The Conversation -- August 12, 2024

On the Cover of Time Magazine. Cover story by Charlotte Alter: Kamala "Harris has pulled off the swiftest vibe shift in modern political history.... Over the span of a few weeks in late July and early August, Harris became a political phenomenon.... Suddenly, she seems matched to the moment: a former prosecutor running against a convicted felon, a defender of abortion rights running against the man who helped overturn Roe v. Wade, a next-generation Democrat running against a 78-year-old Republican. Perhaps above all, she has given Americans the one thing they overwhelmingly told pollsters they wanted: a credible alternative to the two unpopular old men who have held the job for the past eight long years."

Marie's Sport's Report. In the Athletic (New York Times), fellow high school football coaches and players at remember defensive coach Tim Walz.

Lisa Rubin & Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "An attorney for ... Donald Trump has filed a legal notice announcing that his client plans to sue the Justice Department and the FBI for $115 million for alleged 'malicious political prosecution' and 'abuse of process.' The notice, a copy of which NBC News obtained Monday, baselessly accuses DOJ leadership and special counsel Jack Smith of having perpetrated a 'malicious political prosecution aimed at affecting an electoral outcome to prevent President Trump from being re-elected'.... The filing says Trump is seeking "$15 million in actual harm due to his legal costs in defending the Special Counsel proceedings before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida." It's unclear how much of that money came from Trump personally. NBC News has reported previously that Trump appeared to be using money from a political action committee for his legal fees. He's also seeking $100 million in punitive damages." ~~~

     ~~~ One minor flaw in Trump's suit: Rubin said on MSNBC that federal law prohibits awards for punitive damages against the federal government.

Oh, Shame on Us. Alexandra Marquez of NBC News: "After years of condemning ... Donald Trump for spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories, Democrats are now poking fun at his running mate using a false, vulgar rumor. The rumor, first posted on X last month, involves a fake passage about a sex act and a couch supposedly in Sen. JD Vance's 2016 book, 'Hillbilly Elegy.' The lie spread like wildfire, spawning jokes and memes even as the original joke's author clarified that it wasn't real and later made his account private." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Yeah, well, you can't proveJayDee never fucked a sofa, either. Years ago, Akhilleus and I (and others) used to joke about Ross Douthat's having a relationship with a blow-up doll. I don't recall where we got that story, but I think it too came via something the subject of our derision had written, maybe about his technical celibacy. The point isn't that these stories are true but how easy it is to picture JayDee and Ross animating the inanimate for sexual gratification. And if you're an obnoxious jerk who aspires to celebrity, you just have to accept this kind of, well, gleeful flogging.

Marie: At first, I thought the video here was fake, but a cursory Internet search provides evidence it is not. It turns out that Donald Trump's bizarre claim (see below) that Kamala Harris was speaking before fake crowds has its roots, as is often the case, in Trump's penchant for projection. Trump, it seems, waves to fake crowds all the time. Thanks to RAS for the lead: ~~~

You can’t blame Trump for being sensitive about the huge crowd that showed up at the airport for Harris, given the fact that he has to always wave to imaginary people he wishes would show up. pic.twitter.com/ZbdUtYaTGJ

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) August 11, 2024

Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "Why would Trump and his allies spread a false claim about attendance at a rally that was covered on C-SPAN? In part because many elements of Trump's base have embraced rejections of basic reality ... for years.... But in part, it's because Trump and his allies are already eagerly raising questions about the reliability of measures of Harris's support -- and by extension, the reliability of the results in November.... Recall that his efforts to reject the 2020 results did not emerge out of the blue in November of that year.... [He began claiming mail-in ballots were insecure months before the election.] His base was more than prepared when he subsequently challenged the actual election results. That's the pattern that is again underway...."

Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: Rep. Jason Crow's (D-Colo.) "credentials -- including three tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan and a Bronze Star, as well as a law degree and a background in private-sector investigations -- have made Mr. Crow a go-to lawmaker for Democratic leaders on difficult national security issues.... [Then-Speaker] Pelosi tapped him in 2019 to manage the first impeachment of President Donald J. Trump. He was part of the whip operation to rally support for legislation to send tens of billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine. He was selected as the top Democrat on a subcommittee investigating the Biden administration's botched withdrawal from Afghanistan. And last month, he was named the senior Democrat on a bipartisan task force to investigate the attempted assassination of Mr. Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania."

The New York Times' live updates of developments Monday in the Israel/Hamas war are here.

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Presidential Race

Here's a handy bar graph on the front page of the New York Times that charts the careers of the Republican and Democratic candidates. Not sure why Trump's bar is so much longer than everybody else's; oh, he's so old:

     ~~~ Here's a link to a more detailed NYT chart of the candidates' careers.

Yamiche Alcindor & Summer Concepcion of NBC News: "Several prominent Democratic figures are set to speak at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this month, two sources familiar with the plans told NBC News. President Joe Biden, former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have been confirmed as speakers at the convention. Obama and the Clintons delivered speeches during the 2020 DNC, which was largely held virtually to prevent the spread of Covid-19 amid the pandemic. A source familiar said that former President Jimmy Carter's grandson Jason Carter is also confirmed to be speaking as a representative for his grandfather." MB: Wonder why the RNC didn't feature speeches by any former presidents or their representatives?

Robert Costa of CBS News: "In his first interview since withdrawing from his re-election bid last month, President Biden told 'CBS Sunday Morning' that he made his decision, in part, so that the Democratic Party could fully concentrate on what he believes is an urgent task at hand: preventing ... Donald Trump from regaining the White House.... '... although it's a great honor being president, I think I have an obligation to the country to do what [is] the most important thing you can do, and that is, we must, we must, we must defeat Trump.'" The article includes video of the interview. Or you can watch it here on YouTube.

⭐Adam Kinzinger in a Fox "News" opinion piece: "In general, [members of the U.S. military] all respect each other and understand that whether you are kicking down doors, flying planes, gassing vehicles, or cooking food, you are willing to do what 98 percent of the country isn't: serve for a cause above all others. This makes the attacks on Tim Walz, particularly those from JD Vance, especially sickening. JD Vance was an enlisted Marine who served honorably. While he didn't see combat (he was in public affairs), he deployed and served his nation. He got out at the end of his service commitment after four years. For his service, he should be commended. Following in his father's footsteps, Tim Walz joined the Army Guard, enlisting just two days after his 17th birthday, when he first became eligible, and served honorably for 24 years, achieving the highest enlisted rank offered. Then, he went on to serve as a champion for veterans and military families in Congress, leading the effort to pass a bipartisan bill to provide mental health services to veterans, leading a bipartisan effort to expand the GI Bill, and repeatedly voting to increase military funding. The nation should be proud, and JD Vance should be respectful of his fellow brother-in-arms.... The attacks on Walz have proven to be not only false but also disgusting." Read on. (Also linked yesterday.)

⭐ Trump Gets Crazier. Ariana Cha of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump falsely claimed on social media Sunday that a crowd at a Michigan rally for Vice President Kamala Harris last week 'DIDN'T EXIST,' 'nobody was there' and that photos of the event were fabricated by artificial intelligence.... 'Has anyone noticed that Kamala CHEATED at the airport? There was nobody at the plane, and she "A.I."d it, and showed a massive "crowd" of so-called followers, BUT THEY DIDN'T EXIST!' the Republican nominee for president wrote on social media. Trump continued, 'She's a CHEATER. She had NOBODY waiting, and the "crowd" looked like 10,000 people! Same thing is happening with her fake "crowds" at her speeches. This is the way the Democrats win Elections, by CHEATING.' There were in fact thousands of people gathered when the plane arrived at the airport, and there is no evidence that news organizations altered photos using artificial intelligence. There is also no evidence that Harris, or Democrats more broadly, have cheated to win elections.... Trump ... for years has been focused on crowd size as a metric of success." ~~~

     ~~~ Eric Bradner of CNN: "Donald Trump falsely claimed in a series of social media posts Sunday that 'nobody' attended Vice President Kamala Harris" Michigan rally last week -- and said his Democratic rival should be 'disqualified' over a 'fake crowd picture.' The former president appeared to have fallen for a far-right conspiracy theory -- one easily disproved by photos and videos captured by attendees and media showing thousands of supporters at the event at an airport hangar near Detroit." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Of course some of Trump's crazy is fox-adjacent: many of his lies and misstatements are calculated to delegitimize Harris. Sunday, his charge was that a fake fake photo "disqualified" her from becoming president. Thursday, he claimed that her nomination to the presidency was "unconstitutional." So if Harris wins the election, not only will it be because she CHEATED, but also because of various Constitutional prohibitions (he's already floated birtherism) and disqualifying acts.

Matt Bai of the Washington Post implies, but doesn't quite say, that the fact that Trump didn't appear to age much during his so-called presidency* is proof he didn't have the qualities to be president. "... clinical callousness may well be a fountain of youth -- from which Trump's been guzzling his entire life." MB: Personally, I think Trump has grown noticeably more addled than he was when he first took office, although holding the top job should not have affected his faculties because he spent little time at work.

Domenico Montanaro of NPR (August 11): "A team of NPR reporters and editors reviewed the transcript of [Donald Trump's] news conference and found at least 162 misstatements, exaggerations and outright lies in 64 minutes. That's more than two a minute. It"s a stunning number for anyone -- and even more problematic for a person running to lead the free world." Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: As a number of contributors pointed out in yesterday's Comments, that's all very nice, but what the public needs are contemporaneous fact-checks. This one -- which includes the 162 lies and misstatements -- was published three days after Trump's press availability. While it would be impossible to immediately check all of Trump's lies during his public speeches, many of his falsehoods are repetitions, so it's possible to have a cursory fact-check at the ready for those. My suggestions would be a side-crawl on the teevee, plus a somewhat more extensive fact-check, with links where possible, on the network's Website. Networks could try sharing factcheckers to save money.

⭐A Brit Describes Donald Trump. Nate White in the London Daily: "Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace -- all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed." Read on. You may like the British better and Trump even less than you already do. (Also linked yesterday.)

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "As long as I've covered Republican campaigns, there has been racial fearmongering.... Trump, who adopted his father's view that some bloodlines are 'superior' to others, has slipped into the usual Republican race-baiting.... He is clearly befuddled by someone with brown skin who has come not to hurt Americans, but to save them from Donald Trump; someone who is not scary, as he is, but joyful, not threatening but thrilling. And, in Trump's worst nightmare, this dark-skinned someone is attracting huge adoring, dancing, laughing crowds." (Also linked yesterday.)

David French, a right-wing, anti-abortion columnist for the New York Times, will vote for Kamala Harris to "save conservatism" from Donald Trump. "The only real hope for restoring a conservatism that values integrity, demonstrates real compassion and defends our foundational constitutional principles isn't to try to make the best of Trump, a man who values only himself. If he wins again, it will validate his cruelty and his ideological transformation of the Republican Party. If Harris wins, the West will still stand against Vladimir Putin, and conservative Americans will have a chance to build something decent from the ruins of a party that was once a force for genuine good in American life."

"Sofa Loren." Lily Lazarus of the Daily Beast, republished by Yahoo! News: "An image of JD Vance allegedly dressed as a woman and wearing a blonde wig was posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, on Sunday. The unconfirmed image quickly picked up steam and began trending under the hashtag #SofaLoren, a reference to the iconic Italian actress ... and false claims that the Republican senator had sex with a couch. A spokesperson for the Republican vice presidential pick did not deny the photo's authenticity when approached by the Daily Beast, and did not offer any further comment. The source who surfaced the alleged photo, Travis Whitfill, says the picture was taken by a fellow Yale classmate in 2012, when Vance was attending law school at the university, and sent to him by another friend. Whitfill then sent it to podcast host Matt Bernstein, who posted it to X." MB: I wonder if JayDee thinks cross-dressers should get extra votes (the same way he said parents should) because they speak for more than one sex.

Fiduciary Duty? Ha Ha Ha. Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "To protect older Americans' life savings, President Joe Biden pledged in October to crack down on financial advisers who recommend investments just because they pay higher commissions. Then the insurance industry got to work. Lobbying groups representing New York Life, Lincoln Financial Group, Prudential Financial and other companies first pushed back against the newly proposed regulations before suing to topple them entirely. Now the government's latest attempt to protect retirees is in political and legal limbo, facing the possibility that it may never take effect. It is the latest example of a pervasive pattern: As the Biden administration tries to impose new restrictions on powerful industries, those businesses successfully turn to Congress and the courts for a reprieve.... In July, the industries scored a string of critical early victories: Congress took the first step toward invalidating the new rules, while judges in two federal courts blocked the government from implementing the proposal nationwide in September, as planned, potentially setting the stage for the regulations to be scrapped."

Lisa Neeham of Public Notice argues that Elon Musk is trying "to dismantle the foundations of democracy." Thanks to RAS for the link. MB: Not that we don't have plenty of our very own home-grown seditionists, but Elon does kind of validate the Founders' decision to prohibit foreign-born presidents.

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Hawaii Congressional Races. Praveena Somasundaram of the Washington Post: "Sen. Mazie Hirono (D) won the Democratic primary in Hawaii for her Senate seat, the Associated Press projects, defeating two challengers on her path to a third term. The Democratic Party dominates politics in Hawaii, and Democratic winners are likely to defeat their challengers in November, an advantage they will need as they try to hold the Senate amid tight contests in other states.... In November, Hirono will face Bob McDermott, who won the Republican nomination for the Senate race, AP projected.... In Hawaii's 1st Congressional District primary, Rep. Ed Case defeated Cecil Hale, the Associated Press projected. Case, who first served in Congress from 2002 to 2007, has held the seat since 2019. In November, he will face Republican Patrick Largey, who ran unopposed. In the 2nd District, Democratic Rep. Jill Tokuda, who is seeking her second term, and Republican Steven Bond ran unopposed and will advance to the general election in November."

Hawaii State House Election. AP: "Hawaii's longtime House speaker lost his Democratic Party primary election to a former state Board of Education member who campaigned on tackling corruption in government. Speaker Scott Saiki was ousted by Kim Coco Iwamoto. Iwamoto's website says she is fighting to expose government corruption and waste -- and to provide sufficient shelter and enough social workers to address homelessness. Saiki has been speaker since 2017 and a state representative for three decades. He served as president of the National Conference of State Legislators from 2021 to 2022."

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The New York Times' live updates of developments Sunday in the Israel/Hamas war are here. (Also linked yesterday.)

The Conversation -- August 11, 2024

⭐A Brit Describes Donald Trump. Nate White in the London Daily: "Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace -- all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed." Read on. You may like the British better and Trump even less than you already do.

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "As long as I've covered Republican campaigns, there has been racial fearmongering.... Trump, who adopted his father's view that some bloodlines are 'superior' to others, has slipped into the usual Republican race-baiting.... He is clearly befuddled by someone with brown skin who has come not to hurt Americans, but to save them from Donald Trump; someone who is not scary, as he is, but joyful, not threatening but thrilling. And, in Trump's worst nightmare, this dark-skinned someone is attracting huge adoring, dancing, laughing crowds."

⭐Adam Kinzinger in a Fox "News" opinion piece: "In general, [members of the U.S. military] all respect each other and understand that whether you are kicking down doors, flying planes, gassing vehicles, or cooking food, you are willing to do what 98 percent of the country isn't: serve for a cause above all others. This makes the attacks on Tim Walz, particularly those from JD Vance, especially sickening. JD Vance was an enlisted Marine who served honorably. While he didn't see combat (he was in public affairs), he deployed and served his nation. He got out at the end of his service commitment after four years. For his service, he should be commended. Following in his father's footsteps, Tim Walz joined the Army Guard, enlisting just two days after his 17th birthday, when he first became eligible, and served honorably for 24 years, achieving the highest enlisted rank offered. Then, he went on to serve as a champion for veterans and military families in Congress, leading the effort to pass a bipartisan bill to provide mental health services to veterans, leading a bipartisan effort to expand the GI Bill, and repeatedly voting to increase military funding. The nation should be proud, and JD Vance should be respectful of his fellow brother-in-arms.... The attacks on Walz have proven to be not only false but also disgusting." Read on.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Sunday in the Israel/Hamas war are here.

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Presidential Race

Nina Lakhani of the Guardian & Agencies: "Kamala Harris and Tim Walz wrapped up their first week together on the campaign trail with a rally in Las Vegas on Saturday, as the Democratic party seeks to further galvanize its base and win over undecided voters in battleground states such as Nevada.... Harris told supporters at the rally she supported eliminating taxes on tips, taking a similar position to her rival, Donald Trump, in an effort to win over service workers, an important constituency in the state. 'It is my promise to everyone here when I am president we will continue to fight for working families, including to raise the minimum wage and eliminate taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers,' Harris said.... The Harris campaign said more than 12,000 people were in the arena in Las Vegas on Saturday and police turned away roughly 4,000 more because people in line were becoming ill in the Nevada heat as temperatures reached 109F (40C)." ~~~

Nicholas Nehamas, et al., of the New York Times: "Vice President Kamala Harris said on Saturday that she would seek to end federal income taxes on tips if she were elected president, mirroring a policy proposal that ... Donald J. Trump made earlier this year. The proposal from Ms. Harris -- which she announced in Las Vegas, where thousands of casino employees depend on tipped wages -- is a priority of Nevada's influential Culinary Workers Union.... Mr. Trump also announced his support for the policy in Las Vegas. The former president responded immediately to Ms. Harris's proposal on Saturday night, posting on his social media website, Truth Social, that she had 'copied' his own. 'This was a TRUMP idea,' he wrote. 'She has no ideas, she can only steal them from me.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: IOW, this is MY election gimmick and you can't have it. If Trump were concerned about eliminating taxes on tips, of course he would welcome everyone's support for the policy, including his opponent. But it's the stunt that matters to Trump; it's what he gets out of it, not the workers. Not only that, the policy definitely is NOT "Trump's idea." Former Rep. Ron Paul (crackpot father of crackpot Rand Paul) first introduced a "no tax on tips" bill in Congress in 2007 and for years after that. Trump himself admitted it was not "his idea" at the time he made his proposal. He said, "... we're gonna do that right away, first thing in office, because it's been a point of contention for years and years and years." In addition, as with all things Paulist, it's a crackpot idea (sorry, Kamala), as it helps very few workers. The liberal Center for American Progress finds that "This is a much worse approach to lifting working families than the American Rescue Plan's enhancements to the earned income tax credit (EITC) and child tax credit (CTC), which the Biden administration and congressional Democrats ... have proposed making permanent." Additionally, the non-partisan Tax Foundation finds there would be multiple other unintended consequences that would be bad for both workers and customers. ~~~

     ~~~ BTW, the Culinary Union endorsed Harris on Friday and the hospitality workers' union UNITE HERE endorsed her on Monday. The AP reported, "Gwen Mills, [UNITE HERE's] president, said Trump was merely 'making a play' for votes while Harris has credibility from having supported unions. She discussed the move with The Associated Press before the union's announcement of an endorsement."

Dylan Wells of the Washington Post: "In the nascent weeks of her presidential campaign, [Vice President Kamala] Harris has tried to flip the script on the Republican attacks on her immigration record. During her first campaign swing through the Southwest as the Democratic nominee, she continued to portray herself as tough on the border and went on the offensive to attack ... Donald Trump, who has centered much of his campaign on border issues.... Harris has also taken aim at Trump for his immigration policies, blaming him for blocking a bipartisan border security bill earlier this year and arguing that he doesn't want to resolve the issue. 'Earlier this year, we had a chance to pass the toughest bipartisan border security bill in decades. But Donald Trump tanked the bill because he thought it would help him win an election,' she said in Las Vegas. 'Well, when I am president, I will sign that bill into law.'...

~~~ Here's Harris' border control ad:

Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "... Donald Trump's campaign said Saturday that some of its internal communications had been hacked. The acknowledgment came after Politico began receiving emails from an anonymous account with documents from inside Trump's operation. The campaign blamed 'foreign sources hostile to the United States,' citing a Microsoft report on Friday that Iranian hackers 'sent a spear phishing email in June to a high-ranking official on a presidential campaign.' Microsoft did not identify the campaign targeted by the email and declined to comment Saturday.... On July 22, Politico began receiving emails from an anonymous account. Over the course of the past few weeks, the person -- who used an AOL email account and identified themselves only as 'Robert' -- relayed what appeared to be internal communications from a senior Trump campaign official. A research dossier the campaign had apparently done on Trump's running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, which was dated Feb. 23, was included in the documents. The documents are authentic, according to two people familiar with them...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, gosh. Akhilleus has already IDed the hacker (or at least the guy who's been emailing Politico about the hack). See today's Comments.

Titanic Trump. Marie: I'd guess that somewhere in their lives, most American adults have gleaned that the sinking of the Titanic was not only a disaster, it also remains a symbol of disaster. So a political campaign, say, would not want to associate its candidate with such an infamous disaster. BUT THEN there's Donald Trump's campaign: ~~~

     ~~~ Faris Tanyos of CBS News: "A video clip of [Celine] Dion performing the theme song from the 1997 movie 'Titanic' was shown Friday night at a rally in Boseman, Montana, and has also been played at several previous Trump rallies." NOT ONLY THAT: "Representatives for Canadian singer Celine Dion stated Saturday that the use of her hit 1990s song 'My Heart Will Go On' at a campaign rally for ... Donald Trump was 'unauthorized' and had not received her permission. 'And really, THAT song?' Dion's representatives asked cheekily in a statement posted to the singer's social media accounts.... To be in compliance with copyright law, political campaigns must receive a public performance license...."

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Marie: Thanks to the WashPo, I now see why Trump took time out from his busy golfing schedule to go out West & hold a little rally for Tim Sheehy, the GOP nominee for Senate in Montana. These two liars and losers have a lot in common. ~~~

~~~ Montana. Beth Reinhard & Jonathan O'Connell of the Washington Post: Republican Tim "Sheehy, 38, has attracted national support largely on the strength of his biography as a war hero and entrepreneur.... As he campaigns in one of the nation's most competitive U.S. Senate races..., Sheehy recounts how he started an aerial firefighting business in his barn and built it into a publicly traded company on the front lines of increasingly dangerous wildfires. 'That's a success story,' he said in a June television interview. Reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in recent months tell a different story about Bridger Aerospace.... Bridger is facing a cash crunch so dire that there is 'substantial doubt about the Company's ability to continue,' according to public filings that show the company lost $77.4 million last year and $20.1 million in the first three months of 2024. Several directors have left, including one who flagged concerns about internal auditing....

"Sheehy, an ex-Navy Seal who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, has faced scrutiny over an incident involving a firearm in Montana's Glacier National Park in 2015. Documents show Sheehy told a park ranger at the time that he accidentally shot himself in his right arm and the wound was treated at a hospital. Sheehy told The Washington Post he did not shoot himself but had lied to the ranger, a federal law enforcement officer, to protect him and his platoon-mates from a potential military investigation into an older bullet wound he said he got in Afghanistan in 2012. He has talked about being shot in the arm in combat while campaigning."

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Turkey. Claire Moses of the New York Times: "An ancient calendar, recently discovered, may document a long-ago disaster. A researcher at the University of Edinburgh has discovered what he believes is the earliest calendar of its kind at Gobekli Tepe, an archaeological excavation site in what is now southern Turkey that used to be an ancient complex of temple-like enclosures.... Dr. [Martin] Sweatman [of the University of Edinburgh] said that the intricate carvings at Gobekli Tepe tell the story and document the date when fragments of a comet -- which came from a meteor stream -- hit Earth roughly 13,000 years ago.... The comet strike ushered in a 1,200-year ice age and led to the extinction of many large animals, Dr. Sweatman said. For humans, the comet probably also led to differences in lifestyle and agriculture that helped usher in the rise of civilization as we know it." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: What an uncanny coincidence. Because in our own calendar, today -- August 11 -- is National Presidential Joke Day, and it so happens that we have a former president* who is both a national joke and a present-day disaster.

The Conversation -- August 10, 2024

Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "... Donald Trump's campaign said Saturday that some of its internal communications had been hacked. The acknowledgment came after Politico began receiving emails from an anonymous account with documents from inside Trump's operation. The campaign blamed 'foreign sources hostile to the United States,' citing a Microsoft report on Friday that Iranian hackers 'sent a spear phishing email in June to a high-ranking official on a presidential campaign.' Microsoft did not identify the campaign targeted by the email and declined to comment Saturday.... On July 22, Politico began receiving emails from an anonymous account. Over the course of the past few weeks, the person -- who used an AOL email account and identified themselves only as 'Robert' -- relayed what appeared to be internal communications from a senior Trump campaign official. A research dossier the campaign had apparently done on Trump's running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, which was dated Feb. 23, was included in the documents. The documents are authentic, according to two people familiar with them...."

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Presidential Race

Kellen Browning & Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: "Vice President Kamala Harris rolled into Arizona on Friday evening with the same political momentum that has infused her first swing across the country this week, drawing a crowd that her campaign estimated at more than 15,000 -- her largest yet -- in a Western state that not long ago appeared to be falling off the battleground map. Along with her newly minted running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, Ms. Harris delivered a stump speech that is barely a week old, and yet familiar enough to an impassioned new following that some shouted her lines before she did. The rally was her fourth in four days with an arena-filling crowd that demonstrated the degree to which her candidacy replacing President Biden's had remade the 2024 race.... Despite her momentum, Ms. Harris faces an uphill battle in Arizona, a longtime Republican stronghold that flipped to Mr. Biden in 2020 but, according to polling, had been drifting back to ... Donald J. Trump this year." ~~~

     ~~~ Hannah Knowles, et al., of the Washington Post: "The rallies have seemingly grown bigger by the day as Democrats try to harness the newfound enthusiasm for their nominee with just three months before Election Day.... Attendees waited for hours Friday in 105-degree heat to enter the Desert Diamond Arena, as the campaign provided water, chairs and campaign-branded navy cardboard fans to try to keep attendees cool...."

Fin Gómez & Nidia Cavazos of CBS News: "The nation's oldest and largest Latino civil rights organization, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), has done something it has not done since its founding in 1929 -- it endorsed a presidential candidate. The organization's political arm, the LULAC Adelante PAC, announced its endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday in a press release.... The endorsement comes with Harris set to hold rallies in Glendale, Arizona on Friday and Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday. They are two critical battleground states with large Latino populations." (Also linked yesterday.)

Lisa Lerer & Ruth Igielnik of the New York Times: "Vice President Kamala Harris leads ... Donald J. Trump in three crucial battleground states, according to new surveys by The New York Times and Siena College, the latest indication of a dramatic reversal in standing for Democrats after President Biden's departure from the presidential race remade it. Ms. Harris is ahead of Mr. Trump by four percentage points in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan, 50 percent to 46 percent among likely voters in each state. The surveys were conducted from Aug. 5 to 9.... Still, the results show vulnerabilities for Ms. Harris. Voters prefer Mr. Trump when it comes to whom they trust to handle the economy and immigration, issues that remain central to the presidential race." MB: Because tariffs on all imports, Trump controlling the Fed, mass deportations of anyone who can say "Buenos dias," and kids in cages are all excellent policies. Good thinking, voters.

Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post has pretty much everything you want to know about the veracity of the attacks -- so far -- on Tim Walz's service record. In one case, Walz has been criticized for saying "in war" instead of "of war." Here Kessler finds "Walz's language was sloppy and false." MB: My overall take is that Walz, who is an exuberant guy, over the course of his decades of public remarks, occasionally got a little imprecise in describing his military service. As a person who never put a boot to the ground herself, I'll be damned if I'll be any more critical than thanking Walz for his service. ~~~

     ~~~ Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post: “Republicans have rummaged through their vast library of dirty tricks and pulled out a 20-year-old playbook to attack Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.... Pushback from Democrats should be fast, hard and unrelenting."

Also from Knowles, et al., Washington Post report: "Donald Trump, meanwhile, is in red territory at a rally in Montana on Friday, where Republicans are in a fierce race to unseat Sen. Jon Tester (D) but have won handily in recent presidential elections.... Trump -- who spent the first half of the summer gaining momentum -- has had to retool for a new opponent and grown upset about Harris's rise." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Trump headlined a rally in Bozeman, Montana, in a venue that holds more than 8,000 people. He nearly filled it. When a reporter asked Trump at his press availability Thursday, he called it "a stupid question." But it's not only his absence from the campaign trail that suggests Trump is finding campaigning too taxing -- because now he's complaining about it. Michael Gold in Friday's New York Times election blog wrote, "Donald Trump, perhaps flicking at his travel woes earlier after his plane suffered a mechanical issue and was diverted to another city, reflected on how long it takes to travel to Montana. 'I've got to like Tim Sheehy [the GOP nominee for U.S. Senate] a lot to be here,' he said." ~~~

~~~ Flight Problems, Ctd. Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump on Friday afternoon vehemently maintained that he had once been in a dangerous helicopter landing with Willie Brown, the former mayor of San Francisco, and insisted he had records to prove it, despite Mr. Brown's denial. In an angry phone call to a New York Times reporter [-- Haberman --] as he landed several hours away from his planned rally in Bozeman, Mont., because of a mechanical issue on his plane, Mr. Trump excoriated The Times for its coverage of his meandering news conference on Thursday at Mar-a-Lago..., during which he told of an emergency landing during a helicopter trip that he said both he and Mr. Brown had made together.... 'We have the flight records of the helicopter,' Mr. Trump insisted Friday, saying the helicopter had landed 'in a field,' and indicating that he intended to release the flight records, before shouting that he was 'probably going to sue' over the Times article. When asked to produce the flight records, Mr. Trump responded mockingly, repeating the request in a sing-song voice. As of early Friday evening, he had not provided them. Mr. Trump has a history of claiming he will provide evidence to back up his claims but ultimately not doing so." ~~~

     ~~~ ⭐Update. "I Guess We All Look Alike." Christopher Cadelago of Politico: "The man who almost crashed in a helicopter with Donald Trump told Politico Trump confused him with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown.... It was Nate Holden, a former city councilman and state senator from Los Angeles, who said in an exclusive interview late Friday that he remembers the near-death [helicopter] experience well. He and others believe it happened sometime in 1990.... Also aboard [the flight, which was supposed to go from Trump Tower in Manhattan to Atlantic City,] was Trump's late brother, Robert, the attorney Harvey Freedman and Barbara Res, Trump's former executive vice president of construction and development.... On that ride, she said the pilots started feverishly maneuvering the equipment as the chopper lurched over the water. 'From the corner of my eye, I can see in the cockpit and what I see is the co-pilot pumping a device with all his might,' Res wrote in her book. 'Very shortly thereafter the pilot let us know he had lost some instruments and we would need to make an emergency landing,' she wrote. 'By now, the helicopter was shaking like crazy.'... Holden assured a [Politico] reporter that nobody discussed -- let alone criticized -- Kamala Harris as Trump claimed Brown did." Read the whole story.

Maggie Haberman & Jonathan Swan of the New York Times: An August 2 fundraiser for Donald Trump in Bridgehampton, N.Y. "came amid a stretch of flailing and self-harm that began after President Biden's July 21 withdrawal from the race and endorsement of Ms. Harris to succeed him. Close Trump allies have described this as the rockiest period of Mr. Trump's campaign.... As Ms. Harris -- long ridiculed and underestimated -- has transformed the contest, campaigning energetically and drawing roughly even with Mr. Trump in many polls, Mr. Trump has responded with one unforced error after another while struggling to land on an effective and consistent argument against her.... Mr. Trump has often been in a foul mood the past few weeks." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: All I want is to get to the part of the story where Queen Kamala figures out Trumplethinskin's name, thus depriving him of his prize, and in a fury, he rends himself in two. As a rule, I don't care for blood & gore, but here I'd like a visual, please.

digby, in Salon, conducts an autopsy of Trump's press availability Thursday: "He was dour and angry and frankly is starting to look a whole lot older, just in the past few months. He's not enjoying himself and it shows and compared to the excited crowds greeting Harris and Walz this week this sad, pathetic appearance seemed almost funereal. Donald Trump isn't fun anymore. I think he's considering for the first time that he might lose again and he is not psychologically equipped to deal with that reality.... There's a look of panic in his eyes right now."

Clay Risen, whose day job at the New York Times is writing obituaries, has a longish piece in the Times Magazine in which he attempts to describe the "New Right," which as far as I can tell from his description is a bunch of not very bright guys who share the legacy of several generations of not very bright guys, all of whom are/were dedicated to pushing back against cosmopolitan, upper-crust liberal tyrants and establishment conservatives. One problem with Risen's report is that it puts JayDee Vance & Running Man Josh Hawley in the same sentences with "intellectual." MB: I keep getting JayDee mixed up with the Beverly Hillbillies for some reason I can't quite put my finger on, particularly because Buddy Ebsen had a lot more sense than JayDee, As for Josh, he does remind me of Benny Hill, although again if I had to get stuck someplace with one or the other of them, I'd pick Benny.

Neil Bedi, et al., of the New York Times: "For about two and a half minutes, at least five Pennsylvania law enforcement officers converged around the warehouse where a gunman had clambered onto a roof near a rally held by ... Donald J. Trump, struggling to reach the attacker before he shot at Mr. Trump, newly released police videos and a social media video show. The body-cam and dashcam footage, paired with an eyewitness video posted on YouTube, provide new insight into the presence of and the response by Pennsylvania law enforcement at the building where the gunman, Thomas Crooks, was positioned. They reveal for the first time the critical moments -- starting around 6:08 p.m. -- when officers establish Mr. Crooks's location, frantically try to find a way to get onto the roof and determine that he is armed. By around 6:11, Mr. Crooks opens fire." The video was embedded in yesterday's Conversation. (Also linked yesterday.)

Holmes Lybrand, et al., of CNN: "A hearing on the next steps in the federal election subversion case against ... Donald Trump will take place on September 5 after a trial judge on Friday granted an extension sought by special counsel Jack Smith. Prosecutors with Smith's office said in a filing Thursday that they are still working through what the Supreme Court's decision earlier this summer -- which granted Trump sweeping immunity for official acts as president -- means for the case and how it proceeds." (Also linked yesterday.)

Tom Jackman of the Washington Post: At the Capitol insurrection on January 6, 2021, David "Dempsey ... repeatedly attacked police officers in the lower West Terrace tunnel for more than an hour, throwing poles and deploying bear spray at the line of officers protecting the Capitol. He then sprayed bear spray directly inside the mask of one officer, who testified that he thought he might die, and used a crutch to smash one officer's head, giving him a concussion. Senior U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth sentenced Dempsey, 37, to 20 years in prison Friday, the second-longest sentence of the approximately 950 defendants sentenced so far. Only Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys who was convicted of seditious conspiracy, received a longer sentence of 22 years.... The judge also weighed Dempsey's lengthy criminal history in California for burglary, drug dealing, evading police and 'assault with a caustic chemical,' for spraying bear spray at anti-Trump protesters in 2020, one of multiple attacks he allegedly launched at political rallies.... [Dempsey's] family started an online fundraiser for him, which has raised more than $20,000, saying that 'he is being politically silenced for his beliefs in the Constitution.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'm having trouble finding that part of the Constitution that guarantees a right to viciously attack police officers. Maybe it's somewhere around the same place that Donald Trump claimed yesterday the Constitution bars a political party from changing presidential nominees.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Marie: In yesterday's Comments, Akhilleus pointed to another New York Times (supposedly) straight news report that castigates President Biden for not delivering world peace. The author of the NYT piece is Michael Crowley, who IMO has a long history (back to when he worked for Time magazine) of being a big dickhead (although, to be fair, he was involved in a dispute with a popular fiction writer in which the small penis rule figured). Akhilleus points to Scott Lemieux's tweet which accuses Crowley of "essentially treat[ing] Trump's premise that he could press a button and immediately end the world's major conflicts as if it was fact." And he does! -- though Crowley admits that (unnamed) "analysts say" Trump's assertion "is highly unlikely." What Lemieux says, and what Josh Marshall concurs with is this: "The crucial and dishonest move is to take an accurate statement by Biden about decisions he had control over and expand it to a much broader claim he didn't make, and then judge him by the latter standard[.]" One note: screenshots in Lemieux's post show the headline for Crowley's piece was, "Biden promised peace, but will leave his successor a nation consumed by war." Evidently, somebody at the Times found at least part of the headline overly melodramatic, because the current headline described "a nation entangled in war." But it still makes the basic claim that "Biden promised peace." Which he did not.

~~~~~~~~~~

Israel/Palestine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Saturday in the Israel/Hamas war are here. "An Israeli airstrike early Saturday hit a school compound in northern Gaza where displaced Palestinians were sheltering, killing more than 90 people, according to Gaza health authorities.... The Civil Defense spokesman ... said 11 children and six women were among the dead, adding that many people were seriously wounded.... More than 6,000 displaced Palestinians were sheltering in the compound -- the Al-Tabaeen school in the Al-Daraj neighborhood -- at the time of the strike, the civil defense service said." This is the top item in the liveblog at 6:30 am ET. MB: Somebody explain to me why this airstrike was a good idea.

Ukraine, et al. Catherine Belton & Francesca Ebel of the Washington Post: "Russian President Vladimir Putin convened a meeting of his Security Council on Friday and his military commanders rushed to send reinforcements as a stunning Ukrainian incursion into Russia's western Kursk region presented the biggest challenge to the Russian leader since an uprising by Wagner mercenaries in June 2023.... The attack on Kursk, which is adjacent to Ukraine's Sumy region, caught Russian defenses thinly staffed and seemingly unaware.... Meanwhile, a Russian strike on a supermarket in Kostiantynivka in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region Friday killed at least 14 people and injured 37, according to Ukrainian officials."

News Lede

New York Times: "Susan Wojcicki, who helped turn Google from a start-up in her garage into an internet juggernaut and became one of Silicon Valley's most prominent female executives with her leadership of YouTube, died on Friday. She was 56. Her death was confirmed by her husband, Dennis Troper, who wrote on Facebook on Friday that she had been living with lung cancer for two years.... Her more than two decades working with Google began in 1998 in her house in Menlo Park, Calif., part of which she rented to her friends Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the company's founders. For $1,700 a month, the two used the garage as their office to build the search engine. Ms. Wojcicki, who had been working at Intel, soon joined Google as one of its earliest employees and was its first marketing manager."