.S. 'The Palestinians are taught to kill us at two-years old.'... 'She wants to bring them to you,' Giuliani continued. 'They may have good people. I'm sorry I don't take a risk with people who are taught to kill Americans at two.'”
Ed Shanahan of the New York Times: “A father and son from New Jersey have been charged with taking part in the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, during which, federal prosectors said on Wednesday, the older of the two hit a police officer with a chair thrown through a window and also shoved an officer’s head. The men, Richard Andrews of Brick Township and Keith Andrews of Howell, were arrested in New Jersey on Tuesday, prosecutors said. Richard Andrews, 72, was charged with the felony offenses of assaulting, resisting or impeding law enforcement officers and obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder. He was also charged with several misdemeanors. Keith Andrews, 49, faces misdemeanor charges that include disorderly conduct in a Capitol building.”
Grace Ashford & Benjamin Oreskes of the New York Times: “A House subcommittee has referred former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York to the Justice Department for potential prosecution, accusing him of lying to Congress about his involvement in a state Covid report on nursing home deaths. Mr. Cuomo was accused of engaging in a 'conscious, calculated effort' to avoid accountability for his handling of nursing homes where thousands of people died of Covid, according to the referral from the Republican-led House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. The referral, which was sent Wednesday night to the Justice Department, was signed by the subcommittee chairman, Representative Brad Wenstrup, Republican of Ohio. No other committee member, including the ranking Democrat, Representative Raul Ruiz of California, signed the referral letter, in a potential sign of political partisanship. The referral centers on closed-door testimony Mr. Cuomo gave to the committee, when he asserted that he had not reviewed a State Health Department report that deflected blame for the deaths of people in New York nursing homes in early 2020....
“Hours before the panel sent its referral, Mr. Cuomo’s legal team sent its own letter to the Justice Department requesting an investigation into the subcommittee for potential abuse of power.” Politico's report is here.
Lola Fadulu & Tracey Tully of the New York Times: “The Star-Ledger, New Jersey’s largest newspaper and the winner of several Pulitzer Prizes, will stop publishing its print edition early next year, ending a lengthy run as a dominant source of print news in the region, its owners announced on Wednesday. The shuttering of The Star-Ledger’s printing plant will cause its sister publication, The Jersey Journal, a Jersey City-based newspaper with a storied, 157-year history, to cease publication altogether. Its demise will leave Hudson County, N.J., a densely populated region that is as well known for political corruption as it is for being the birthplace of Frank Sinatra, without a daily newspaper.... In addition to The Star-Ledger, at least three other newspapers that are produced in Montville, The Times of Trenton, The South Jersey Times and The Hunterdon County Democrat, will also phase out their print editions in February. Advance Local, which owns NJ Advance Media and NJ.com, home to the publications’ news sites, said they would remain available online.”
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Florida. Just Your Typical Trump Backers. Maggie Astor of the New York Times: “An 18-year-old man was arrested in Florida on Tuesday for threatening two supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris with a machete outside an early-voting site, the latest in a series of threats or attacks surrounding early and mail voting. The episode happened around 4 p.m. in Neptune Beach, Fla., a small city east of Jacksonville. The man, whom the police identified as Caleb James Williams, arrived at a voting site at the city’s Beaches Branch Library with seven companions. The group carried flags supporting ... Donald J. Trump and confronted people holding Harris signs outside the library. After exchanging words with a 54-year-old woman and a 71-year-old woman, Mr. Williams brandished a machete at them, according to the Neptune Beach police chief, Michael J. Key Jr. Police officers responded quickly to a 911 call.” ~~~
~~~ And let us pause to congratulate local GOP officials for what could be the winning entry in the national Worst Whataboutism contest: “The county Republican Party released a statement referring to the assassination attempts against Mr. Trump in July and September, criticizing Democrats for describing some Republicans as Nazis and concluding, 'We urge calm.' It did not address Mr. Williams’s and his companions’ Trump paraphernalia.”
Say, the Harris campaign should have thought of this to deal with boss and gaffe machine Joe Biden: ~~~
~~~ Ohio Senate Race. Abby Vesoulis of Mother Jones: Bernie Moreno, the GOP candidate for U.S. Senate, has boasted at least half a dozen times “about his dedication to transparency[. But] his campaign also uses a machine at his events that renders voice recordings and videos taken by everyday voters inaudible as his race against incumbent three-term Sen. Sherrod Brown narrows to a slim margin.... The so-called 'anti-recording devices' are available on Amazon for $399.99 and work by emitting white noise and ultrasonic waves that recording devices pick up but people present in person generally do not.”
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Israel/Palestine, et al.
Christiaan Triebert, et al., of the New York Times: “Satellite imagery and videos show widespread destruction in six villages along Lebanon’s southern border with Israel, revealing 1,085 buildings that have been leveled or badly damaged since its Oct. 1 invasion aimed at crippling the militant group Hezbollah. Earlier this month, The New York Times, using satellite imagery, verified the destruction of scores of buildings in two other villages. The images offer only a glimpse at the situation in southern Lebanon. There has been little access to the area since the invasion began and the extent of the damage is unclear.”
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Reader Comments (12)
I know it was not the stunt's intended point, but I have never had difficulty associating the Pretender with garbage. It's no stretch at all.
And he looked far more comfortable in that truck than he does on a golf cart.
In the photo I saw, the demands of both quality and quantity were met.
@Ken Winkes: Well, yes to all that. But do you think he could actually do a garbage man's job? Bear in mind that it involves teamwork, heavy lifting, jumping up and down off the back of the truck, long hours, enduring inclement weather, and -- if the crime teevee shows are to be believed -- the occasional contact with dead bodies or parts thereof.
More “Hold my beer” from Trump judges.
As a kid, I went through an H.G. Wells period in my burgeoning science fiction period. One of his lesser known books was “The Shape of Things to Come”, set in the 22nd century, it’s a kind of future history tale that moves from dys to u topia. Don’t know if our future history promises the u-topia, but there’s no doubt that we’re in the dys-topian part right now, thanks to traitors, Trumpers, troglodytes, and transactional trickery.
So…the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals (where logic, law, and ethical jurisprudence go to die a horrible death) has decided, in its (oxymoron alert!) Trumpy Wisdom, that mail-in ballots must be discounted unless received before or on Election Day, no matter if they were postmarked a month before (then dropped off personally by Louis DeJoy who took 32 days riding his Big Wheels tricycle to deliver them).
Taking a page out of Medieval Sam Alito’s Big Book of Traitor Tricks, the three “justices” (all Trump appointees) cite an 1872 law which says something, something, something…Election Day. Hurrah! They shout! They then interpret this to mean…those mail-in ballots are right out.
Ian Millhiser explains that, according to Trumpy Judge Logic (another oxymoron), this law from ages past “…prohibits states from counting any ballots that arrive after this day — and that somehow no one noticed this fact for the last 152 years.
Oldham’s analysis on several key parts of his argument is quite brief. At one point, he cites a Supreme Court opinion stating that an election cannot take place without some kind of action by government officials. He then argues it somehow follows that a ballot is not officially ‘cast’ until it arrives at the state election office. Here is the extent of Oldham’s argument on this point:
The State’s problem is that it thinks a ballot can be ‘cast’ before it is received. What if a State changes its law to allow voters to mark their ballots. and place them in a drawer? Or what if a State allowed a voter to mark a ballot and then post a picture on social media? The hypotheticals are obviously absurd. But it should be equally obvious that a ballot is ‘cast’ when the State takes custody of it.
As I said, the opinion is difficult to parse, but Oldham appears to be arguing that states cannot give any legal significance to the fact that a voter mailed their ballot before Election Day because, if states were allowed to do that, they may also allow voters to “cast” a ballot by stuffing it in the voter’s own dresser drawer.”
Because I was feeling extra masochistic this morning, I read the opinion. Crikey! It reads like an Abbott and Costello routine.
Costello: Now I throw the ball to first base, whoever it is drops the ball, so the guy runs to second. Who picks up the ball and throws it to What. What throws it to I Don't Know. I Don't Know throws it back to Tomorrow—a triple play.
Abbott: Yeah, it could be.
Costello: Another guy gets up and it's a long fly ball to Because. Why? I don't know. He's on third and I don't give a darn!
Abbott: What was that?
Costello: I said, I DON'T GIVE A DARN!
Abbott: Oh, that's our shortstop!
Yeah, and like that. Of course there are exceptions to this rule (natch) like when Florida was counting votes to make sure Bush won in 2000 (they actually cite this!). Then…and this is pure Alito Magic…in a footnote, they say, well, the word “election” meant something different in the 19th century, but only these guys, in their Trumpy wisdom understand that. For a minute I thought they were gonna start quoting from drafts of the Magna Carta.
It’s a fucking joke. As Millhiser points out, had this been a las school assignment, it’d get a failing grade, but now total crap like this becomes the law of the land.*
I bring all this up because this is a taste of what’s coming. The three “judges” who thought up this contorted bullshit are auditioning for spots on the Trump Court. So the order of the day is “Hold my beer”.
Jesus.
*Even though it’s unlikely this dreck will be applied in the next six days, there’s no guarantee that the Trump Supremes won’t say “Hey, looks good to us.” Anything is possible now.
Trump could only do the mobbed up no show sanitation job. This is way to strenuous and remember Donold only has a finite amount of energy available in his lifetime.
More Musk
"Elon Musk-Funded PAC Supercharges ‘Progress 2028’ Democrat Impersonation Ad Campaign
An Elon Musk-funded PAC is targeting Republicans with ads that depict a fever-dream caricature of what Harris would do if elected president"
Trump's "like it or not" comment is just another example of him thinking he should be making the choices for women instead of women making decisions for themselves. He thinks men need to make these decisions for women because otherwise they won't make the "correct" decisions on their own. Making America great again includes taking women's rights, and many other rights, back to the 1950s or 1850s or maybe further back. Back to times when rich white men like himself had even more power and fewer consequences. There is another statue that popped up in DC that depicts Trump's "like it or not" attitude.
Akhilleus,
If Election Day is so darn important to those Fifth Circuit clowns you'd think they suggest Election Day should be a national holiday, wouldn't you?
Since this year we've had four elections where I live, that would make four holidays....and what's wrong with that?
But then, we are not talking about judges, are we?. They are Right Wing saboteurs. Deliberately or not, they take no account of how their decisions will work out in the real world, sure as all of those loony decisions are (Dodd and the overthrow of the Chevron doctrine) to muck up governance, leaving only chaos in their wake.
Of is chaos their goal?
ProPublica
"Exploiting Meta’s Weaknesses, Deceptive Political Ads Thrived on Facebook and Instagram in Run-Up to Election"
To me, one of the greatest Simpsons episodes centered on Homer's election as Sanitation Commissioner. His election slogan, "Can't somebody else do it?" promised to collect garbage from people's kitchens and essentially make it disappear. He then burned through his department's yearly budget in a month and to make money imported garbage from elsewhere, eventually filling every crevice in Springfield. 50 years ago, when America was less of a democracy than it's become, it was easy to shove inconvenient people into closets and pretend that happy scrubbed white people all supported an agenda that featured unending war and legal police brutality. I can only hope we don't elect Homer on Tuesday.
And more Musk:
"For Musk, the platform has become a useful political weapon of confusion, a machine retrofitted to poison the information environment by filling it with dangerous, false, and unsubstantiated rumors about election fraud that can reach mass audiences. "
In The Atlantic, by Charlie Warzel
What 44 billion buys
Two pricks in a pod.
Fatty threatens women that they’re going to have to his “protection” whether they like it or not. Trump’s idea of protection can be seen in the Access Hollywood tape, the Dobbs decision, and the several E. Jean Carroll trials. And let’s not forget how he “protected” his wife by sleeping with a porn star.
The Musk ox also threatens people to do his bidding with little or no choice in the matter. Sticking them in the back of a U-Haul and forcing them to work for Trump.
Their sense of personal power supersedes laws, regulations, and all forms of ethical conduct.
Protection? Sure. We can use protection from them.
Looking at the Garbage Truck story in Daily Kos the first two things I noticed in the photos were the total absence of any working class people and any Blacks. There was Donald, decked out in a white shirt and tie, with safety vest, riding shotgun. Hardly a working position.
The salad crew that picks up our bins is 100% colored. I've seen one white face this past year who didn't last a week.
I doubt Trump ever could have lasted a shift on the back steps where the work takes place. Swinging a 75 gallon bin into the tip isn't work for sissies.
IOW: A brand new slogan covered truck and business wear are a damn poor attempt to be one of "the people".