;)
The Conversation -- September 19, 2024
I Can Be Cruel & Defame Innocent, Defenseless People Because I'm a Belligerent, Ignorant White Bully. Maggie Astor of the New York Times: “Senator JD Vance of Ohio ... said on Wednesday that he would continue to describe Haitian residents in Springfield, Ohio, as 'illegal aliens' even though most of them are in the country legally.... 'If Kamala Harris waves the wand illegally and says these people are now here legally, I’m still going to call them an illegal alien,' he said in response to a reporter’s question after a rally in Raleigh, N.C. 'An illegal action from Kamala Harris does not make an alien legal.' [MB: Of course Harris did not wave a magic wand; she did not do anything, legal or illegal, to allow Haitian refugees into the country.] Congress created the temporary protected status program in 1990 and presidents from both major parties have used it in response to wars, natural disasters and other humanitarian crises in various countries. The program allows people from countries designated by the Department of Homeland Security to live and work legally in the United States for 18 months, a period that the department can renew indefinitely.... Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio ... and the mayor of Springfield, Rob Rue, both Republicans, have denounced the false claims from Mr. Vance and Mr. Trump.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: It's pitchfork time! Trump says he's going to show up in Springfield within the next two weeks. If I were a city authority, I'd tell Trump (and/or JayDee) not to come and that if he does come, I'd tell him that law enforcement will stop him at the town line. I'm serious.
Brian Mann of NPR: "For the first time in decades, public health data shows a sudden and hopeful drop in drug overdose deaths across the U.S.... National surveys compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention already show an unprecedented decline in drug deaths of roughly 10.6 percent. That's a huge reversal from recent years when fatal overdoses regularly increased by double-digit percentages. Some researchers believe the data will show an even larger decline in drug deaths when federal surveys are updated to reflect improvements being seen at the state level, especially in the eastern U.S." Thanks to RAS for the link.
The New York Times' live updates of developments Thursday in Israel's wars are here.
Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: Donald Trump got irritated when George “Clooney wrote a guest essay for The New York Times in July imploring President Biden to drop out of the race. Mr. Clooney had just hosted a fund-raiser for the president and observed him up close. So he had a certain credibility, and his article made an impact.... Mr. Trump ... [wrote,] 'So now fake movie actor George Clooney, who never came close to making a great movie, is getting into the act. He’s turned on Crooked Joe like the rats they both are....' He concluded that, 'Clooney should get out of politics and go back to television. Movies never really worked for him!!!!' On [Jimmy] Kimmel’s program Tuesday night, Mr. Clooney swiped back: 'I will if he does. That’s a trade-off I’d do.' Ordinarily none of this would matter — and who is to say it really does? — but for the fact that Mr. Trump, formerly the star of 'The Apprentice,' clearly craves the approval of fellow stars.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: I don't much follow movie stars, so I didn't realize how charming Clooney was. As late-nite interviews go, this was a good one, IMO: ~~~
~~~ Also, I think this was the opening bit on the same show, and it gave me a chuckle. But then I love Matt Damon:
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Presidential Race
Peter Baker of the New York Times: “More than 100 former national security officials from Republican administrations and former Republican members of Congress endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday after concluding that their party’s nominee, Donald J. Trump, is 'unfit to serve again as president.' In a letter to the public, the Republicans, including both vocal longtime Trump opponents and others who had not endorsed Joseph R. Biden Jr. in 2020, argued that while they might 'disagree with Kamala Harris' on many issues, Mr. Trump had demonstrated 'dangerous qualities.' Those include, they said, 'unusual affinity' for dictators like President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and 'contempt for the norms of decent, ethical and lawful behavior.' 'As president,' the letter said, 'he promoted daily chaos in government, praised our enemies and undermined our allies, politicized the military and disparaged our veterans, prioritized his personal interest above American interests and betrayed our values, democracy and this country’s founding documents.'” (Also linked yesterday.)
Josh Boak & Tom Krisher of the AP: “The International Brotherhood of Teamsters declined Wednesday to endorse Kamala Harris or Donald Trump for president, saying neither candidate had sufficient support from the 1.3 million-member union.... The Teamsters’ rebuff reflected a labor union torn over issues of political identity and policy, one that mirrors a broader national divide. Vice President Harris has unmistakably backed organized labor, while former President Trump has appealed to many white blue-collar workers even as he has openly scorned unions at times.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ BUT. Alex Nieves of Politico: “West Coast Teamsters announced their endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday, just minutes after national Teamsters leadership declined to issue a presidential endorsement. The move represents a sharp break within the powerful union’s membership in liberal states like California, where ... Donald Trump remains a widely unpopular political figure. The union’s national headquarters released internal survey results earlier in the day that showed close to 60 percent of its members backed Trump.” Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ AND Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: “Vice President Kamala Harris scored endorsements from Teamsters groups in key battleground states on the same day the national Teamsters announced they wouldn’t be endorsing Harris or ... Donald Trump.... Teamsters groups in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Nevada endorsed VP Harris.... A pair of groups representing more than 300,000 Teamsters in Northern and Southern Nevada, California, Hawaii, and Guam also endorsed Harris.... The [Harris] campaign noted previous endorsements from Teamsters groups as well, including from battleground Pennsylvania.”
Queens Man Comes Home. Michael Gold of the New York Times: “On the day that he was originally set to return to his hometown and receive the sentence for his 34 felony convictions..., Donald J. Trump found himself a few miles east, basking in the raucous adulation of a packed arena on Long Island. Standing in front of thousands at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y., Mr. Trump received a local hero’s reception, as he drew an exaggerated depiction of a New York in decline, made false claims and hammered Democrats over crime, inflation and immigration.... Mr. Trump appealed directly to his New York supporters, promising to renovate the city’s subway, to turn ground zero into a federally managed national monument and to restore a state and local tax break that he did not acknowledge he had limited during his presidency.... And as he tried to make the case that he could flip New York, he continued to stoke fear around immigration.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: The “raucous adulation” here reminds me of the Queens residents who cheered their neighbor the mobster John Gotti and happily attended his block parties. Heck, we may be talking about some of the very same people, for all I know. Pathetic. Nevertheless, He's "the greatest of all time": ~~~
Trump: I'm the greatest of all time. Maybe greater even than Elvis pic.twitter.com/8PGDRZW0kr
— Acyn (@Acyn) September 18, 2024
Marie: Trump has long claimed that people say he looks like Elvis. Maybe so.
Marie: Akhilleus did my work for me, so I'll just copy his post: ~~~
~~~ Akhilleus: “A legend in his own mind. Here’s Fatty reveling in the memory of stuff that never happened. Recalling his incredible, earth shattering, never before in history winning debate performance, Trump revels in his memory of the reaction of the audience at the debate. 'They went wild' he says. There was no audience.” MB: Apparently if you lie all the time, the truth fades until it loses all value, and your Walter Mitty fantasies become your own delusional reality. If there's something more dangerous than a compulsive liar in the Oval Office, it is someone who cannot distinguish fact from fiction.
Trump Tries to Turn the Tables. Lisa Lerer of the New York Times: “For months, Donald J. Trump and his allies have described a nation facing almost unthinkable darkness. The United States is under 'under invasion' from 'thousands and thousands and thousands of terrorists,' Mr. Trump told thousands at a rally on Friday in Las Vegas. Babies are being 'executed after birth.' America faces the prospect of a 'nuclear holocaust.' Three days later, after facing his second assassination attempt in two months, Mr. Trump raised what has become an all-too-common American problem: incendiary political speech. But not his — that of his rivals.... 'Because of this Communist Left Rhetoric, the bullets are flying, and it will only get worse!' Mr. Trump wrote in a social media post on Monday.... Such methods are part of a signature playbook Mr. Trump returns to when he is accused of wrongdoing: He accuses his opponent of the exact same thing.... His remarks amount to a flip of a well-worn political script....
“On Monday, [JD] Vance used the assassination attempt to deflect from Democratic denunciations over his own role in stoking fear in Springfield, calling on Democrats to tone down their rhetoric toward Mr. Trump and Republicans, while also ratcheting up his accusations that they bore responsibility for the two assassination attempts. In a 1,200-word social media post Monday night, Vance accused Democrats of 'censorship' and 'moral blackmail.'...” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: So, after telling Democrats and the media to self-censor because they have been calling out Trump for doing and saying anti-democratic, dangerous things, Vance now accuses them of censoring Trump and him. Maybe Vance means this to be political sleight-of-hand, but I'm not 100% sure JayDee realizes how abhorrent his double standard is. He's essentially arguing that his side should be free to say what it wants, but their side must STFU. ~~~
On the same day Ohio’s GOP guv sent state police to 17 schools in Springfield after threats of violence, the men who incited those threats are demanding that the rest of us tone down our rhetoric. This is rich. By which I mean unmitigated bullsh*t. -- Charlie Sykes, conservative commentator, on X
~~~ David Badash of AlterNet: “The Atlantic’s David Frum, a conservative and former Bush White House speech writer, on Tuesday wrote: 'The difference: The upsetting things said by Trump and Vance are not true. The upsetting things said about Trump and Vance are true. Trump really did mount a violent coup against the Constitution. He and his relatives really did take bribes in office, including from foreign governments. He really was helped into power by Russian espionage agencies. He really did steal secret documents from the US government after his election defeat. And Vance really did, and by his own admission, intentionally “create stories” for political advantage that put residents of his state at risk of physical harm.'... Joe Walsh, the former Republican Tea Party Congressman[, wrote,] 'The sad truth is this: It’s not at all surprising that someone would try to kill him,' he said of Trump. 'Every day for 9yrs, he’s spewed hate, spread division, and incited violence like no other. Every day.... Every day, he’s attacked this person or that person, this group or that group. In cruel, ugly ways. Every day for 9yrs he’s been hating on people and inciting violence against people....'”
They're Eating the Dogs. They're Eating the Cats.
They Knew They Were Lying from the Get-go. Matt Gertz of Media Matters: “Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance told reporters on Tuesday that it was their job — not his — to fact-check his claim that Haitians were stealing and eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. The Wall Street Journal did just that, revealing on Wednesday morning that Springfield’s city manager told Vance’s office that the story was baseless, soon after the Republican vice presidential nominee started publicly making the racist claim. A Vance staffer contacted Springfield City Manager Bryan Heck on the morning of September 9 and 'asked point-blank, “Are the rumors true of pets being taken and eaten?’” Heck told the Journal. 'I told him no. There was no verifiable evidence or reports to show this was true. I told them these claims were baseless.' The Haitian immigrant saga is a testament to the right’s refusal to abide by anything resembling evidentiary standards, their demagogic response when anyone dares to point out that their claims are unsubstantiated — and how their lies can spiral wildly out of control.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ digby sez, "Here’s an excerpt and a gift link to the whole [WSJ] article." (MB: I tried digby's WSJ gift link, and it worked for me. If it doesn't work for you, try it from digby's page [linked at "sez".]) ~~~
~~~ But, as Alex Wagner of MSNBC put it, Trump & Vance will never give up on their lies because “Springfield isn't really in Ohio. It's a symbol of the MAGA worldview.” ~~~
~~~ Megan Lebowitz of NBC News: "... Donald Trump said at a rally Wednesday that he would travel to Springfield, Ohio, the focal point of unsubstantiated claims targeting Haitian migrants, 'in the next two weeks.' 'I’m going to go there in the next two weeks. I’m going to Springfield, and I’m going to Aurora in Colorado, Trump said at a rally in Uniondale, New York.... Trump has repeatedly spread debunked rumors related to Venezuelans in [Aurora]. ~~~
~~~ Michael Shear of the New York Times: “... Donald J. Trump had been in office for less than six months when he ... insisted one afternoon in 2017 that immigrants from Haiti should not be let into the United States, shocking his chief of staff, secretary of state, homeland security secretary and others gathered in the Oval Office by declaring that people from the beleaguered nation 'all have AIDS.' Now, as he runs for a second term, Mr. Trump is once again denigrating Haitians, part of a pattern that goes back years and appears to have its roots in the early 1980s, when the Centers for Disease Control stigmatized Haitians as a particular threat in the spread of AIDS, driving years of panic about the newly discovered disease. Mr. Trump, a self-described germophobe, has persisted in that debunked belief even though it was formally abandoned by the C.D.C. nearly four decades ago.... At the beginning of 2018..., he said that Haiti was among a series of 'shithole countries' ... and Mr. Trump worked to make it harder for Haitians to immigrate.” ~~~
~~~ Philip Bump of the Washington Post explores how JayDee Vance tries to justify his lies about pet-eating Haitian legal refugees: He suggests “he has private knowledge of the accuracy of his claims. What he presents, though, is stuff from the right-wing bubble. [In his initial post, on September 9,] he wrote, 'Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country.' There were no such 'reports' beyond the claims circulating on the internet. One was a fourth-hand report on Facebook of a stolen cat that was no more than a rumor. Another focused on a photo of a random Black man in a different city. A third looped in a story about an American woman eating a cat in a different part of the state. But notice what Vance doesn’t offer: evidence that he’d heard reports from actual constituents.” ~~~
~~~ Matt Arco of NJ.com: “'The Vance campaign provided the Wall Street Journal with a police report to prove their claims about cat-eating Haitians in Springfield. The WSJ spoke to the woman who filed it, who said she later found her cat alive and well in her basement. She also apologized to her Haitian neighbors.' Justin Baragona posted to X with a link to a story in The Wall Street Journal.”
Marie: Yesterday RAS posted a tweet in which we learned that Trump's plan to lower the cost of groceries was to raise the prices of imported foods. Sure, that's obviously crazy, but it turns out that Trump said something different from that, and the "raise the price of imported food" was a summary/guess/sanewash of what Trump actually said. Here it is. Spelled out. (Scroll down a bit.) (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ In fairness to Trump, his ramblings about energy and interest rates and farmers and the nice room where he met some farmers and windmills is just as coherent as his answer to a question about why cryptocurrency (Trump's newest venture/Scam-o'-the-Week) is so important to the U.S.: (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
It’s A.I., it’s so many other things. You know, A.I., speaking of an interest in future, it needs tremendous electricity capability beyond anything I’ve ever heard. If you take all the electricity coming out of the U.S., in order to have it to be dominant in A.I. you need twice that amount. Just for this one thing. Who would make that? You need twice the electricity we already have. China is already building electric plants. They want to build them for the A.I., and it’s very important, but you need tremendous electric — and in this country, because of our strong environmental impact statement problems that we have, you know, China doesn’t have those problems. -- Donald Trump, "explaining" the impact of cryptocurrency
Nick Corasaniti & Alexandra Berzon of the New York Times: “Donald J. Trump’s escalating calls to investigate and prosecute election officials he sees as 'corrupt' are sounding alarms among democracy experts and the local and state workers.... In recent social media posts, Mr. Trump has said that election officials 'involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country.' The November election, he added, 'will be under the closest professional scrutiny and, WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again.' On its face, the statements are promises to enforce the law. But coming from Mr. Trump, a politician who has repeatedly claimed to see corruption and fraud where there is no evidence of either and who as president pressured law enforcement officials to act on his complaints, the words raise the prospect that government officials could be investigated and prosecuted for conducting a fair election.”
David Klepper & Eric Tucker of the AP: “Iranian hackers sought to interest President Joe Biden’s campaign in information stolen from rival Donald Trump’s campaign, sending unsolicited emails to people associated with the then-Democratic candidate in an effort to interfere in the 2024 election, the FBI and other federal agencies said Wednesday. There’s no indication that any of the recipients responded, officials said, and several media organizations who have said they also were approached with stolen material did not publish it. Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign called the emails from Iran 'unwelcome and unacceptable malicious activity' that were received by only a few people who regarded them as spam or phishing attempts.” ~~~
~~~ Rebecca Beitsch of the Hill: “The FBI and other intelligence agencies revealed Wednesday that Iran attempted to share information stolen during its hack on the Trump campaign with the Biden campaign and continues to send material to various media outlets.... Despite assurances from the intelligence community that no one from the Biden-Harris team responded to the emails, the Trump campaign raised the specter that their rivals may have used the information. 'This is further proof the Iranians are actively interfering in the election to help Kamala Harris and Joe Biden because they know President Trump will restore his tough sanctions and stand against their reign of terror. Kamala and Biden must come clean on whether they used the hacked material given to them by the Iranians to hurt President Trump. What did they know and when did they know it?,' Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
“... House Intelligence Committee ... Chair Mike Turner (R-Ohio) similarly fired off a series of questions, asking 'what did they do' with the information. Meanwhile, ranking member Jim Himes (D-Conn.) noted that Trump previously called for Russia to hack the Clinton campaign, suggesting he'should sit this one out.” The New York Times story is here.
~~~ David Gilmour of Mediaite: “... Donald Trump accused Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris of 'ILLEGALLY SPYING' on his campaign and asked whether she would 'RESIGN IN DISGRACE' so that the 'COMMUNIST LEFT' could pick a new nominee.” ~~~
~~~ Okay for Me, Not for Thee. Marie: It is hilarious that Trump has accused and his campaign suspects the Harris campaign of spying. Trump and his 2016 campaign not only used information Russia obtained via Wikileaks but also collaborated with Russian operatives and solicited Russia to perform additional hacks of Clinton's campaign. In addition, when he was president*, Trump told George Stephanopoulos of ABC News that he would gladly use intel obtained from foreign governments against his opponent: “'It’s not an interference, they have information — I think I’d take it, Trump said. 'If I thought there was something wrong, I’d go maybe to the FBI — if I thought there was something wrong.... It’s called oppo research,' he [said].”
“Childless Cat Ladies,” Ctd. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: “From virtually the moment Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) was selected as Donald Trump’s running mate two months ago, their campaign has been doing cleanup work on his past comments deriding women who don’t have children — women he at one point labeled 'childless cat ladies.' But ... Tuesday night the Trump campaign .. doubled down on spotlighting Vice President Kamala Harris’s lack of biological children. Appearing onstage with Trump at a campaign town hall in Flint, Mich., Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) said, “... my kids keep me humble. Unfortunately, Kamala Harris doesn’t have anything to keep her humble.'” Hilariously, both the Trump campaign & Sanders are now pretending that Sanders really meant what should keep Harris humble was Biden's failed policies. Right.
The whole Trump team is so busy defending all manner of lies and bad decisions that this defense of what many would argue was, well, ill-advised exposure could get lost in the deluge: ~~~
~~~ Katie Rogers of the New York Times: “In what is certainly a first for a former first lady, Melania Trump is defending her past work as a nude model ... and blaming 'the media' for scrutinizing it. In a 45-second video clip posted to her social media accounts on Wednesday, Mrs. Trump, 54, provided some of the most extensive remarks she has given about the topic — or any topic, really — since her departure from the White House in January 2021. 'Are we no longer able to appreciate the beauty of the human body?' Mrs. Trump asks in the video, as images of classical paintings and sculptures, including John Collier’s “Lady Godiva” and Michelangelo’s 'David,' cycle across the screen. 'We should honor our bodies and embrace the timeless tradition of using art as a powerful means of self-expression.' Her defense of nude modeling ... was part of a series of videos promoting a memoir set for release in October. But the latest message struck a somewhat jarring chord: Her career as a model has not been the subject of broad news coverage since the 2016 presidential race.”
digby: These two women will not be voting for Donald Trump. For good reasons.
Bethany McLean in the Washington Post reviews Lucky Loser, a book by Russ Buettner & Susanne Craig, about how Donald Trump squandered his father's fortune. The book “shows in meticulously documented detail how 'even when Trump appeared to be at his best, he was failing,' with massive losses on his core business. The authors prove that without his father’s support, Trump would have been nothing..... In the decade that ended in 1995, a decade in which Trump was supposedly a huge success, he recorded more than $1.1 billion in business losses on his tax returns, which the authors call a 'failure of historical proportions.'... Buettner and Craig delve into all the aspects of Trump’s life to show how he was able to create the facade that he did. This is a page turner, with spectacular anecdotes.... The book also demonstrates in convincing detail that Donald Trump has always been exactly as he is.”
Christopher Rugaber of the AP: “The Federal Reserve on Wednesday cut its benchmark interest rate by an unusually large half-point, a dramatic shift after more than two years of high rates that helped tame inflation but also made borrowing painfully expensive for American consumers. The rate cut, the Fed’s first in more than four years, reflects its new focus on bolstering the job market, which has shown clear signs of slowing. Coming just weeks before the presidential election, the Fed’s move also has the potential to scramble the economic landscape just as Americans prepare to vote. The central bank’s action lowered its key rate to roughly 4.8%, down from a two-decade high of 5.3%, where it had stood for 14 months as it struggled to curb the worst inflation streak in four decades. Inflation has tumbled from a peak of 9.1% in mid-2022 to a three-year low of 2.5% in August, not far above the Fed’s 2% target.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Julie Weil of the Washington Post: “The IRS recovered $263 million from a single individual, ending more than a decade of tax evasion and one of its biggest whistleblower cases ever, according to lawyers from three firms involved in the case.The three informants will split $74 million, nearly a third of the government’s proceeds and the largest award allowed by law, the lawyers said.” ~~~
~~~ Dear IRS: There is a guy who lives in a big house in Palm Beach and his name is Donald Trump and he brags how smart he is cheating on his taxes and you can read all about what a tax cheat he is in the New York Times and please send me my humungous reward in a certified check. Yours truly, Whistleblowing Marie
Carl Hulse of the New York Times: “The House on Wednesday defeated a $1.6 trillion stopgap spending bill to extend current government funding into March and impose new proof-of-citizenship requirements on voter registration, as Republicans and Democrats alike rejected Speaker Mike Johnson’s proposal to avert a shutdown at the end of the month. The bipartisan repudiation was entirely expected after several Republicans had made clear they would not back the spending plan and Democrats almost uniformly opposed the voting-registration proposal. The vote was 220 to 202, with 14 Republicans joining all but three Democrats in opposition. Two Republicans voted present.... The speaker, under pressure from ... Donald J. Trump and the hard right to insist on the proposal, plunged ahead on Wednesday anyway, working to show members of his party that he was fighting for their principles.”
⭐ Dana Milbank of the Washington Post in a well-timed adaptation from his book Fools on the Hill, on Mike Johnson's House speakership, a job Mike said God told him how to get. “At the moment, Johnson and his caucus are in a typical crisis of their own making. The government runs out of money in less than two weeks, and Trump has ordered Johnson to shut it down if Democrats won’t swallow a poison pill that makes it harder to register to vote.” Milbank goes on to outline some of House Republicans' failures & pratfalls. It's quite a record. And really, this Congress did set some records. “The chaos has one source. While Johnson and his House GOP colleagues may think they’ve been hearing the voice of God, they’ve actually been heeding the voice of the 'Orange Jesus.'...”
Brooke Migdon of the Hill: “The House voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to award a Congressional Gold Medal to tennis legend and equal rights advocate Billie Jean King, bestowing the nation’s highest civilian honor on a female individual athlete for the first time. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) introduced the bill to recognize King last September on the 50th anniversary of the tennis Hall of Famer’s 1973 victory over Bobby Riggs in the 'Battle of the Sexes,' still the most-watched tennis match of all time. The same year, King successfully lobbied for equal prize money for men and women at the U.S. Open and founded the Women’s Tennis Association.... A House companion bill to award King the medal drew broad bipartisan support, amassing nearly 300 co-sponsors from either side of the aisle.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) schools GOP Congressmembers on their inaccurate "illegal immigration" chart. One would think members of Congress would know when a presidential* term ends. Apparently not: ~~~
Garcia: It says that Trump left office at this point in the chart. That's not when Donald Trump left office. Donald Trump actually left office right here on this chart. You can see that the actual immigration and border crossings was already going up by the time Donald Trump left pic.twitter.com/4iOPOadvAa
— Acyn (@Acyn) September 18, 2024
~~~ Via Alex Griffing of Mediaite.
William Broad & Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: “... the first two days of a formal hearing by a Coast Guard panel into the [Titan submersible] disaster, which began Monday, have raised basic questions about that ... [implosion] and taken detailed testimony that supports an unsensational finding. 'Throughout the descent,' the opening report of the Marine Board of Investigation states, the crew sent 'no transmissions which indicated trouble or any emergency.' That finding centers on the official examination of the communications between the submersible and its mother ship, as well as expert analysis of the submersible’s last known act — the dropping of its weights.”
Georgina Rannard of BBC News: “Radio waves from Elon Musk’s growing network of satellites are blocking scientists’ ability to peer into the universe, according to researchers in the Netherlands. The new generation of Starlink satellites, which provide fast internet around the world, are interfering more with radio telescopes than earlier versions, they say. The thousands of orbiting satellites are 'blinding' radio telescopes and may be hindering astronomical research, according to Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON).”
Ben Sisario & Julia Jacobs of the New York Times: “A federal judge on Wednesday ordered Sean Combs to remain in jail until his trial for sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy, rejecting an appeal by the music mogul’s lawyers requesting that he be released on bail. Judge Andrew L. Carter Jr. said at a hearing in Lower Manhattan that Mr. Combs posed a risk of witness tampering and was a danger to the safety of the community. He rejected an unusual proposal from Mr. Combs’s legal team in which he would have remained at his mansion in Florida, monitored around the clock by a private security force. The lawyers had offered a $50 million bond for his release.”
Hurubie Meko of the New York Times: “Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced Hollywood producer, pleaded not guilty to a new sex-crime indictment in a Manhattan court on Wednesday, months after a previous conviction was thrown out. The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which is prosecuting Mr. Weinstein on the charge of sexually assaulting a woman in a Manhattan hotel in 2006, is also retrying the earlier case. The new charge of committing a criminal sexual act in the first degree is just the most recent legal trouble for a man who was the center of accusations that set off the global #MeToo movement. Mr. Weinstein, 72, has also been convicted in California on sex charges and faces a prison term there.”
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Kentucky. Maria Paul of the Washington Post: “Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) on Wednesday signed an executive order banning 'conversion therapy' for minors — skirting the Republican-led state legislature and setting up a likely legal challenge. Beshear said the new policy, which goes into effect immediately, is an overdue step to protect children from a widely discredited medical practice that attempts to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.” See Akhilleus's commentary on this at the end of yesterday's Comments thread.
Ohio Court: Sometimes "Anti-gerrymandering" Equals "Gerrymandering"! Courtney Cohn of Democracy Docket: “On a 4-3 decision on Monday, the Ohio Supreme Court largely upheld ballot language for a redistricting amendment that the initiative’s organizers argue is misleading and deceptive. Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R) said the Ballot Board will reconvene Wednesday morning to make 'minor adjustments' to the initiative’s language as ordered by the state Supreme Court.... Citizens Not Politicians, a campaign to end gerrymandering, collected thousands of signatures for an initiative that would take the power of drawing congressional and legislative maps away from politicians and vest it in a citizen redistricting commission. Then, last month, the GOP-controlled Ballot Board voted to approve Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R)’s title and language for the amendment, instead of what the initiative’s organizers wrote. Citizens Not Politicians then sued the board, arguing the language they adopted was so biased and inaccurate it violated the Ohio Constitution.... The group said the purpose of the amendment is to end partisan gerrymandering, but the adopted ballot language said it would '[e]stablish a new taxpayer funded commission of appointees required to gerrymander the boundaries of state legislative and congressional districts to favor the two largest political parties in the state of Ohio.'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Here is a Substack essay decrying the court's decision by David Pepper, former chair of the Ohio Democratic party. Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)
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China. Joseph Menn & Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: “The United States and allied countries said Wednesday they had taken control of a network of 260,000 internet-connected cameras, routers and other devices that the Chinese government had been using to spy on sensitive organizations. The operation, which occurred last week, took aim at a botnet known as Flax Typhoon, which U.S. officials said was run by a government contractor in Beijing, a publicly traded company called Integrity Technology Group. The FBI won a court order to send the infected devices commands that detached them from the network. U.S. authorities said the cyberspies used the devices as steppingstones to hide their tracks when they breached government and industry institutions in America, Taiwan and elsewhere. The authorities cited the same intention after a previous seizure in December and January.”
Israel/Palestine, et al.
Niha Masih of the Washington Post: “The U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday overwhelmingly voted in favor of a resolution demanding that Israel end its 'unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory' within 12 months. The nonbinding resolution also said that Israel should withdraw its military forces; halt the expansion of settlements and evacuate all settlers from occupied land; and demolish parts of a separation wall constructed inside the occupied West Bank. A majority of members — 124 countries — voted in favor. Fourteen countries, including Israel and the United States, voted against the resolution and 43 countries abstained. It also asks member states to cease arms transfers to Israel when there are reasonable grounds to believe that they might be used in the occupied territory and to impose sanctions on settlers involved in violence against Palestinians.”
The New York Times' live updates of developments Wednesday in Israel's wars is here: “Another wave of wireless devices, including walkie-talkies, exploded in Lebanon on Wednesday afternoon, local authorities said, a day after at least 12 people were killed and thousands more injured in Lebanon in an apparently coordinated attack that targeted members of Hezbollah by blowing up their pagers. Lebanon’s health ministry said the second wave of blasts involving wireless devices killed at least one person and wounded more than 100. A senior Lebanese security official and a Hezbollah official, who asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the issue, said among the devices that exploded were hand-held radios — commonly known as walkie talkies — belonging to Hezbollah members.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Ukraine, et al. Oh, Right. Cat Zakrzewski of the Washington Post: “Pro-Kremlin websites and social media accounts are promulgating the unsubstantiated claim that Ukraine orchestrated a potential assassination attempt against Donald Trump.... Shortly after Ryan Wesley Routh was identified as the suspect believed to have pointed a rifle toward a Florida golf course where Trump was playing Sunday, Russian state media outlets and officials on social media painted the 58-year-old as an agent working on behalf of Kyiv. Routh’s social media posts show he was a staunch supporter of Ukraine who traveled there and attempted to join the war effort, but Ukrainian government officials have denied that he had any links to the government or military. The claims were soon echoed by conservative commentators in the United States, according to an analysis from the company NewsGuard.”
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A legend in his own mind
Here’s Fatty reveling in the memory of stuff that never happened.
Recalling his incredible, earth shattering, never before in history winning debate performance, Trump revels in his memory of the reaction of the audience at the debate. “They went wild” he says.
There was no audience.
Leonard Leo, the architect of the supremely corrupt Supreme Court specializes in breaking the Constitution while padding his own pockets.
“In a recent letter to unnamed beneficiaries of a dark-money fund that he evidently controls, Leo bemoaned ‘that conservative philanthropy is too heavily weighted in the direction of … education about conservative ideas and policies’ and complained that ‘vastly insufficient funds are going toward operationalizing and weaponizing those ideas and policies to crush liberal dominance at the choke points of influence and power in our society.’ He implicitly threatened to withhold funding from grantees that don’t answer the call for weaponizing ‘the conservative vision.’”
It gets better, or worse, if you’re not a greedy, authoritarian asshole:
“The deepest, saddest revelation in Leo’s letter, of course, is not much of a revelation at all: that this conspiratorial mind sits atop one of the largest piles of corrupt money that the American political system has ever seen. The Marble Freedom Trust, which Leo controls, received a $1.6 billion contribution from a conservative Chicago billionaire, Barre Seid, in 2021. According to publicly available tax forms, the Marble Freedom Trust disbursed huge sums to two grantees with connections to Leo: $153,750,000 (yes, the number of zeros is correct) went to the Schwab Charitable Fund and $55,500,000 to the Concord Fund, which controls the Judicial Crisis Network, one of the many organizations in Leo’s orbit. The Schwab Charitable Fund’s form 990 for 2022 shows a transmission of $141,500,000 to the 85 Fund.
‘Leo has built a cash machine to advance his extreme agenda and to reverse constitutional freedoms that generations of Americans sacrificed to secure,’ said [Lisa] Graves [a former deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Policy at the Department of Justice]. ‘The ads fueled by the fortunes he has deployed often invoke lofty phrases like the ‘rule of law,’ and in his speeches he asserts that he holds the moral high ground. But there is no doubt that he has enriched himself by essentially profiting at the cost of other people’s rights, as he has sought—without being elected to office or appointed to the Court—to rewrite the Constitution to suit his agenda.’”
But that’s the whole point, in’it?
I have been writing full sentences for at least seven decades. I can't be sure, but I believe today is the first day I have ever inadvertently (or even purposely) written a full sentence in which every word begins with the same letter.
Drug Prices
"The Trump campaign's populist rhetoric on drug pricing is colliding with more traditional GOP concerns in Congress about heavy-handed government squelching pharmaceutical innovation.
The big picture: The tension surfaced this week when multiple high-ranking Republicans told Axios they want to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act's Medicare drug price negotiations next year if they prevail in the elections."
The idea that Trump and Vance will stand up to the pharmaceutical industry is a joke. Last time it took one meeting with Trump to get him to abandon lowering drug costs. But the media doesn't care about reality or bother to check the record most of the time.
Kamala ad
"We all know a girl who aspires to Kamala's heights. Now is the time to stand up for her."
NPR
"For the first time in decades, public health data shows a sudden and hopeful drop in drug overdose deaths across the U.S.
National surveys compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention already show an unprecedented decline in drug deaths of roughly 10.6 percent. That's a huge reversal from recent years when fatal overdoses regularly increased by double-digit percentages."
Apparently the Teamsters Headquarters has forgotten the fact that
it was Joe Biden who bailed out their pension fund in 2022 to the
tune of $36billion, $36,000,000,000.00.
Thanks to Joe Biden, I'm still receiving my monthly pension check
from the Teamsters.
Just what do they think Trump would have done for them? I think
he would have said 'fuck off', or how much of that can you sneak
into my pockets.
That bailout helpet 350,000 people, me being a most grateful one.
Does anyone else hear a dog whistle in Trump's announcement he's going to Springfield, Ohio, "but I may not come out alive?"
"but I may not come out alive". Does he think he might be eaten by
Hatians?
That would give a new meaning to 'chewing the fat.'
@Bobby Lee: I assumed the gist of it was that the scary Haitian immigrants were going to kill him. Do you see more?