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To keep the Conversation going, please help me by linking news articles, opinion pieces and other political content in today's Comments section.

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Thank you to everyone who has been contributing links to articles & other content in the Comments section of each day's "Conversation." If you're missing the comments, you're missing some vital links.

Public Service Announcement

Washington Post: "Americans can again order free rapid coronavirus tests by mail, the Biden administration announced Thursday. People can request four free at-home tests per household through covidtests.gov. They will begin shipping Monday. The move comes ahead of an expected winter wave of coronavirus cases. The September revival of the free testing program is in line with the Biden administration’s strategy to respond to the coronavirus as part of a broader public health campaign to protect Americans from respiratory viruses, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), that surge every fall and winter. But free tests were not mailed during the summer wave, which wastewater surveillance data shows is now receding."

Washington Post: “Comedy news outlet the Onion — reinvigorated by new ownership over this year — is bringing back its once-popular video parodies of cable news. But this time, there’s someone with real news anchor experience in the chair. When the first episodes appear online Monday, former WAMU and MSNBC host Joshua Johnson will be the face of the resurrected 'Onion News Network.' Playing an ONN anchor character named Dwight Richmond, Johnson says he’s bringing a real anchor’s sense of clarity — and self-importance — to the job. 'If ONN is anything, it’s a news organization that is so unaware of its own ridiculousness that it has the confidence of a serial killer,' says Johnson, 44.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'll be darned if I can figured out how to watch ONN. If anybody knows, do tell. Thanks.

Washington Post: “First came the surprising discovery that Earth’s atmosphere is leaking. But for roughly 60 years, the reason remained a mystery. Since the late 1960s, satellites over the poles detected an extremely fast flow of particles escaping into space — at speeds of 20 kilometers per second. Scientists suspected that gravity and the magnetic field alone could not fully explain the stream. There had to be another source creating this leaky faucet. It turns out the mysterious force is a previously undiscovered global electric field, a recent study found. The field is only about the strength of a watch battery — but it’s enough to thrust lighter ions from our atmosphere into space. It’s also generated unlike other electric fields on Earth. This newly discovered aspect of our planet provides clues about the evolution of our atmosphere, perhaps explaining why Earth is habitable. The electric field is 'an agent of chaos,' said Glyn Collinson, a NASA rocket scientist and lead author of the study. 'It undoes gravity.... Without it, Earth would be very different.'”

The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

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Friday
Oct042024

The Conversation -- October 4, 2024

Presidential Race

~~~ Erica Green & Katie Rogers of the New York Times: “On Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris and former Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming [a Wisconsin native], the most prominent Republican to endorse her campaign, traveled to Ripon in central Wisconsin where meetings in 1854 helped form the Republican Party. Just a mile away from a one-room schoolhouse where those gatherings were held, the pair tore into ... Donald J. Trump for his role in igniting a riot at the Capitol, and they warned of the threat he poses to democracy should he return to power. Ms. Cheney said that, in November, putting patriotism ahead of partisanship should not merely be an aspiration — 'it is our duty.' Her remarks, delivered with an air of somber restraint, were as much a public indictment of Mr. Trump as they were an endorsement of Ms. Harris.” ~~~

     ~~~  Marie: The reporters are young women. I don't think they quite get what a remarkable moment this was. ~~~

~~~ AND the story that follows tells us why this extraordinary moment in U.S. presidential campaign history happened: ~~~

~~~ Jess Bidgood of the New York Times: “... one month before Trump is on the ballot again, [Jack Smith's motion in the election interference case] ... offered new details that paint a chilling picture of the way the former president and current candidate seems to think about elections: as an exercise in which the vote total is entirely beside the point. In his world, adverse election results were an obstacle, not an outcome.... The filing sheds new light on the way Trump and his advisers viewed the number of votes he had won as little more than a trifling detail.... Coming at a time when his allies, including his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, have tried to downplay Trump’s efforts to hold onto power four years ago, the filing offers a glimpse of Trump’s thinking that makes it difficult to imagine him accepting a loss in November.... Reading Smith’s court filing now, there are striking parallels between Trump and his allies’ actions in 2020 and certain steps they are taking today — and it’s something Democrats and allies of Vice President Kamala Harris are warning about as they make the case that Trump is a danger to democracy.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Say, New York Times, it's refreshing to read a straight-news story where the author does not don Both SidesTM rose-tinted glasses the minute she sits down at her computer. ~~~

     ~~~ Amy Gardner & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump’s effort to overturn his loss four years ago and his role inciting the violent attack on the Capitol roared onto the 2024 campaign stage this week even as he continues to suggest he won’t accept a defeat if it happens a second time. On Tuesday, running mate JD Vance declined to say during the vice-presidential debate that Trump lost in 2020. On Wednesday, special counsel Jack Smith filed an explosive new pleading in federal court surfacing new details about Trump’s lack of concern about the Capitol riot and his push to reverse his loss even as advisers repeatedly told him Joe Biden had legitimately won. And on Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris made a campaign appearance in the battleground state of Wisconsin with Liz Cheney, the former Republican congresswoman who lost her seat largely because of her condemnation of Trump’s actions inciting the riot on Jan. 6, 2021.”

Maggie Astor of the New York Times: “Donald J. Trump said on Wednesday that, if elected again, he would revoke the legal status of tens of thousands of Haitian immigrants who have been the target of false accusations by the former president and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, over the past month. Mr. Trump’s administration tried to do that during his first term, too, but courts temporarily blocked it, and President Biden’s administration renewed the immigrants’ status after he took office in 2021. The immigrants in question are living and working in the United States legally through the Temporary Protected Status program, which Congress created in 1990 for people from countries experiencing war, natural disasters or other crises. The Department of Homeland Security designates countries for up to 18 months at a time based on the current conditions, and the designation can be renewed indefinitely. Haiti was initially added in 2010, under President Barack Obama, after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake devastated the country. It has since experienced a major hurricane and a cholera epidemic.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Let us hope Trump's cruel announcement helps those dithering "undecideds" understand that nobody is safe when the Nastiest Turdblossom in the USA is president*, so they'd better vote for Harris.

"Sieg Heil." David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Donald Trump's campaign distributed signs with a phrase often used by white supremacists. Before Trump spoke in Saginaw, Michigan, Thursday, campaign staff could be seen handing out pre-printed signs with the words 'Reclaim America.' As CNN noted, white supremacist members of the Patriot Front recently carried a banner with the same slogan while shouting "Sieg Heil" and "Deportation saves the nation" at a rally in Nashville."

You can’t only help those in need if they voted for you. It’s the most basic part of being president, and this guy [Trump] knows nothing about it. -- President Biden, in a tweet Thursday ~~~

~~~ Scott Waldman & Thomas Frank of Politico's E&E News: “In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene...,  Donald Trump has ... accuse[d] Democratic leaders of ignoring the needs of Republican storm victims. But a review of Trump’s record by Politico’s E&E News and interviews with two former Trump White House officials show that the former president was flagrantly partisan at times in response to disasters and on at least three occasions hesitated to give disaster aid to areas he considered politically hostile or ordered special treatment for pro-Trump states. Mark Harvey, who was Trump’s senior director for resilience policy..., told E&E News on Wednesday that Trump initially refused to approve disaster aid for California after deadly wildfires in 2018 because of the state’s Democratic leanings. But Harvey said Trump changed his mind after Harvey pulled voting results to show him that heavily damaged Orange County, California, had more Trump supporters than the entire state of Iowa.” Read on. See also Akhilleus' commentary at the top of today's thread. ~~~

~~~ Paul Krugman of the New York Times: “... Trump has been trying to exploit the natural disaster [Hurricane Helene] for political gain, claiming he heard that the federal government — Biden — and North Carolina’s Democratic governor are 'going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas.' This claim has no basis.... Trump’s vision of America-as-hellscape seems to be losing its political mojo.... So it must be time to conjure a new fake source of fear and outrage. Where does the insinuation that Biden is denying aid to politically unfriendly disaster areas come from? In part it’s projection: Trump was found to have done something akin to that when he was in the White House.... The key to Trump’s tall tales is to tell his supporters that terrible things are happening somewhere out there....”

Sickly Old Man Running for Prez* Again. Emily Baumgaertner & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: “As a presidential candidate in 2015, Donald J. Trump declined to release his medical records, instead offering a four-paragraph letter from his personal doctor proclaiming that he would be ;the healthiest person ever elected to the presidency.' In 2020, when he was hospitalized with Covid and running for re-election, Mr. Trump’s doctors gave minimal information about his condition, which, it emerged later, was far more dire than their public descriptions let on. In 2024, days before becoming the official Republican presidential nominee for the third time, he was grazed by a would-be assassin’s bullet, yet his campaign did not hold a briefing on his condition, release hospital records or make the emergency physicians who treated him available for interview. Now, just over a month from an election that could make Mr. Trump, 78, the oldest person ever to serve as president (82 years, 7 months and 6 days when his term would end in January 2029), he is refusing to release even the most basic information about his health.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Katie Rogers of the New York Times: “Melania Trump, the former first lady, said in a video on Thursday that there was 'no room for compromise' on a woman’s right to 'individual freedom,' a day after a reported excerpt from her coming memoir said she supported abortion rights. Mrs. Trump’s comments landed as ... Donald J. Trump and his party are trying to soften their opposition to abortion, a key issue threatening his support with female voters and his attempt to return to the White House. They were released in a promotional video for a new memoir scheduled for release on Tuesday. Her husband, who opposes federal abortion rights and has taken credit for helping overturn Roe v. Wade, did not immediately comment.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, super-duper. The first lady has no role in government, Trump & elected Republican men think of women as child-producing chattel & Melanie is hardly ever home except maybe when designing blood-red decor for the Christmas party. So I hope all you young women are feeling safe and protected now that the future First Lady in Absentia might have said she supports abortion rights. Think she's gonna rush in to the Oval & tear up the national abortion ban bill while Donald is still in the residence fixing his hair? I don't. ~~~

     ~~~ Steve M.: "Some people might think Melania Trump is going rogue, but this looks like strategy to me[.]... I don't think it's a coincidence that this was timed for just after the vice presidential debate -- J.D. Vance has been much more of an anti-abortion zealot than Donald Trump...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

    ~~~ Oh, Look, More Strategery. Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: “Melania Trump describes in her new memoir how she made her husband ... Donald Trump drop a signature hardline immigration policy under which migrant children were separated from their parents, stoking domestic and international uproar. 'This has to stop,' the former first lady says she told her husband, 'emphasizing the trauma it was causing these families' and seeing him swiftly comply, ending the policy on 20 June 2018.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Hadas Gold & Pamela Brown of CNN: “Nearly two months ago, CNN reached out to Melania Trump’s book publisher to request an interview with the former first lady ahead of her upcoming memoir. After several exchanges about a possible interview..., Skyhouse Publishing laid out strict terms for an interview and use of material from the book.... On top of that, the agreement stipulated that 'CNN shall pay a licensing fee of two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000).' CNN did not sign the agreement. Days later, after a separate CNN journalist asked Skyhorse Publishing about the exorbitant interview fee, the publisher said it had sent the payment demand by mistake.... Paying a public figure for an interview, especially the spouse of a political candidate, is highly frowned upon in most newsrooms....” (Also linked yesterday.)

Smooth Operator. Michael Bender of the New York Times: “In his 90-plus minutes on the vice-presidential debate stage, [JD] Vance, 40, delivered a performance that gave Donald J. Trump’s words and plans an intellectual and emotional dimension and revealed himself to be a more complicated figure than the caricature portrayed by his critics. Mr. Vance ... fleshed out his ticket’s populism in a way Mr. Trump has never been willing or able to do.... But the question remains whether Mr. Vance has laid the cornerstone for a new foundation of Trumpism, or his vision is merely a mirage. In some ways, Mr. Vance has simply rolled a smooth veneer over the harshness of his party’s unpopular positions without addressing the underlying policies that Americans find problematic.... Politics is indeed an art, but so is deception. And for his opponents, Mr. Vance is simply whoever his audience wants him to be.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Bender, who seems to admire JayDee's rhetorical skills, does admit that, “On Wednesday, as the campaign moved from the debate stage and back into battleground states, Mr. Vance dropped the air of respect he had shown the night before. During a pair of events in Michigan, he mocked the 'dumbest' comments he heard from ... Tim Walz.... He referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as 'an absolute disgrace,' described her as 'very insecure' and blamed her for 'division and hatred' in American politics.” !!!

~~~ Austin Sarat in a Hill op-ed: “JD Vance’s performance in this week’s vice presidential debate was real slick.... The man who made millions as a corporate lawyer and ruthless venture capitalist used the debate to reinvent himself as a dedicated servant of the downtrodden and dispossessed.... Vance’s debate performance was an elaborate ruse, whether he was talking about himself or his running mate. As the Wall Street Journal noted, 'JD Vance’s Version of Trump Is Better Than the Real Thing.'... Like his fellow travelers in the con-man trade, Vance pretended to be a person he is not, selling views he does not hold, trying to persuade voters to believe something that is not true — anything to fuel his own political ambitions. He hoped to capitalize on the well-known penchant of Americans to 'get conned again and again.'”

Marcy Wheeler: “John Roberts not only rewrote the Constitution to protect Donald Trump. He forced prosecutors to spend 14 pages arguing that it is not among the job duties of the President of the United States to attack Republicans who’ve crossed him on Twitter.... This is the all-powerful President John Roberts wants to have. Someone who can sit in his dining room siccing mobs on fellow Republicans.... The 14 pages analyzing mean Tweets follows the analysis of two rally speeches, in which prosecutors first show the January 4 Georgia speech was a campaign event, and then (among other things) lay out the similarity between that speech and Trump’s January 6 one. Among the things Trump included in both speeches was an attack on the Supreme Court: '... [Georgia...]: 'I’m not happy with the Supreme Court. They are not stepping up to the plate. They’re not stepping up.' Ellipse...: 'I’m not happy with the Supreme Court. They love to rule against me.'... The inclusion of Trump’s attacks on them also might get these partisan hacks to think more seriously about the nearly identical exhortations Trump made on Truth Social before they decided to rewrite the Constitution in his favor.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I am convinced that John Roberts' Immunity Ruling for the Ages was his attempt to regain his "relevance." Clarence, Sam & the Three Trump Stooges were going to rule for Trump anyway, so Roberts just wanted to get back in the majority club. He did it with a splash, didn't he? (Maybe a splash of Eau de Roger Taney, but oh well.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update: I see by yesterday's Comments that I was wrong to describe Trump's appointees as the Three Stooges. I should have been more respectful & referred to t hem by proper nicknames: Sleazy, Boozy & Phony, friends of Dopey & Grumpy. Thanks, Akhilleus, for setting me straight.


Danielle Douglas-Gabriel of the Washington Post: “A federal judge will allow a temporary restraining order that prevented President Joe Biden from discharging student loan debt for more than 25 million Americans to expire Thursday, clearing the way for the administration to move forward with the plan. The decision delivers a small victory in the Biden administration’s ongoing fight to alleviate federal student loan debt...” MB: The reasoning behind the order is complicated, as is what may happen next; you'll just have to read these article. Here's the NBC News story, which may be a tad clearer than the WashPo report, but the underlying facts are still complicated. (Also linked yesterday.)

⭐ On the Waterfront. Peter Eavis of the New York Times: “The International Longshoremen’s Association agreed on Thursday to suspend a strike that closed down major ports on the East and Gulf Coasts. The move followed an improved wage offer from port employers. The strike, which the dockworkers’ union began on Tuesday, threatened to weigh on the economy five weeks before national elections. Employers, represented by the United States Maritime Alliance, have offered to increase wages by 62 percent over the course of a new six-year contract, according to a person familiar with negotiations who did not want to be identified because the talks were continuing. That increase is lower than what the union had initially asked for, but much higher than the alliance’s earlier offer.... The agreement came after the White House pressed both sides to reach a deal to end the strike, the union’s first full-scale walkout since 1977. The wage increase is a clear victory for the I.L.A. and its combative president, Harold J. Daggett, a 78-year-old, third-generation dockworker who has led the union since 2011. President Biden, when asked about the tentative deal on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews on Thursday evening, said: 'We’ve been working hard on it. With the grace of God, it’s going to hold.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'm surprised to learn President Biden was working on a resolution. I thought the arbitrator would have been Donald Trump, who tells us he can solve any disagreement, no matter how contentious or bellicose, in a day. I would have expected Trump to go in into a room filled with burly longshoremen, say "No overtime or you're fired," and that would be the end of it.

~~~~~~~~~~

Colorado. Mead Gruver of the AP: “A judge ripped into a Colorado county clerk for her crimes and lies before sentencing her Thursday to nine years behind bars for a data-breach scheme spawned from the rampant false claims about voting machine fraud in the 2020 presidential race. District Judge Matthew Barrett told former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters — after earlier sparring with her for continuing to press discredited claims about rigged voting machines — that she never took her job seriously. 'I am convinced you would do it all over again if you could. You’re as defiant as any defendant this court has ever seen,' Barrett told her in handing down the sentence. 'You are no hero. You abused your position and you’re a charlatan.' Jurors found Peters guilty in August for allowing a man to misuse a security card to access to the Mesa County election system and for being deceptive about that person’s identity. The man was affiliated with My Pillow chief executive Mike Lindell, a prominent promoter of false claims that voting machines were manipulated to steal the election from ... Donald Trump. The discredited claims trace back to Trump himself....” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ You can hear the judge condemning Peters at the top of this video.

Tennessee. Emily Cochrane & Ben Stanley of the New York Times: “Three former Memphis police officers were found guilty on Thursday of federal witness tampering charges in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man. But all three defendants were acquitted of the more serious charge of violating his civil rights by causing his death. One officer, Demetrius Haley, was convicted on a lesser charge of violating Mr. Nichols’s civil rights by causing bodily injury. The three defendants — Mr. Haley, Tadarrius Bean and Justin Smith — and two other former officers who pleaded guilty to their role in the violence, still face additional state charges, including second-degree murder.”

~~~~~~~~~~

Israel/Palestine, et al. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Friday in Israel's wars is here: “The Israel Defense Forces escalated its offensive in Lebanon, with strikes on Thursday hitting soldiers and medics and pummeling Beirut’s southern suburbs. The Israeli military also said it had carried out a separate airstrike in the West Bank targeting the regional head of Hamas in Tulkarm. That assault killed at least 18 people, according to Palestinian officials.”

Comment1 Comment

Reader Comments (1)

I'm moving forward this comment by Akhilleus, posted late last night, because it jibes so well with Paul Krugman's column. The link is to a firewalled Rolling Stone article.

By Akhilleus:

Don’t vote for me? You can all die.

You know how Fatty has been lying about the Biden administration denying emergency funding to predominantly Republican areas affected by the hurricane? There’s a good reason he came up with that idea. It’s exactly what he would do.

“According to a Thursday report from E&E News, in 2018 — as wildfires ravaged large swaths of California — Trump initially refused to approve aid to the state because he felt some of the affected regions didn’t like him enough.”

Aides had to show him voting data. Once they proved the affected area was MAGA enough, he approved the funding.

A prick of historic levels of evil.

October 4, 2024 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

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