;)
The Conversation -- August 16, 2024
Buh-Bye, Bob. Tracey Tully of the Washington Post: "Senator Robert Menendez, a famously pugnacious Democrat whose five-decade political career came to a crashing halt last month when he was convicted of corruption, has run his final race for re-election. After resisting what felt all-but inevitable to people close to the senator, Mr. Menendez pulled his name from November's ballot hours before the Friday deadline. He had planned to run as an independent.... Mr. Menendez, 70, was found guilty of taking bribes and acting as an agent of Egypt..., and he had virtually no chance of winning re-election.
Michael Gold of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump on Thursday described the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which honors civilians, as being 'much better' than the Medal of Honor, because service members who receive the nation's highest military honor are often severely wounded or dead. Mr. Trump's remarks follow a yearslong series of comments in which he has appeared to mock, attack or express disdain for service members who are wounded, captured or killed.... At a campaign event at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., billed as a discussion about fighting antisemitism, Mr. Trump recounted how he awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Miriam Adelson, the Israeli-American widow of the casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. Ms. Adelson, who attended the event, is among his top donors. 'It's actually much better, because everyone gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, that's soldiers, they're either in very bad shape because they've been hit so many times by bullets, or they're dead.' Mr. Trump said, using a common misnomer for the military award. 'She gets it, and she's a healthy, beautiful woman.'" The Guardian's story is here. ~~~
No, the Medal of Honor is not the equivalent of the medal Trump gave to Rush Limbaugh and Jim Jordan. No, they are not "rated equal." Not even close. Every single member of the military knows the significance of the MEDAL OF HONOR. Every single Commander in Chief in the history of America knows the significance of this medal ... except Donald Trump -- Amy McGrath, former Marine pilot, in a tweet
Erica Green, et al., of the New York Times: "Vice President Kamala Harris unspooled her economic agenda on Friday in her first major policy address, casting her vision as one for the future and ... Donald J. Trump's as of the past, as she argued that she would improve the lives of middle-class Americans and benefit generations of their descendants. In a roughly 30-minute speech in Raleigh, N.C., she painted a sharp contrast between herself and Mr. Trump, who has spent more time attacking President Biden's economic policies than laying out his own.... In her speech, Ms. Harris emphasized middle-class Americans' everyday experiences, like sitting at the kitchen table paying their bills or browsing grocery-store shelves. She detailed how she would build what she called an 'opportunity economy' that would lower the cost of living, provide economic security and remove barriers to building generational wealth.... Much of Ms. Harris's agenda represents an expansion of policies proposed by Mr. Biden....
"On Friday, the Trump campaign called the vice president 'Comrade Kamala' and said she had gone 'full communist' in a news release." MB: Seems like a well-reasoned critique, dunnit?
Alex Henderson of AlterNet: "During a lighthearted conversation about food with ... Kamala Harris, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz humorously said he likes 'white guy tacos' -- meaning hard taco shells with 'ground beef and cheese' as opposed to authentic Mexican tacos with soft corn tortillas. 'Black pepper is the top of the spice level in Minnesota,' Walz joked.... Walz's comments have been drawing fake outrage ... from MAGA Republicans who believe he is disparaging white people." MB: When the leader of your party is a humorless sociopath (have you ever seen him laugh?) who would never, ever, under any circumstance, engage in self-deprecating humor, you might be dumb enough to be outraged by self-deprecating humor.
Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "Republicans [-- like Kellyanne Conway, Peter Navarro, Kevin McCarthy, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy & Frank Luntz --] are begging Donald Trump to stop being so insulting.... They all might as well ask Trump to abandon Mar-a-Lago and move into a double-wide. Trump abandon insults? They are the very essence of the man." MB: Milbank's column is worth reading if you have a WashPo subscription. I experimented here with what the Post calls a "gift link." I don't know how or if it works. It may count against the number of articles/month you can access. Anyway, Milbank puts in one place quite a few of the insults Trump has dished out recently and a number of the more outlandish lies Trump has told.
Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: "... Trump's delusions have gotten wilder, his thinking more scattered.... A glitch-plagued X interview (unable to start for 45 minutes) with Elon Musk ... only made things worse. People on social media reflected shock at hearing him slur and ramble his way through a softball interview. His obsession with President Joe Biden, who is no longer running, sounds like Trump cannot cope with his actual opponents. A much less alarming performance in the debate effectively ended President Biden's campaign. Had the media been conscientiously covering Trump, the public would understand these bizarre outings as part of his noticeable cognitive decline.... The media's refusal to convey Trump's unfitness amounts to misleading the public."
Say, here's a news story that might help Donald Trump understand that rising sea levels do not create more waterfront property. It involves a multimillionaire, a disappearing beachfront, a lawsuit, and a sports franchise. Maybe some aspect of all that could pique Trump's attention. ~~~
~~~ Broad Beach Is Not So Broad Anymore. Maria Paúl of the Washington Post: :... in recent years, sea level rise and erosion have washed away nearly all of the dunes in [the] Malibu neighborhood [of Broad Beach,] turning sand into a premium commodity and a source of conflict between neighbors. Now, the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team's principal owner, multimillionaire Mark Attanasio, is up to bat in the dispute. His neighbor accused him in court last week of stealing the neighborhood's scarce public sand and using it for an ongoing construction project at his home.... Between June and July, the suit alleges, construction machinery descended into the neighborhood -- and 'at times restricted public access to the entirety of Broad Beach.' The 'enormous excavators' transferred large amounts of sand from the beach's tidal zone to Attanasio's property, leaving traces of gasoline residue in the water and sand, the lawsuit states.... According to a research article published in the Pacific Historical Review in 2023, the high tide line in Broad Beach began moving landward about two feet each year starting in 1974 -- resulting in 'a loss of sixty-five feet of beach by the start of the twenty-first century.'"
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Yasmeen Abutaleb & Cleve Wootson of the Washington Post: "President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, touting their efforts to lower prescription drug prices for Medicare recipients, hosted their first joint appearance since Biden ended his reelection bid, a policy event that quickly took on the tone and feel of a campaign rally.... The appearance was billed as an official White House policy event, but it had clear political implications, and Biden leaned into them from the first minute of his remarks. 'Folks, I have an incredible partner in the progress we've made,' he said, adding, 'She's going to make one hell of a president.' Harris, for her part, spent much of her speech heaping praise on Biden and his leadership. 'I can speak all afternoon about the person that I am standing on the stage with,' she said. 'There's a lot of love in this room for our president, and I think it's for many, many reasons.' As the crowd chanted, 'Thank you, Joe,' the president brought his hand to his chest and nodded. The event reflected a complex political moment for the Democratic leaders, as Biden seeks to burnish his legacy while also boosting Harris, and Harris seeks to make the case for her candidacy while honoring Biden." ~~~
~~~ Noah Weiland & Rebecca Robbins of the New York Times: "The Biden administration on Thursday unveiled the results of landmark drug price negotiations between Medicare and pharmaceutical companies, allowing President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to cast themselves as confronting the drug industry on behalf of older Americans at a critical moment in the presidential campaign. The negotiated prices, which take effect in 2026, are expected to save billions of dollars for Medicare, which is funded by taxpayers. But they will lead to direct out-of-pocket savings for only a subset of the millions of older Americans who take the drugs subject to negotiations. Other provisions of the law that created the drug negotiation program, such as capping patients' expenses for insulin and their yearly out-of-pocket drug costs, will do more to save older Americans money at the pharmacy counter. The 10 drugs subject to negotiations include widely used blood thinners and arthritis medications. Had the new prices been in effect last year, administration officials said, Medicare would have saved $6 billion, which would have reduced its spending on those drugs by 22 percent." The AP's story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Yes, it's a dirty trick to "cast yourself" as a champion of older Americans just because you do something to champion older Americans. President Biden noted during the announcement that not a single Republican voted for the bill allowing the administration to negotiate with big Pharma. Vice President Harris, presiding over the Senate, broke the tie that allowed Democrats to pass the bill. Oh, why can't we get better reporters?
Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "Apart from Donald Trump, the basic problem of the Republican Party's so-called fever -- the extent to which it has been captured by nihilists and ideological extremists -- is that the party is untethered from any electoral dynamic that might force it to moderate its behavior.... The ambitious Republican politician has one option if he or she hopes to advance within the party: rigid commitment to ideological purity. The only way to get ahead is to out-conservative -- or now, out-MAGA -- your rivals.... The ability to win power without winning votes is a powerful disincentive to change.... A more democratic American democracy -- where majorities elect and majorities rule -- would force the Republican Party to try, once again, to compete for national majorities.... If Democrats win control of Washington in November, they should make reforming our democracy a priority, since even without Trump, the sickness in the Republican Party will remain." Bouie suggests solutions: end the Electoral College, gerrymandering & the Senate filibuster; pass the Voting Rights Act, grant D.C. statehood, & reform the judiciary.
Presidential Race
Jeff Stein & Dan Diamond of the Washington Post: "Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday unveiled an aggressively populist economic agenda, providing the most detailed vision yet of her governing priorities since becoming the Democratic Party's presidential nominee. Ahead of a speech in North Carolina, Harris's campaign announced support for more than a dozen economic policies aimed at 'lowering costs for American families,' including some that went beyond what President Biden had promised. The most striking proposals were for the elimination of medical debt for millions of Americans; the 'first-ever' ban on price gouging for groceries and food; a cap on prescription drug costs; a $25,000 subsidy for first-time homebuyers; and a Child Tax Credit that would provide $6,000 per child to families for the first year of a baby's life." Politico's report is here.
Reversal of Fortunes. Lenny Bronner of the Washington Post: "Since President Joe Biden exited the presidential race on July 21 and passed the baton to Kamala Harris, his vice president, the race has effectively reversed itself. It is no exaggeration to state that Harris would be the favorite to win the White House, according to our polling model, if the presidential contest were held today. Relative to the day that Biden dropped out, Harris has gained two percentage points nationally and, as of Sunday, leads in our national polling average. In swing states, she has gained an average of 2.1 points since June 21 and leads in 2 of 7 of them.... Harris still trails Trump in the electoral college tally if the election were held today and every state votes as their polling average currently demonstrates. Nonetheless, she would be the favorite if voters today went to the polls because Harris now has more paths to the presidency than Donald Trump -- that is, she is competitive in more states that could add up to 270 votes or an electoral college victory."
Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times on how President Biden decided to drop out of the presidential race: "People close to President Biden say he believes he could have won a second term. But he came to realize that the fight would rip apart the Democratic Party that he had served his whole life.... The president would be pitted against his donors, half of his party in Congress and Democratic voters who had concluded that he was too old to win." Interesting read.
Nathaniel Rakich of 538 reports on the popularity ratings of vice-presidential candidates over the past two decades and finds out that Tim Walz is nearly the most popular and JD Vance is the least popular, based on favorability-unfavorability ratings. MB: I suppose I should caution you that the most popular of the veep candidates in the lot was John Edwards (in 2004): not only did his ticket lose the race, it came out years later that he had fathered a child as a result of an affair he had while his well-liked wife was dying of cancer, AND he was indicted (but not convicted) for violating campaign finance laws in service of his efforts to cover up the affair. Beware the charmer. I can't recall what I thought of him in 2004, but in 2008, when he ran against Obama & Clinton, I thought he was a roaring phony.
Michael Gold of the New York Times: "Toward the end of a meandering news conference..., Donald J. Trump on Thursday insisted he was 'entitled' to continue his barrage of personal attacks against Vice President Kamala Harris, even as Republican allies are pushing him to shift his tone and emphasize policy issues. Saying he was 'very angry' at Ms. Harris, Mr. Trump told reporters outside the clubhouse of his golf course in Bedminster, N.J., that he had little respect for his Democratic opponent. 'I don't have a lot of respect for her intelligence, and I think she'll be a terrible president,' he said.... The former president said that he didn't need to moderate his tone to win the Republican primary, insisting that he was now running a 'very calm campaign'... 'I'm a very calm person.' Still..., Mr. Trump bounced between his proposals to fight inflation, his dry recitation of economic figures that he used to criticize Ms. Harris and the Biden administration and a number of other wide-ranging tangents, including complaints about Hillary Clinton, windmills, the news media and President Biden's decision to exit the race." Politico's report is here. ~~~
~~~ Alex Wagner of MSNBC pointed out that Trump claimed during this little economic lecture that "more than 100 percent of job creation [under the Biden administration] has gone to migrant workers." MB: Yesterday I told you I could learn a lot about economics by listening to Trump, and here he goes and proves it again. Who knew that if business created 100 new jobs, they would give, say, 115 of them to foreigners. It's much like his assertion that rising seas create more beachfront property. In Trumpworld, the arc of the universe bends toward impossible. ~~~
~~~ ⭐AP: "At his New Jersey golf club, [Donald Trump] blended falsehoods about the economy with misleading statements and deeply personal attacks about his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. Here's a closer look at the facts." MB: Includes an explanation of Trumparithmetic."
~~~ Marie: I do want to congratulate Trump's excellent campaign staff for staging a talk supposedly highlighting the growing cost of necessities for ordinary Americans -- complete with tables-full of grocery-story props like Cheerios & Campbell's Soup -- at one of his fancy, members-only private golf clubs. Definitely how to showcase a real Man of the People.
Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "Though [Donald Trump] made successful electoral appeals to the working class -- particularly the white working class -- his record on labor was that of a standard conservative Republican. He appointed union busters to the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency that enforces labor law. His Department of Labor reversed the 'persuader' rule, which had forced transparency on companies waging anti-union propaganda campaigns. His Supreme Court appointees dealt a severe blow to public sector unions in the Janus decision, an outcome Trump celebrated. His signature policy accomplishment was a tax cut that disproportionately benefited the rich. Nevertheless, Trump's jocular delight in a centibillionaire's [Elon Musk's] war on labor shocked some of his populist sympathizers.... In his first presidential campaign..., [Trump] regularly attacked Wall Street and corporate America.... But since then..., many Silicon Valley titans, Musk chief among them, lining up behind Trump. So have many figures on Wall Street.... These multimillionaires and billionaires are the people whose approbation Trump has always wanted, and whose financial support he needs...." ~~~
~~~ Marie: I can think of a couple of reasons a person would vote for Donald Trump: (1) he's White like me; or (2) he'll make me richer. But I can't think of a single reason for any demographic or interest group -- including the super-rich -- to like him. You name a group and I'll give you a significant reason for that group to dislike or downright detest him. For instance, as an exemplar of the ultra-rich -- many of whom are rather intelligent, well-educated and sophisticated -- he makes them look like boobs. He exposes their avarice & their corruption. There are reasons they didn't invite him to their parties before he became president*. But if you're living on the other end of the economic scale -- if you're a poor white guy living in a studio apartment above a garage in a back yard in a dumpy small-town neighborhood -- Donald Trump will do nothing to help you and he will scam you if he can.
Maggie Haberman & Jonathan Swan of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump's campaign is bringing Corey Lewandowski, his first 2016 campaign manager who was fired during that cycle [after manhandling a female reporter], onto its staff, along with a small group of new additions for the final push of the 2024 race, the former president and his top advisers said in a statement.... Mr. Lewandowski, who was on contract advising the Republican National Convention for its events in Milwaukee, is a divisive and yet consistent presence in Mr. Trump's world.... In 2021, Mr. Trump and his allies removed Mr. Lewandowski from his leadership role at an early version of a super PAC that was in place to support an eventual third Trump presidential campaign. That move came after a Trump donor accused Mr. Lewandowski of making unwanted sexual advances at an event." Politico's story is here. MB: Should help with the ladies' vote.
I Bring You Glad Tidings: The Jesus Grift Is Working. Shane Goldmacher, et al., of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump's latest financial disclosure lists more than $100 million in liabilities stemming from three civil lawsuits he lost in New York that required him to obtain bonds to pay the judgments -- but also profits from licensing fees at Trump-branded properties in Dubai and Oman, as well as income that he made from his post-presidential books, including a Trump-endorsed Bible.... He also reported a $300,000 royalty payment for 'The Greenwood Bible,' which appears to be for a version of the Bible that Mr. Trump and the singer Lee Greenwood have endorsed. The Bible is on sale online for $60 with a copy signed by Mr. Trump selling for $1,000. 'Yes, this is the only Bible endorsed by President Trump!' the site advertises."
digby looks into Donald Trump's absurd claims that rising sea levels will create more beachfront property, but it's nothing to worry about because the seas will rise only an eighth-of-an-inch in 400 years. In fact, the seas have risen on average more than an eighth-of-an-inch every year since 1901, and failing to curb emissions could increase sea levels by as much as 5 feet by the end of the century. MB: I don't know how long Trump has been telling the 1/8" porkie, but I've heard him make the senseless, counterintuitive beachfront expansion claim before. His brain doesn't work right. When he calls Kamala Harris (or anyone else) "stupid," he is projecting on an elementary level. Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)
Simon Levien & Maggie Astor of the New York Times: "Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota and Senator JD Vance of Ohio have agreed to participate in at least one vice-presidential debate this fall, with both candidates accepting an invitation from CBS News to face off on Oct. 1. The network announced Wednesday on the social media platform X that it had offered Mr. Walz and Mr. Vance ... four potential dates: Sept. 17, Sept. 24, Oct. 1 and Oct. 8. 'See you on October 1, JD,' Mr. Walz wrote in response. The Harris campaign confirmed that it had accepted the network's invitation for that day. On Thursday, Mr. Vance said he had accepted the Oct. 1 invitation, as well. He also said he was willing to have a second, earlier debate on Sept. 18, a date offered by CNN." (Also linked yesterday.)
Curt Devine, et al., of CNN: "For nearly two hours [last month, key Project 2025 author Russell Vought] talked candidly about his behind-the-scenes work to prepare policy for ... Donald Trump, his expansive views on presidential power, his plans to restrict pornography and immigration, and his complaints that the GOP was too focused on 'religious liberty' instead of 'Christian nation-ism.' But the men Vought was talking to [-- whom he thought were relatives of a rich donor --] actually worked for a British journalism nonprofit and were secretly recording him the entire time.... Vought said his group, the Center for Renewing America, was secretly drafting hundreds of executive orders, regulations, and memos that would lay the groundwork for rapid action on Trump's plans if he wins, describing his work as creating 'shadow' agencies. He claimed that Trump has 'blessed' his organization and 'he's very supportive of what we do.'... A Trump spokesperson declined to comment on the video, but his campaign has stressed that he sets his own agenda and that Project 2025 and other outside conservative groups don't speak for him." MB: Vought was director of Trump's Office of Management & Budget. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: AND here's something I didn't know about Russ Vought till Alex Wagner pointed it out: he also was a leader of the Republican party's platform committee. The party's presidential nominee, as is the usual practice of both parties, controls the party's platform. So Vought was the architect of both Project 2025 and the GOP's official platform. Obviously, Trump's policies (as expressed in the party platform) and Project 2025 are, at the core, one in the same. ~~~
~~~ Philip Bump of the Washington Post has more. ~~~
~~~ Eric Hananoki of Media Matters: "During a recent interview, Trump National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt criticized the media for talking 'about Project 2025, which has nothing to do with our campaign.' Media outlets should be skeptical about denials like that for many reasons, including the fact that Leavitt herself worked on Project 2025.... CNN reported that 'at least 140 people who worked in the Trump administration had a hand in Project 2025.'" ~~~
~~~ More on Project 2025 (or "Project 25," as Trump calls it. Thanks to RAS for the link: ~~~
These leaked Project 2025 training videos aren't helping conservatives beat the "weird" allegations pic.twitter.com/7p1HZhZ36R
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) August 15, 2024
Kate Kelly of the New York Times: "The Secret Service has bolstered ... Donald J. Trump's security in a variety of ways since the assassination attempt on him last month, several people familiar with the matter said on Thursday, including by temporarily shifting part of President Biden's protective team to Mr. Trump. The Secret Service has also secured ballistic glass, which is designed to repel bullets, to provide enhanced protection for Mr. Trump at future outdoor campaign rallies, those people added...." The Washington Post story, which is here, reports that the ballistic glass is already available to President Biden & Vice President Harris. An ABC News report on the plan to use ballistic glass is here.
Devlin Barrett & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "FBI agents probing alleged Iranian hacking attempts directed at the Trump and Biden-Harris campaigns have gathered evidence that indicates one of the targets was senior Trump adviser Susie Wiles, multiple people familiar with the investigation told The Washington Post. Investigators are still working to determine whether the hacking efforts targeting Wiles were successful.... While investigators say a particular set of cyber hacking attempts in June was directed by Iran, agents are also looking for evidence that other more sophisticated efforts have been launched by other nations."
If You Can't Do the Time.... Erica Orden of Politico: "Attorneys for Donald Trump asked the judge overseeing the former president's Manhattan criminal case to postpone his sentencing, now set for Sept. 18, until after November's presidential election. In a letter to the court dated Wednesday but made public Thursday, Trump's lawyers noted that the sentencing for the Republican presidential nominee's conviction on falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to a porn star is currently scheduled to take place after the start of early voting. And they argued that the sentencing should be delayed in order to allow Trump to weigh appellate options in response to Justice Juan Merchan's upcoming ruling on whether Trump's conviction should be tossed out in light of the Supreme Court's July 1 decision on presidential immunity. Merchan is set to rule on Sept. 16, two days before the scheduled sentencing, on whether the presidential immunity decision should have an impact on Trump's conviction." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Joyce Vance said on MSNBC that since sentencing does not change the outcome of a criminal trial, Trump's argument lacks merit.
Yvonne Sanchez of the Washington Post: "Mark Meadows, who was Donald Trump's White House chief of staff, has asked that the Arizona election-subversion-related prosecution against him be moved from state court to federal court -- the same legal maneuver he unsuccessfully tried in a separate election interference case in Georgia.... Meadows has pleaded not guilty to nine felonies related to his alleged role in trying to subvert Joe Biden's win in Arizona after the 2020 presidential election."
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Texas. Sorry, Greggers. Laura Strickler & Didi Martinez of NBC News: "Republican National Convention delegates erupted in applause last month when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott doubled down on his commitment to send buses full of migrants to blue cities.... But the buses have not been rolling on a consistent basis for months because of a steep drop in the number of migrants apprehended at the southern border, according to officials and migrant shelter operators in Texas and in a half-dozen big cities across the U.S." (Also linked yesterday.)
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Israel/Palestine, et al.
The New York Times' live updates of developments Friday in the Israel/Hamas war are here.
Louisa Loveluck, et al., of the Washington Post: "During more than 19 months in power, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition government has dramatically expanded Israel's footprint in the occupied West Bank -- accelerating a long-term campaign by the country's settler movement to thwart the creation of a Palestinian state. The government has approved strategic land seizures -- almost 6,000 acres this year alone -- and major settlement construction, escalated demolition of Palestinian property and increased state support for illegally built settler outposts. Together, they mark the most significant territorial changes in the West Bank in decades. While the Biden administration insists that any diplomatic solution to the war in Gaza include a path to an independent Palestinian state, radical Jewish settlers and their far-right political backers, who have ascended to the highest levels of Israel's government, are redrawing the map in real time -- making the two-state solution envisaged in past peace accords effectively impossible."
Russia. Anton Troianovski & Ivan Nechepurenko of the New York Times: "A court in Russia sentenced a dual citizen of Russia and the United States on Thursday to 12 years in prison on accusations that she committed treason by donating money -- about $50 -- for Ukraine's armed forces. The court, in the city of Yekaterinburg, claimed to have found that the funds donated by the woman, Ksenia Karelina, 32, 'were subsequently used to purchase tactical medicine, equipment, weapons and ammunition' for Ukraine." (Also linked yesterday.)
Ukraine, et al. Julian Barnes & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "Ukraine's incursion into a sliver of Russia is likely to make it harder for Moscow to mount a major renewed offensive in Ukraine's east and is the kind of surprise operation that could eventually impose real costs on the Kremlin, according to U.S. officials. The Ukrainian strike, and its continued success, could ultimately have strategic significance, though U.S. officials caution that they will need to see how it plays out to draw firmer conclusions. It could also help rebuild sagging morale among Ukraine's troops and war-weary population, the officials said. The incursion, into the Kursk region of Russia, stands in stark contrast to Ukraine's failed counteroffensive in southern Ukraine last summer. This offensive was developed in secret, devised to divert Russian troops away from the front lines in Ukraine and seize territory to use as a bargaining chip." ~~~
~~~ Siobhan O'Grady of the Washington Post: "Ukraine's offensive into Russia has expanded to the region of Belgorod, with fierce fighting underway there as Kyiv's forces in the neighboring region of Kursk showed signs of solidifying control Thursday. The new details about the fighting in Belgorod, described by Ukrainian soldiers wounded there and evacuated across the border to Ukraine's Sumy region, came as Ukraine on Thursday appointed a military commander to manage the parts of Kursk it has taken."
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Reader Comments (25)
As the Party of Traitors flails around looking for some new ways to slur Kamala Harris, their attacks are getting more and more bizarre.
So we see Rep. Nancy Mace (PoT-SC) taking a cue from her dear leader, mispronouncing Harris’ name, then screeching that Harris doesn’t even know what a woman is!
Um…really?
What’s next? She’s not human?
There's a medical term for the reason Mr. Trump measures
things like ocean rise by increments of 1/8th inch.
It's called 'micropenis syndrome' and it's a common affliction that
is physical but can then affect one mentally.
But then, you need a brain to be affected mentally.
When I read about how I could learn about “Trumparitmetic” I thought “Trump emetic? I know that shit by heart. Step one: see or hear Trump. Step two: get nauseous and vomit.”
Forrest,
Whoa. C’mon now. Even ants have a brain, although it’s very small. But like so many other things Trumpy, his brain is very small too. Like his hands, his heart, knowledge of anything beyond “what’s in it for me”, empathy, decency, and um…oh yeah, you already covered the micropenis thing. How do they even know that thing exists? It’s small enough to be in the quantum realm. I guess scientists can do miraculous things after all. They can probably even detect microballs as well. Maybe.
My guess is that t**** is thinking that more New coastline will be created. As in, with a bit of sea level rise, that “non-residential” club in Florida where he lives illegally will become coastline property.
C’mon down!
Are you an evil right-wing motherfucker who’s had it with stupid laws and rules guaranteeing pesky consumers and others who aren’t nearly as deserving as you fair treatment under the law?
Well, pardner, hitch up the buckboard and mosey on down to the great state of Texas for some serious judge shopping. C’mon down to Judges 4 U! We got all kinds of judges: incompetent, hyper partisan, corrupt, gun knobbers, Jesus bobbers, and highway robbers. We got ‘em all!
Oh, no lefties, Democrats, or goody two shoes rule of law types. This here store is for traitors, religious nut jobs, and right-wing billionaires only!
So here we have poor ol’ Elon Musk. Just because he caters to Nazis, white supremacists, and chaos agents who lie three times before they’re fully awake in the morning, some pesky site called Media Matters blew the whistle on him and advertisers started to skeedaddle. He got him a corrupt judge who had invested in Musk products, something he never revealed (we do that here) and Whadaya know? Bingo! That nice judge found for ol’ Elon without even havin’ to look at the evidence! That’s how we do it here at Judges 4 U.
“A U.S. District Judge in Texas has recused himself from a lawsuit filed by Elon Musk’s X days after NPR drew scrutiny to the judge’s investment in Tesla and questions about Musk using the court to engage in ‘forum-shopping.’
But O’Connor, according to his most recent publicly available financial disclosure, also invests in Unilever, one of the defendants in Musk’s suit against a coalition of brands. The judge reported receiving a dividend from the company in 2022 of $15,000 or less.”
But hey, even if we get caught cheating and lying, we make sure to bleed your enemies dry:
“In November, Musk’s X sued watchdog group Media Matters over reports the group released highlighting white nationalist content appearing next to brands that advertised on the platform.
In that case, O’Connor has issued sweeping rulings in favor of Musk, including granting Musk’s lawyers wide latitude to request hundreds of pages of documents from the nonprofit, a process known as legal discovery.
This was approved before O’Connor even ruled on whether the Musk case against Media Matters even had any merit.
For five months, Media Matters has been waiting for O’Connor to rule on a motion to dismiss, typically the first legal hurdle a lawsuit must clear before it proceeds. It has not yet been considered. Meanwhile, the nonprofit has spent millions of dollars complying with document requests its lawyers have compared to ‘harassment.’”
(By the way, Judge O’Conner is a member of the Federalist Society. I know. Shocking, right?)
So c’mon down!
An article in the Hill directed at the Harris campaign warns against overconfidence.
Yes. We know. There’s still plenty of time for bad shit to happen somewhere (Traitors are already blaming Harris for all the violence in the Middle East, Gaza, Iran, and Lebanon. How? They don’t need proof. They just go on Fox, toss out irresponsible and completely untrue bullshit and two days later The NY Times sez “Fox reports Harris to blame for EVERYTHING!”)
And of course there’s always the very real possibility of an October Surprise sprung by Fatty supporters or foreign powers looking to reclaim the services of their favorite useful idiot.
Okay, we get all that. But here’s what really pisses me off:
“The vice president has yet to face reporters in a sit-down interview or news conference where she will have to answer tough questions on news of the day — including the escalation in the Middle East — or her shifting viewpoints on various issues since she last ran for president in 2019.
While Trump has taken part in a number of media opportunities, including a press conference on Thursday and a highly publicized interview with Tesla founder Elon Musk on Monday…”
Excuse me! Excuse me!! “Media opportunities” and a “Press conference”??? And don’t miss that reference to how Harris will have to answer for new violence in the Middle East. See how easy that shit works?
And “press conference”, my ass. That was a screed-fest grievance marathon at Fatty’s gaudy Florida mausoleum. The toughest question he got was “Do you like pizza with pineapple on it?” No follow ups, no tough questions, no pushbacks on the gusher of lies. That was a press conference like little kids playing with their Hot Wheels is the Indy 500. And that “interview” with Elon Musk was like vacationing on Krakatoa in August of 1883.
It never matters how bad things get for Trump, there’s some bizarre knee-jerk reaction that makes reporters smooth things out for him, even as they rip Kamala Harris.
So tired of this crap.
Bouie has a smart take on what the Founders got wrong, but I won't blame the Founders.
Those rich old men who had just lived through their own revolution and observed the violent excesses of the French Revolution had some reason to fear an ungoverned mob of suddenly "free" citizens, so they put in place a system they thought would give their own educated and public-spirited minority a little more power than direct democracy would have provided.
But things do change. Today, the sensible, public-spirited citizenry is the "mob" the Founders feared and the greedy, violent thugs are concentrated in the minority party the Founders sought to protect.
So much for Mill's marketplace of ideas...
Oh, and here’s something else:
“Harris has to explain her shifting positions since she last ran for president in 2019.” Harrumph!
Guys…that was five years ago. Five years! Has your thinking on certain things not changed one iota in five years?
Since 2019 we’ve had a Covid pandemic that killed a million Americans, economic panics, another try at impeaching a crooked president, an attempted overthrow of the government, Russia invaded Ukraine, Hamas invaded Israel, Israel killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, the Trump Supreme Court invalidated the Constitution and made Fatty a king, unions have slowly made a comeback, red waves were predicted but never materialized, the Party of Traitors continued its assaults on civil rights, Justices on the Supreme Court have been shown to be crooked liars. Barbenheimer!
But now she has to answer for shifts in her positions?
Fuckin’ hell.
Typhoid Elon
And if things weren’t bad enough with the media, now we have to worry about the increasing Muskification of the internet.
“Elon Musk’s AI company xAI released its latest language model, Grok 2, on Tuesday, introducing powerful image generation capabilities that have flooded X.com (formerly known as Twitter) with controversial content.
Within hours of its launch, X.com users reported a deluge of AI-generated images depicting graphic violence, explicit sexual content and manipulated photos of public figures in offensive situations.”
And it’s going to get worse. Much worse.
“The rapid proliferation of controversial content on X.com aligns with the platform’s well-known laissez-faire approach to content moderation. It also marks a significant departure from the cautious strategies adopted by other leading AI companies.
Google, OpenAI, Meta and Anthropic have implemented strict content filters and ethical guidelines in their image-generation models to prevent the creation of harmful or offensive material.
Grok 2’s unrestricted image generation capabilities, on the other hand, reflect Musk’s long-standing opposition to stringent content moderation on social media platforms.“
Pro-Trump and anti-democratic bad actors are already hard at work using Musk’s new chaos tool to cause trouble. Check out the article to see some of what can easily be done. And because it’s language based, you don’t have to have the tiniest sliver of knowledge about programming or Photoshop or any other image creation software. All you have to is type in what you want.
The introduction of AI, Chat GPT, and other large language models and audio manipulation software makes me wonder exactly how useful this highly expensive stuff is. What’s the real purpose? “Create a song using lyrics by Rimbaud in the style of Metallica but using only the Phrygian mode.”
Yeah, okay. Cool. But it’s more like party tricks. I’m thinking that the tech bro billionaires in Silicon Valley haven’t created anything truly useful since the iPhone, and that was 2007.
But now, with Musk’s new AI gizmo you can create entirely realistic imagery of Kamala Harris killing babies, with no restrictions, because FREEEEDOM!
Elon Musk, almost by the day, becomes his own toxic pandemic, the internet’s own Typhoid Mary.
Don't know how Harris will go about selling her price gouging narrative. There will be a lot of pushback from the Right. The Heritage Foundation and other Rightists will have their own take, blaming government of course.
But here's one of many articles that places the blame for much of the higher prices where it belongs: on the greedy bastards who should be in Harris' sights.
https://www.vox.com/money/23641875/food-grocery-inflation-prices-billionaires
Hope her explainers prevail. Seems a good opportunity to tell the country how things really work. It's an obvious lesson we seem reluctant to learn.
@Akhilleus: Sorry for the typo. That was supposed to be "Trumparithmetic." Elusive "h". But, yeah, I recognize Trump emetic as a real thing. I suffer from it. I suspect it's a contagious disease among people with brains that function normally.
On a more serious note, Congress MUST do something about Elon. And clearly, it won't do anything this year. I don't think members are even going to show up for more than a few days. On account of their summer break, their Labor Week break, their Oktoberfest break, their Election Week break and their Christmas-New Years' Weeks break. And their every Sunday, Monday, Thursday afternoon, Friday & Saturday breaks. And, needless to say, a House controlled by Bible Mike isn't going to do anything even if you glued members to their seats for a month.
I wish one of the X alternative had taken hold, but none has. I can't even name the others anymore, other than the One That Shall Not Be Named.
@Forrest Morris: Funny that you should mention Trump's micropenis syndrome affliction in connection with his failure to understand that a rising sea does not produce more oceanfront property. Funny because I was going to try to help Trump out by giving him an illustration of why his little thesis was wrong. Here was my planned (tiny) object lesson:
Donald, go sit in the bathtub but start with a small amount of water in the tub. Now gradually fill the tub as you lie there. Soon enough, the water will rise past your fat thighs and that teeny ile de penis will start to float. A part of the floating ile will be above water. You can divide that part into millimeter-sized lots and imagine tiny houses & microscopic coconut palms on the tiny beaches. But wait. The water keeps rising! Some of the teensy tiny lots disappear! Suddenly the palms become submerged! Soon everything is under water! Every bit of your teensy, weensy, tiny little micropenis has drowned in the bathtub. There is NO waterfront property! All is lost!
Do you think that would help? Or is analogy too difficult a concept? Yeah, I guess so. But I did have the best intentions
UAW President Shawn Fein ad
emptywheel
"The Saudi Payments to Trump Are More Important than the Suspected Egyptian One
The Saudi financial tie is ongoing and prospective. That makes it a far more urgent issue than a payment that may have been made over seven years ago."
Marie,
Re: your bathtub imagery.
Oh god! My eyes! Quick, show me something better, like a forty car pileup or some plane crashes! Anything but this.
Trump outreach lol
While I'm not in the habit of reading some site called The Intellectualist.com, Threads offered this interesting link:
The power of a Metaphor
"It started with a simple yet striking image: a close-up of Donald Trump with a fly perched on his face, shared by historian Michael Beschloss on X (formerly Twitter). The caption read “Lord of the Flies,” a phrase heavy with the symbolism of decay, chaos, and moral collapse. Beschloss wasn’t merely labeling Trump as the worst president in U.S. history; he was invoking a far more disturbing image—a leader whose presence brings about moral and societal breakdown, akin to the world depicted in William Golding’s haunting novel."
Perhaps Trump is just getting ready to debate Harris. It's probably the same fly Pence had at his debate with Harris.
Laura,
“Lord of the Flies” offers a smorgasbord of metaphorical allusions to Trump, Trumpism, and the roles of violence, political power, groupthink, and tribalistic superstition as the veneer of civilized life peels away from the natives, overlords, and media proponents of MAGAstan.
Think about the characters of Ralph (representing civilized behavior, decency) and Jack (an avatar of savagery who employs fear as a controlling mechanism). After losing to Ralph in an election for Chief, Jack, just like Trump, instigates a revolt by the boys he is able to frighten with tales of a monster hiding in the forest (very much the way Trump uses fantastic lies to enslave the MAGAts).
Jack’s tribe quickly descends into violence and madness. The horrible irony is that by turning to Jack and away from Ralph (whose primary goal is to find a way to get them safely off the island), they all but guarantee their own destruction, yet, just like the MAGAts, they work against their own best interests, whipped up by Jack who demands complete power and loyalty.
Sanity and order is restored in the form of an adult, a naval officer who finds the boys. You get the definite feeling, however, that that innate savagery lies just beneath the surface, waiting for the next Jack to come along.
Maybe Harris will be the adult who restores order to our own “island”, but we should not kid ourselves that Trumpist ignorance and violence will disappear if he gets the boot.
Akhilleus -thanks for the refresher - its been decades and decades since I read or thought about the novel.
I see a smorgasbord of pithy images for election ads and posters in your description. Too bad the novel will be under copywrite for a long time to come.
@Marie, I'm not sure that your analogy works. My understanding is that in order to float, a "vessel" needs to be able to displace its weight in water. Many people have told me that his microdick is so small that floating is impossible.
Oopsie!
Yesterday as Don Joad, Man O’ the People, waddled up to a podium in his private golf club, where initiation fees are $350,000, to screech and lie about how Joe Biden and Kamala (he claims no one knows her last name—now that’s fucking weird) have crashed the stock market and killed the economy, Faux, covering it live, had to quickly take their stock ticker off the screen because it was offering a devastating live fact check to Fatty’s lies. It was, in fact, showing indexes up across the board. Oops! Gotta take that down! The Big Boss HATES being shown up to be a schtupid, gaslighting asshole!
Oops!
But he did talk about tic tacs
DiJiT's store of knowledge is limited to his observations of the things that interest him.
So, his knowledge of bodies of water is based on the water hazards on his golf courses, which are ponds engineered with graded slopes so that, if a ball lands near one, it may roll into the water.
When it rains hard in Florida, which already has a pretty high water table, those hazards temporarily expand, as the volume of water climbs up the slopes. On this relatively small scale, the circumference of the hazard expands -- more water touches more dirt. More "shore."
If you think that seas and oceans, continental shelves and shorelines, are analagous to golf water hazards, you'd think rising seas create more shoreline.
But you'd be wrong. Reasoning from the particular to the general seems logical, but is frequently not. Lots of people have this problem, which is one reason we have lots of people who don't know diddly.
The little teeny tiny micro-Radner island in the bathtub analogy does scale up -- fixed position islands will always get smaller coastlines as water rises. But, the water hazard analogy does not scale up. One reason is that the hazard volume does not actually rise more than it spreads. Another is that the hazard volume is not contained, as it would be in a tub, well, or other steep-walled vessel.
So, details matter, and casual observations often miss lots of details, and details are not DiJiT's strong suit. Oh, and he's a moron.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCzSHQb-Ju8