;)
The Conversation -- September 21, 2024
Samantha Waldenberg of CNN: “Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday accepted an invitation from CNN to debate former President Donald Trump on October 23, challenging her rival to another engagement on a public stage in the final weeks of the campaign.” MB: I just heard on the teevee (at 3pm ET Saturday) that Chickenman Trump said he would not debate Harris again.
Erika Edwards, et al., of NBC News: “The number of women in Texas who died while pregnant, during labor or soon after childbirth skyrocketed following the state’s 2021 ban on abortion care — far outpacing a slower rise in maternal mortality across the nation, a new investigation of federal public health data finds. From 2019 to 2022, the rate of maternal mortality cases in Texas rose by 56%, compared with just 11% nationwide during the same time period, according to an analysis by the Gender Equity Policy Institute.... 'There’s only one explanation for this staggering difference in maternal mortality,' said Nancy L. Cohen, president of the GEPI. 'All the research points to Texas’ abortion ban as the primary driver of this alarming increase.... Texas, I fear, is a harbinger of what’s to come in other states'...”
Wisconsin Senate Race. Wis Politics: “A bombshell report this morning from Dan Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel revealed that Banco Azteca, a bank reportedly tied to the Mexican cartel flew $26 million of cash across the U.S.-Mexico Border to [GOP Senate candidate] Eric Hovde’s bank in California. As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel detailed, Banco Azteca was cut off by several other U.S. banks over 'risk and compliance concerns' after reporting linked it to cartel activity. An executive of the bank was recently implicated in a federal indictment detailing his attempts to bribe a member of the U.S. Congress to get U.S. banks to once again do business with the bank. Despite this, Eric Hovde’s bank flew $26 million of cash from Mexico City to Irvine, California as part of a deal with Banco Azteca last December. This shocking revelation comes as Hovde has refused to disclose which foreign banks and governments his bank has done millions of dollars of business with.” Thanks to RAS for the lead. ~~~
~~~ Marie: According to the Hill's poll of polls, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D) has a 5-point lead over Hovde, but Wisconsin is notorious for overcounting Democratic votes. Baldwin appeared on MSNBC Thursday or Friday and said the race was neck-and-neck.
Katie Hawkinson of the Independent: “New York Magazine’s Washington correspondent Olivia Nuzzi sent 'demure/ nude photos to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. which he later bragged about, two new reports claim....[Seventy]-year-old RFK Jr ... is married to the actor Cheryl Hines. Nuzzi apparently sent nude photos to the former independent presidential candidate, Puck News reported on Friday. Kennedy then bragged to his friends about receiving intimate photos of Nuzzi, The Daily Beast reported Saturday. These boasts ultimately made their way back to her boss, New York Magazine editor David Haskell.... On Friday, Nuzzi’s partner Ryan Lizza, a reporter at Politico, released a statement which referred to Nuzzi as his 'ex-finacée,' indicating the pair have broken up.”
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Presidential Race
Reid Epstein & Nicholas Nehamas of the New York Times: “Rallying supporters in two battleground states, Vice President Kamala Harris signaled on Friday that her closing campaign message would focus on the life-or-death risks that abortion bans pose to American women — and on the argument that ... Donald J. Trump is to blame. In Madison, Wis., a crowd that had been ebullient suddenly grew hushed as Ms. Harris spoke about her visit with the family of a Georgia woman who died of sepsis after waiting for more than 20 hours for medical care to treat an incomplete medication abortion.... Earlier in the day, Ms. Harris traveled to Georgia, where [Amber Nicole] Thurman and another woman, Candi Miller, died after delays in medical care tied to state abortion restrictions, according to reporting by ProPublica. Their deaths occurred in the months after Georgia passed a six-week ban made possible by the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.”
Maeve Reston & Clara Morse of the Washington Post: “Kamala Harris’s campaign raised more than four times as much as Donald Trump’s effort in August, capitalizing on the surge of Democratic enthusiasm during the first full month of her presidential campaign. But the super PACs aligned with Trump are continuing to raise large sums from high-dollar donors as the two candidates enter the final sprint before November.”
Alex Gangitano of the Hill: “Vice President Harris’s campaign’s unveiled an ad on Friday highlighting former President Trump’s praise for North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R), seeking to link the two Republicans following a bombshell CNN report [also linked below] on the gubernatorial candidate. The 30-second spot ... includes clips from Trump talking about Robinson, calling him 'better' than Martin Luther King Jr., 'outstanding,' and saying 'he’s been an unbelievable lieutenant governor.' The ad ... also includes clips of Robinson talking about his hard-right views on abortion.... Harris’s campaign has been eying North Carolina, a state that Trump won in 2016 and 2020, as a flip this cycle.” (Also linked yesterday.) More on Robinson linked under “North Carolina” below. ~~~
~~~ Marie: I'm so glad to see the Harris campaign running these hard-hitting ads. Biden's campaign was wa-a-a-ay too polite. You often had to look for the message. Harris' spots are blunt & tough. ~~~
~~~ Trump Stays True to Black NAZI Guy. Matt Dixon, et al., of NBC News: “Donald Trump is facing calls both from his allies and from within his own campaign to pull his endorsement from scandal-plagued North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson, according to four people familiar with the discussions. So far, however, there are no plans for the former president to formally drop him.... On Friday morning, [Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt] told NBC News that reports that Trump is considering pulling that endorsement are 'false.'... Robinson will not be attending a Trump rally planned for Saturday in Wilmington, North Carolina....”
Dawn Roberts in a Des Moines Register op-ed: “I served as an Iowa state co-chair of the Nikki Haley for President campaign. I think both parties let us down by selecting two candidates for president in or near their 80s. I was at a loss. Then, when President Joe Biden stepped down and endorsed Kamala Harris as his replacement, I decided to see who she really was. I was impressed with how she handled herself saying that she wanted to 'earn everyone’s support.' She showed willingness to listen to a wider range of views to solve problems. So I am supporting Kamala Harris for president. I am a lifelong Republican.”
Nikole Killion of CBS News: "More than 50 former football players and coaches, including several Pro Football Hall of Famers and Super Bowl MVP's, announced their endorsement Friday of Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz in the 2024 U.S. presidential election. The group represents 25 historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU's) and consists of 10 Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees, two Super Bowl champions and MVPs, former No. 1 overall picks and some of the first Black athletes and coaches to break the color barrier.... The announcement is being rolled out on National Black Voter Day, an initiative aimed at getting Black Americans registered to vote by November."
Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: “The International Brotherhood of Teamsters may not officially be endorsing a presidential candidate this year, but a scathing analysis concluded that its president has already done Donald Trump 'an unreasonably large favor.' Sean O'Brien divided the union, one of America's largest when he spoke at the Republican National Convention. That divide only deepened after union leadership declined to make a presidential endorsement for the first time in 28 years, with several local units coming forward to make their endorsements for Vice President Kamala Harris. O'Brien's predecessor James P. Hoffa even condemned the move. All of these decisions suggest that O'Brien is 'confused' about his responsibility to workers and not sure how to handle politics as a union leader, wrote Timothy Noah for The New Republic published on Friday.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: I was surprised when I linked to an article the other day that reported O'Brien said one reason for not endorsing Harris was that 60% of rank-&-file Teamsters supported Trump. But, even if the poll was accurate, most unions don't let members control endorsements; rather, one purpose of a union endorsement is to educate members on why a particular candidate is the better/best choice.
For Us, It Is the Eve of the Autumnal Equinox. In Trumpland, It's Springtime for Hitler. Rachel Maddow pointed out last night that this past week has been Don & JayDee's Nazi Week. At two events, one meant to condemn antisemitism, Trump made the antisemitic accusation to an audience of Republican Jews that if he lost the election, it would be largely the Jews' fault. (About 2.4 percent of Americans are Jewish.) Then JayDee sat for a second interview with Tucker Carlson (whom Maddow did not name but she showed clips of him) who was just off an interview with an “historian” who praised Hitler. TuKKKer, in return, praised the fake historian as “the best and most honest popular historian in the United States.” Finally, we learned this week that Trump's handpicked candidate for governor of North Carolina, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, had called himself “a black NAZI” and said Hitler was better than U.S. political leaders at a time when Barack Obama was POTUS. ~~~
~~~ AND There's This. Christopher Mathias of the Huffington Post: “Last weekend..., Donald Trump posted another anti-immigrant screed to Truth Social. It would have been unremarkable ― at least, graded on the Trumpian curve of extreme xenophobia ― except for one word. '[We will] return Kamala’s illegal migrants to their home countries (also known as remigration),' he wrote. 'I will save our cities and towns in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and all across America.'... '#Remigration has had a massive conceptual career,” Martin Sellner — leader of the Austrian chapter of Generation Identity, a pan-European white supremacist network — tweeted in his native German. 'Born in France, popularized in German-speaking countries and now the term of the hour from Sweden to the USA!'... [Sellner] has been at the vanguard of pushing 'remigration' — a euphemism for ethnically cleansing non-white people from Western countries — into the popular political lexicon in Europe.... Trump’s use of 'remigration' ... underscor[es] the degree to which ... [the Republican party] is sourcing many of its talking points and policy ideas directly from neo-fascists.”
Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: “Donald Trump’s repeated assertion on Thursday that 'the Jewish people would have a lot to do with' his loss if Kamala Harris prevailed on Election Day set off a mix of outrage and concern among Jewish leaders on Friday, raising fears that ardent supporters of the former president could be incited against Jews in an era of rising political violence.”
Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: “Political violence has always been part of American public life. But to the extent that it is today an acute problem, it is impossible to separate from the terrible influence of Donald Trump. On Monday, Trump blamed Democrats for political violence. 'Because of this Communist Left Rhetoric, the bullets are flying, and it will only get worse,' he wrote.... 'Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country,' he said in an interview with Fox News.... In 2016, reported hate crimes jumped by 226 percent in counties that hosted Trump campaign rallies.... Hate crimes reached a 16-year high during Trump’s time in office, with a significant increase of violence against Latinos.... There is only one politician who has placed violence at the center of his movement. Only one politician who is running for president on a promise of 'retribution.' Only one politician who has promised that if he is elected again, he will unleash the state against a wide array of disfavored groups.”
Even When There Were Guardrails.... Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: In an Oval Office meeting in the spring of 2018, Donald Trump told aides that if AG Jeff Sessions would not prosecute Hillary Clinton & Jim Comey, Trump would prosecute them himself. White House counsel Don McGahn was able to head Trump off, but “the episode marked the start of a more aggressive effort by Mr. Trump to deploy his power against his perceived enemies despite warnings not to do so by top aides. And a look back at the cases of 10 individuals brings a pattern into clearer focus: After Mr. Trump made repeated public or private demands for them to be targeted by the government, they faced federal pressure of one kind or another.... A closer examination [of the cases] reveals the degree of concern and pushback against Mr. Trump’s demands inside the White House. And it highlights how closely his expressed desires to go after people who had drawn his ire were sometimes followed by the Justice Department, F.B.I. or other agencies....
“The story of that period has a powerful resonance today as Mr. Trump, angered in part by the two federal and two state-level indictments of him since leaving office, threatens to carry out a campaign of retribution if he returns to the White House. He has signaled that a second Trump administration would be stocked not with people who served as guardrails during his first term, but with carefully vetted loyalists who would eagerly carry out his wishes.” It's worth looking at the linked story that outlines the retribution brought against people who aggravated Trump. ~~~
~~~ Even if you don't have an NYT subscription, you might want to scroll down the Times' front page, which currently (and certainly not for long) has a video of Schmidt discussing his story. (If the video disappears off the front page, it can be accessed here.)
Arizona. Patrick Marley & Yvonne Sanchez of the Washington Post: “The Arizona Supreme Court’s chief justice ruled Friday that nearly 100,000 voters should receive regular ballots this fall even though there is no record that they had submitted documentation to state officials proving they are citizens. The battleground state’s high court issued its ruling three days after officials told the justices they had recently discovered state computer systems had identified some longtime residents as having provided citizenship documents even though they had not. Election officials said they were confident all or nearly all of the voters are citizens, but some allies of ... Donald Trump seized on the issue to suggest large numbers of immigrants could be voting illegally. Voting by noncitizens is exceedingly rare....” Thanks to Ken W. for the link.
Georgia. Nick Corasaniti & Johnny Kauffman of the New York Times: “The Georgia State Election Board is set to vote on Friday on a package of nearly a dozen rules that would change the way elections are conducted amid growing pressure from almost every level of Georgia state government advising the board that it is operating outside of its legal authority.... The proposals come just 45 days before the election, after poll workers have been trained and ballots have been mailed to overseas voters. On Thursday, the attorney general’s office took the rare step of weighing in on the proposed rules, saying they 'very likely exceed the board’s statutory authority.' The fight comes as the election board is under increasing pressure from critics already concerned that it has been rewriting the rules of the game in a key swing state to favor ... Donald J. Trump, including potentially disrupting certification of the election if Mr. Trump loses in November. Last month, the board granted local officials new power over the election-certification process, a change that opponents say could sow chaos.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Update. Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: “The Georgia State Election Board approved a rule Friday requiring counties in the critical presidential battleground to hand-count all ballots this year, potentially upending the November election by delaying reporting of results by weeks if not months. The change was spearheaded by a pro-Trump majority that has enacted a series of changes to the state’s election rules in recent weeks and approved the hand-count requirement despite a string of public commenters who begged them not to. Critics included democracy advocates who accused the board of intentionally injecting chaos and uncertainty into the presidential contest, as well as election supervisors and poll workers who said hand counts would take too long, cost money and almost certainly produce counting errors. The office of the Republican state attorney general, which is responsible for advising the board, wrote in an opinion that the change was unlawful.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Where Chaos Is Not a Bug but a Feature. Ari Berman of Mother Jones on how these Trumpists could overturn a Harris win: “If there’s a lengthy dispute over the vote count, Georgia could miss the December 11 deadline for certifying its Electoral College results. If no candidate receives the 270 votes necessary to win the Electoral College as a result, the presidential election would be thrown to the House of Representatives, where Republicans control a majority of state House delegations, allowing them to swing the election to Trump. 'It is not just a nightmare scenario, it’s a very real possibility,' [voting rights activist Stacey] Abrams told me recently....” MB: And Abrams drew this conclusion before the very latest rules change.
Nebraska. Patrick Marley, et al., of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump spoke by phone this week with a Nebraska state senator as part of a last-minute push to change how the state allocates its electoral votes and block the easiest path Vice President Kamala Harris has to win the White House.... The change is supported by Trump, [Gov. Jim] Pillen, all of the state’s U.S. senators and congressmen, and a majority of the unicameral legislature, according to people involved in the process. But Republicans have not yet been able to convince a supermajority of the legislature — all 33 Republican state senators — which would be needed to override a filibuster to pass the change before the November election.... [Sen. Lindsey] Graham met Wednesday with Pillen and around two dozen state senators about the proposal....”
Digby, in Salon, comments on the various GOP plans to overturn or toss state election results favoring Harris, including in Nebraska, where "Senator Lindsey Graham ... [is] leading a delegation for Donald Trump ... to try to convince the Republican legislature to change their electoral college system to winner-take-all all.... This first came up a few months back but it didn't go anywhere because Maine, which has a similar system, said they would do the same which would make it a wash. Unfortunately, the deadline for Maine to do that appears to have passed which explains why the Republicans are moving on it now. Graham thinks it's perfectly legitimate to have them change the law 6 weeks before the election for the clear purpose of benefiting Donald Trump but they screamed bloody murder over some rules changes in 2020 to deal with the deadly pandemic. They like to call this 'election integrity.'”
Nevada. Adam Liptak of the New York Times: “The Supreme Court said on Friday that it would not restore the Green Party’s presidential candidate, Jill Stein, to the Nevada ballot in the coming election. Democrats had challenged her eligibility, saying her party had submitted flawed paperwork. The court’s brief order gave no reasons, which is typical when it acts on emergency applications. There were no noted dissents. The Nevada Supreme Court ruled this month that the Green Party’s failure to submit a sworn statement required by state regulations meant that its candidates could not appear on the ballot.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Mike DeWine Is Sad. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) in a New York Times op-ed: “As a supporter of former President Donald Trump and Senator JD Vance, I am saddened by how they and others continue to repeat claims that lack evidence and disparage the legal migrants living in Springfield. This rhetoric hurts the city and its people, and it hurts those who have spent their lives there. The Biden administration’s failure to control the southern border is a very important issue that Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance are talking about and one that the American people are rightfully deeply concerned about. But their verbal attacks against these Haitians — who are legally present in the United States — dilute and cloud what should be a winning argument about the border. The Springfield I know is not the one you hear about in social media rumors. It is a city made up of good, decent, welcoming people. They are hard workers — both those who were born in this country and those who settled here because, back in their birthplace, Haiti, innocent people can be killed just for cheering on the wrong team in a soccer match.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Shorter DeWine: Trump & Vance are repeatedly attacking the good people of my hometown with racist lies, but I'm voting for them anyway. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Really? Really? DeWine is “saddened” that Don & JayDee have defiled his hometown?
Mychael Schnell & Rebecca Beitsch of the Hill: “The House unanimously passed a bill Friday that seeks to bolster former President Trump’s security, the first legislative move the chamber has made in response to the second apparent assassination attempt against the Republican presidential nominee. The House cleared the legislation — titled the Enhanced Presidential Security Act — in a bipartisan 405-0 vote, sending it to the Senate for consideration. It’s unclear if the upper chamber plans to consider the measure, though similar legislation has been proposed by Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.).” MB: I hope there's something in the bill that says, “but only if that arrogant SOB cooperates with his security detail.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post: “The Secret Service is responsible for multiple security failures that led to the July 13 assassination attempt against ... Donald Trump ... at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., according to the results of the first report on the attack released Friday. The elite protective agency’s internal review found that agents failed to use technology that might have detected the attacker as he flew a drone over the rally venue hours earlier. Trump’s protective detail had no idea police were frantically searching for a suspicious person, until shots were fired into the crowd. And the Secret Service, which is the lead agency in charge of security for presidents, former leaders and other top U.S. officials, never directed local police snipers to cover a nearby rooftop even though the snipers were willing to do it, the report found.” The story has been updated to include commentary by Acting Director Ronald Rowe. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ The five-page summary report, via the Secret Service, is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
Trump's Lawyers Thumb Noses at Judge Chutkan. Alan Feuer of the New York Times: Donald Trump's lawyers “used what was supposed to have been a procedural request for more information from prosecutors to demand that the judge strike the charges altogether — or at least remake the carefully considered schedule she set this month for pursuing next steps in the proceeding. 'This case should be dismissed,' the lawyers wrote in the first sentence of their 30-page motion to Judge Tanya S. Chutkan. 'Promptly.' While that sort of blunt assertion might not have been surprising in a filing that was actually meant to seek dismissal, Judge Chutkan had requested only that the lawyers weigh in on a procedural question.... And yet ... the lawyers sought to repurpose the filing to their client’s own ends, employing the same type of combativeness expressed by Mr. Trump in discussing the charges against him.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Jose Pagliery in NOTUS: “Rep. Matt Gaetz attended a drug-fueled sex party in 2017 with the 17-year-old girl at the center of the alleged sex trafficking scandal, according to legal documents filed to a Florida federal court shortly before midnight Thursday, which cite sealed affidavits from three eyewitness testimonies.... One eyewitness cited in the court filings, a young woman referred to as K.M., provided a sworn affidavit that claimed the teenage girl was naked, partygoers were there to 'engage in sexual activities,' and 'alcohol, cocaine, ecstasy … and marijuana' were present. The teenage girl was identified in the filings only as A.B.... This marks the first time that sworn testimony has been referenced in public court filings alleging that the congressman attended one of the long-rumored parties tied to an alleged underage sex scandal.” MB: Gaetz would have been 34 or 35 years old at the time of the party.
Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: “What Trump has done to the Republican Party, [Elon] Musk has done to Twitter.... It was always bad, but now it’s much worse. Because Musk has ruined its system for verifying users and gutted its content moderation, it’s teeming with fake news.... White nationalists have been welcomed back onto the platform, and many journalists have fled.... [Similar to Trump's takeover of the GOP,] Musk has transformed Twitter into a dull, fetid cesspool of white nationalism and paranoid lies. But by making it an extension of his own disordered id, he’s taken a platform that has always been toxic and decreased its relevance, especially to those outside the right.... Musk spent a fortune on the largest megaphone he could find, only to discover that the more he shouts into it, the fewer people are listening.”
Declan Harty of Politico: “The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to seek sanctions against Elon Musk after he missed previously scheduled testimony for the regulator’s investigation into his $44 billion purchase of Twitter, according to a court filing. It was the second time the billionaire tech mogul skipped out on testifying for the probe of the acquisition of the social media site.... Musk was slated to testify on the morning of Sept. 10 at the SEC’s Los Angeles office.... However, just hours before the testimony’s scheduled start, one of Musk’s attorneys notified the SEC that he would not be able to attend because he had to 'urgently travel' to Cape Canaveral, Florida, the day before for SpaceX’s latest launch, Polaris Dawn, according to the filing.”
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California. Heather Knight of the New York Times: “A California firefighter was arrested Friday morning after allegedly setting five fires in wine country during what has already been a bad year for wildfires in the state. Robert Hernandez, a 38-year-old fire apparatus engineer with Cal Fire, the state’s main firefighting agency, was arrested on suspicion of setting fires on forest land near the Northern California towns of Geyserville, Healdsburg and Windsor between Aug. 15 and Sept. 14. The fires remained small, burning less than an acre of land combined, because local residents and firefighters worked quickly to extinguish them, according to Cal Fire.”
North Carolina Gubernatorial Race. Hannah Knowles & Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: “A porn site user linked to North Carolina gubernatorial nominee Mark Robinson praised Adolf Hitler’s book 'Mein Kampf' in addition to declaring himself a 'black NAZI,' according to screenshots obtained by The Washington Post.... 'Mein Kampf is a good read,' the user, dubbed 'minisoldr,' wrote in a thread seeking book recommendations. 'It’s very informative and not at all what I thought it would be. It’s a real eye opener.' The book, an autobiography by Hitler, casts Jews as an 'eternal parasite.'” ~~~
~~~ Marie: I suppose you could call reading & espousing Nazi propaganda a form of porn, but it still seems odd that a person would use a porn site called Nude Africa to praise Hitler & the Nazis. ~~~
~~~ Philip Bump of the Washington Post: Mark Robinson tries out the latest version of the “I was hacked” defense: “AI did it!” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Oh, and it turns out Mark Robinson has a very fine collection of detailed models of SS soldiers. He shares photos of the miniatures on a Website called UltimateSoldier.net. Allegedly. Could have been an AI deep-fake, you know. Via Paul Campos in LG&$.
Texas/New Mexico. Kelly Rissman of the Independent: “In an effort to prevent migrant crossings from the southern border, Texas installed a razor wire along its border with New Mexico, not Mexico — upsetting the southwestern state’s governor. Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced on September 14 that his state would be 'TRIPLING our razor wire border barriers to deny illegal entry into our state and our country.' However, rather than installing the razor wire along the Rio Grande river bank that faces Mexico, KTSM on Tuesday captured footage of Texas Army National Guard troops installing it along a bank that faces New Mexico.... New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, told The Independent in a statement that Republican Abbott’s latest move was a 'political stunt' that will have 'will have no meaningful impact on our nation’s broken immigration system.'”
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Israel/Palestine, et al.
The New York Times' live updates of developments Saturday in Israel's wars are here.
The New York Times' live updates of developments Friday in Israel's wars are here: “The Israeli military on Friday carried out an airstrike in Beirut that it said killed a senior Hezbollah commander wanted by the United States for his role in bombings in the 1980s that killed hundreds. Hezbollah did not immediately confirm that the commander, Ibrahim Aqeel, had been killed in the strike.... Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman, told reporters that Mr. Aqeel was meeting other militants underneath a residential building in an attempt to 'use civilians as human shields.'... Mr. Aqeel has been accused by the United States of being involved in two terrorist attacks in 1983 that killed more than 350 people at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and the U.S. Marine Corps barracks.” (Also linked yesterday.)
13 Comments
Reader Comments (13)
In yesterday’s comments, Akhilleus referenced Fort Sumter in response to my comment about it being early days. I recently finished reading Erik Larson’s The Demon of Unrest, about the siege of Fort Sumter and the lead to the Civil War. Highly recommend it to any and all history buffs. His observations about The Chivalry in South Carolina ring especially true today in light of JayDee and his paean to his imagined Southern Bourbons.
After watching KAOS on Netflix streaming, I have decided to write
a Greek tragedy based in Washington, D.C. during the reign of
Trumpus Flabbius.
The only problem is, there were so many during his reign who
thought they were Gods and Goddesses that it's difficult to match up
his subjects with the Greek Gods and Goddesses.
I got as far as Eric the Least but there's a lot more research to do. It
may take months.
RockyGirl,
I’ve read several of Larson’s books. He’s a crackerjack writer who turns voluminous research into highly readable historical narratives. I’ll definitely check this out. All the talk these days about civil war from the Trumpists sounds more ominous than the usual right-wing blather. The nuts have been empowered and are told, almost hourly, by Trump!—that if he doesn’t win bloodshed will be required. We have our own demon of unrest to deal with, and it’s being conjured up by an unstable demagogue and fed by vitriolic lies.
How’s that for a nice Saturday morning how’dya do?
Forrest,
Let me suggest my old pal Edith Hamilton. Her books on Mythology and Greek history may help.
My favorite among the Civil War histories is a four-volume war prequel by Allan Nevins called The Ordeal of the Union. Similar to now, back then national solidarity became less important than domination of each section by the other. In my lifetime, such a spiritual break has become evident each time the country hasn't been embroiled in war. The end of the Afghanistan adventure combined with the increasing illegitimacy of our Iraq invasion has focused Americans on exactly what they don't like about each other. Back then, it was the end of the Mexican War that refocused the politics on slavery and whether or not to extend its Biblical but evil reach into the newly-acquired, formerly Mexican territories. Now the influence of religion and money must be addressed if a country full of a post-religious, more financially strapped middle class is to remain representative.
Kamala and Oprah clips
Republicans
"A bombshell report this morning from Dan Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel revealed that Banco Azteca, a bank reportedly tied to the Mexican cartel flew $26 million of cash across the U.S.-Mexico Border to Eric Hovde’s bank in California"
Forrest,
Just thought of something. My brother and I were big into Greek and Roman mythology as kids (the name Akhilleus is kind of a giveaway) and we mainlined Hamilton’s books. We also came up with our own versions of various names. One of our favorites was our take on the Delphic Oracle, renamed the Delphic Orifice (hey, eighth grade boys, what’d you expect? Sophisticated humor?)
Anyway, that might give you a jump on what to call Eric the Stoopid. Maybe the Doofus Orifice?
The last minute rule changes in Georgia are designed specifically with the goal of injecting chaos into the system, thereby delaying or outright denying a correct vote tally. One of the goals of all this chaos is to throw the election to the House, now controlled by Fatty’s bobble head lackey, Bible Mike. The crooks, clowns, and traitors running that debased branch of government will have no problem throwing out a win for Harris and declaring the Orange Monster the winner.
A major problem with this last minute order to hand count votes is the built-in possibility of error. With some Trump goon looking over their shoulders, it would be amazing if election workers saddled with new rules and little time for training, made no mistakes.
Once a single mistake is made, the Traitors will pounce on that mistake as “proof” of election rigging and demand the whole election be declared null and void so the House can hand the victory to the loser, Trump.
But this is only one of dozens of election stealing schemes in effect right now. I’m not even sure an overwhelming victory by Harris will be allowed to stand if the Traitors have their way.
Walz in the moment
Alexandra Petri
"Uncovered forum posts by Tim Walz could shake up race
CNN and ProPublica found that Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz is the owner of an active account on the website HotOrNotDish.net, where he posts under the anonymous username DarthTater, according to an investigative analysis of comments on the forum. The user DarthTater has for more than a decade offered compliments (sometimes accompanied by a flame emoji) under every single photo uploaded to the site for hot dish appreciators.
The account also mentioned the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in one post, in which it wished other HotOrNotDish.net users a “happy MLK weekend!” and hoped they would get to “spend it with family, eating hot dish.”
Walz appears to have been active under the same username for years on a variety of HotOrNotDish.net’s subforums for other hot dish-related issues, including once posting 24 times in a thread dedicated to the question of “Is hot dish casserole?” DarthTater ultimately concluded, “Sorry, friends. I’ve got to hit the hay. A lot of good points. Food for thought (almost as delicious as hot dish).”"
RAS,
No doubt Trump, Shady Vance, and Fox will try to equate Walz’s posts about casseroles with Robinson’s posts about Nazi porn.
In case anyone wonders, Petri's column is satire.