;)
The Conversation -- August 7, 2024
Brett Samuels of the Hill: "Former President Trump said Wednesday he'll debate Vice President Harris in the near future, suggesting the two sides could reach an agreement after Trump backed out of a planned ABC News debate. 'I hear she's sort of a nasty person, but not a good debater,' Trump said on Fox News's 'Fox and Friends.' 'But we'll see because we'll be debating her I guess in the pretty near future.... It's going to be announced fairly soon. But we'll be debating her. I would like to see it on Fox, by the way,' the former president added. Trump indicated that other networks, such as NBC and CBS, have also been lobbying to host the event. 'I want to debate her. I think it's important for the country that we debate,' the GOP nominee said. 'Now where it is, I'm all for Fox. I think Fox would do a really good job. But two people have to agree.'"~~~
~~~ Marie: That's super. The other day Trump said that he had "agreed" to a debate. Well, he hadn't agreed with Harris, because she said no. And he hadn't agreed with Fox, as Akhilleus pointed out, because the debate wasn't supposed to be between the Republican nominee/felon and the network that sponsors him. Besides, it wasn't clear that even Fox had "agreed" to host the debate Trump said he had agreed to. So now someone seems to have successfully explained to the fake author of "The Art of the Deal" (at least till he forgets) that "two people have to agree" to effect an agreement/deal/contract.
Yvonne Sanchez of the Washington Post: "An Arizona grand jury that indicted 18 Donald Trump allies this spring for their role in efforts to overturn the 2020 election had expressed interest in possible charges against the former president, according to a legal motion filed this week by state prosecutors.... The interest prompted the Arizona case's lead prosecutor to give a PowerPoint presentation and request that jurors not indict Trump, according to the motion. Nicholas Klingerman, assistant attorney general for the Arizona attorney general's criminal division, cited a rule about prosecuting someone for the same crime twice as well as a lack of evidence.... Trump was not indicted but was described as an unindicted co-conspirator." ~~~
~~~ Fake Elector Cops a Plea. Kyle Cheney of Politico: "An Arizona Republican who falsely claimed to be a legitimate presidential elector for ... Donald Trump ... has pleaded guilty for her role in the scheme. Lorraine Pellegrino, one of 11 Arizona Republicans who falsely posed as Trump's electors that year, accepted a guilty plea to a single charge for filing a 'false instrument' -- the fraudulent Electoral College certificate. The state charge was one of several she faced for allegedly joining in a conspiracy to corrupt Arizona's election results.... Pellegrino's plea deal is the second victory in the Arizona case in as many days for [Arizona Attorney General Kris] Mayes, a Democrat. Another one of the 18 defendants, former Trump campaign attorney Jenna Ellis, began cooperating with prosecutors this week in exchange for a deal to dismiss the charges she faced. Ellis ... cooperated with prosecutors last year in the Georgia case."
Billionaire Know-It-All Pisses off British PM. Eshe Nelson of the New York Times: "As he tries to quell violent outbreaks across Britain, Prime Minister Keir Starmer is also embroiled in a war of words with Elon Musk.... Over the past few days, Mr. Musk has posted incendiary comments and shared memes and videos about the riots in Britain to his more than 193 million followers on X. Violence has flared in towns across the country over the past week amid widespread misinformation after a deadly stabbing attack in Southport, England, last week, in which three girls died at a dance class. 'Civil war is inevitable,' Mr. Musk posted on X on Sunday in response to a video that showed small fires in the streets, fireworks being set off and rioters confronting the police.A spokesperson for Mr. Starmer said there was 'no justification' for Mr. Musk's comments. Since then, Mr. Musk has continued to post comments directed at the prime minister.... The comments fit a wider effort by Mr. Musk to influence politics in several countries, including the United States, Italy and Venezuela, and at times sow discontent."
The New York Times' live updates of developments Wednesday in the Israel/Hamas war are here.
~~~~~~~~~~
Presidential Race
Well, yesterday was lots of fun. Here's some of what happened.
Donald Trump sees the world a little differently than us. First of all, he doesn't know the first thing about service. He doesn't have time for it because he's too busy serving himself. Violent crime was up under Donald Trump. That's not even counting the crimes he committed.-- Gov. Tim Walz, Tuesday, in Philadelphia ~~~
⭐~~~ Reid Epstein, et al., of the New York Times: "America's introduction to Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota began with a half-hour of cheering for Vice President Kamala Harris and ended with some of the sharpest attacks Democrats have leveled against ... Donald J. Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio. Before a raucous crowd in Philadelphia, Ms. Harris and Mr. Walz presented the Minnesotan as a folksy former schoolteacher and football coach who had inspired his students, served in the military and improved his constituents' lives. But it was his ability to deliver searing yet accessible attacks against their Republican opponents that won Mr. Walz a place on the national ticket, and during his first rally, he did not miss his marks.... The rally also had to deal with the thorny issue of Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, who was the runner-up to join Ms. Harris on the ticket and gave a fiery speech to help kick off the rally.... 'I'm going to be working my tail off to make sure we make Kamala Harris and Tim Walz the next leaders of the United States of America,' Mr. Shapiro added. Mr. Walz, in turn, said Mr. Shapiro could 'bring the fire' and called him a 'visionary leader.'... He also praised Mr. Shapiro's ability to complete an interstate highway reconstruction last year. 'Everybody in America knows, when you need a bridge fixed, call that guy,' Mr. Walz said."
The New York Times ran a liveblog Tuesday of developments in the veepstakes and the rollout of Tim Walz's introduction. I republished many of the reporters' comments, or parts of them comments in yesterday's Conversation. [In general, the Times' liveblogs are worth the price of admission, because the reporters are permitted to be sharper, more honest and slightly more colloquial in their commentary than they are in their straight reports.] Even though it gets a mention in the general report above, this bit was so much fun, I'll just repeat it here in case you don't feel like scrolling through all the other stuff.
⭐ Reid Epstein (while Walz was speaking in Philadelphia): "Walz is now stepping into the role of a running mate: Attack dog.... Walz threw down a debate challenge for JD Vance. 'I gotta tell you, I cant wait to debate the guy,' he said. 'That is, if he's willing to get off the couch and show up.'" ~~~
~~~ Lisa Lerer: "'These guys are creepy, and yes, just weird as hell,' Walz says of Trump and Vance." ~~~
~~~ Nicholas Nehamas: "Walz's debate challenge was a not-very-sly allusion to a fabricated Internet joke about JD Vance and his relationship with couches." ~~~
~~~ Michael Barbaro: "Harris can barely suppress a laugh at Walz's couch joke. And I mean, barely." [MB: The crowd, which seems to be heavy on Temple U. students, gets the joke. This is the most enthusiastic political rally crowd I've seen, maybe ever. (Herein is an explanation of the couch joke. If you missed the story, it's my fault because I thought it was too stupid to report. I was wrong.)] ~~~
~~~ Oh, and there's this, also from the liveblog:
Epstein: "Mr. Walz was born and raised in rural Nebraska, and as a young man moved to Mankato, Minn., where he taught high school social studies and coached the school's football team to a state championship.... Mr. Walz's political origin story appears ripped from a Hollywood movie script. In August 2004, he chaperoned some of his students to a campaign rally in Mankato for President George W. Bush. According to Mr. Walz, the group was turned away because one of the students had a sticker on his wallet for Mr. Bush's opponent, John F. Kerry, the Democratic senator from Massachusetts. Mr. Walz was furious, and went the next day to volunteer for the Kerry campaign. By the end of the year, Mr. Kerry had lost but Mr. Walz was determined to run for office himself. In 2006, with a campaign staffed largely by his former students, Mr. Walz won an upset victory in a rural congressional seat that had been held by Republicans for 12 years."
Rogers: "If anyone was wondering how the Trump campaign would react today, here is a low-key email sent to Trump's supporters a few minutes ago: 'Tim Walz will unleash hell on Earth!'"
[Marie: If you want to be the running mate for a major-party female presidential candidate, you must be named Tim. Also, if you want to be veep, you should have a short last name. Six letters is the dangerous max: Biden, Palin, Ryan, Kaine, Pence, Walz, Vance.]
~~~ Here's the AP's liveblog.
And there just happened to be cameras rolling at both ends. What a lucky break! ~~~
First Draft of History. Shane Goldmacher, et al., of the New York Times: "When Vice President Kamala Harris gathered some of her closest advisers in the dining room of the Naval Observatory on Saturday..., her team had just wrapped up the fastest, most intensive vetting of potential running mates in modern history, a blitz of paperwork and virtual interviews that had concluded only on Friday.... One by one, the circle of her most trusted confidants ran through the pros and cons of each possible No. 2.... The team eventually focused on the three men she would meet the next day for what would prove to be pivotal in-person interviews: Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona and Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania. Polls had been conducted. Focus groups had been commissioned. Records reviewed. And the upshot, Ms. Harris was told, was this: She could win the White House with any of the three finalists by her side.... She could pick whomever she wanted.... The story of how Ms. Harris came to pick Mr. Walz was told through conversations with about a dozen people involved in the selection process...." ~~~
~~~ Here's the Washington Post's version. And here's Politico's story by Eugene Daniels & others. ~~~
~~~ Elena Schneider, et al., of Politico: "'I'm at the end of my career. This is not about me. This is about America's working families,' Walz told Harris and the vetting team [Sunday].... 'And if I have to run through a brick wall, if I have to do the hard things,' Walz added, 'I'm willing to do it because I'm not angling for anything else.'... Above all, Walz's deference to Harris played a central role in winning over the vice president and her team."
Tyler Pager of the Washington Post: "Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz resigned from his post as chair of the Democratic Governors Association on Tuesday after Vice President Kamala Harris selected him to be her running mate. Once Walz became a candidate for federal office, he was no longer allowed to chair the organization, according to its bylaws. Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, the vice chair, will replace Walz in the top slot of the group that seeks to elect more Democratic governors nationally."
Sarah Smarsh, in a New York Times op-ed: "What a relief ... to see emerge on the national stage the Minnesota governor and Democratic vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz, who embodies the earnest, humane, rural people who shaped me and the prairie populism that shaped the progressive foundations of the Great Plains.... Among [the rural white working class] remains a large and consequential minority of sensible people who even in their vulnerable economic state remain unmoved by charlatans blaming immigrants while amassing corporate wealth. In recent decades, the Democratic Party has made little direct appeal to them.... By selecting as her running mate Mr. Walz -- who as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives rightly criticized the party for its coastal bias in naming the caucus's leadership -- Vice President Kamala Harris has changed the course of her party and perhaps our country."
Texas Trey has been weighing his options on whom to vote for in the presidential election, and he decided to share his thoughts with us. Thanks to RAS for the link:
This is the best “why I’m voting for Kamala Harris” pitch, ever.
— Rachel Bitecofer 🗽🦆🌴🥥🇺🇸 (@RachelBitecofer) August 4, 2024
pic.twitter.com/dZTIBLwh3v
Charlie Nash of Mediaite: "Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign trolled ... Donald Trump on his own social media platform, Truth Social, Tuesday. The campaign's official Kamala HQ page posted a comparison between two rallies -- Trump and Harris -- at the same arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At Trump's rally, empty seats could be seen in the top layer of the arena. At Harris' rally, the seats appeared to be fully occupied.... The post ... received more than 800 likes.... Other social media users also posted comparisons between the two rallies and their crowd sizes."
Awk-ward! Felonious Don. Maggie Astor & Chris Cameron of the New York Times: "... one of the Trump campaign's attack lines [against Tim Walz] landed awkwardly. Mr. Walz's 'policies to allow convicted felons to vote' in Minnesota are evidence that he 'is obsessed with spreading California's dangerously liberal agenda far and wide,' said Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the Trump campaign. But ... if not for such policies, Mr. Trump himself would be barred from voting.... Mr. Trump is registered to vote in Florida, which, when it comes to whether felons can vote, defers to the laws of the state where a conviction took place. New York allows people with felony convictions to vote unless they are in prison, so Mr. Trump can cast a ballot unless he is incarcerated on Election Day.... If [Florida] applied its own standards instead of New York's standards to Mr. Trump, a sentence of parole or probation would disenfranchise him this November." FYI, "Felons still lose their voting rights in Minnesota while they are incarcerated."
What are the chances that Crooked Joe Biden, the WORST President in the history of the U.S., whose Presidency was Unconstitutionally STOLEN from him by Kamabla, Barrack HUSSEIN Obama, Crazy Nancy Pelosi, Shifty Adam Schiff, Cryin' Chuck Schumer, and others on the Lunatic Left, CRASHES the Democrat National Convention and tries to take back the Nomination, beginning with challenging me to another DEBATE. He feels that he made a historically tragic mistake by handing over the U.S. Presidency, a COUP, to the people in the World he most hates, and he wants it back, NOW!!! -- Donald Trump, in a social media post.
~~~ Thanks to RAS for the link to digby's post that republishes Don's Mad Rant. See also Akhilleus' commentary at the end of yesterday's thread. Marie: Now, digby, with whom I usually tend to agree, writes, "Someone needs to take away his phone." As for me, I say let Trump keep his personal twitter tweeter. Let us read what he has to say every day. We have a right to know, and the media have a responsibility to publish, all the crazy thoughts Trump shares. If people still want to vote for a delusional lunatic -- and many do -- god help the USA. ~~~
~~~ Marie: On that note, I have a new conspiracy theory of my own. The conspiracy may or may not be quite hatched yet, but I feel pretty sure many of the potential co-conspirators have been thinking up versions of it. Some of these people are not stupid, and they too know that Trump is nuts. They also know that Trump, even when he was perhaps a little less nuts, is impossible for his handlers to fully control. He will fire you when you're in a flying machine on the toilet with the runs. He will encourage a mob to hang you from a rickety gallows on the Capitol grounds. So if Trump is re-elected, there will be a coup. Trump's chubby little veep JayDee and his clubby little Cabinet officers will give him a Twenty-fifth Amendment heave-ho. Trump's biggest delusion is in thinking that if he installs himself as dictator, he will finally get his "Article II wish": that he can do whatever he wants. But the people who brought him to the dance are not going to put up with a wild man for long.
Roadkill, Ctd. Jesse McKinley, et al., of the New York Times: "The story of [Bobby Kennedy, Jr.'s] roadkill and the confessional video was so bizarrely fascinating that it overshadowed a decidedly more serious challenge for Mr. Kennedy: a court case in Albany brought by a group of voters trying to have him removed from the ballot, arguing Mr. Kennedy used a false address on tens of thousands of nominating petitions. The case, which began on Monday, is being backed by Clear Choice, a Democrat-aligned political action committee that is trying to keep Mr. Kennedy off the ballot. Mr. Kennedy is likely to testify on Tuesday.... Mr. Kennedy has a home in Los Angeles he shares with his wife, actress Cheryl Hines.... But Mr. Kennedy's New York petitions listed an address in Katonah, N.Y. Lawyers for the voters trying to bounce him from the ballot say that address is not his home but that of a friend, arguing that Mr. Kennedy 'does not, and has never, resided' there." (Also linked yesterday.)
Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "The Justice Department said on Tuesday that it had charged a Pakistani man who had recently visited Iran with trying to hire a hit man to assassinate political figures in the U.S. Investigators believe that potential targets likely included ... Donald J. Trump, according to a senior law enforcement official. The man, Asif Raza Merchant, 46, was arrested in New York on July 12, one day before a 20-year-old man, Matthew Crooks, shot at and slightly wounded Mr. Trump during a rally in Pennsylvania, according to a complaint unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn on Tuesday. Officials said they had no evidence indicating the plot was connected to the shooting in Butler, Pa. But they said the arrest of Mr. Merchant -- who had recently spent two weeks in Iran -- had disrupted what they characterized as a far-ranging plot that also included seeking to steal computer files from U.S. officials. U.S. intelligence agencies were tracking a potential Iranian assassination plot against Mr. Trump in the weeks before the assassination attempt that prompted the Secret Service to enhance security for the former president before his outdoor campaign rally in Pennsylvania. It is not clear if the scheme made public on Tuesday precipitated those moves."
Daniel Wu of the Washington Post: "A Virginia man was arrested Monday and charged with making threats against Vice President Harris, the Justice Department announced in a news release. Frank Carillo, 66, of Winchester, Va., wrote thousands of posts and replies over the past year on the conservative social media platform Gettr, targeting several public officials such as Harris, President Biden and FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, according to a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia. Carillo allegedly made numerous violent comments and graphic death threats directed at Harris on Gettr after she had started running for president.... Carillo also made numerous posts about firearms and shooting people, including immigrants and Muslims, the complaint alleged, and wrote that he had an 'AR-15 locked and loaded.'... FBI agents searched Carillo's residence last week and seized a handgun and an assault-style rifle, according to the complaint."
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Georgia Election Board Guarantees Election Interference. Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "The Republican-controlled Georgia State Election Board approved on Tuesday a measure that could empower local officials to refuse or delay certification of a county's election results, creating the potential for another disputed and contentious post-election period in November. The new rule states that before certifying results, local officials may conduct 'reasonable inquiry' that 'the results are a true and accurate accounting of all votes cast in that election.' Though seemingly innocuous, the language implies that local election officials are awarded a level of discretion in the certification process, a suggestion that runs counter to decades of settled Georgia law delineating how results are officially certified. State law dictates that officials 'shall' certify an election, making the process effectively ministerial; disputes over alleged fraud or major errors are typically left to recounts and courts. The decision by the board worried Democrats and voting-rights advocates that the process could be weaponized if ... Donald J. Trump lost in November.... At a campaign rally on Saturday, Mr. Trump ... characteriz[ed] the Republican members [of the board] as ... 'three pit bulls fighting for honesty, transparency and victory.'"
Maryland. Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "A federal appeals court on Tuesday rejected an effort by gun control opponents to throw out Maryland's ban on semiautomatic rifles like the AR-15, setting up a potential challenge that could further define the limits of the Supreme Court's sweeping expansion of gun rights in 2022. By a margin of 10 to 5, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Va., ruled that the ban did not violate the Second Amendment right to bear arms, or run afoul of requirements that any restriction on firearms ownership be rooted in historical tradition as required by the 2022 ruling, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen. Maryland's decade-old assault weapons ban falls outside Second Amendment protections because rapid-firing long guns 'are military-style weapons designed for sustained combat operations that are ill-suited and disproportionate to the need for self-defense,' wrote Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan."
Missouri Congressional Races. Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Representative Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat, and former Representative Mike Rogers, a Republican, will square off for an open Senate seat in Michigan in what is likely to be one of the tightest and most closely watched Senate campaigns in the country. As expected, Ms. Slotkin and Mr. Rogers easily prevailed in their Senate primaries on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press, setting up a remarkably even contest for the fall." ~~~
~~~ Annie Karni of the New York Times: "Representative Cori Bush of Missouri, one of the most outspoken progressives in the House, lost her primary on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press, falling to a campaign by powerful pro-Israel political groups intent on ousting a fierce critic of the nation's war in Gaza. Her opponent, Wesley Bell, a county prosecutor, ran as a progressive and a pragmatist. But he was boosted by more than $8 million in spending from a super PAC affiliated with the country's largest pro-Israel lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, and other similar entities. That outside money transformed the race into one of the most expensive House primaries in history.... The district is solidly Democratic, and Mr. Bell is expected to easily win the general election." An NBC News story is here.
Missouri Gubernatorial Race. Ernesto Londoño of the New York Times: "Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe of Missouri won the Republican primary for governor on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press, giving him the upper hand in a contest in November to succeed Mike Parson.... Mr. Parson, 68, who has served as governor since June 2018 and remains broadly popular, is barred by term limits from running this year. He endorsed Mr. Kehoe last month. In the Democratic primary, State Representative Crystal Quade, the House minority leader, defeated Mike Hamra, a businessman.... The winner of the Republican primary is widely expected to become the next governor.... One factor that could upend conventional wisdom ... is a ballot measure that voters are likely to consider in November, which could enshrine a right to abortion in Missouri's Constitution. Similar initiatives have helped boost Democrats in other red-leaning states since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022."
Washington State Congressional Race. Mike Baker of the New York Times: "Two years ago, Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez won a seat in Congress in Washington State, beating her Republican rival, Joe Kent, by less [fewer!] than 3,000 votes. The two politicians are now set for a rematch in November, according to The Associated Press.... Washington State's vote-by-mail system means that many ballots are still to be counted. Ms. Gluesenkamp Perez, a former auto-repair shop owner, has established herself in Congress as an independent voice, splitting with her party on key issues. Last month, she joined Republicans in voting to condemn Vice President Kamala Harris's handling of the southern border. She has so far declined to endorse Ms. Harris for the presidency. Mr. Kent, a retired Green Beret, has the support of ... Donald J. Trump and has joined Mr. Trump in falsely claiming that the 2020 election was rigged."
Washington State Gubernatorial Race & Other Congressional Races. Hallie Golden of the AP: "Washington state's longtime attorney general [Bob Ferguson (D)] and a former sheriff known for his work hunting down the Green River Killer [former U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert (R)] advanced Tuesday to November's general election in the battle to become the next governor in a Democratic stronghold that hasn’t had an open race for the state's top job in more than a decade.... In the 8th District, Democratic U.S. Rep. Kim Schrier will go head-to-head against Republican Carmen Goers, a commercial banker. A congressional race in the 4th District between U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse, one of the last remaining House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, and two conservative rivals endorsed by the GOP presidential nominee was too early to call. Under the state's primary system, the top two vote-getters in each of the contests advance to the November election, regardless of party."
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Bangladesh. Saif Hasnat, et al., of the New York Times: "The president of Bangladesh on Tuesday appointed Muhammad Yunus, a pioneer in microfinance and a Nobel laureate, to oversee an interim government, accommodating demands by protesters and offering a reprieve for a country scarred by violence. The plans for a new government were announced a day after Bangladesh's authoritarian leader, Sheikh Hasina, resigned and fled the country amid a popular uprising."
Israel/Palestine, et al. Adam Rasgon, et al., of the New York Times: "Hamas has chosen Yahya Sinwar, one of the architects of the deadly Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, to lead the militant group's political wing, it announced on Tuesday, consolidating his power over Hamas as it continues to fight Israel in the Gaza Strip. Mr. Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza since 2017, has long been considered a planner of Hamas's military strategy there. Now, he will also replace Ismail Haniyeh, the group's previous political leader and a key liaison in the indirect cease-fire talks with Israel. Mr. Haniyeh, who had been living in Qatar, was killed in an explosion in Iran last week that has been widely attributed to Israel. A hard-line figure born in Gaza, Mr. Sinwar, 61, is a prime target for Israeli forces and is widely believed to be hiding out in tunnels underneath the enclave to avoid Israeli attack. Despite that, he is thought to have been dictating the group's position in the cease-fire talks." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Obviously, reversals of fortunes and the deaths of tens of thousands of their own people have not driven Hamas' leaders to pursue pragmatic solutions.
News Lede
New York Times: "Tropical Storm Debby was churning off the coast of South Carolina on Wednesday morning and was expected to continue moving north over the Atlantic Ocean before heading back inland later in the week. While Georgia and Florida are expected to get a break from the torrential rains, other southern states, including South Carolina and North Carolina, may see heavy rainfall over the next couple of days as the storm moves north. Flash flooding will also be possible hundreds of miles north from Baltimore northeast up the I-95 corridor to the Boston metro area." This is the pinned item in a liveblog.
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About that demented screed from the Orange Monster, those of you who have read JRR Tolkien’s masterpiece, Lord of the Rings trilogy (getting ready to read it for about the fourth time, with my newly minted eighth grader—first day of school today!) will appreciate this choice little observation from the LG&M blog, comparing the Fat Fascist to the creature Gollum:
“This is the deranged ranting of a man who knows he’s losing, and is beginning to fear a massive public humiliation, which is the one thing that a narcissist as florid as Trump truly can’t abide. The Precious was practically in his grasp again, before it was snatched away by the nasty Harris woman, a tricksy cheater, so cruel to poor Donald, who only wants what belongs to him before she stole it, yes stole it, so unfair, gollum.
We hates it forever!”
For the uninitiated, the Precious refers to the Ring of Power. Gollum, who was once a Hobbit, had come into possession of the Ring, created by the Dark Lord, Sauron, ruler of Mordor (where the shadows lie, very much like MAGAstan) who created a number of rings designed to entice others with their power, bringing the entire world under his control:
“One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them; in the Land of Mordor where the shadows lie”
Gollum’s possession of the one ring—his Precious—destroyed his mind and turned him into a clutching, grasping, paranoid creature, deforming his body as well as his soul.
For Trump, the Precious, his Ring of Power, is the power of the presidency, to be wielded at his whim, to enrich himself, destroy his enemies, and keep his fat ass out of jail.
Trump and his drooling followers see him as the great, powerful Dark Lord, Sauron. But in actual fact, he is much more like the creature Gollum, twisted, conniving, hateful, and deranged.
In a way, Trump is being revealed not as the Great and Powerful Oz, but as a little man behind the curtain, nasty and vicious, but small and stupid.
(Fatty as Gollum.)
The light at the end of the fetid MAGA tunnel is a welcome sight, but if Harris and Walz succeed in taking the Precious from Fatty and the MAGAts, they will not go quietly.:
“But [right-wing] provocateurs seem to want more than outrage now -- they want riots.
The global far right doesn't want unrest like this [Right-wing riots in Northern England] in America at this moment because it would make Donald Trump and other Republicans look bad. But if Kamala Harris wins the election, I assume the right will seize the first opportunity to make her look as if she has an out-of-control border letting in thousands of brutal criminals. I assume they'll want her to have to deal with riots like this during whatever limited ‘honeymoon’ she has as a new president, if they get an opportunity to stir the pot.
We already know that if Harris wins, ‘mainstream’ Republicans will do everything they can to make her presidency seem like a failure and to make her a one-term president. That's a given when a Democrat wins the White House. But the far right will have its own plans. She'll need to be ready.”
Something else to get ready for, those riots in England have been stoked by Putin. Russian trolls have poured kerosene on a lighted match to ramp up the violence with lies and disinformation to influence the hateful and the weak minded. It will happen here as well. And it will be welcomed and amplified by the Trumpers.
But we don’t need to wait for Putin to sic his trolls on Harris, we have plenty of assholes and traitors right here hoping and planning for bad things to happen.
From the Bulwark:
“Democrats’ anxieties are growing about the possibility of an unexpected catastrophe changing the race in its final leg. You hear this when you talk to Democrats off the record: Worries about an economic disaster. About an outbreak of war. A sudden terrorist attack. Or something even harder to anticipate—a truly unknown unknown.
And while Democrats have reason to be apprehensive about such events, the flip side of that dynamic is that, while Democrats are in the White House and Kamala Harris is the sitting vice president, Republicans are incentivized to criticize good news for the country and to quietly hope for bad news that makes the Democrats look bad—even the kind of bad news that could harm their own constituents, because it could create an opening for them to launch new attacks.
That’s why Monday’s sharp drop in the stock market has stoked concern among Democrats and celebration among self-proclaimed patriots in the GOP.”
More of that to come. And now we have to worry about another PoT engineered October Surprise, although the engineering could easily come from some other place longing for the Useful Idiot to return to power.
There’s no such thing as a “fair election” as far as the right is concerned. If events don’t conspire to turn things in their direction, they’ll find some other way to game the system (see: “You’ll never have to vote again”)
Back to not working?
@Akhilleus: Yes, this site is back to not working. In fairness to the abominable Squarespace, it dislikes you more than others. You are Squarespace's favorite person to spamify.
I am still waiting for Squarespace engineers to DO something. I meant to write to them against yesterday, but I didn't, so I'll try to do so today.
@Akhilleus: I must confess (and it is a confession, as it reflects a prejudice that is both juvenile and at least partially unjustified) it displeases me to learn that Tolkien's fantasy writings might have some redeeming value. I have never read a word of Tolkien's stuff (at least on purpose), but I have been extremely, irrationally prejudiced against that fantasy stuff since I got over the Walt Disney versions of "Cinderella" & "Snow White."
When I was in high school, Tolkien was especially popular among the smart boys, and I found the boys appalling, largely because they also were right-wing fanatics. During class breaks, they would talk about the minutia of whatever bit of Tolkien they were reading. I thought it all sounded even more ridiculous than the girly fairy tales I had read as a young child. (And much sillier than the Grimm brothers tales I read when I was home from 5th grade with chicken pox.)
One of the Tolkien fans was Bobby Poole, who became our class's valedictorian and later founded "Reason" magazine, to give you an idea of what Tolkien did for him. Bobby and I were not friends in school -- mostly because of his politics -- but I got to liking him better decades later at class reunions, even though his views had not matured much over the years. (That's the problem with wingers -- and IMO, fantasy fans -- they never grow up.) As adults, Bobby and I managed to agree to disagree pleasantly. I suppose it was just because our manners had improved.
I remember telling Bobby when we were adults how much I had hated his high school valedictory address, which as I recall, had a lot of Tolkien content besides the right-wing stuff. He laughed and said I should have heard it before the faculty censors struck the worst parts.
Anyhow, I suppose it is appropriate that literature I would hate if I read it is suffused with allegorical content portraying someone I would hate if I let him control me any more than he and his enablers have done in reality -- like with his tax bill that gave breaks to billionaires but raised my taxes.
Couches for Kamala
Well run campaign.
"J.D. Vance’s Backdrop Makes It Look Like He’s Campaigning for ‘Kamala’"
Crime Party
"FBI agents executed a search warrant late last week on Tennessee Congressman Andy Ogles as the first-term Republican faces continuing scrutiny over fraudulent campaign financial reports that he filed, NewsChannel 5 has confirmed."
Marie,
Thanks, it seemed like everything was back to normal earlier, then BANG. When I said “not working”, it seems like it will post a comment with a single line or two, but anything longer than a bad limerick, it throws up its digital hands and says “Fookin’ hell! Toss this one!”
If I understand:
- Oglesby reported that he loaned a few hundred thousand to his campaign
- Buy he actually donated nothing
- So after the election he could use campaign funds to "pay back " the loan
Looks like fraud to me.
Andy is not very smart so is probably copying someone. Cruz won a suit allowing donors to defray such self-loans.
Easy fraud.
Guess we don't need Mr. Putin anymore since Mr. Musk has
taken over the job of influencing politics in various countries.
Mr. Musk is a friend of Mr. Trump.
You are know by the company you keep.
Birds of a feather, etc. etc.
Marie,
I never got the right-winginess of Tolkien’s work. In fact, he wrote it as a lengthy polemic against fascism. My brothers and I loved it, as it depicts the struggles of the masses against the forces of seemingly unstoppable authoritarian evil. And although it does have plenty of strange creatures, wizards, and battles, the most important character is the frumpily named Frodo Baggins, a diminutive Hobbit whose courage and determination lead to the destruction of the vile wingers. The story values friendship, loyalty, love, and most interestingly, songs and poetry. Some of the most important characters are women, hardly the stuff of burgeoning little Nazis.
Tolkien was a close friend of CS Lewis, who also wrote fantasy fiction. I never got into the Narnia books, however. Something about the overt Christ stuff I found off putting.
A little anecdote about LOTR…
My younger brother Michael died recently, terrible accident. At a funeral ceremony for him, I related a story about us as kids. My brother Joe and I had just gotten into the Ring. We were all big readers. Joe could read “War and Peace” in an afternoon. I was a much slower reader. One morning he asked how far I had gotten. I told him I was about halfway through the second book. He said “Oh! You’re coming up to the Battle of Helm’s Deep. It’s great. You’ll love it.”
Then I went looking for the book. It was nowhere to be found. I looked everywhere. I asked my mother. “I can’t keep up with all your books!” Come to find out, my brother Michael had swiped it. He hid it under his mattress until he finished it (we all slept in the same room). “Jesus! I was in the middle of reading that! Did you read the Battle of Helm’s Deep?” “Yes” he said. “It’s great. You’ll love it.”
I did.
Amanda Marcotte
""Bringing back the joy": Kamala Harris' rally blows away JD Vance's weird appearance across town"
AK: I did not know you have suffered such a loss. Please accept my condolences on the death of your brother. I'm glad you have vivid memories to sustain you a little bit. (I just found out a neighbor's mother had died last week, but they used to be close friends and have gradually pulled away, so we did not know of the death until seeing the obit. I guess I should get used to this, being at the wrong end of 70, but so far I have not.) Please take care of yourself. You are so valuable to all of us.
Jeanne,
Thank you. Yeah, you get to a certain age and these things happen more frequently than you’d like. Guess there’s nothing for it but to remember how much they have meant to us, and how much they continue to impact our lives.
GB Shaw, who lived into his late 90’s said it best. His self penned epitaph reads “I knew if I stayed around long enough, something like this would happen.”
Fatty’s acknowledgment that an agreement must involve more than one party (do couches agree with Shady’s advances? Ouch!) involves more than a sudden epiphany about the nature of negotiated positions.
As the supposed “Master of the Deal”, one would think such an awareness would be implicit. But one would be wrong. Trump’s understanding of “deal” is he gets exactly what he wants, the other side gets screwed. Think plumbers, electricians, construction workers, and laborers working on one of Fatty’s shitty buildings thought it was a good deal to be paid pennies on the dollar when he deigned to pay them at all? No. “Deal” to Trump means “I win. You lose.”
Think of the “deal” he made with American voters when he waddled into the White House. Who made out in that deal? He got tens of millions on the grift, top secret documents, and total immunity from prosecution. We got Covid, a tanked economy, and an attempted coup. Such a deal.
Anyway, back to the “debate”. Acknowledging that an agreement requires more than just a single signatory is just groundwork for Fatty to be able to attack Harris for not going along with his “generous” offer to show up with Fox flunkies as moderators and screaming MAGAts in the audience booing her every syllable while he Gish Gallops right over her.
There’s always a slimy scheme afoot. Honesty is as foreign to Trump’s mindset as racial comity is to Stephen (Cage those brown babies!) Miller’s.
One thing that may be playing in the Orange Turd's forgetting how an agreement actually works is that for so many years now Donald has just thrown out word salads and then the many people around him have scrambled to make whatever he said into reality. Many times as president* he would say something and then the staff would do their best to reverse engineer it. In this case there is another party, Harris, who will not just bendover backwards to try to make the deranged old man's ramblings fit into reality.
Just one more thing…(gotta get this stuff in while the Squarespace gatekeepers are on break), and that’s about the joy mentioned in the Amanda Marcotte piece (linked above by RAS).
Joy is one of those very special words in the English language that just radiates its glowing goodwill and vibrancy when heard, read, or spoken. It truly is one of the best words. Funny then, that Trump, self-described owner of the Best Words, has zero connection to it. Certainly not to the emotion, or the understanding. If there’s ever been a more joyless enterprise than the lumbering, lachrymose, umber colored Trump-Vance grievance machine, I’ve never seen it.
I have this picture of my son when he was about two, making Christmas cookies with my wife. His nose is dusted with flour, and he’s holding the mixing bowl and a spatula. His face, bursting with smiles, is turned to the camera with the most amazing look of absolute pure joy. He was in heaven. We love that picture. Man, that’s real joy. That’s the feeling Harris and Walz are bringing back to the political landscape, like finding an oasis after slogging through the desert for years.
Yeah, there’s a look of a certain kind of happiness on the faces of MAGAts at a Fatty rally, but it’s the giddiness that comes from being able to hurt others. That’s what seems to give Trump and his droolers the most pleasure, the thrill of causing pain for those they consider enemies. This is what “owning the libs” is all about. “I make the libs cry!” they shout, as if causing others pain is a Medal of Honor.
That’s not joy. That’s sadism. It’s not baking Christmas cookies with your two year old, it’s taking them away from someone else’s two year old. And bragging about it.
Sadism v Joy.
Undecideds…any questions?
If there ever iz a debate between Mr. Trump and Kamala Harris,
I'm hoping that he will be chained to the podium, or handcuffed
(anklecuffed?) to a chair so he doesn't wander around and hover over
Kamala like a lost drone.
He was very intimidating in that other debate.
Just Suze
"You’re a mean one, Mr. Vance,"
"Bring ya ass"
"Trump praised Walz extravagantly for how he handled the George Floyd protests"
More haters of joy.
"Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna canceled after Austrian police say foiled terror plot targeted shows
Two men were arrested in what police said were terror plots at major events in Vienna. One of those arrested was a 19-year-old who allegedly pledged his allegiance to ISIS."
“Bring ya ass”, Ant Man’s call to Sir Charles and adopted by Tim
Walz gives Walz serious regular guy street cred. While Trump is sucking up to billionaire fascists on his golf courses and Shady Vance is enjoying the largesse of billionaire pro-authoritarian tech bros, Tim Walz gets down with Minnesota Timberwolves fans.
Plenty of pols pretend, embarrassingly, to have genuine sports knowledge, or knowledge of some other specific topic; here’s the thing: it’s not damaging if you don’t; what’s damaging is pretending you do then being shown up as a fraud (see: two Corinthians).
Tim Walz is the genuine midwesterner, man of the people that Shady Vance (Yale, venture capital vulture, cat lady schmo, flip-flopping opportunist) pretends to be.
Fuck you, Shady, and the couch you humped in on.
Debate comin’. Bring ya ass.
More help for a criminal traitor from the so-called liberal media:
I heard a news report on NPR touting Trump’s “promise” to debate Kamala Harris on Fox.
According to NPR, Harris “accused” Trump of backing out of the ABC debate he previously agreed to.
Jesus, fucking A Christ. Do these people not own a dictionary????
Accusation: a charge or claim that someone has done something illegal or wrong.
This is no “claim”. He did it. Period. There is no “charge of wrongdoing”. That would specify an as yet to be proved claim. He DID back out. He weaseled out like the coward he is.
Fuck me! Let’s help this asshole some more. And while we’re at it, let’s cast Harris’s truthful statements as questionable.
There is no liberal media. This is Both Sides bullshit.