The Conversation -- October 5, 2024

Presidential Race

Michael Shear of the New York Times: “President Biden said Friday he was not sure next month’s election would be peaceful if ... Donald J. Trump lost his bid for another term in the White House. In a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room — his first since taking office — Mr. Biden was asked if he had confidence the election would be free, fair and peaceful. 'I’m confident it will be free and fair,' Mr. Biden told reporters. 'I don’t know whether it will be peaceful.... Things that Trump has said and the things that he said last time when he didn’t like the outcome of the election were very dangerous,' Mr. Biden added, noting that during the vice-presidential debate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio 'did not say he’d accept the outcome' of the coming election. 'So, I’m concerned about what they’re going to do,' he added.... The president declined to comment about any preparations that the administration is making to try to counter that kind of violence, saying only that he is briefed about threats to domestic security all the time.”

Michael Shear of the New York Times: “President Biden, who reluctantly surrendered his bid for a second term over the summer, had just finished his first-ever appearance in the White House briefing room on Friday when a reporter yelled out a question many people have been wondering about for months. 'Do you want to reconsider dropping out of the race?' the reporter asked.... The president paused, then turned around and declared 'I’m back in!' before cracking a smile and offering a wave of his hand, as if to say, 'I wish.'”

Kevin Dolak of the Hollywood Reporter, republished by Yahoo! News: “In an Instagram post uploaded on Thursday, Bruce Springsteen announced to his fans ... his pick this election cycle ... in [a] small-town diner setting. 'Friends, fans and the press have asked me who I’m supporting in this most important of elections,' Springsteen said.... 'And with full knowledge that my opinions are no more or less important than those of any of my fellow citizens. Here’s my answer: I’m supporting Kamala Harris for president and Tim Walz for vice president, and opposing Donald Trump and J.D. Vance.... Donald Trump is the most dangerous candidate for president in my lifetime.... His disdain for the sanctity of our Constitution, the sanctity of democracy, the sanctity of the rule of law and the sanctity of the peaceful transfer of power should disqualify him from the office of president ever again. He doesn’t understand the meaning of this country, its history, or what it means to be deeply American,' he added.” See video in yesterday's Conversation. (Also linked yesterday.)

Sam Levine of the Guardian: “The US homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, has warned that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) does not have enough funding to make it through the rest of this hurricane season.... The warning on Thursday underscored how the federal government is being stretched thin as top Republicans have signaled they won’t give it more funding.... Donald Trump and other Republicans have seized on the shortfall to criticize [President] Biden and Kamala Harris for spending money assisting migrants.... 'They stole the Fema money just like they stole it from a bank so they could give it to their illegal immigrants that they want to have vote for them this season,' Trump said in a speech in Michigan on Thursday.... Also, on the campaign trail in Michigan on Thursday, Trump said of Helene victims: 'They’re dying, and they’re getting no help from our federal government because their money has been spent on people that should not be in our country.'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Justine McDaniel of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump doubled down on misinformation about Hurricane Helene in an appearance in this storm-ravaged state Friday, repeating the falsehood that the White House used disaster funds for migrants. Speaking at a news conference after a state disaster briefing, Trump again falsely said the U.S. government is unable to fund the storm response because it used the money on people 'who came into the country illegally' — claims that the White House slammed in a memo Friday as 'poison.' Trump’s comments that the White House is 'missing $1 billion' that was used for migrants, as he said Friday, have created a swirl of misinformation around the Helene response. The White House warned Friday that the falsehoods could keep hurricane victims from seeking the assistance they critically need, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency launched an anti-rumor tool that counters Trump’s claims.” (This ls an update of a story linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Should reporters call Trump's press availabilities “news conferences” when everything he says is a lie? It's true some of the lies make news because they're lies, but he himself is not disseminating much news.

The Harris-Biden administration says they don’t have any money [for hurricane relief]. … They spent it all on illegal migrants. … They stole the FEMA money just like they stole it from a bank, so they could give it to their illegal immigrants that they want to have vote for them. -- Donald Trump, in Saganaw, Michigan, October 3 

... Trump is completely wrong.... There is no evidence the Biden administration spent FEMA disaster money on migrants.... Even though Trump was once president, he still appears to have little clue about the appropriations process. What’s even richer is that when he was president, he did exactly what he claims Biden did — take money from FEMA’s disaster fund to fund migrant programs at the southern border.... In 2019, the Trump administration, in the middle of hurricane season, told Congress that it was taking $271 million from DHS programs, including $155 million from the disaster fund, to pay for immigration detention space and temporary hearing locations for asylum seekers.... The monthly reports issued by the FEMA disaster fund show $38 million was plucked and given to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in August that year — just before the prime storm period of September and October. -- Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post 

Die Große Lüge. Jonathan Swan, et al., of the New York Times: “At 1:56 p.m., [Donald] Trump published, alongside a siren emoji, a claim that he’d been endorsed by America’s most influential banker, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon.... It wasn’t true. A spokeswoman for JPMorgan Chase confirmed to The New York Times that Mr. Dimon has made no endorsements in the presidential race. Nor has Mr. Dimon given money to either Mr. Trump or ... Vice President Kamala Harris, the spokeswoman added.... After landing at the Augusta, Ga., airport, Mr. Trump was asked by a reporter if Mr. Dimon had told him he was going to endorse him. 'I don’t know anything about it,' Mr. Trump responded. When a reporter noted that the former president had a post on his social media feed saying Mr. Dimon had endorsed him, Mr. Trump said, 'Somebody put it up — no, I don’t know.'... And when a reporter said a Dimon spokesman said it was false, Mr. Trump depicted himself as a mere bystander, saying, 'Well, then, somebody is using his name.' Despite being told it was false, Mr. Trump left the Truth Social post online, and it remained up through late afternoon.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: You might wonder, as I have, why Trump thinks he can get away with a lie that is so easy to debunk. He does it all the time, several times a day. For instance, he told the endorsement lie while on his way to Georgia to lie about FEMA funds, lies that are not only easily checkable but in fact had already been debunked by the White House & numerous news media. But then George Conway was on Chris Hayes' show last night, and he let on the source of the big lie was Adolf Hitler. According to Wikipedia, "The German expression [große Lüge] was first used by Adolf Hitler in his book Mein Kampf (1925) to describe how people could be induced to believe so colossal a lie because they would not believe that someone 'could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously.'... According to historian Jeffrey Herf, the Nazis used the idea of the original big lie to turn sentiment against Jews and justify the Holocaust." That's right; Donald Trump learned his propaganda techniques from Hitler and the Nazis. Not surprising, but shocking nonetheless. ~~~

     ~~~ Something else you might have noticed was Trump's response when a reporter called out his lie about the Dimon endorsement: “I don’t know anything about it.” That's one of his go-to responses when confronted with obvious lies. Jill Colvin of the AP wrote last December, “Facing criticism for repeatedly harnessing rhetoric once used by Adolf Hitler to argue that immigrants entering the U.S. illegally are 'poisoning the blood of our country,' Trump insisted he had no idea that one of the world’s most reviled and infamous figures once used similar words. The Nazi dictator spoke of impure Jewish blood 'poisoning' Aryan German blood to dehumanize Jews and justify the systemic murder of millions during the Holocaust. 'I never knew that Hitler said it,' Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Friday, volunteering once again that he never read Hitler’s biographical manifesto, 'Mein Kampf.'” Here we are reminded that Trump gets not only his propaganda technique from Hitler but also the substance of his most monstrous propaganda.

Marie: Tommy Christopher of Mediaite has a take different from Steve M.'s & mine on Melania's stance on abortion rights. Let's hope Christopher's theory is right: "Former First Lady Melania Trump delivered a humiliating repudiation of former President Donald Trump’s stated anti-abortion stance in a stunning new video that’s a political gift to Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump has been trying to walk a line between bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade and trying to reassure voters he won’t sign a national abortion ban — while refusing to actually say he would veto one....* In an excerpt [of Melania's memoir] obtained by The Guardian, she ... [wrote,] 'It is imperative to guarantee that women have autonomy in deciding their preference of having children, based on their own convictions, free from any intervention or pressure from the government. Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to determine what she does with her own body? A woman’s fundamental right of individual liberty, to her own life, grants her the authority to terminate her pregnancy if she wishes.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

     * Trump did finally say he would veto an federal abortion ban. MB: And you know how good his word is. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update: Jessica Valenti, who wrote the book on the politics of abortion, appeared on Chris Hayes' show last night, and she agrees with Steve M. & me: Melanie's sudden support for abortion rights a month before the election is a ploy to soften one of the GOP's biggest problems. Moreover, Valenti explained that what Trump means when he says he would veto an abortion ban is that he would veto a bill that banned all abortions, including ones that saved the lives of the mothers. So his "pledge" is a trick; he would not veto an "ordinary" abortion ban, which would have a humane exception or two.

Jazmine Ulloa & Hamed Aliaziz of the New York Times: “... Donald J. Trump, who is seeking re-election on the same hard line against undocumented immigrants that helped carry him to power in 2016, has said he is not opposed to legal immigration into the United States. But remarks this week by the former president and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, signal that a second Trump administration would again aim to curb the legal channels that allow people to enter the country or obtain protection from deportation once inside its borders.In an interview with NewsNation on Wednesday night, Mr. Trump said he would revoke a program that allows tens of thousands of Haitian immigrants to live in the country legally.”

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: “If Trump is a classic American confidence man, then mass deportation is his miracle tonic.... Like any traveling salesman, Trump is careful not to mention the side effects of this potent treatment.... It is obvious that mass deportation would be a humanitarian disaster — if past precedent is any indication of future results, the forced migration and detention of millions of people is very likely to kill thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of those caught in the dragnet of involuntary removal.... The plan would destroy communities and tear families apart. And given Trump’s hostility to birthright citizenship, there is every reason to think that his deportation regime would fall on American citizens as well....

“A little less obvious is the extent to which mass deportation would plunge the United States into economic darkness. According to a new report from the nonpartisan American Immigration Council, a mass deportation plan designed to expel 13.3 million undocumented immigrants over about 10 years would crash the economy, immiserate millions of Americans and siphon nearly $1 trillion from the federal government.”

Marie: So Akhilleus & I are not the only conspiracy theories who have turned our suspicious eyes on Bibi. And we're in very good company: ~~~

     ~~~ Alexander Bolton of the Hill: “Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) says he’s worried Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may be trying to influence the U.S. presidential election by showing little interest in striking a peace deal with Hamas and instead escalating the threat of a broader war in the Middle East by aggressively confronting Hezbollah in Lebanon. Murphy acknowledged that the prospect of peace in Gaza before Election Day does not seem likely and that Netanyahu appears to have an eye on domestic U.S. politics as he wages a bombing campaign deep into Lebanon targeting Hezbollah. 'I certainly worry that Prime Minister Netanyahu is watching the American election as he makes decisions about his military campaigns in the north and in Gaza,' Murphy told CNN’s Erin Burnett.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update: Last night Middle East expert Ben Rhodes said the same. MB: I no longer worry I'm turning into MTG. Though I do wonder if "they" can change the weather. ~~~

     ~~~ Charlie Nash of Mediaite: “After the Hurricane Helene death toll rose to over 200, Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene wrote in a social media post, 'Yes they can control the weather. It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.' Greene also posted a map of the areas most affected by the hurricane overlaid with an electoral map by political party. 'This is a map of hurricane affected areas with an overlay of electoral map by political party shows how hurricane devastation could affect the election,' she warned.” MB: Not clear who “they” are, but I have a feeling one of them is the Wicked Witch of the West, Kamala Harris. And yes, the good folks of Georgia will almost certainly be sending the loony Miss Margie back to Congress to be making the laws what govern us all. (Also linked yesterday.) 

Hamed Aliaziz of the New York Times: “The Biden administration said Friday it would allow the temporary legal permission for migrants from Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti, and Nicaragua to lapse, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to find other methods to stay in the country or face deportation. The decision comes nearly two years after the Biden administration began a program allowing migrants from those four countries to apply to stay in the United States for two years, as long as they had a financial sponsor and passed background checks.... New applicants from the four countries will continue be accepted. Similar programs for Afghan and Ukrainian migrants allowed them to extend their stays.” Read on for details about how people from the four countries will be affected. MB: Perhaps I'm wrong, but this feels very much like an overreaction/capitulation to “They're eat the dogs! They're eating the cats!”

Maegan Vazquez & Lauren Gurley of the Washington Post: “President Joe Biden on Friday rejected Republican Sen. Marco Rubio’s claim that the robust jobs report was 'fake.'... In a surprise appearance in the White House Briefing Room, Biden welcomed the jobs report and the deal to end the dockworkers strike before taking several questions from reporters. He was asked about Rubio’s comments. 'I’m going to be very careful here. If you notice, anything that MAGA Republicans don’t like, they call fake,' Biden said. 'The jobs numbers are ... real.' Earlier Friday, Rubio (Fla.) suggested that the latest data was not to be trusted, writing on X, 'Another fake jobs report out from Biden-Harris government today.'... Multiple economists discredited Rubio’s claims to The Washington Post.”

Justin Juvenal of the Washington Post: “The Supreme Court on Friday refused to block new Biden administration rules requiring fossil-fuel-fired power plants to slash emissions of mercury and other toxic substances and oil and gas firms to curb methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from their operations.... The court has yet to act on an emergency request to block a plan to curb greenhouse gas emissions from coal and gas-fired power plants. Nearly two dozen Republican-led states and a handful of power generators asked to pause the mercury rules, which were finalized in May, while litigation over them continues in lower courts. The challengers argue that the regulations impose heavy costs while providing negligible direct health benefits to the public; power plants must comply with them by July 2027. Two dozen Republican-led states also asked to halt the methane plan....”

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Oklahoma. Kleptocracy Lesson Plans. Chapter 1. Stephanie Saul of the New York Times: “When the education superintendent of Oklahoma, Ryan Walters, ordered this year that every public school classroom in the state must have a Bible in the classroom, he didn’t mention any special requirements. But bid specifications for the Bibles, released this week, contain several narrowly drawn and unusual details. They must, for example, include text of the Pledge of Allegiance, the U.S. Constitution and other historical documents not normally included in the Bible.... [They must be] King James Version Bibles that are bound by leather or leather-like material. What Bible fits the bill? The country music star Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the U.S.A. Bible, which is endorsed by ... Donald J. Trump and costs $60, far above the average price for Bibles.... Some printed versions are available for under $5.... Mr. Trump receives royalties from their sales; financial disclosure reports filed in August show he has made $300,000 from the Bible since endorsing it.... Oklahoma is looking for 55,000 Bibles....” ~~~

     ~~~ Lexi Cochran of the Hill: “The Oklahoman found a salesperson at Mardel Christian & Education who said none of the 2,900 Bibles they sell fit the criteria Oklahoma has proposed. The two Bibles that Trump has endorsed, We The People Bible and God Bless the U.S.A. Bible, both meet the criteria and are sold for $90 and $60, respectively.” MB: Sorry, but this is so blatantly corrupt, it's comical. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: BTW, have you ever seen a U.S. school textbook that was “bound by leather or leather-like material”? Neither have I. And the idea that a King James Bible edition would splice in some U.S. political documents is preposterous. The King James Bible was published in 1611, in England, when there were no Christians living in what many decades later became the first American states, and that was after people living in those American colonies declare their independence from & revoted against England. (The Roanoke Colony was settled in 1585, but by 1590, it had disappeared.) The Pledge of Allegiance was not developed until the late 19th century, and was not adopted by Congress until 1942. These American documents & the pledge are foreign to and to some extent at odds with the King James Bible.

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Israel/Palestine, et al. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Saturday in Israel's wars are here: “The Israel Defense Forces again issued evacuation warnings for buildings in the southern suburbs of Beirut early Saturday. Press photos from the area showed smoke pouring into the night sky from Dahieh, a frequent target of strikes over the past week, as Israel continues its campaign against Hezbollah.”