The Ledes

Tuesday, October 8, 2024

The New York Times is live-updating developments Tuesday as powerful Hurricane Milton moves through the Gulf of Mexico toward Central Florida.

New York Times: “Cissy Houston, a Grammy Award-winning soul and gospel star who helped shepherd her daughter Whitney Houston to superstardom, died on Monday at her home in Newark. She was 91.”

The Wires
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The Ledes

Monday, October 7, 2024

Weather Channel: “H​urricane Milton has rapidly intensified into a Category 3 and hurricane and storm surge watches are now posted along Florida's western Gulf Coast, where the storm poses threats of life-threatening storm surge, destructive winds and flooding rainfall by midweek. 'Milton will be a historic storm for the west coast of Florida,' the National Weather Service in Tampa Bay said in a briefing Monday morning.” ~~~

     ~~~ New York Times live updates are here for what is now a Cat 5 hurricane. 

CNN: “This year’s Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine has been awarded to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for their work on the discovery of microRNA, a fundamental principle governing how gene activity is regulated. Their research revealed how genes give rise to different cells within the human body, a process known as gene regulation. Gene regulation by microRNA – a family of molecules that helps cells control the sort of proteins they make – ... was first revealed by Ambros and Ruvkun. The Nobel Prize committee announced the prestigious honor ... in Sweden on Monday.... Ambros, a professor of natural science at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, conducted the research that earned him the prize at Harvard University. Ruvkun conducted his research at Massachusetts General Hospital, and is a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School.”

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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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Oct082024

The Conversation -- October 8, 2024

Presidential Race

~~~ Reid Epstein & Katie Rogers of the New York Times: “Here are seven takeaways from [Vice President] Harris’s appearance on “60 Minutes,” which also interviewed her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota. Harris was in control of her message, but avoided repeated pushback.... She has a Glock, and she knows how to use it.... Harris was pressed about ‘dealing with the real world’ on some of her plans.... She has warned Tim Walz about misspeaking.... Neither Liz Cheney nor Harris can quite believe they are allies now.... Her foreign policy would look a lot like [President] Biden’s.... Trump turned down ‘60 Minutes.’ Harris took advantage. On the CBS show on Monday, [interviewer Bill] Whitaker said Mr. Trump had agreed to an interview, then backed out, citing, among other things, the network’s promise to fact-check him on the air.” ~~~

     ~~~ Here's an NBC News story about Whitaker's "grilling" of Harris: ~~~

     ~~~ If you can't view the video, the Hill has a story here outlining Scott Pelley's remarks about Trump's pulling out of the interview. MB PS: Trump won't debate Harris, either.

BTW, here's video of what looks like a portion of the "Call Her Daddy" podcast interview of Harris that aired on Monday. The comments -- mostly from the Trumpenproletariat -- are brutal. However, they're so repetitive that it's a bit hard to believe that most of them are real.

Nicholas Nehamas of the New York Times: “Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday commemorated the anniversary of the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack on Israel by planting a pomegranate tree, which she called 'a symbol of hope and righteousness' in Judaism, at her official residence in Washington. In a brief speech, Ms. Harris condemned the attack, in which some 1,200 people were massacred in Israel last year, as an 'act of pure evil' and said the scores of hostages remaining in Hamas’s hands should be released. Standing beside her was her husband, Doug Emhoff, the first Jewish spouse of a U.S. president or vice president.... 'We must work to ensure nothing like the horrors of Oct. 7 can ever happen again,' she said. 'And on this solemn day, I will restate my pledge to always ensure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself, and that I will always work to ensure the safety and security of the Jewish people here and around the world.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Notably (although Nehamas doesn't note it), Harris introduced her husband, rather than the other way around, thus making him the main speaker at the event.

Tara Suter of the Hill: “The former head of the Florida Republican Party said he’s supporting Vice President Harris after 'trolling' from other Republicans over the federal government’s response to Hurricane Helene. Al Cárdenas said in his appearance Monday on MSNBC’s 'Morning Joe' that natural disasters have 'always been a bipartisan issue.'... '... the White House asked Congress to pass a bill to — a supplemental bill — to really help people with these disasters, because we may be running outta cash. All of a sudden, the trolling, the Trump operatives and everybody else started saying, “Well, they’re giving that money to illegal immigrants.” Not true.'” (Also linked yesterday.)

Speaking of hard-hitting interviews, Jimmy Kimmel & Tim Walz get into whether or not Walz is sleeping with Kamala Harris. No, really: ~~~

Getting Out the Pro-Porn Vote. Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: “Seventeen pornographic film actors on Monday announced that they had launched a $100,000 ad campaign on porn sites warning that Project 2025 — the Heritage Foundation blueprint for a Republican administration that has been a centerpiece of some Democratic campaigns — wants to ban pornography and imprison people who produce it. The online ads will run in the states that will decide the presidency: Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada.... Vice President Kamala Harris is losing to former President Donald J. Trump among men, but younger men might be winnable — and pornographic websites are among the most heavily trafficked on the internet.” ~~~

     ~~~ digby: "The bros may like Trump’s anarchic spirit and care little for actual policy. But this hits them where they live. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if this has an impact."

Marie: If you had told me 50 years ago that in 2024 I'd be living in a near-replica of early-1930s Nazi Germany (but with country AND western music), I would have laughed you off. Well, the joke's on me.

No. 1 U.S. Racist. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: “In an interview with right-wing radio host Hugh Hewitt on Monday morning, Trump’s suggestion that non-White immigrants are genetically inferior was made explicit. The comment came as Trump was disparaging ... Vice President Kamala Harris. 'How about allowing people to come through an open border,' he said, '13,000 of which were murderers, many of them murdered far more than one person and they’re now happily living in the United States?' This is a false claim — 'outrageously false,' in the wording of The Washington Post Fact Checker.... Unchallenged by Hewitt, Trump continued.... 'You know, now, a murderer, I believe this, it’s in their genes,' he said. 'And we got a lot of bad genes in our country right now.' Reinforcing that he was talking about the 'bad genes' of immigrants, Trump offered up more false claims.... Hewitt, rather than contesting Trump’s genetic argument, shifted the conversation with no apparent irony to the federal criminal charges Trump himself faces. These, of course, are not a function of criminal genes, in Trump’s estimation, but instead of the political whims of Biden. (In reality, they are a function of Trump’s actions.)” Emphasis added. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: In case you think Trump is speaking of immigrants in general and not non-white immigrants, as Bump asserts, I remind you that Trump's mother and paternal grandfather were immigrants to the U.S., immigrants of the White persuasion from whom Trump got his "good genes." And if you want to argue that, well, people don't choose their parents & grandparents, Trump did choose the two immigrants he married. While most of Trump's hated of immigrants is racist, I'd speculate a part of it derives from his prominent "grievance gene" -- a sense that the reason elite New Yorkers don't accept him into their circle is that he comes from recent-immigrant stock. Likely his heritage has nothing to do with their rejection; hardly anyone, elite or not, enjoys the company of obnoxious blockheads. ~~~

     ~~~ Patrick Svitek of the Washington Post has the paper's main story on Trump's racist gene theory: “Donald Trump suggested Monday that people in the country illegally who have committed murder and other crimes have 'bad genes,' the latest example of rhetoric by the former president that dehumanizes immigrants and disparages them in racial terms.... Trump’s latest comment referring to 'bad genes' takes his rhetoric toward immigrants a step further, playing into tropes that foreigners are genetically inferior to Americans and responsible for societal problems — such as violent crime — as a result.”

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: “Donald J. Trump suggested in a radio interview on Monday that he had visited war-torn Gaza in the past, a place there is no record of him visiting. When asked to clarify, a campaign aide said that Gaza is 'in Israel' and that Mr. Trump has visited Israel.... The Gaza Strip is not part of Israel and has never been, though some Israelis have called for annexing it.... [Trump went on to say,] 'I did more for Israel than anybody. I did more for the Jewish people than anybody. And it’s not reciprocal, as they say, not reciprocal.'” ~~~

      ~~~ Marie: Here a type of "reporting" that often appears in supposedly straight reports covering Trump: after relating the "thoughts" on Gaza Trump shared with host Hugh Hewitt, Haberman writes, "The comment renews questions about how Mr. Trump would approach the region if he wins another term." Yes, there are questions about how Trump would approach Gaza, or anything, because (1) he has no idea what he would do next week about anything and he doesn't care and (2) everything he says is a lie. It is irresponsible for a journalist to pretend she can get a clue about Trump's "policy" from a Trump response to a leading question from a friendly/frightened interviewer. The very act of speculating about Trump's approach to any international crisis is in itself misleading once you get past, "What's in it for Trump?"

Marie: Since we've linked to a story about how Kamala Harris commemorated the October 7 massacre of Jews in Israel, it is only fair to link to a report on Donald Trump's commemorative event: ~~~

     ~~~ Michael Luciano of Mediite: Donald Trump “held an event at the Trump National Doral Golf Club in South Florida, where he reiterated his non-falsifiable claim that 'the Oct. 7 attack would never have happened if I was president.' As he spoke, U.S. and Israel flags stood in the background.... Trump received a round of applause before the speakers began blaring 'Y.M.C.A.'” MB: Really.

Jess Bidgood of the New York Times: At a rally in Wisconsin on Sunday, Donald Trump “accuse[d] Vice President Kamala Harris of sending billions of dollars to foreign nations while providing only $750 each to domestic disaster victims — a falsehood that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been working for days to combat. He then went further still, falsely accusing the White House of playing politics with disaster relief while he did exactly that. 'You know, it’s largely a Republican area so — some people say they did it for that reason, I don’t even think they’re that bad, but they probably — maybe they are,' Trump said in Juneau, Wis.... Trump’s closing argument, delivered at campaign rallies all over the country, is a slurry of polarizing disinformation, false claims about his opponents cheating in elections, and a series of unfounded personal attacks on Harris.... He drew the biggest cheers of the day as he described migrants in terms that have grown more ominous in recent weeks, calling them 'savage.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: A few months ago, Trump said nobody knows who "Harris" is, but he soon learned she was "a very dumb person" and a "dummy" who "suddenly became Black." BUT now we hear from Trump that this "dummy" engineered a sucessful coup against Joe Biden -- something Trump was unable to pull off, BTW -- and that she is apparently the first Vice President in history who controls billions of dollars in federal money and basically runs the administration.

Let us not delude ourselves that the only whiney-baby phony "leader" who doesn't give a rat's ass about governance is Donald Trump:~~~

~~~ Matt Dixon of NBC News: “Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is not taking calls from Vice President Kamala Harris about storm recovery just over a week after Hurricane Helene hammered parts of his state. A source familiar with the situation said he was dodging the Democratic presidential nominee’s calls because they 'seemed political,' according to a DeSantis aide. 'Kamala was trying to reach out, and we didn’t answer,' the DeSantis aide told NBC News. The same person said 'not to my knowledge' when asked if DeSantis had spoken to President Joe Biden.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Kierra Frazier of Politico: “Vice President Kamala Harris blasted Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday for 'playing political games,' after the Florida governor reportedly did not take her phone calls to discuss hurricane relief.... DeSantis told reporters ... he wasn’t aware that the vice president was trying to reach him. 'I didn’t know that she had called. I’m not sure who they called. They didn’t call me,' he said. 'It wasn’t anything that anybody in my office did, in terms of saying it was political.' The governor later appeared on Sean Hannity’s prime-time Fox News show on Monday and ... [said], 'She has no role in this.... She’s the first one who is trying to politicize the storm....'... The White House announced that President Joe Biden was able to speak with DeSantis over the phone about recovery efforts for Helene and preparations for Milton.... DeSantis referenced his call with Biden on Monday night to Hannity, saying he has 'worked well' with the administration of both Biden and ... Donald Trump in storms.”

This story is several days old, but I guess we should read it: ~~~

Mark Mazzetti & Adam Entous of the New York Times: “... a close examination of the Hamburg summit [of July 2017, when Donald Trump met Vladimir Putin], and the months that led up to it, help explain the roots of Mr. Trump’s often-disdainful attitude toward Ukraine. The meeting in Hamburg fit into a yearlong pattern in which an escalating political grudge against Ukraine on Mr. Trump’s part became an opening for Mr. Putin to pursue his own aim of tempering American support for Kyiv, according to interviews with American and European officials and allies of Mr. Trump, as well as accounts in memoirs. That animus toward Ukraine remains front and center in the final weeks of the 2024 campaign.... Mr. Putin continues to seek advantage in American politics. Senior intelligence officials briefed members of Congress last month that Russia remains determined to sow chaos in America’s elections process and erode faith in its democratic systems, and that spy agencies have specific intelligence that the Kremlin wants Mr. Trump back in the White House.” (Also linked yesterday.)

No One Will Be Safe. Peter Jamison of the Washington Post: “Republicans backing Donald Trump are threatening Deloitte, a consulting firm that is one of the federal government’s largest business partners, with the loss of billions of dollars in contracts because an employee shared messages from 2020 in which JD Vance ... criticized the then-president’s record. On Sept. 27, Donald Trump Jr. exposed the employee’s name and photograph to millions of people on social media, writing, 'Maybe it’s time for the GOP to end Deloitte’s taxpayer funded gravy train?' Others — including Vance’s chief spokesman and a Republican senator [Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.)] — circulated Trump Jr.’s comments.... Ethics experts said the episode is a potentially ominous preview of how a second Trump administration might use the enormous power the federal government wields over private industry to punish political acts by individual workers.” The Guradian's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Trump promised Pennsylvania women he would be their "protector" so they won't feel abandoned, lonely, scared or anxious. He told Wisconsinites he would keep them "safe" from a "migrant invasion." (See stories linked yesterday.) That is, after raising fears, either through his actions or rhetoric, Trump promises to quell the dangers he poses or warns about. But we know Americans cannot rely on him for protection. Trump and his administration will be your "protector" only insofar as you do not do or say anything that displeases them, or that anyone you know or work with does not do or say anything that displeases them. That is, you have no control over whether or not you will receive this supposed "protection." It can & will be retracted on the whims of Trump or a Trumpocrat. No one will be safe. (We already know, for instance, that if you live in a state or part of a state that votes Democratic, you won't receive federal disaster relief. See October 4 Conversation.)

Dominick Mastrangelo of the Hill: “A leading newspaper in North Carolina is blasting former President Trump over what it calls his 'falsehoods' about the government response to Hurricane Helene, which devastated a large swath of the state last week. 'This is not a situation to capitalize on for political gain. But former President Donald Trump has politicized the situation at every turn, spreading falsehoods and conspiracies that fracture the community instead of bringing it together,' the editorial board of The Charlotte Observer wrote this week.... The Observer noted Trump’s statements in recent weeks claiming Democratic state and federal officials are 'going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas,' and saying Vice President Harris 'spent all her FEMA money, billions of dollars, on housing for illegal migrants.' '“There’s no evidence to support any of those ridiculous claims,' the newspaper shot back.” (Also linked yesterday.)

This woman has had enough of your fucking lies, if you don't mind her saying so. Thanks to RAS for the link: ~~~

Chaos Is the Essence of the Scheme. In a firewalled post, Brian Beutler says that Trump & Co.'s multiple, repeated lies about hurricane response are a trial run for the election. (Also linked yesterday.)

Trump Scams His Supporters. Again. Judd Legum of Popular Information: "In a series of fundraising appeals, Trump offered his supporters a chance to appear with him on stage during an October 5 rally when he returned to the site of his attempted assassination, Butler, Pennsylvania. These solicitations were sent to the Trump campaign email list, which reportedly includes tens of millions of people. 'I’d love to bring you up on stage for my Butler rally!' was the subject line of a September 2 fundraising email from Trump. 'Can we take a picture together during my rally in Butler, Pennsylvania?' Trump asks in the body of the text. Trump sent emails promoting the contest on September 10..., September 28..., and October 1 ('[T]he crowd is going to LOVE YOU when you're introduced as my VIP guest[']).  Trump held his rally in Butler on Saturday, and the only person he introduced on stage was Elon Musk. There was no sign of a contest winner at any time during Trump's lengthy appearance at the rally — from the moment Trump took the stage to when he left almost two hours later." Legum lists a number of similar scams Trump pulled this year & in 2020. (Also linked yesterday.)

Dan Mangan of CNBC: “... Elon Musk, who is backing Donald Trump in the presidential election, on Sunday touted a $47 referral bonus that the billionaire’s political action committee is offering to people for each registered swing-state voter whom they refer to an online petition that requires signers to submit personal contact information. 'For every person you refer who is a swing state voter, you get $47!' Musk wrote in a post on X, the social media site he owns. 'Easy money.' If Trump is elected, he would be the 47th president of the U.S. The petition declares that its signers support 'First and Second Amendment rights,' but it contains no details about who the petition will be delivered to, or when, or any demands that the signers have, all core elements of traditional petitions. Instead, the petition seeks the personal contact information of swing-state voters. Upon signing, all users, regardless of their state, are directed to a page that contains voter registration links for just seven states: Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin.... 'This program is exclusively open to registered voters in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina,' the PAC said.”

Brett Samuels of the Hill: “A former Democratic congressman who served six terms in the House said Monday he was endorsing former President Trump, citing his concerns with the Biden administration’s handling of global conflicts abroad. Former Rep. Peter Deutsch (D), who represented Florida’s 20th Congressional District from 1993-2005, announced his support on a call organized by the Trump campaign to mark the anniversary of the Hamas attacks on Israel.... Deutsch said he was supportive of Trump’s stances on immigration policy and school choice, but that the 'driving force for me to make this decision is what I believe is the most important factor in being president, which is really world peace.'” (Also linked yesterday.)

Zach Schonfeld of the Hill: “The Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up a challenge by social platform X ... to court rulings that forced the platform to turn over data on former President Trump’s account to special counsel Jack Smith. Early last year, Smith obtained a secret warrant for Trump’s account on X, where Trump posted prolifically during his White House term, as part of prosecutors’ federal election interference investigation. X was prohibited from informing the former president about the warrant. It only became public last summer, after Trump was charged with four felonies in the case. He pleaded not guilty. The company challenged the order, arguing the records were potentially covered by executive privilege and not being able to tell Trump violated the First Amendment.” (Also linked yesterday.)

AP: “The Supreme Court on Monday turned away a challenge from Republican state lawmakers in Pennsylvania to a Biden administration executive order that is intended to boost voter registration. The justices did not comment in rejecting an appeal from the Republicans, who claimed the order is an unconstitutional attempt to interfere in the November election. Lower courts had dismissed the lawsuit. Nine Republican secretaries of state and 11 members of Congress had asked the court to step in. In May, the justices declined to take up and decide the case on an expedited basis. The justices separately rejected two appeals stemming from baseless claims made by Republicans that voting machines and software of Dominion Voting Systems were responsible for Donald Trump‘s defeat in the 2020 presidential election.” (Also linked yesterday.)


Lindsay Whitehurst of the AP: “The Supreme Court on Monday let stand a decision barring emergency abortions that violate the law in Texas, which has one of the country’s strictest abortion bans. Without detailing their reasoning, the justices kept in place a lower court order that said hospitals cannot be required to provide pregnancy terminations that would violate Texas law. There were no publicly noted dissents. The Biden administration had asked the justices to throw out the lower court order, arguing that hospitals have to perform abortions in emergency situations under federal law. The administration pointed to the Supreme Court’s action in a similar case from Idaho earlier this year in which the justices narrowly allowed emergency abortions to resume while a lawsuit continues. The administration also cited a Texas Supreme Court ruling that said doctors do not have to wait until a woman’s life is in immediate danger to provide an abortion legally. The administration said it brings Texas in line with federal law and means the lower court ruling is not necessary.... Doctors have said the [Texas] law remains dangerously vague after a medical board refused to specify exactly which conditions qualify for the exception.” (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times report is here.

Yeah, let's keep voting for the guys who are devoted to taking women back to this: ~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~

Georgia. Carter Sherman of the Guardian: “Just one week after a Georgia judge restored broad access to abortion in the state by blocking its six-week abortion ban, the Georgia supreme court ruled on Monday to reinstate the ban. The ban will take effect at 5pm local time on Monday and remain in effect while litigation over it plays out. Abortion rights supporters quickly condemned the decision, which also came down weeks after news broke that two Georgia mothers, Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller, died after being unable to access legal abortions.” (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times report is here.

Michigan Senate Race. Where Is Mister Rogers' Neighborhood? Steve Benen of MSNBC: Former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) “purchased a very expensive home in [Florida and] was still registered to vote in Florida as recently as this year.... The Detroit Free Press’ M.L. Elrick ... explained in his latest column, 'I don’t know where Mike Rogers lives, but it’s not where he’s registered to vote.... Rogers, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, changed his voter registration on July 2 to a home in White Lake Township that is under construction. A month later, he used the White Lake address to vote (presumably, for himself) in the four-way race for the GOP nomination to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow. There’s just one problem: The house did not — and still does not — have a certificate of occupancy. That means Rogers could not live there legally. And if he didn’t live there, he may have broken the law by using that address to vote.' Before changing his registration in July, Rogers apparently listed his brother's address as his own, though locals suggested they never saw him and he never lived there.” ~~~

     ~~~ Elrick's column is firewalled. But he appeared on Rachel Maddow's show yesterday and said Rogers' voting as a Michigan resident using an address where he never lived would be a felony. And here we thought it was Republicans who were are worried about voter fraud.

New York. Dana Rubinstein, et al., of the New York Times: “Philip B. Banks III, New York City’s deputy mayor for public safety, has resigned, Mayor Eric Adams said on Monday morning, making him the sixth senior administration official to leave City Hall in the past month.His departure comes amid an exceptional amount of turmoil at the highest levels of city government, as four federal investigations envelop Mr. Adams and his inner circle, and after prosecutors unsealed a five-count corruption indictment against the mayor. On Sept. 4, federal investigators seized the phones of Mr. Banks, as part of an investigation into a possible bribery scheme.” (Also linked yesterday.)

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Israel/Palestine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Tuesday in Israel's wars are here: “Israel’s air attacks across Lebanon targeting the militant group Hezbollah continued early Tuesday, and its military said it had sent more troops into the country, as the broadening conflict in the Middle East entered its second year with no sign of abating. The intense overnight bombardment followed a day marking the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel that sparked the war. On Monday, Israel and the adversaries it is battling along four fronts all vowed to continue the fight. The Israeli military said in a statement that a fourth division had begun operating in southwest Lebanon on Monday, expanding its forces there.”

Tunisia. Vivian Yee of the New York Times: “In Tunisia’s first presidential election since its authoritarian leader began dismantling the democracy Tunisians built after their 2011 Arab Spring revolution, the apparent winner came as little surprise: the incumbent himself. President Kais Saied, first elected in 2019, easily won re-election on Sunday, according to exit polls broadcast on state television.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Ukraine, et al. Ivan Nechepurenko of the New York Times: “A 72-year-old U.S. citizen, whose family says is an English teacher, was sentenced by a Moscow court Monday to six years and 10 months in a penal colony on charges of serving as a mercenary in Ukraine, becoming the latest in a list of Americans serving time in Russia. In a statement, the Moscow City Court said that Stephen James Hubbard, a native of Big Rapids, Mich., enlisted with a territorial defense unit in the Ukrainian town of Izium during the first weeks of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The court said that Mr. Hubbard had been receiving a monthly salary of $1,000. Russian state news agencies reported last week that Mr. Hubbard pleaded guilty to the charge.... Mr. Hubbard’s sister, Trisha Hubbard Fox, denied the Russian allegations, saying that her brother was 'never a mercenary' and had been teaching English abroad. In a post on Facebook, Ms. Hubbard Fox said that Russia 'kidnapped' him.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

Comment3 Comments

Reader Comments (3)

Apparently the only way to watch ONN (Onion News Network) is
through a subscription via Amazon Prine Video.
They're charging $25.99 for season one.
Google 'ONN on Amazon Prime Video.'

October 8, 2024 | Unregistered CommenterForrestMorris

Correction: Looks like Amazon is selling seasons 1 & 2 of the
original 2011 ONN shows.
Don't know if it has been revived. Can't find any info on that.

October 8, 2024 | Unregistered CommenterForrestMorris

Where are the elected R politicians condemning t****’s blatantly racist words? Nowhere to be found.

I studied in Budapest in 1986, a very different time in Hungarian politics. Under the thumb of Soviet supervision, Janos Kadar allowed academics to travel to the West and collaborate with western researchers. His slogan as I remember it was: “If you are not against us, you are with us.” It was an interesting time, hopeful.

Whether you use Kadar’s slogan or the tidier “Silence means assent”, elected Rs are ALL failing our country.

October 8, 2024 | Unregistered CommenterNiskyGuy

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