;)
The Conversation -- October 23, 2023
From the CNN liveblog of developments in the Israel/Hamas war: "Two more hostages have been released from Hamas custody following Qatari and Egyptian mediation, according to two Israeli officials and two other sources briefed on the matter. The two were identified as Israeli citizens Nurit Cooper, 79, and Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, according to multiple sources.... The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) confirmed they facilitated in the release of two more hostages."
Trump Is No Equal-Opportunity Bully. Paul Butler of the Washington Post: Donald "Trump reserves a particularly race-inflected venom for the Black government lawyers who threaten his liberty and wealth. He called [Manhattan DA Alvin] Bragg a 'Soros-backed animal' and [New York AG Letitia] James a 'political animal.'... His nickname for James is 'peekaboo,' which rhymes with a racist slur.... He lied that [Fulton County, Ga., DA Fani] Willis was in a relationship with an alleged gang member she is prosecuting. In an email after Trump's indictment in Fulton County, his campaign said that Willis came from 'a family steeped in hate' and highlighted the fact that her first name is Swahili. Trump repeatedly attacks Bragg, Willis and James as 'racists.' It's all a transparent attempt to rile up his base against Black prosecutors who have the gall to focus on him. His incitements clearly aim to remind his supporters who the real criminals supposedly are -- Black and Brown folks."
Claire Miller of the New York Times: "New data shows [show!], for the first time at this level of detail, how much students' standardized test scores rise with their parents' incomes -- and how disparities start years before students sit for tests. One-third of the children of the very richest families scored a 1300 or higher on the SAT, while less than 5 percent of middle-class students did, according to the data, from economists at Opportunity Insights, based at Harvard. Relatively few children in the poorest families scored that high; just one in five took the test at all.... The disparity highlights the inequality at the heart of American education: Starting very early, children from rich and poor families receive vastly different educations, in and out of school, driven by differences in the amount of money and time their parents are able to invest. And in the last five decades, as the country has become more unequal by income, the gap in children's academic achievement, as measured by test scores throughout schooling, has widened." MB: But, but don't these data prove that rich people like Donald Trump have very good brains?
Historian Seth Cotlar reflects on an education that whitewashed the facism and racism that were prominent in pre-World War II America. Cotlar was educated in the 1970s and '80s. Cotlar focuses first on the way American history "memory-holed" racist pro-Nazis Charles Lindbergh & Henry Ford. MB: It's still going on. For instance, the National Space & Air Museum, which Cotlar mentions in his essay still features Lindbergh's plane "The Spirit of Saint Louis," and the museum sponsors a Lindbergh fellowship that -- while generally lauding Lindbergh -- admits in passing, "His reputation was somewhat darkened by his acceptance of honors from the Nazi government in 1938, and by his noninterventionist activities for America First in 1941." Yeah, somewhat. And in Fort Myers, Florida, where I lived for more than a decade, Henry Ford is honored with a statue at a public park and in Fort Myers' Number 1 tourist attraction: the Thomas Edison & Henry Ford Winter Estates museum. I can't recall any mention there of Ford's politics. Thanks to RAS for the link to Cotlar's essay.
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O Captain! My Captain! Wherefore Art Thou, My Captain? Lisa Lerer & Michael Bender of the New York Times: "As national Democrats largely stand behind President Biden and his agenda -- more united than in years -- Republicans are divided, directionless and effectively leaderless. In the House, Republicans are casting about for a new leader, mired in an internecine battle marked by screaming, cursing and a fresh flood of candidates. In the Senate, their party is led by Senator Mitch McConnell, who spent weeks arguing that he remained physically and mentally fit enough for the position after freezing midsentence in two public appearances. And on the 2024 campaign trail, the dominant front-runner, Donald J. Trump, faces 91 felony charges across four cases, creating a drumbeat of legal news that often overwhelms any of his party's political messages."
Dan Balz of the Washington Post: "Rarely is the contrast between the leadership of the two political parties as clear as it has been in recent days. President Biden has been steadfast in responding to the vicious attacks against Israeli citizens by Hamas terrorists. Republicans in the House have been so consumed by internal differences that they have left Congress immobilized when action is demanded. The split-screen projections have reinforced perceptions that Republicans are unable or unwilling to govern. Too many Republicans in the House operate in a bubble constructed of false claims about the 2020 election and conspiracy theories about a potpourri of other topics -- a worldview shaped by a diet of Fox News and the erratic and at times dangerous rhetoric of ... Donald Trump.... Chaos hardly describes the scene on Capitol Hill. [Republicans] are damaging not only themselves as a party but also faith in the United States as a stable democracy.... On Ukraine and now Israel, Biden has earned praise from abroad and from many in the foreign policy community at home." (Also linked yesterday.)
Marshall Cohen & Kristen Holmes of CNN: "... Donald Trump claimed Sidney Powell was 'never' his attorney in a social media post Sunday, three days after she pleaded guilty in the Georgia election subversion case. Despite Trump's claims, Powell was briefly an official member of Trump's legal team in 2020, and Trump stayed in contact with her on election-related matters even after she was ousted from his campaign. 'Sidney Powell was one of millions and millions of people who thought, and in ever increasing numbers still think, correctly, that the 2020 Presidential Election was RIGGED & STOLLEN, AND OUR COUNTRY IS BEING ABSOLUTELY DESTROYED BECAUSE OF IT!!! MS. POWELL WAS NOT MY ATTORNEY, AND NEVER WAS. In fact, she would have been conflicted,' Trump wrote on Truth Social.... Trump publicly announced on November 15, 2020, that he 'added' Powell to his 'truly great team' of lawyers working on the election." Thanks to RAS for the lead. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Germans call "stollen" "christstollen," but I think it's about time they adopt an all-nuts version called "trumpstollen" a/k/a "electionstollen." On a more serious note, it is rather odd how Trump comes up again and again with "truly great" staff, plucked from among "the best people," yet they all eventually disappoint him to the point he must disavow and/or berate them as losers. He's kinda down to his personal valet and the former parking valet now.
"The Trump Bazaar: Coffee & Nuclear Secrets." Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: "New details of how an American president [-- Trump --] and an Australian billionaire [-- Anthony Pratt --] bonded over their mutual self-interest help to document the transactional ethos of the Trump presidency, and show how Mr. Trump melded his White House with his personal business in a way that, according to prosecutors, had ramifications for national security.... Mr. Pratt used his money and flattery to get on Mr. Trump's radar: He lavished praise on him in public appearances, bought newspaper ads that hyped Mr. Trump as a job creator and became a member of Mar-a-Lago. Mr. Pratt, in turn, gained priceless publicity and proximity to the power of the presidency, providing him entree into an administration whose policies lowered his taxes and benefited his business." Thanks to laura h. for the link. ~~~
~~~ Here's the "60 Minutes Australia" segment upon which the NYT article is largely based. Thanks to unwashed for the lead:
~~~ Update. Colby Hall of Mediaite: "Trump took to Truth Social to deny the [NYT] report, blast the New York Times as 'Fake News,' and paint himself as a victim. He referenced Pratt as a 'red haired weirdo.' He blamed the NY Times and Maggie Haberman (which he derided as [']Maggie Hagerman and the Misfits') for not reaching out for comment, perhaps unaware that the source of the report was verified audio for anyone to hear." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. MB: So Pratt is just one more "very fine person" who now has Trumpmobile tire tracks imprinted across his face.
Aaron Gregg & Jaclyn Peiser of the Washington Post: "After decades of expansion, the nation's largest drugstore chains are closing hundreds of stores as they reorient their operations against rising competition, a crush of opioid lawsuits and other forces -- relegating many already-vulnerable communities into pharmacy deserts. Rite Aid, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week, CVS and Walgreens have signaled over the past two years plans to collectively shutter more than 1,500 stores. Public health experts have already seen the fallout, noting that the first neighborhoods to lose their pharmacies are often predominantly Black, Latinx and low-income."
~~~~~~~~~~
Israel/Palestine
The New York Times' live updates of developments Monday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "Israel said on Monday that it had struck hundreds of targets in the Gaza Strip and attacked Hezbollah positions in Lebanon, as President Biden led an international diplomatic effort to try to ensure the conflict does not ensnare other nations in the region. In a joint statement on Sunday, Mr. Biden and the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany and Italy urged Israel to protect civilians as it defended itself, and called for the release of all hostages believed to be held in Gaza. More than 4,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, when Israel began retaliating for an attack by the militant group that killed 1,400 people.... Hamas and other militant groups are believed to be holding more than 200 people captive, and, according to Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, have been blocking U.S. citizens and other foreign nationals from leaving Gaza."
Najib Jobain, et al., of the AP: "The second aid convoy destined for desperate Palestinian civilians reached Gaza on Sunday, as Israel widened its attacks to include targets in Syria and the occupied West Bank and the Israeli prime minister warned Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group that if it launches its own war, 'we will cripple it with a force it cannot even imagine.'" ~~~
~~~ Kelly Garrity of Politico: "President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu affirmed in a phone call Sunday that Israel will allow a 'continued flow' of humanitarian assistance into Gaza, according to the White House. During the call, Biden 'welcomed the first two convoys of humanitarian assistance since Hamas's October 7 terrorist attack, which crossed the border into Gaza and is being distributed to Palestinians in need,' according to a readout from the White House. 'The leaders affirmed that there will now be continued flow of this critical assistance into Gaza.'"
Karen DeYoung, et al., of the Washington Post: "By the time [President] Biden arrived in Tel Aviv on Wednesday -- amid Israeli airstrikes that had already killed more than 3,000 Palestinians inside Gaza, an ongoing siege that left millions of civilians without food and water and preparations for a full-scale Israeli ground assault of the enclave -- the need to buy time for Israel 'to think this through,' in the words of one U.S. official, had become a core objective of the trip. Neither Biden, nor Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin or others in direct contact with their Israeli counterparts, told them what to do or what not to do.... Two weeks after the surprise Hamas attack, even as the Biden administration continues to extend full-throated support for Israel, it is trying to prevent the nightmare scenario 0f a wider regional war.... Other Western governments, amid expressions of support [for Israel], were privately delivering the same message."
Faris Tanyos of CBS News: "As tensions heighten in the Middle East amid the escalating Israel-Hamas war, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced late Saturday that the U.S. will redeploy one of its strike groups to the Persian Gulf, as well as send additional air defense systems to the region. Austin also said that he has placed additional U.S. forces on 'prepare to deploy orders,' but did not detail how many. Austin earlier this week ordered 2,000 troops to be prepared to deploy to the Middle East. The latest decision followed 'detailed discussions with President Biden on recent escalations by Iran and its proxy forces across the Middle East,' Austin said in a statement." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Secretary Austin's statement is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
Sam Levine of the Guardian: "Mitch McConnell offered a strong endorsement on Sunday of the Joe Biden White House's $106bn aid proposal to Israel and Ukraine, saying he and the president were essentially 'in the same place' on the issue. McConnell, the powerful Republican leader in the Senate, also rebuffed some of his GOP colleagues in the Senate who have called for a package separating assistance for the two countries, saying it would be 'a mistake' during an interview on CBS's Face the Nation." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Yesterday, I heard Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, also speak favorably of President Biden's foreign aid request.
Loveday Morris & Steve Hendrix of the Washington Post: "A Hamas field manual obtained by The Washington Post and other documents found in the wake of the group's brutal attack on Israel two weeks ago illustrate some of its military capabilities and preparations for close-in, bloody killing. The manual, dated last year and found on the body of a Hamas fighter, lists instructions on operating certain weapons, identifies vulnerabilities in Israeli military equipment and offers tips on killing with a knife. The document appears to have been prepared for different units of Hamas's elite Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, including anti-armor, engineering, sniper, infantry and tunnel specialists as well as what the booklet describes as 'shock troops.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
News Lede
Odd News. New York Times: }An off-duty pilot who was in a jump seat in the cockpit of an Alaska Airlines flight on Sunday has been charged with more than 80 counts of attempted murder after he tried to disrupt the engines, prompting the plane to divert to Portland, Ore., the authorities said. Flight 2059, operated by Horizon Airlines, an Alaska Airlines regional subsidiary, left Everett, Wash., around 5:23 p.m. and was headed to San Francisco when it reported 'a credible security threat related to an off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot who was traveling in the flight deck jump seat,' Alaska Airlines said in a statement on Monday.... The pilot asked that law enforcement meet the plane upon landing. The Port of Portland Police Department said in a statement that the flight crew 'was able to detain the subject and the flight landed safely at Portland International Airport just before 6:30 p.m.' The man was taken into custody without incident. The department identified him as Joseph D. Emerson."
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Reader Comments (17)
The Kraken wasn’t your attorney? Oh, okay. Then you can’t use the My Lawyer Told Me I Could Do It defense. Good to know. Which means it was your idea to screw millions of voters.
Guilty! Lock him up!
Oh, wait. Gotta do it like the Orange Monster. Hold on…
GUILLTY!!!!!!! LOCK HIM UPP!!!!!!!
@Akhilleus: Yes to all that. In all things Trump, we can rely on his declaration of March 16, 2016, when asked who advised him on foreign policy:
“I’m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain, and I’ve said a lot of things.”
It is from this remark that everything else Trump flows. It fits everything from the fake Jackie Gleason clip that Patrick found the other day to the disavowal of numerous "very good people" who fell out of favor to the 33,000-sq-ft penthouse and all the other real estate fraud. It is Trump's "I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul" (insofar as his "enemies" are not persecuting him -- and not that Trump has a soul).
“I’m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain, and I’ve said a lot of things” should be inscribed on Trump's tombstone, which we may assume will be a phallic edifice faced in pink marble "of the highest quality" but will allow room for dancing on his grave (for a price, and to recorded music not authorized for his estate's use).
Oops! Looks like Fatty’s assault on democracy actually WAS Krakenized .
Here’s Runny Hair Dye Man introducing Powell as not just a member of the Trump team, but one of the senior attorneys.
But hey, since when did Fatso decline to lie because incontrovertible video evidence existed to show up that lie?
Marie,
Great idea. But I think that sepulchral ding dong should be, at least according to Stormy Daniels, weird and mushroom shaped. And at the monster’s interment, Melanie should parade around in a skimpy bikini made out of top secret documents retrieved from a Marred a Lardo bathroom, so’s we can all see what we’re missing (*snicker-snicker*).
So wait, now this Anthony Pratt guy, a person to whom Fatty confided top secret defense information in one of his likely many transactional “see how big my weiner is” conversations with wealthy pals, is now a “red haired weirdo?”
Someone in a graduate level math program should try to calculate the number of people thrown under the Trump bus. The thing must be towering off the ground. Every day a few more are shoved under the tires, which haven’t touched pavement for years.
Funnily enough, in his “red haired weirdo” screed, the Orange Monster whined that the Times never called him to see if Pratt said what was being claimed (the conversation about US sub capabilities). Umm…gee, Donald. They didn’t have to. Pratt’s recounting of that moment was all on a verified audiotape. Wah-wah.
The MAGAts read this crap, all this ALL CAPS!!!!! whining and lying and can’t see how fucked up this guy is? This is demented stuff. And it’s an everyday thing.
Trump's opponents (i.e., Biden) should run ads that emphasize his lies but also ads that show he's too senile to remember basic things, like ...
what he said a few minutes before: ([a] "They're making me attend this trial so I can't go to Iowa & South Carolina," followed by [b] "I won't be here tomorrow because golf tournament at Doral")
who his own lawyers were. (In fairness, I probably couldn't remember who my own lawyers were if I got a new one every couple of days, but Powell was a pretty prominent lawyer and she was constantly appearing on Trump's on-again-off-again favorite teevee network.)
And not for nothin’, but “I’ve got a very good brain and I’ve said a lot of things” is something you might hear from an agitated psychotic just before a lorazepam injection. “Hold ‘im down boys, he’s gettin’ violent again. Get the sedative!” “IVE GOT A VERY GOOD BRAINNN!”
The most telling thing about the Repugnican Clown Car Demolition Derby to select a Speaker, is that half of them voted one way in public and another in private. This demonstration of duplicity proves that they do know shit from Shinola, but lie to their constituents who clearly don't.
D,
Which is why their shoes always smell so bad.
This morning on NPR, I heard host Steve Inskeep interview Mike Flood, a PoT rep from Nebraska, about the ongoing Squeaker fiasco.
Flood (who sounded at least nominally reasonable, despite a somewhat La-La Land solution), said he thought the party needed to all vote together (yeah, good luck with that) but admitted that there are a bunch of untrustworthy scumbags (okay, he didn’t exactly say “scumbags”) who gum up the works whenever they can. “If we can get Matt Gaetz to vote for someone we’ll be okay!” At which point I was yelling “Steve! This is your cue to nail it!” And he did!
Inskeep retorted, “But doesn’t that mean Matt Gaetz runs your party?”
Which Flood (to his credit) admitted was pretty much the case.
But just think of that. The most important people in this party are a sex trafficker, a Qanon bomb thrower, a whacko who gives handjobs in a public theater, a KKK guy, and a slimy wrestling coach who hasn’t done a thing in 16 years, all topped by a lying traitor who sez his enemies should be murdered.
Oh, but Both Sides…
Historian Seth Cotlar on our forgotten fascist history l. "why did so many late 20th C. Americans feel like we had to give a pass to historical figures who committed their lives to undermining the foundational values we claimed the US stood for?" like Charles Lindbergh and Henry Ford.
Ak: I don't know that the MAGAts read Truth Social at all...they don't read. Maybe they can follow the retexts of this stuff, from their favorite Q people, but I can't imagine that these are "regular" readers. And it no longer has to be what he says-- it just has to be what is reported that he says by even less reputable sources. It means that they are in the soup with him, and as good cult members, they would rather perish than say they have been wrong since 2015 or even earlier when he SAID he was running. I had a co-worker interested in him in 2012. We are no longer co-workers, so I don't know if she succumbed to being Full Cultish...
I've been reading more about what the Nazis admired about the USA, and one factor that was new to me was that after the war with Spain, the US acquired two new territories, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. Rather than make everyone in these new American territories actual Americans with voting and other rights, our government decided that they would be "nationals" rather than "citizens," a second-class status that probably had nothing to do with their skin color.
The Nazis discussed how no other country on Earth combined "universal" suffrage with such restrictions on who had full citizenship rights. They emulated this. Today, many among us see this time in our history as the Eden from which we have been flung through the fault of those who would form unions, seek racial equality, and liberate women from those eager to once again burn witches.
It has just been reported that Vlad has had a cardiac arrest.
Guards found him on his bedroom floor "rolling his eyes."
I do that a lot lately, not while on my bedroom floor, but just
anywhere in the house when something strange happens, which is
almost constantly.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1826909/Vladimir-Putin-heart-
attack-Kremlin-Russia
@ForrestMorris: I can't find a reliable source that's willing to publish the Putin heart-attack story. I am reminded that my neighbor came rushing over to tell me -- about three years before Queen Elizabeth died -- that QEII had died, and sure enough when I Googled "Queen Elizabeth dead," lots of fake stories came right up.
I'm not saying the Putin story isn't true; I'm saying I'll wait till the Gray Lady sings.
I'll be happier to hear that the orange-hued dipshit croaked.
Unwashed... I think that when that happens, we will have a new national holiday. I have never wished death on anyone until I realized I was hoping for his demise every single morning when I switch on the "electric machine" to see what has been happening overnight. That has been going on for about seven years now. Most people can find the good in everyone, or have until now. I can find none with the Orange Monster. None. He needs to go, one way or another.