;)
October 25, 2022
Late Morning Update:
David Stern & Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post: "Members of Ukraine's political elite rejected demands by some congressional Democrats for negotiations with Russia to end the war, saying this was 'not a viable option,' after a group of liberals called on President Biden to push Kyiv for direct talks with Moscow. The Ukrainians said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had closed off any possibility of negotiations by illegally declaring the annexation of four Ukrainian regions, and that the Russians, who are facing repeated setbacks on the battlefield, would use any cease-fire to rebuild their strength and then resume Putin's plan to steal Ukrainian territory and destroy Ukraine as a nation." Related story linked below.
Michael de la Merced, et al., of the New York Times: "Adidas said on Tuesday that it is cutting ties with Kanye West, ending what may have been the most significant corporate fashion partnership of the rapper and designer's career after he made a series of antisemitic remarks and embraced a slogan associated with white supremacists that earned him widespread condemnation."
Israel/Palestine. Isabel Kershner of the New York Times: "Israeli forces carried out a major raid against a Palestinian militia in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday, killing a leader of the group and four other men, according to members of the militia and Palestinian officials.... Many Palestinians have championed the group's fighters as popular heroes.... Israel has blamed the [militia known as the] Lions' Den for a rise in shootings that it says are aimed at its troops and Jewish settlements in the West Bank, including one that killed a soldier this month. It said that it had killed the group's leader, Wadie al-Houh, in an exchange of gunfire, adding that he was the main target of the raid and was responsible for producing bombs and obtaining weapons for the group."
Russia. Maite Simon of the Washington Post:"A Russian court rejected U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner's appeal against her nine-year prison sentence on drug charges Tuesday. The basketball star has been imprisoned since her Feb. 17 arrest, after she was accused of entering Russia with vape cartridges containing cannabis oil, which her lawyers said was prescribed as part of treatment for chronic pain and other conditions." An NBC News story is here.
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Michael Schmidt, et al., of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors investigating ... Donald J. Trump's handling of national security documents he took with him from the White House have ratcheted up their pressure in recent weeks on key witnesses in the hopes of gaining their testimony, according to two people briefed on the matter.... A key focus for prosecutors is Walt Nauta, a little-known figure who worked in the White House as a military valet and cook when Mr. Trump was president and later for him personally at Mar-a-Lago.... At the same time, the prosecutors are trying to force a longtime aide and ally to Mr. Trump, Kash Patel, to answer questions before a grand jury about how the documents were taken to Mar-a-Lago and how Mr. Trump, his aides and his lawyers dealt with requests from the government to return them.... Mr. Patel refused to answer many questions this month before a grand jury in Washington hearing evidence about Mr. Trump's handling of the documents, citing his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination...."
Ariane de Vogue & Tierney Sneed of CNN: "Justice Clarence Thomas on Monday agreed to temporarily freeze a lower court order requiring the testimony of Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham in front of an Atlanta-area special grand jury that is investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the state. Thomas acted alone because he has jurisdiction of the lower court that issued the original order. Thomas' move is an administrative stay that was most likely issued Monday to give the Supreme Court justices more time to consider the dispute. The court has asked for a response from the Georgia investigators by Thursday." MB: Yeah, I think he asked Ginny what to do. (Also linked yesterday.)
Ramon Vargas of the Guardian: "As a mob of Donald Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol during the January 6 attack in a desperate attempt to keep him in the Oval Office, Ted Cruz hid in a closet next to a stack of chairs, but he never thought twice about continuing to sow doubt about the former president's electoral defeat, the Republican senator from Texas has revealed.... Cruz said ... some [of his fellow senators] blam[ed] him and his allies in the chamber 'explicitly for the violence that was occurring'.... While we waited for the Capitol to be secured, I assembled our coalition in a back room (really, a supply closet with stacked chairs) to discuss what we should do next, Cruz continued.... Cruz said several of those in his coalition wanted to suspend their objections to the certification.... But ... 'I urged my colleagues that the course of action we were advocating was the right and principled one.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
The Collaborator. Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "A former police officer charged with obstruction for telling a Jan. 6 rioter to remove a Facebook post about being in the U.S. Capitol testified Monday that he was 'embarrassed' about having spoken to the man, who he claims duped him about his level of involvement in the attack. Michael Riley, who sent messages to Jan. 6 rioter Jacob Hiles shortly after the insurrection, when he was a U.S. Capitol Police officer, told jurors Monday that he believed Hiles when Hiles posted that he was forced into the Capitol by the pro-Trump mob.... Riley was charged in October 2021 and resigned from the department that month; the details of his departure and his current status have been concealed from jurors." Riley sent his advice to Hiles in a private message, and Riley later deleted the message.
Rebecca O'Brien of the New York Times: "In 2015, the financier Thomas J. Barrack Jr. agreed to support his old friend Donald J. Trump's long-shot presidential campaign because he sensed an opportunity in his career's twilight to 'weave a web of tolerance' in the Middle East. The result was 'disastrous,' Mr. Barrack told a jury Monday in Brooklyn's federal court, where he took the witness stand in his own defense on charges that he acted as an undisclosed agent for the United Arab Emirates. Mr. Trump's ban on Muslim immigrants and support for a blockade of Qatar alienated Mr. Barrack's longtime friends and business partners in Middle East, said Mr. Barrack.... The administration's near-constant 'drama' made investors skittish about Mr. Barrack's companies, he testified. Then the investigators came calling."
Zoe Richards of NBC News: "A pair of right-wing provocateurs pleaded guilty Monday to telecommunications fraud stemming from robocalls made shortly before the 2020 election. Jacob Wohl, 24, and Jack Burkman, 56, each pleaded guilty to one felony count, a spokesperson from the Cuyahoga County [Ohio] Prosecutor's Office confirmed. Both men were indicted in October 2020 on eight counts of telecommunications fraud and seven counts of bribery in connection with trying to influence voters through robocalls on Aug. 26, 2020, that included disinformation about mail-in voting ahead of the November election.... Prosecutors said more than 8,100 of the robocalls went to phone numbers of residents in Cleveland and East Cleveland.... Burkman, of Arlington, Virginia, and Wohl, of Irvine, California, have been accused of trying to dissuade 85,000 voters in urban areas across the country, through robocalls that included misinformation about mail-in voting leading up to the 2020 election in Illinois, Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania and other states." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Rachel Maddow played one of the robocalls last night, and it really was intimidating; a woman with a sweet voice said she was calling to warn "urban voters" that information they provided on their mail-in ballots would be used against them by local law enforcement.
Elahe Izadi of the Washington Post reviews the interview techniques Bob Woodward used is talking with Donald Trump. Interesting.
Lauren Lumpkin & Sahana Jayaraman of the Washington Post: "In March 2021, the Biden administration released the federal government's largest pool of pandemic relief for public schools. The American Rescue Plan infused campuses with $122 billion to reopen buildings, address mental health needs and help students who had fallen behind academically.... But ... school systems throughout the country reported spending less than 15 percent of the federal funding.... The trend of a slow rollout was especially apparent in some of the school districts that have incurred the steepest learning losses in English and math, according to the data.... The vast majority of funds have already been committed to 'critical needs,' ... and will be spent over the next two years.... Many expenses, such as staff salaries, can only be drawn down gradually, officials added."
Hugo Lowell of the Guardian: "Two Chinese intelligence officers tried to bribe a US law enforcement official as part of an effort to obtain inside information about a criminal case against the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei, federal prosecutors alleged in an indictment unsealed on Monday. The announcement of charges against the two alleged agents came as attorney general Merrick Garland detailed two other cases in which Chinese intelligence operatives harassed dissidents inside the United States and pressured US academics to work for them.... Washington has long accused Beijing of meddling in US politics and attempting to steal intellectual property. But the move to unmask the espionage operation marked an escalation by the justice department after it accused Huawei in February 2020 of conducting racketeering and conspiracy to steal trade secrets."
I believe that there is a right to privacy. I think it's settled as part of the liberty clause of the 14th Amendment and the Fifth Amendment. -- Judge Sam Alito, to Ted Kennedy, 2005 ~~~
~~~ Confederate Justices Are Big Fat Liars. John Farrell of the New York Times: In 2005, Judge Samuel Alito told Sen. Ted Kennedy that he considered Roe v. Wade settled law & that he recognized the right to privacy on which it is based. When, in 2022, Alito wrote the Dobbs decision, overturning Roe, he wrote, "Roe was egregiously wrong from the start." "In a case similar to Mr. Kennedy's, Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican who supports abortion rights, said she felt betrayed by Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, who in seeking her support as a court nominee in 2018 persuaded her that he was no threat to Roe."
Uh, Maybe Not the Best Defense. Meghann Cuniff of Law & Crime: "A defense lawyer for Harvey Weinstein told jurors Monday that the once-renowned movie producer regularly engaged in 'transactional sex' with women looking to break into Hollywood, part of a widely accepted 'casting couch' culture.... 'You'll learn that in Hollywood, sex was a commodity.... Everyone did it.... Because each wanted something from another,' Mark Werksman said in his opening statement. The sex 'may have been unpleasant' and 'might be embarrassing,' Werksman said, but it was consensual.... 'He's not Brad Pitt or George Clooney. Do you think those beautiful women had sex with him because he's hot? No. They did it because he was powerful,' Werksman said.... Two others who accuse him are lying about consensual encounters, Werksman said, including Jennifer Siebel Newsom, wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D). If Siebel Newsom wasn't married to the governor and pushing herself as a leader in the #MeToo movement, 'she'd be just another bimbo who slept with Harvey Weinstein to get ahead in Hollywood.'" ~~~
~~~ Marie: SAG should sue Werksman for asserting that "unpleasant, embarrassing" sex with an unattractive man is fine because it's a valid part of a job application, and women who work in film are bimbos. Just disgusting.
Scott Dance of the Washington Post: "Researchers amassed data on food production and its impacts on the Earth including disturbances to wild-animal habitats, water use and pollution, and contribution to planetary warming. Their findings reveal what types of food production have the greatest consequences, and where. The study published in the journal Nature Sustainability -- which examined nearly 99 percent of all food production on land and sea as reported to the United Nations in 2017 -- offers a new way to evaluate what to eat and how to feed the world, according to its lead author, Ben Halpern, a professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara.... Five countries account for nearly half of all food system impacts: India, China, the United States, Brazil and Pakistan." MB: Kinda makes you feel like not eating. At all.
November Elections
Carl Hulse of the New York Times: Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been racing to cities across the country "in a grueling, nonstop push for campaign money to hang on to her embattled House majority.... This could well be Ms. Pelosi's final trip around the track as party leader.... Since assuming the party's House leadership in 2002, she has brought in $1.25 billion for Democrats, according to a party tally, including $42.7 million in the third quarter of this year alone. Her haul so far this election cycle is $276 million, reaped at more than 400 events. Just this month, she has visited more than 20 cities."
Florida. Bridgette Matter of WPLG-TV Miami: "'Last night one of our canvassers wearing my T-shirt and a (DeSantis) hat was brutally attacked by (four) animals who told him Republicans weren't allowed in their (Hialeah) neighborhood,' [Sen. Marco] Rubio tweeted late Monday morning. 'He suffered internal bleeding, a broken jaw & will need facial reconstructive surgery.'" MB: Looks as if Marco is trying to make himself a victim of vicious Democrats. It turns out there was only one person who attacked his campaign worker and police have not determined that the motive was political. Another person came out to help the canvasser/victim. Plus, it's a bit hard to believe the "victim" was entirely blameless; at a political rally in 2017, he "was wearing a shirt that said 'League of the South.' [Police then accused him of] of jabbing a flag, containing a Confederate design, at people. At the time, he faced charges of aggravated assault, inciting a riot and disorderly conduct." The League of the South is a neo-Confederate hate group. ~~~
~~~ Oh, and at a rally on Sunday, Rubio said of the incident, "It's always important to have details. We're not like these other people that always jump to conclusions...."
Beyond the Beltway
Michigan. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "A former Minneapolis police officer who helped to pin George Floyd down as he gasped for air under the knee of another officer pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Monday, forgoing a trial in exchange for an agreement to drop a more serious murder charge. J. Alexander Kueng, a rookie officer..., placed his knee on Mr. Floyd for several minutes in May 2020 while Mr. Floyd protested that he could not breathe and eventually lost consciousness.... Mr. Kueng, who also is Black, is already serving a three-year prison sentence in the federal case, after a jury convicted him of failing to provide aid or to intervene as another officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt on Mr. Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes. Mr. Kueng had knelt on Mr. Floyd's torso." (Also linked yesterday.)
Michigan. Stephanie Saul of the New York Times: "A Michigan teenager [Ethan Crumbley] calmly confessed in court on Monday to killing four fellow students and injuring seven others during a shooting rampage at his high school last November.... As the families of victims listened in the crowded Oakland County courtroom, the defendant, now 16, also made a disclosure that could play a role in his parents' pending criminal case on charges of involuntary manslaughter: The gun, he said, 'was not locked.' The defense attorneys for the teenager's parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, were not immediately available for comment. But they had previously said that the gun was secured. The parents have pleaded not guilty." (Also linked yesterday.)
Texas. Eduardo Medina of the New York Times: "The man who sold a gun to a British national who used the weapon to take four people hostage at a Texas synagogue in January was sentenced on Monday to nearly eight years in prison, the Justice Department said. The man, Henry Dwight Williams, 33, who had previously been convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, pleaded guilty in June to being a felon in possession of a firearm in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Texas, prosecutors said. Mr. Williams sold the pistol to Malik Faisal Akram two days before Mr. Akram used it to take four people hostage inside Congregation Beth Israel of Colleyville, a Fort Worth suburb, on Jan. 15, the Justice Department said. Mr. Akram, 44, was killed by an F.B.I. hostage-and-rescue team after a harrowing 11-hour ordeal, during which one hostage was released and the three others escaped unharmed."
Way Beyond
Ukraine, et al.
The New York Times' live updates of developments Tuesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's liveblog for Tuesday is here. The Guardian's summary report is here.~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Tuesday are here: "Russia apparently intends to raise at the U.N. Security Council its unfounded accusation that Ukraine is planning to use a 'dirty bomb' -- an explosive weapon designed to scatter radioactive material -- on its own soil. Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya, in a letter to the council that was seen by Reuters, urged Western nations 'to exert their influence' on Kyiv to prevent what he called a potential 'act of nuclear terrorism.'... A Moscow court has begun hearing [Brittney] Griner's appeal. Her lawyers previously said the WNBA star -- who appeared in court Tuesday via video link from detention outside the Russian capital -- isn't expecting 'miracles.' A judgment is expected later in the day.... House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is in Croatia for a summit organized by Ukraine to discuss the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.... Russia has lost over a quarter of its fleet of attack helicopters in the war, Britain's Defense Ministry said."
Yasmeen Abutaleb of the Washington Post: "A group of 30 House liberals is urging President Biden to dramatically shift his strategy on the Ukraine war and pursue direct negotiations with Russia, the first time prominent members of his own party have pushed him to change his approach to Ukraine. A letter sent by the group to the White House on Monday, first reported by The Washington Post, could create more pressure on Biden as he tries to sustain domestic support for the war effort, at a time when the region is heading into a potentially difficult winter and Republicans are threatening to cut aid to Ukraine if they retake Congress.... Many Democrats fiercely pushed back on the letter...."
United Kingdom
The Guardian's liveblog of the transfer of power to a new prime minister is here. It includes most of the content of new PM Rishi Sunak's first speech. Also a photo of Sunak's audience with King Charles.
William Booth & Karla Adam of the Washington Post: "Liz Truss's tenure as Britain's shortest-serving prime minister came to an end Tuesday, after 49 days in office, and Rishi Sunak's premiership began, as he picked up responsibility for Britain's battered economy and deeply divided politics.... Truss held her last cabinet meeting and made a defiant final statement outside 10 Downing Street before she submitted her resignation to King Charles III. Sunak will follow her to Buckingham Palace and ask permission to form a government in a ceremony known as 'kissing hands.' Sunak will return to Downing Street around 11:35 a.m. and deliver his first remarks as prime minister -- as the first person of color and first Hindu to hold the role. Expect a flurry of cabinet announcements as he seeks to form a government...." ~~~
~~~ Marie: The other day, Ken W. noted in the Comments thread that it's unlikely an American president would resign to get back to writing his book about Shakespeare, as Boris Johnson reputedly has done. (Okay, Boris actually resigned to vacation in the Caribbean, but let's not quibble.) Anyway, I guess Liz thought she would one-up Boris by citing Seneca: "As the Roman philosopher Seneca wrote, 'it is not that things are difficult that we do not dare, it's because we do not dare, that it is difficult.'" But then. "She stumbled somewhat over Seneca's name." (I didn't see how one could stumble on the name Seneca, but she did.) The oddest thing about her little speech, though, was that she spoke as if she had been a normal PM for a normal term in office.
Peter Walker & Rowena Mason of the Guardian: "Rishi Sunak has become the new Conservative leader and will be prime minister after Penny Mordaunt followed Boris Johnson in withdrawing from the running, minutes before the party was due to announce how many MPs had backed each candidate. In an apparent acknowledgment that she had not reached the necessary 100 MP threshold to progress, two minutes before the nomination process closed at 2pm, Mordaunt tweeted that she had pulled out, and that Sunak had her 'full support'. Five minutes later, Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the Conservative backbench 1922 Committee, formally announced the result: 'I can confirm that we have one valid nomination, and Rishi Sunak is elected as leader of the Conservative party.' He will formally take over as prime minister from Liz Truss, most likely on Tuesday, after meeting the king at Buckingham palace, at which point Truss would have served 50 days in the job. It is understood the king is travelling back to London from his Sandringham estate in Norfolk on Monday afternoon." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Richer AND More Powerful than the King. Karla Adam of the Washington Post: "Rishi Sunak is one of the wealthiest people in Britain and will soon be the most powerful when he becomes prime minister. This may be the first time in history that the residents of Downing Street are richer than those of Buckingham Palace.... Sunak, a former banker, and his wife, Indian tech heiress Akshata Murty, have an estimated fortune of about 730 million pounds ($830 million), according to the Sunday Times Rich List. On this year's list, published before her death, Queen Elizabeth II was estimated to have about 370 million pounds ($420 million) by comparison. The couple's money comes primarily from Murty's stake in her father's company, Infosys.... Earlier this year, Sunak's wife was at the center of a tax scandal after it emerged that she had been filing in the United Kingdom as a 'non-domiciled' resident, which allowed her to avoid paying British taxes on the substantial income she earned abroad. The family had been living at 10 Downing Street, in the apartment designated for Britain's finance minister.... In the last leadership election this summer, they circulated a video clip from a 2007 BBC documentary in which he suggests he doesn't have any 'working-class friends.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
News Lede
New York Times: "Ashton B. Carter, an academic physicist who later climbed the leadership ranks at the Pentagon, culminating in two years as secretary of defense under President Barack Obama, a position he used to further open the military to women and transgender service members, died on Monday in Boston. He was 68."
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Reader Comments (9)
Couple of things…
Stories linked above make some interesting claims.
1. Clarence (I never talk to my wife about politics) Thomas rides to the rescue of fellow supporter of treason, Aunt Pittypat, placing a “temporary” hold on the order that he show up and tell the truth about his efforts on behalf of the Thomases’ hero in the destruction of democracy, Donald (Fatty) Trump. Temporary, meaning what? Until 2024?
2. Another story about traitors refers to Ted (Quick!Where’s the closet?) Cruz saying that as soon as his treasonous ass was safe from the thugs he helped encourage, he and his fellow traitors continue doing “the principled thing” and denying the election results. Cruz? Principled? This pusillanimous quisling hasn’t done a principled thing since he was out of diapers. Principle is not part of his DNA.
Oh, and as an extra, we have Marco (glug, glug, glug) Rubio whining about “people who jump to conclusions”. This from a guy who invents shit to be aggrieved about. And not for nothin’, but if someone concludes that a guy wearing a Rubio t-shirt is a supporter of lying treason, that is not in the slightest presumptuous. So there.
Re: Liz Truss “stumbling” over pronouncing “Seneca”? How does one do that? Sen-e-cay? Sen-ee-ca? Sen-ee-cay? Sen-a-CAH?
I don’t get it. Doesn’t sound like a scholar of ancient Roman philosophy. But Seneca was a stoic who believed in a virtuous existence (an odd choice for a politician, especially a conservative one).
At least Truss is still alive. Seneca was arrested by Nero’s thugs and charged with conspiring against him, then ordered to kill himself. Hmmm…I’m thinking that might be a pretty decent way to curtail all the treasonous bullshit we’re currently exposed to. Those ancients had some pretty good ideas after all.
Been reading about Pope X11 complicity with the Nazi's and Mussolini during WWII. Tim Parks' who reviews two books on the subject laments that the lies about Pius XII that still divide the Christians and Jews. He tells us in all his forty years in Italy "I have never had any inkling that the Vatican's miserable war record, its , proven financial corruption, or its coverups of widespread sexual abuse make any dent in the commitment of its supporters.
Parks is reminded of Boccaccio's tale in "The Decameron" of the Jew whose Christian friends persuaded him to go to Rome in the hope that the sanctity he finds there will lead him to convert. On his return the Jew remarks that that in Rome he found only corruption and priests who seek 'to reduce the Christian religion to naught and drive it from the world.' –––Yet––Christianity thrived . Precisely this paradox convinces him that "the Holy Spirit must be...its foundation and support...Therefore let us go to church and...let me be baptized."
"Truthiness" as Colbert once coined it on the Daily Show, is front and center in this age of denial. Like the Jew, above, we have thousands who want to be baptized with Trump's blessing even though the holy water is polluted.
@Akhilleus: I found Liz Truss's "stumble" so curious I listened to the speech, which luckily was short. Somehow she managed to try to make a "G" the first sound in "Seneca," as in the "the Roman philosopher Guh-seneca." So there's Seneca the Elder, Seneca the Younger & Guhseneca the Unknown.
@PD Pepe: Interesting, isn't it, how those satirical, timeless stories seem to fit right into our own experience? I don't think I've read all of the Decameron stories, tho I've read quite a few. It seems Boccaccio could have found a place to scoff at Ted hiding in the closet from the revolutionaries he incited, Clarence & Ginny scheming about how to save Lindsey, & Tom Barrack ruing his association with Trump, who ruined him. Not to mention Harvey Weinstein's lawyer, advocating for transactional sex with undesirable partners.
The human condition doesn't change much, and the stars of Our American Comedy are banal stock characters who can be dropped into & mocked in any culture.
Or Guhseneca the Weird.
It sounded to me as if Liz got stuck between two words. She was reading "... as the Roman philosopher Seneca wrote ..." but her sight-word brain wanted to turn "philosopher" into "philosophical" and "Seneca" into "Senator." Her tongue tripped over the recoveries, so she didn't stick the landing.
Top it off, she clearly has a slight speech impediment, which sort of sounds like lispy British English, but sounds more like speech learned from the hearing impaired.
To be fair, to her we probably sound like braying donkeys. Americans, you know.
Patrick's comment reminded me that I heard DeSanctimonious/DeSantolini use a large dog-whistle of ageist flavor, as well as being verbosely nasty, when he inferred that Biden, not just Christ, was an aging donkey-- they don't pretend to be anything but POSs these days...
"Our" lovely insanity circus out west of town has made all the big rags and tv shows. Apparently, the most lovely thing was the huge backdrop piece that showed all the people a "psychic" said would be dying soon. Most of the usual suspects were there, except Michelle Obama was on there but not her husband the former prez...There were several Rs also-- not sure how they even hate their own squirrels who try so hard to be relevant and loyal to Orange Monster. Aunt Pittipat?? Anyhow, Mastriano did not show up, but Eric was there (Daddy-- please please love me...) and Roger Stupidhat and General F***face and Pillow Moron. M will be back next weekend for his own rally, guarded by his church thugs. Don't know if Baldypig will be supported by Orange Monster call-in...
Meanwhile, the big debate was touted again today in Pittsburgh, with the same NBC reporter who can't help running her mouth about poor ruined/handicapped Fetterman. Going to be a whole day of HGTV for me.
The Dems who wrote some letter yesterday urging Biden to negotiate with Putin have pulled it back. I love stories of Dems fighting or whatever. You would NEVER here the droopy elephants fighting two weeks before possible catastrophe by same elephants. I hate elephants being used this way, so this is my last try at it...
Here's a scary post about about voters. The messaging may not make that big a difference to the voters.
"Where political media has failed is in leading so many of us to believe that voting represents a rational decision-making process informed by careful consideration of the policy issues at hand.
legendary political scientist Philip Converse wrote 60 years ago, in words that continue to resonate today, “Not only is the electorate as a whole quite uninformed, but it is the least informed members within the electorate who seem to hold the critical balance of power, in the sense that alternations in governing party depend disproportionately on shifts in their sentiment.”