Something is pumping out large amounts of oxygen at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, at depths where a total lack of sunlight makes photosynthesis impossible. […] in a region strewn with ancient, plum-sized formations called polymetallic nodules, which could play a part in the oxygen production by catalysing the splitting of water molecules
[…]
the team recreated the conditions […] which included polymetallic nodules […] “They start producing oxygen, up to a point. Then they stop,” says Sweetman—presumably because the energy that drives the splitting of water molecules gets depleted. This leaves the question of where that energy is coming from. If the nodules themselves were acting as batteries—producing energy from a chemical reaction—they would have become depleted long ago.
[…]
the results could also have implications for [interpreting oxygen as a life signature on] extrasolar planets.
[…]
before deep-sea mining starts, researchers should map the areas where oxygen production is occurring. Otherwise, ecosystems that have become dependent on that oxygen could collapse if the nodules are removed.
@1 CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain wrote: ‘Something is pumping out large amounts of oxygen at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean’
I reply: interesting, thanks for the info. However, I’m more concerned about reading articles on huge methane deposits on the ocean floor buried under the surface that could also be released by offshore drilling or deep-sea mining; not, to mention the danger of all the toxic hot fumes coming from politicians.
From Lynna’s #494 in the previous thread chapter quoting from a escription of FBI Director Chris Wray’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee today:
Wray said Crooks may have had a collapsible stock
Did he or didn’t he?
Crooks began firing at least eight gunshots seconds after he noticed a local law enforcement officer on the ground had spotted him, Wray said.
The officer had gotten a boost from a colleague and pulled his head up over the roof. Crooks pointed his gun at the officer, causing him to fall…
Great thing about America is, here, kings and dictators do not rule. The people do. History is in your hands. The power is in your hands. The idea of America lies in your hands. You just have to keep faith, keep the faith and remember who we are – we’re the United States America, and there are simply nothing, nothing beyond our capacity. We do it together.
So let’s act together, preserve our democracy. God bless you all. And may God protect our troops. Thank you.
whheydtsays
Re: SC (Salty Current) @ #4…
Not bad, though I could do without all the god-bothering….even making allowances for Biden’s religious beliefs.
whheydt @ #5, I wish I could say it’s like water off a duck’s back for me at this point, but it isn’t – I still roll my eyes and sigh when it’s mixed in among reasonable statements I’m reading or quoting.
@ SC
I’ve just been listening to Wray’s testimony, there is no ambiguous “may” there (whoever relayed that incorrectly inserted that). He testified that Crook’s weapon had a collapsible stock.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
@SC #3: There was apparently no easy direct access to the roof of American Glass Research. The assassin had climbed an adjacent building’s air conditioning unit to reach its roof, then crossed over to the AGR roof, where he prepared to shoot from. A local policeman was vaulted up by a colleague to peek above AGR’s roof and got startled by a gun barrel.
birgerjohanssonsays
Martin MacInnes wins Arthur C Clarke award for ‘intense trip’ of a novel | The Guardian
Nonbaryonic matter seems to interact very little with the baryonic kind. It can largely be ignored for these purposes. “Where are all the baryonic aliens?” is still something that warrants explanation as it seems there should be more, and the existence of hypothetical non-baryonic ones wouldn’t change this, as a) they’d be invisible to us and b) their existence wouldn’t come at the expense of baryonic ones — they wouldn’t be competing for anything with baryonic forms of life.
and that advanced life must be hegemonic.
Life is hegemonic, of its very nature. It spreads and it converts as much of what it encounters as it can into more of itself.
You seem to want to ask “why aren’t the non-colonizers here?” whereas Fermi asks “why aren’t the other colonizers here/why aren’t there any other colonizers?” The latter seems the inherently more interesting question, somehow …
You have colonisation in your brain, doncha?
The topic. Is. The Fermi Paradox.
The Fermi Paradox. Basically. Is asking. “Why there either aren’t other colonizers, or they haven’t already gotten here long since.”
I don’t see how I can rephrase that further so that the point might get through …
… this is general to the point of covering any form of life that doesn’t flagrantly violate the laws of thermodynamics.
Stop generalising from a sample size of 1.
<smh>
OK, tell you what. When you find life that does flagrantly violate the laws of thermodynamics, you can point to it and tell me “I told you so” and I will accept it. :P
SC@452:
and Adam Smith, the top Democrat on Armed Services.
Shouldn’t he be in Commerce, or some other business or finance related committee?
Also: isn’t he dead? Like, maybe a century dead kind of dead?
And could someone please elect Karl Marx and try to get him in as labor secretary or something? Some balance would be nice. :)
Lynna@480:
How the hell did “covfefe” not make the list? To say nothing of “hamberder”. And who can forget the great nation of “Nambia”?
Lynna@483:
Donald Trump said of some disabled people, his nephew recounted, “The shape they’re in, all the expenses, maybe those kinds of people should just die.”
But we’re supposed to believe it’s Obamacare that will create “death panels” …
John Moralessays
Nonbaryonic matter seems to interact very little with the baryonic kind. It can largely be ignored for these purposes.
Mmmhm. Quite definitive, that.
(Let’s ignore it, you say)
Life is hegemonic, of its very nature. It spreads and it converts as much of what it encounters as it can into more of itself.
No, it does not and it is not.
(Remember, tube worms)
When you find life that does flagrantly violate the laws of thermodynamics, you can point to it and tell me “I told you so” and I will accept it. :P
You imagine I’m suggesting that such life exists and can be found?
No.
What I’ve been saying all along is that this colonisation thingy you have going on in your brain, whether interstellar (heh) or intergalactic (snort) is very very silly and anthropomorphic.
Look, before that we’d notice Kardashev type II or above.
—
You, alas, are stuck in this rut where aliens are wrinkly-foreheaded people, as in star trek.
(You also clearly don’t get the scales involved)
Bekenstein Boundsays
birgerjohansson@445:
Fascinating. This greatly limits the time frame to pull off abiogenesis at red dwarves, whether on planets or in comets (though the latter have a second ticking clock: 26Al decay, whence most of ’em freeze solid after a few Gyr).
You’d think this might explain why we find ourselves at a relatively uncommon type of star, but since Earth got bacteria in only a couple hundred million years tops after it got surface water, it totally doesn’t.
Unless you combine it with red dwarves’ nasty penchant for giant superflares during their youths. By the time they stop doing that, the UV window of opportunity has closed. Perhaps not the case for larger stars, whose:
x Planets are farther away and less affected by flares, less often;
x UV window lasts far longer; and
x Superflare-prone periods are perhaps shorter, in proportion perhaps to their overall lifespans.
Finding ourselves at a yellow dwarf system might then be circumstantial evidence against cometary seeding of life. Still think it’s weird we speed-ran abiogenesis, RNA world, and ribo-world, and got to fully fledged bacteria and archaea, in less than a tenth the time it took to get from those, in turn, to inventing the cell nucleus …
Bekenstein Boundsays
Okay, Mr. Morales, you go ahead and put forth your hypothesis for what stops intelligent life from spreading very far from its origins, despite the obvious instrumental value of spreading one’s investments out and hedging one’s bets in an uncertain universe.
John Moralessays
Okay, Mr. Morales, you go ahead and put forth your hypothesis for what stops intelligent life from spreading very far from its origins
Sure.
I’ll just quote Douglas Adams:
“Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.”
John Moralessays
Einstein’s equation.
birgerjohanssonsays
“New Poll Gives Bad News For Donald Trump”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=8JA6-mXCA
I am trying to tone down the hyperbole but the boost on interest from Democrats and the drop in interest from Republicans seem strong enough to be outside the margin of error.
birgerjohanssonsays
The “death panels” had their origin in a suggestion during the W administration that people should have a say in how far the hospitals should go in prolonging life when life obviously is at the end.
As the idea came back under Obama (aka the slick conservative Democast) one Republican- maybe Kellyanne Conway, maybe Ann Coulter – started the death panel thing and when Fox News realised their low-information viewers believed it, they turned on the afterburner.
birgerjohanssonsays
I don’t want to get into a knife fight about the Fermi paradox, but I am more pessimistic today than in my youth.
Two books played a big role in this:
Rare Earth and Lucky Planet.
Other, more novel concepts; google the ‘grabby aliens’ concept.
The flares of red dwarf systems are already known by most commenters here.
I will not adress which part of the cosmic filters that are more devastating, it is a cumulative process. Late-stage capitalism and its shills probably also play a role in bringing down the odds.
birgerjohanssonsays
Super-rich being advised how to avoid Labour tax clampdown, undercover investigation suggests | Tax avoidance | The Guardian
Our group had a rule that a certain threshold of instant damage was required for damaging structures.
No good punching a brick wall with your fist even a thousand times — what was needed was a mere hundred times or so the equivalent energy of a punch.
In game mechanics, that meant a damage threshold of x; blows below that magnitude would be pointless.
(Is the point not clear? Big threshold gap between planetary, interplanetary, interstellar, and intergalactic endeavours)
I had two main characters; Ironheart (robotic) and Mindmaster (obs).
Due to the nature of the game and my friends’ familiarity with proper concepts, I got to be like a Lensman in some ways with Mindmaster by having the sense of perception.
As with the regular game mechanics, I had to mind-power through various layers in order to perceive.
Same principle; threshold values.
cf.
[…] a “sense of perception” which allows seeing by direct awareness without the use of the visual sense […]
(I don’t need to watch a video, I already know about cats)
—
Look, you gonna keep posting videos with zero context, I’m gonna keep mocking that.
(Don’t believe me?)
KGsays
(Is the point not clear? Big threshold gap between planetary, interplanetary, interstellar, and intergalactic endeavours) – John Morales@23
Of course. Our technoculture has already crossed the first gap, and Breakthrough Starshot suggests a moderately plausible way to cross the second – in the unlikely event it survives.
In fact, you could say it’s already crossed all three, since it is able to gather information on distant galaxies.
John Moralessays
Purr. Whine to get out. Whine to get in. Scratch your hair, in winter.
(Cats do lots of things)
John Moralessays
Our technoculture has already crossed the first gap
Um, welcome to the real world.
No moon base, even.
—
Point is orders of magnitude, no?
Big threshold gap between planetary, interplanetary, interstellar, and intergalactic endeavours.
Lots of zeroes, alas that Einstein got it right.
Time of travel, energy requirements, Lorenz factors, all that sort of shit.
In fact, you could say it’s already crossed all three, since it is able to gather information on distant galaxies.
Fucking vapourware, I’ve always hated that shit.
We gathered information on distant galaxies back in the days before we got fire; it’s called “looking up at the sky at night”.
A Brazilian cattle rancher has been ordered to pay more than $50m (£39m) for destroying part of the Amazon rainforest and ordered to restore the precious carbon sink.
Last week, a federal court in Brazil froze the assets of Dirceu Kruger to pay compensation for the damage he had caused to the climate through illegal deforestation. The case was brought by Brazil’s attorney general’s office, representing the Brazilian institute of environment and renewable natural resources (Ibama). It is the largest civil case brought for climate crimes in Brazil to date and the start of a legal push to repair and deter damage to the rainforest.
Kruger had previously been forced to pay damages by Ibama for destroying 5,600 hectares (13,838 acres) in the Amazonian municipalities of Boca do Acre and Lábrea. This was on public land belonging to the federal government and the state of Amazonas.
The rancher used chainsaws to clear vegetation, then set fires to clear the land and finally planted grass to establish pasture for raising cattle. Satellite images showed the scale of the damage and Kruger admitted having caused it on film.
The Michigan representative Rashida Tlaib, a leading progressive Democrat and fiercely outspoken opponent of Israel’s war in Gaza, held up a sign that said “war criminal” as Netanyahu was speaking. She also wore a Palestinian flag pin and a keffiyeh, the black and white scarf that has been linked with the Palestinian struggle for over half a century. The other side of her sign displayed during the controversial address in Washington read: “Guilty of genocide.”
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian US-politics liveblog. From there:
Obama to endorse Harris nomination soon – report
The former US president Barack Obama is expected to add his endorsement soon for the vice-president, Kamala Harris, to become the Democratic nominee for president in the 2024 election, according to the latest report.
Obama was America’s first Black president when he was elected to office in 2008 in a historic victory for the Democrats, and his endorsement is crucial for the US vice-president who is now attempting to become America’s first female president and first woman of color to occupy the White House.
Obama privately has fully supported Harris’s candidacy and has been in regular contact with her, a report by NBC said, citing people familiar with the discussions.
Aides to Obama and Harris also have discussed arranging for the two of them to appear together on the campaign trail, though no date has been set,” the report said and Reuters has reported.
…
Kamala Harris heads to Houston, Texas, this morning to give the keynote speech at the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) national convention.
Delegates for the AFT, the second largest US teachers union with 1.7 million members, voted on Monday to endorse Harris’s bid to become the first woman and second African American to serve as president of the United States. Harris has received a flurry of endorsements from many of the country’s largest labor unions since she announced her candidacy for president.
With less than a 100 days to the presidential election, high-profile endorsements could prove pivotal in helping maintain the momentum that Harris campaign has enjoyed among Democrats since she entered the race less than a week ago.
She is due to speak at the AFT event at 11am ET and then will fly back to Washington, DC to meet with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
FBI director raises questions about whether Trump was hit by bullet during assassination attempt
Shortly after a gunman opened fire at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Donald Trump said the projectile that hit his ear and caused it to bleed was a bullet.
But in testimony before the House judiciary committee yesterday, FBI director Christopher Wray said it was not clear if that was indeed the case, or if Trump was struck by shrapnel:
[Tweet with video clip: “FBI Director Christopher Wray: ‘With respect to former president Trump, there’s some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear’.”]
Trump has been criticized for not being forthcoming about his health following the assassination attempt, which left one rallygoer dead and others wounded.
He released a memo about his recovery from the shooting from former White House doctor and current Republican congressman Ronny Jackson, but has not allowed the medical professionals who treated him to talk publicly about his condition.
That was cute! It’s old but I hadn’t seen it. Thanks!
KGsays
JohnMorales@34, 35,
It may be that some critics have been silenced and some not. But in any case, there has been an Israeli campaign to silence as many as possibe, so your quibbles are just silly.
KGsays
Um, welcome to the real world.
No moon base, even. – John Morales@31
So what? If there’s a single “big gap” between planetary and interplanetary endeavours, it’s been crossed. If it isn’t a single big gap, but a series of smaller ones, then that rather undermines your point.
Ms Miller is still going strong. Last time I saw her, she did a cameo in The Nanny (Fran accidently startles an old person so much he dies).
StevoRsays
No Moon base YET so far. KG.
Robotic landing craft aside.
I do expect it will happen relatively soon.
Whether the US of A does it or China or somebody else.. we’ll see.
Hopefully in my lifetime sicne I’d love to see it. Hopefully a stepping stone to travelling much further and taking more giant leaps for Humanity as a whole & in peace and co-operation.
birgerjohanssonsays
John Morales
OK. I will try to add more context to links, but it is hard to do when I am falling asleep (either daytime in the heat*, or at night)
. we had +23° C which is ridicilous by Americsn standards… but my twisted metabolism thinks it is the Amazonas rain forest. Heat is crp.
-Noah, Eli and Heath should be coming up with another issue of Skepticrat soon, I will post a link.
Tweet with video clip: FBI Director Christopher Wray: “With respect to former president Trump, there’s some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear.”
About time a knowledgeable official questioned Trump’s account!. See comment 351 in the previous set of Infinite Thread comments.
[…] After the 2020 elections, President Joe Biden had an opportunity to replace Wray with his own FBI director, but the Democrat said he was comfortable leaving Wray in place.
[…] The FBI chief testified yesterday before the House Judiciary Committee and offered new insights into the investigation of the recent assassination attempt targeting Trump. But as part of the hearing, Republicans pressed Wray on whether he’d seen a decline in Biden’s health. He said he had not.
As NBC News reported, the comments were not well received by the former president who appointed him.
Trump called for FBI Director Christopher Wray’s resignation, pointing to Wray’s denial in testimony before Congress today that he has seen Biden experiencing cognitive issues. Trump said Wray should resign for “lying to Congress,” arguing that “anybody can see that Joe Biden is cognitively and physically challenged, and if you can’t see that, you sure as hell can’t be running the FBI.”
[Trump is high on his own supply of propaganda.]
In an online statement published to his social media platform, the Republican candidate specifically called on Wray to “resign immediately,” adding, “Wray has to resign, and NOW, for LYING TO CONGRESS!”
There is, of course, literally no evidence of Wray lying to Congress.
But I’m also curious about whether the testimony related to Biden was the only thing that troubled the former president.
During the same hearing, for example, Wray said there’s some uncertainly surrounding the precise nature of Trump’s injury from the shooting in Pennsylvania. [video at the link]
“I think with respect to former president Trump, there’s some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear,” Wray told lawmakers, adding, “There’s a whole lot of work underway and still a lot of work to do. The shooter may be deceased, but the FBI’s investigation is very much ongoing.”
This, coupled with the fact that the former president and his team have been reluctant to share even basic details about his medical care after the shooting, is generating new questions on Capitol Hill. [About damned time.]
For example, Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman of New York — a member of the House Judiciary Committee and a former prosecutor — wrote online this morning, “We must see Donald Trump’s official medical records.”
We probably haven’t heard the last of this.
Being hit by shrapnel during an assassination attempt is bad enough. Trump did not have to lie to present his dramatic story to the RNC audience. It would serve Trump right if his whole victim shtick was undermined because he could not stop himself from exaggerating (lying).
Bits and pieces of campaign news, as summarized by Steve Benen:
* At his latest campaign rally, Trump repeatedly mispronounced Harris’ first name, continued to say weird things about Hannibal Lecter, and effectively admitted that he no longer has use for the “nice” rhetoric he briefly embraced after the recent assassination attempt.
* On a related note, after Trump appeared on Fox News again this morning, the Harris campaign issued a press statement that said the former president is “old and quite weird.” The headline on the release read, “Statement on a 78-Year-Old Criminal’s Fox News Appearance.” [LOL]
* Fox News is not currently scheduled to host a 2024 presidential debate, though the controversial network apparently hopes to change that, reaching out to the Trump and Harris campaigns this week, inviting the candidates to debate in Pennsylvania on Sept. 17. The letter added that the moderators would be Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum.
* Barack Obama has not endorsed Harris, but NBC News reported that the two have been “in close touch” in recent days, have had “multiple conversations,” and the former president’s formal support will be announced soon.
* And the Secret Service confirmed this week that independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. now has a protective detail. Protection for the conspiracy theorist began last week.
[…] NBC News tracked down a 2022 speech in which Trump spoke at a Heritage Foundation event and said, “This is a great group and they’re going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do … when the American people give us a colossal mandate to save America.”
In case that weren’t quite enough, Media Matters also discovered that Paul Dans, a former Trump administration official and the director of Project 2025, told a right-wing podcast last year that his group has a “great” relationship with the former president and that “Trump’s very bought in with this.”
I can appreciate why Trump doesn’t want to be associated with Project 2025 — most voters would find the agenda to be almost cartoonishly extreme — but his denials keep running up against reality.
Trump keeps Project 2025 in the news by repeatedly denying that he backs the plan, or that he knows anything about it. For once, Trump’s penchant for repetition is backfiring.
See also comment 496 in the previous set of Infinite Thread comments.
StevoRsays
There is insufficient evidence to prove the controversial weedkiller Roundup causes cancer, the Federal Court has ruled.
Roundup’s parent companies Monsanto and Bayer were taken to court in a major class action, with hundreds of Australians claiming their exposure to the product’s active ingredient, glyphosate, caused non-Hodgkin lymphoma. After hearing evidence in a lengthy trial, Justice Michael Lee said on the balance of probabilities, the plaintiffs failed to prove that the products caused cancer.Justice Lee acknowledged there were mixed views in the scientific community about the risks of Roundup, and said further research could provide a more definitive answer.
In his first rally since President Joe Biden withdrew from the 2024 race, Donald Trump did exactly what everyone expected him to do: The Republican spent much of the event going after Vice President Kamala Harris. The former president’s case against his new rival, however, has tended to rely heavily on vague name-calling: Trump called the likely Democratic nominee a “lunatic,” for example.
But during his pitch in North Carolina, one the GOP nominee’s lines of attack stood out:
“Kamala Harris … shouldn’t even be allowed to run for president, what she’s done. She’s committing crimes.
The Republican’s followers, naturally, cheered the rhetoric. [video at the link]
There is a degree of irony to the comments: A jury recently found Trump guilty of nearly three dozen felonies. If Harris “shouldn’t even be allowed to run for president” because “she’s committing crimes,” then I supposed we should look forward to the former president delivering a withdrawal speech of his own.
What’s more, insisting that the Democratic vice president is “committing crimes” would be less ridiculous if Trump had any evidence of Harris, you know, actually committing crimes.
But of particular interest was the GOP candidate’s suggestion that his likely Democratic rival “shouldn’t even be allowed to run” for the White House. If the comment rang a bell, there’s a good reason for that:
In October 2015, Trump said Hillary Clinton shouldn’t “even be allowed” to run for president.
In February 2016, Trump said Ted Cruz was “not allowed” to run for president.
In March 2016, Trump said John Kasich shouldn’t have been “allowed” to run against him in a GOP primary.
In October 2020, Trump said Joe Biden shouldn’t have been “allowed” to run for president.
And in July 2024, Trump said Kamala Harris shouldn’t “even be allowed” to run for president.
Part of the problem here is that the Republican nominee is getting lazy, recycling stale insults, nicknames and attacks.
[…] Trump has long taken a keen interest in who should and shouldn’t be “allowed” to run against him, and in a remarkable coincidence, he consistently argues that those who stand in his way are — or should be — ineligible for American ballots.
Trump already earned a reputation as someone who was hostile toward democracy. This won’t help.
A bit of Olympics history that’s probly too oft forgot :
From a gender equality perspective, this Olympics is historic.
For the first time ever at a Games, there are an equal number of events for men and women. Australia is actually sending its highest proportion of women to a Games in history, at 55.6 per cent of athletes. There is a degree of symmetry in this — albeit a slightly disingenuous one — because women first appeared in competition at the first Olympics Paris hosted in 1900.
Incredibly, it took until 2012 for women to be allowed to compete in all the events on the Olympic program, and never before this year has there been absolute equality until this Paris Games in 2024.That it has taken 128 years for women to be given an equal footing at the modern Olympics is a frankly staggering anachronism by today’s standards.
That it happened at all is arguably down to one woman — Alice Milliat.
[…] I think in context that’s likely a bureaucratic and gentle way of saying Trump probably wasn’t hit by a bullet. […]
We’re almost two weeks after this happened. This is the first official word about it. As I’ve explained before, after the shooting, Pennsylvania State Police were briefing reporters that Trump had been hit by flying glass. Flying debris, shards of glass, shrapnel – these are all basically the same thing: tiny hard objects kicked up at high velocity by bullet impacts. (There are reports that bullets hit the sound equipment on the stage.) Four local police officers who were just feet away from Trump when the shots were fired also received minor injuries from flying debris from the bullets. (It seems probable that Secret Service agents may have been hit too but we simply haven’t gotten those details. The only reports about the local police officers came from the police department itself and appeared solely in the local press.) It was only after Trump went on Truth Social and announced that he’d been struck in the ear with a bullet that the story changed. All mainstream media took Trump’s word for it and ran with that version of the story.
Let’s be honest: Trump is notoriously self-promoting pathological liar. This is hardly a controversial statement. I think even many of his supporters would concede the point. From a journalistic standpoint the idea that anyone would simply take his word for this is bizarre, a total journalistic failure. Not only is Trump thoroughly unreliable, it’s not clear he would have known one way or another. One can be generous and say that maybe he thought it was true.
[…] Trump rapidly raised the stakes for contradicting him by making his story the central message of his whole convention.
I learned over the last week that at the upper echelons of the major press organizations there was a clear understanding that there was no real basis for Trump’s story, not withstanding the fact that all of those organizations ran with it as a canonical part of the coverage. The consensus seemed to be that the bullet story was just Trump’s opinion. And if we’re generous with the word “opinion” that’s probably right. They appear to have been pretty open among themselves that it simply wasn’t a big enough deal to merit getting into a public fight with the Trump campaign over. And as we know, it would definitely be a fight even to ask for additional details about the story that quickly become the central element of what amounted to Trump’s canonization in Milwaukee.
The fact that Trump now routinely says he “took a bullet for democracy” as a way to deflect from any bad story or question gives some indication of why reporters should not drop asking basic questions just to avoid the anger of the people they’re covering. It seems quite likely that the story Trump has been telling constantly over the last two weeks simply isn’t true, that he and his campaign know it’s not true or at least that there’s no evidence for it. And the press has too.
[…] Some of the press hesitation is explained, if not quite justified, by the true gravity of what happened, a genuine near miss assassination and massive shooting attempt that could have dramatically changed the course of American history. But that’s no excuse for dropping the most basic blocking and tackling of ordinary reporting.
StevoRsays
A group rallying for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza has alleged “sabotage” of efforts to free them. The accusation from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum came amid Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington. ..(Snip!).. “It has now become apparent that the information provided to the hostages’ families did not accurately reflect the situation’s reality,” the group said in a statement. “This foot-dragging is a deliberate sabotage of the chance to bring our loved ones back. It effectively undermines the negotiations and indicates a serious moral failure.”
Anti-government protesters who have also regularly demonstrated, sometimes by the tens of thousands, have similarly accused Mr Netanyahu of dragging out the war, as have some analysts.
Democracy Docket
Newbern, Alabama Will Hold First Election Since 1965
By Courtney Cohn / July 24, 2024
A federal judge signed off Tuesday on the settlement agreement reached in Newbern, Alabama in Mayor Patrick Braxton’s case, officially giving him all mayoral powers and privileges after being blocked from office by the previous white town leaders…
In addition to forcing Braxton’s predecessors to give him access to official documents and allow him into the town hall, which they physically locked him out of, the settlement agreement establishes that the town will hold its first election since 1965 next year….
The settlement declares Patrick Braxton as the “lawful mayor of Newbern,” and grants him all the powers, duties, privileges and “all other rights enjoyed by prior mayors and entrusted to the mayor of Newbern under Alabama state law.”…
Newbern, a small majority-Black town, has not had a mayoral election in almost 60 years and instead has the current mayor appoint the next mayor. However, Braxton wanted to change that and filed for candidacy in 2020.
Since no one else, including the sitting mayor, filed to run in the election, Braxton became mayor-elect in July 2020 and appointed his own council members.
Braxton argued that Stokes did not file for candidacy because he knew he would lose the election.
Then, Stokes and his council members held a special election on Oct. 6, 2020, without notifying all of the town residents, resulting in the all-white group being elected….
In his lawsuit, Braxton said the defendants engaged in intentional racial discrimination by refusing to let Black residents participate in local elections or hold local office, violating the First and 14th Amendments.
In the settlement filed on Friday, the parties agreed that “an ambiguity exists in the Alabama Code with respect to how a mayor should fill town council positions when all town council positions are vacant.”
Both the plaintiffs and the town agreed that its failure to administer elections violates the law.
[…] Republicans are falsely saying that the vice president has been in charge of President Joe Biden’s immigration policy, that she’s his “border czar.” And it’s a lie designed to benefit Donald Trump’s favorite topic: fear-mongering about immigration.
The lie is coming from the top, of course. On Tuesday, Trump told reporters, “Harris was appointed ‘border czar’ in March of 2021, and since that time, millions and millions of illegal aliens have invaded our country and countless Americans have been killed by migrant crime because of her willful demolition of American borders and laws.”
[…] At least seven speakers at the convention, including failed GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley, Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, and Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida attacked Harris as being in charge of Biden’s border policy.
And on Tuesday, the odious Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York introduced a resolution “condemning Kamala Harris’ role as Joe Biden’s ‘Border czar’ which has led to the most catastrophic open border crisis in history.” In the real world, however, border crossings today are at their lowest point since Biden’s first full month in office.
Let’s set the record straight: In a meeting with Harris in March 2021, Biden tapped her to lead U.S. diplomatic efforts with officials in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras to stem migration to the U.S. In that meeting, Biden said that when he was vice president, he “got a similar assignment” and that the Obama administration secured $700 million to help countries in Central America.
“One of the ways we learned is that if you deal with the problems in country, it benefits everyone. It benefits us, it benefits the people, and it grows the economies there,” Biden said in that meeting.
Harris was tasked with working diplomatically with Central America leaders to work on the region’s root causes of mass migration—corruption, crime, hunger, poverty—all the stuff the GOP, and in particular Trump, is incapable of understanding, much less addressing.[…]
In fact, Harris has had successes engaging in the region. As America’s Voice’s Gabe Ortiz points out, Harris “led the ‘In Her Hands’ economic empowerment initiative in collaboration with Partnership for Central America, which aims to support and provide opportunities for millions of women across Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras by 2030.”
She also led the Root Causes Strategy, which has mobilized more than $5 billion in private-sector investments in Central America, investments that have helped to create over 250,000 jobs in the region and “provided funding for small businesses, and supported the economic inclusion of women,” according to Immigration Hub, an organization that pushes for immigration reform.
Answering the larger and tougher challenges of migration is what Harris and the Democrats have been trying to accomplish. The job is going to get only more complicated as climate change drives more migration.
The GOP’s reductive response to the entire issue is solely about the politics of fear and never about policy. They don’t want to solve the crisis; they want to keep running on it.
Donald Trump loves coining nicknames. Who could forget “Little Marco” Rubio, or “Lyin’ Ted” Cruz? Then there was “Birdbrain” Nikki Haley, and a real head-scratcher: “Meatball Ron” DeSantis. Sometimes they run to the racist, like “Peekaboo” for New York Attorney General Letitia James, or “Pocahontas” for Sen. Elizabeth Warren. More often, they sound like digs from a third-grade playground, as with “Sleepy Joe” or “Crooked Hillary.”
Now Trump is trying to tag Vice President Kamala Harris with one of his nicknames. And that nickname is … “Laughing Kamala.”
Trump clearly believes this is an insult that can draw attention to Harris’s boisterous laugh—and that people will find it odd. But that’s not the way it works. People like laughter. They like folks who are upbeat, positive, and joyful.
In Trump’s dark vision of American carnage, the only acceptable laughter stems from cruelty. But Harris radiates a genuine warmth. And nothing frightens the darkness more than light.
It’s little wonder that Trump’s designated nickname for Harris is not catching on with the MAGA faithful. […]
Trump can muster a creepy grin when he thinks he’s gotten in a jab that might hurt someone. He can even summon up something truly disturbing when he’s hugging a flag. But when it comes to actual laughter, he can barely squeeze out a dry chuckle.
Harris’ laugh signals good humor, high spirits, and a zest for life. But there’s more to it than that, as she explained during an appearance on “The Drew Barrymore Show” that touched on her experience as the nation’s first female vice president—and criticism of her laughter.
“Don’t be confined to other people’s perception.” Vice President Kamala Harris hits back at the MAGA trolls who criticize “the way I laugh”. (Video: The Drew Barrymore Show) pic.twitter.com/MPPzj314Az
“I have my mother’s laugh,” Harris said. “And I grew up around a bunch of women in particular who laughed from the belly … they would sit around the kitchen drinking their coffee, telling big stories with big laughs.”
Her message was simple.
“I think it’s really important for us to remind each other and our younger ones: Don’t be confined to other people’s perception about what this looks like, and how you should act in order to be.”
The right to laugh shouldn’t be a source of controversy. But as Sophie Gillis writes in The Atlantic, there have been men throughout history who have hated the sound of a woman laughing.
In many recent cultures, laughter for women has been an outright transgressive act. Under Taliban rule in Afghanistan, the former first lady Laura Bush noted in a 2001 speech, women faced beatings if they were seen laughing. And … the former Turkish deputy prime minister counseled women in 2014 not to laugh in public, lest they signal their “moral corruption.”
Those sound like the kind of men who Trump would get along with: in their dark place, where women are silenced and oppressed. […]
[…] “I revere this office, but I love my country more,” Biden said in his address. “It has been the honor of my life to serve as your president, but in the defense of democracy, I think it is more important than any title. This sacred task of perfecting our union is not about me. It is about you. Your families. Your futures. It’s about ‘we the people.’” […]
“I have decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation,” he continued. “That is the best way to unite our nation.” […]
“Over the next six months, I will be focused on doing my job as president. That means I will continue to lower costs for hard-working families and grow our economy,” he said. “I will be defending our personal freedoms and our civil rights—from the right to vote to the right to choose. I’ll keep calling out hate and extremism and make it clear there is no place in America for political violence.”
Biden spoke about his many accomplishments and vowed to keep fighting to improve the lives of Americans. He thanked Harris for all she has done in her role as vice president.
“She’s experienced, she’s tough, she’s capable,” he said. He called on Americans to remember Benjamin Franklin’s words when they make their choice in November: “A republic, if you can keep it.” He insisted on the need to keep the republic in this election.
“The great thing about America is here, kings and dictators do not rule,” Biden said in his final remarks. “The people do. History is in your hands. The power is in your hands. The idea of America lies in your hands. You just have to keep the faith and remember who we are. We’re the United State of America. And there is nothing, simply nothing beyond our capacity.”
During a live-streamed interview Monday evening, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that he will not be donating millions of dollars every month to Donald Trump, rejecting reports like one that appeared in The Wall Street Journal earlier this month.
“What’s been reported in the media is simply not true,” Musk told right-wing commentator Jordan Peterson. “I am not donating $45 million a month to Trump.”
But just because Musk says he’s not funneling money to Trump doesn’t make it true. As the original story in the Journal reported, Musk is dropping his cash into America PAC, a super PAC focused on registering conservative voters and countering Democratic “get out the vote” efforts. He also retweeted and confirmed a post saying “Elon Musk went from being an Obama voter to pledging $180 million to elect DJT. The woke left really f*cked up. Badly.”
Musk still insists he’s donated to a PAC whose mission is to help Trump get elected. On the day after Trump’s attempted assassination, Musk formally endorsed Trump. That also hasn’t changed despite Trump’s promises to eliminate tax credits for electric vehicles—which benefit Tesla.
So why is Musk trying to pretend he’s not supporting Trump? Because of what has changed: Tesla’s profits.
On Tuesday, Tesla reported that its second-quarter earnings had taken a whopping 45% drop and that its quarterly profitability was at the lowest level in five years.
That should not be surprising.
In May, Musk insisted that he wanted to help Trump combat nonexistent voter fraud. Along with fellow billionaire Nelson Peltz, Musk recently began a kind of billionaire boys’ club in support of Trump. That included holding breakfast meetings at Peltz’s Florida mansion, where Trump and his son Barron shared a meal with Musk and other tech broligarchs. They may be the only guys who think that the selection of JD Vance was a good idea.
Musk may have been thrilled that he could support a party that shared his beliefs that workplace diversity initiatives are behind all the world’s ills, and that shares his hatred for the “woke mind virus” and transgender people. But he didn’t seem to consider the consequences.
A Gallup poll in early 2023 showed that the vast majority of those interested in buying an electric vehicle are Democrats. Seventy-six percent of Democrats said they were either seriously considering or might consider an EV. That’s in addition to the 6% of Democrats who already own an electric vehicle.
Meanwhile, 71% of Republicans said they would not buy an electric vehicle. It’s not hard to see why Republicans are so anti-EV when Trump and Vance both regularly launch attacks on EVs. Tesla may be the world’s largest EV manufacturer, but Trump regularly claims that soon all EVs will be made in China, while Vance wants to take away incentives to buy electric vehicles and give them to gas vehicles instead. Trump has promised to end EV support on “day one” if he returns to power, which would devastate Tesla and other EV manufacturers in the U.S.—and hand a huge opportunity to Chinese manufacturers.
Republicans don’t like EVs. Democrats do. And Musk has done everything he can to piss off his customer base.
The problem for Musk is that very few Democrats are now willing to buy a Tesla following Musk’s endorsement of Trump in May. The favorability rating of the Tesla brand among Democrats plummeted to just 16% in July. That’s less than half the rating the company held at the beginning of the year, and that number was already down thanks to Musk’s remarks on X, formerly Twitter.
[…] over the same period, support for the company also fell among Republicans.
With all this, it’s not exactly shocking that Musk may be trying to put some distance between himself and Trump by claiming that his PAC is not “hyperpartisan” and that he doesn’t believe in MAGA or the personality cult of Trump.
But no one should buy it. They shouldn’t buy Musk’s claims … or his cars. Because the money he is putting into America PAC is simply helping Trump and other Republican candidates. That’s true even if it doesn’t end up in their bank accounts. And it may end up in their bank accounts.
However, as USA Today noted on Monday, Musk likes to make big promises and capture the news cycle but his “record on follow-through is spotty.” So no matter what Musk says, Trump shouldn’t count on that money until the check has cleared. […]
Musk’s claim that he is not funding Trump came just after Vice President Kamala Harris kicked off her campaign. ActBlue has now raised more than Musk’s $180 million contribution to the Republicans, and they’ve done it in just three days, with the help of hundreds of thousands of donors. […]
It’s been 10 days since Donald Trump selected Ohio Sen. JD Vance as his running mate and America is not exactly feeling the “Vancementum.” What’s growing is an unease on the right, where even Trump’s staunchest supporters seem to realize that he did not choose wisely.
As one House Republican told Axios, Vance was “the only pick who wasn’t a safe pick.” Vance has no crossover appeal. He doesn’t bring with him suburban voters, or moderate Republicans, or independents looking for reassurance that Trump’s policies will be more measured. He sure doesn’t help close Trump’s gap in support from women.
According to CNN, Vance is the least-liked VP pick since 1980. He comes into the race with a net negative approval rating even before most Americans know who he is.
Since he has hit the road as Trump’s new junior partner, things have only gotten worse. With clumsy speeches full of weird lines that fail to get a cheer even from a hometown crowd, and old statements resurfacing that are generating an angry backlash, even Republicans are starting to realize that Vance is a loser. Kind of reminds us of another controversial VP pick.
According to Trump, his reason for selecting Vance came down to “chemistry.” Which means simply that the inexperienced senator “liked me more than anybody liked me.”
Flattery will definitely get you somewhere with Trump. Flattery is all that counts.
Vance was also the favored candidate of the tech billionaires who have been bankrolling Trump’s latest assault on democracy. They see Vance, whose big break as an investment banker came in working for billionaire tech vampire Peter Thiel, as one of their own. Thiel was Vance’s biggest source of funds for his Senate campaign.
As OpenSecrets previously reported, PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel and groups tied to Thiel almost entirely bankrolled the pro-Vance super PAC. The billionaire tech mogul donated $10 million to Protect Ohio Values last March. A “dark money” group tied to Thiel, Per Aspera Policy, also donated $200,000 earlier this year, and Thiel donated another $5 million after Trump endorsed Vance.
That was just two years ago. Vance has only served in the Senate for 18 months, which makes him one of the least experienced candidates to run for high office—except for Donald Trump, of course. Vance has never had to balance a state budget. He hasn’t had to negotiate with legislatures or handle an emergency. […]
Axios notes that some of the other contenders for the vice president slot on the Republican ticket came with perceived benefits. Selecting former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley might have shown voters that Trump was willing to compromise, made the slate more tenable to moderates, and done something to improve that women problem. Picking Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin might have at least given Trump someone who was good at campaigning and capable of plastering over extremist policies with a kind of faux moderation. Even North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum would at least come with a record that was largely a blank slate.
But that’s not Vance. This is a guy who wrote a whole rags-to-riches storybook whose big revelation is that people who are poor or drug-addicted are that way because they are lazy and apathetic. He’s the guy who called Trump “America’s Hitler” and whose flip-flop on Trump generated what might be the best line of the campaign to date from Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.
“The problem with J.D. Vance is he has no convictions,” said Beshear. “But I guess his running mate has 34.”
Vance is not the second coming of Sarah Palin. When Sen. John McCain selected the Alaska governor capable of reading all newspapers while understanding none, he did so in an effort to expand his base in the party. Palin was viewed by the growing radical right as one of them. McCain was looked on suspiciously as a moderate in a party where the term RINO was just beginning to take off.
Palin was a bad choice, but not an altogether illogical one. It wasn’t until she was actually out on the trail—and skewered so effectively on “Saturday Night Live”—that the stars began to fade from reporters’ eyes.
But Vance’s base is just Trump’s base. Worse, it’s the meanest, weirdest, most extreme part of Trump’s base. Vance’s appeal outside of that base can be measured only with negative numbers.
Vance was a selection that Trump made when he thought he was headed for a landslide victory over a president unable to rally the Democratic Party. Vance is absolutely the last partner that Trump needs in trying to win moderate voters and independents from a younger, sharper, more hopeful candidate.
Compared to Vance, Palin was a brilliant choice.
We also should note that JD Vance was the strongly favored pick of Donald Trump Junior, and of Eric Trump. They were/are friends.
Yesterday (Wednesday), Trump reverted to ranting about some of the legal proceedings in which he is involved … or was involved:
[…] First, Trump touted his “big win” in a “high Florida court” against ABC News and anchor George Stephanopoulos, which Trump claimed is a “powerful case” that will force the news media “to start telling the truth.” But Trump’s description of that development is misleading at best.
The ruling Trump was referencing came down Wednesday from a federal trial court — or, in other words, the lowest level of the federal court system — and merely determined that Trump’s defamation case against ABC News and Stephanopoulos, which stemmed from the latter’s March interview with GOP Rep. Nancy Mace, cannot be dismissed now, at the outset of the litigation.
In his lawsuit, Trump claims that Stephanopoulos’ repeated statement that a judge and two juries held Trump liable for raping author E. Jean Carroll was both false and malicious. But in its effort to have the case thrown out, ABC argued that Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over Carroll’s two trials, had already determined, in a written opinion, that the first jury “implicitly” found that Trump had “‘raped’ [Carroll], albeit digitally rather than with his penis,” and therefore, that Trump could not dispute that conclusion. In a July 2023 ruling, Kaplan determined that “[t]he finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was ‘raped’ within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean she failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape.’ Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that.”
ABC also argued that even if Kaplan had never made that ruling, his underlying reasoning was sound and should apply because Stephanopoulos’ descriptions of the jury’s verdict were “substantially true”— and therefore could not constitute defamation. (In delivering their verdict, the jury in the first Carroll case did not find Trump liable for rape, as that term is defined under New York law, and instead held him liable for sexual abuse.)
Trump is right that Judge Cecilia Altonaga rejected both of those arguments, allowing the case to continue. But she also made plain that Trump’s purported “big win” was hardly the final word, explaining that she was “not reaching the merits of [Trump’s] claims. [ABC and Stephanopoulos] may very well convince a reasonable factfinder” — meaning a jury — “to follow Judge Kaplan’s reasoning or to adopt other reasoning leading to the conclusion that Stephanopoulos’s statements were not defamatory.” That, however, “is not the issue before the Court now,” Altonaga clarified. […]
Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) blasted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress on Wednesday as the “worst” in the body’s history, harshly criticizing the leader’s lack of progress toward a hostage deal with Hamas.
“Benjamin Netanyahu’s presentation in the House Chamber today was by far the worst presentation of any foreign dignitary invited and honored with the privilege of addressing the Congress of the United States,” Pelosi wrote on the social platform X after the speech.
The former Speaker skipped the event in order to attend a listening session with Israeli families of hostages held by Hamas and those killed in the war.
“Many of us who love Israel spent time today listening to Israeli citizens whose families have suffered in the wake of the October 7th Hamas terror attack and kidnappings,” Pelosi continued. “These families are asking for a ceasefire deal that will bring the hostages home – and we hope the Prime Minister would spend his time achieving that goal.”
The striking statement from a top Democrat underlines the growing divide between Netanyahu and the party. Democrats have been increasingly critical of Netanyahu, despite overwhelming support for Israel, as he has appeared hesitant to back a hostage deal with Hamas supported by President Biden. [I agree that we should all be “increasingly critical of Netanyahu.”]
About half of both House and Senate Democrats sat out the lengthy speech, which included the prime minister downplaying civilian casualties in the conflict, claiming that American protesters were backed by Iran and bashing his critics. [Disgusting]
[…] Outside the Capitol building, the speech was met with mass protests and at least 11 arrests, according to U.S. Park Police and the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department.
Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) criticized Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to both chambers of Congress on Wednesday for being “fundamentally dishonest.”
“I thought it was fundamentally dishonest,” Nadler said on MSNBC. “He says he wants peace, but his political interest is to keep the war going as long as possible, because he knows that as soon as the war over he’ll have to face a commission of inquiry [over] why he was telling Qatar to arm Hamas before the election, and why he ignored warnings from the military about the attack on Oct. 7, which they had warnings about a few hours earlier.”
He also said Netanyahu still needs to answer questions, including about his immediate response to the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas that killed about 1,200 people in Israel.
When asked if there could be a negotiated peace deal to end the months-long hostilities in the Gaza Strip — where Israel has killed tens of thousands of people — while Netanyahu is still prime minister, Nadler responded, “probably not”.
He added that Netanyahu keeps “putting new conditions” on negotiations to release the Israeli hostages still held by Hamas.
“When he talks about the hostages, I don’t believe he has any interest in releasing the hostages, because that would hasten the end of the war. And that’s why you see hostage negotiations, and he keeps putting new conditions — he keeps putting new objections to the hostage deal, and that’s why you see hundreds of thousands of people in Israel protesting against him,” Nadler said.
The New York Democrat said he would not have gone to the address if it wasn’t in honor of the state of Israel, but added he “certainly” did not go in support of its prime minister or his policies.
Nadler, in a statement before the speech, had called Netanyahu “the worst leader in Jewish history.”
He added that “Prime Minister Netanyahu also ignored the warning signs that pointed to Hamas’ October 7th horrific attack, and championed the policies that led to Hamas’ increase in funds, power, and military capability.” […]
Steep increases in logging. An end to federal environmental enforcement for farms. Work requirements for food aid. Fewer school meals for children. And the demolition of the network of farm subsidies that have backstopped Big Ag since the New Deal.
These are some of the sweeping changes that would be made to American agriculture under Project 2025, the controversial battle plan conservative groups have prepared to guide the next Republican administration.
[…] Here are the highlights of what Project 2025 wants to accomplish in the farm sector; why realizing those goals would be difficult; and what could happen if right-wing appointees were to try anyway.
What Project 2025 proposes for agriculture
The farm bill, the massive omnibus that underpins the U.S. food system, is built on a grand bargain that unites policies backed by GOP-leaning rural farm counties, such as subsidies for farm production, with priorities of Democratic-leaning urban population centers, such as food aid under programs like Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
The agriculture section of Project 2025, authored by Daren Bakst of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, would break those two halves apart into separate legislation — and target both with significant cuts and policy changes.
[…] Additionally, it proposes reversing the Biden administration’s 2021 reforms that sought to increase SNAP disbursements to reflect the real-world costs of healthy food — and rejiggering the federal math that determines whether all students in a district have access to free meals.
[…] Many of the proposed measures cut against the grain of mainstream scientific thought. For example, to address destructive wildfire, the plan seeks to ban the use of prescribed burns to reduce the amount of fire-prone vegetation in forests — something Republican lawmakers have also pushed for.
Instead, Project 2025 would fight wildfires with increased logging — a strategy that many ecologists argue makes fires worse. (Logging is distinct from expensive and noncommercial tree thinning — rather like weeding with a chainsaw — which does reduce fire risk.)
[…] The project also seeks to constrict or eliminate the Conservation Reserve Program, which was established in 1985 to pay farmers to fallow sensitive land to give it time to recover. Its creation was part of a broader attempt to slow the loss of American topsoil, which is both the basis of the food system and is vanishing 25 times faster than it is generated.
[…] The project additionally makes a related proposal to end the ability of the National Resources Conservation Service to work with farmers to protect wetlands and erosion-prone landscapes using strategies such as terracing or screens of vegetation to hold down the soil.
[…] “If the past is prologue, the Trump team will restore tariffs on agricultural products — and then use the slush fund that is CCC to provide tens of billions to the largest, most successful and overwhelmingly white farmers,” Faber added.
Similarly, the attack on the USDA’s voluntary conservation programs is “baffling,” Aviva Glaser of the National Wildlife Federation told The Hill.
Like many other Project 2025 agricultural priorities, the USDA conservation programs are also supported by decades-old bipartisan coalitions — making them difficult to get rid of through legislative action.
Difficult, however, doesn’t mean impossible: Sizable factions of congressional Republicans support shrinking conservation programs and instituting work requirements for SNAP, though current House leadership has steered away from this goal.
[…] A key part of the project’s overall agenda is the proposed replacement of thousands of current civil service employees with political appointees. […] USDA staff plays a crucial role in implementing farm programs […] Even without congressional support, Coppess said, the [newly political] USDA could devolve some authority to the states simply by firing lots of inspectors — at least in the short run.
[…] assumptions about what is possible for agencies to accomplish on their own — or, conversely, where Congress can rein them in — comes from a world before the Supreme Court struck down Chevron deference, and as such may not be relevant to a future Republican administration.
That legal doctrine, for 40 years a bedrock of administrative law, instructed judges to defer to federal agencies in cases where the law was ambiguous. The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn it last month means judges will now substitute their own interpretation of the law
.
“There’s an operational mindset that maybe the usual rules don’t apply,” Coppess said.
The Democratic [N]ational [C]ommittee held a press call today to attack Donald Trump and JD Vance for their “anti-worker” agenda, after Republicans spent much of their convention pitching themselves as economic populists.
“It’s more of that trickle-down economic fairy tale that has never worked. It has gutted so much of our economy. It’s hurt working people; it’s hurt the labor movement,” said congressman Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania.
“It’s been great for big corporations and billionaires and Wall Street. It is fiscally irresponsible, and we can’t let it happen again.”
Touting the legislative accomplishments of the Biden administration, Deluzio argued Kamala Harris would continue the president’s pro-labor record if she wins in November.
“We’re going to take more strong action to bring home offshore jobs, to bring home more manufacturing, to defend the ability and the freedom for folks to form and join the union,” Deluzio said. “That’s the backbone of the union way of life.”
Some Democratic and labor leaders from battleground states joined the DNC press call today, and reported genuine and widespread enthusiasm for Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign.
“There’s a lot of excitement on the ground,” said Yolanda Bejarano, chair of the Arizona Democratic party. “We are seeing just a lot of folks coming out, trying to find out what they can do to volunteer, to help get vice-president Harris elected.”
Ron Bieber, president of the Michigan AFL-CIO, described the environment in the battleground state as “electric” and echoed Harris’ message that Americans “won’t go back” to a time of fewer rights.
“Trump was devastating to the auto industry and auto workers here in Michigan. They are not going to go backwards. We’re moving forward,” Bieber said.
“President Biden and vice-president Harris have been the biggest supporters of union workers and the auto industry here in Michigan, and people are fired up. I’ve been doing this stuff a long time now, and I’ve never seen the energy and excitement as I am right now.”
The false and reputationally damaging article about Mr. Schwartz violates the protections that are provided in Substack’s Publisher Agreement (“PA”). Specifically, the PA provide that users may not: “[post] or otherwise use Substack in a manner that: is fraudulent, deceptive, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, or in any way violates Substack’s Content Guidelines”1 and the Content Guidelines say “Please…don’t infringe on their privacy or any other legal rights. Don’t publish anything that violates laws or regulations.”2
Kindly remove the post from your platform within the next 30 days, establish protocols to ensure it does not get re-posted, and send us confirmation once it has been removed. Thank you.
Sincerely,
/s/ Star Kashman, Esq.
Star Kashman, Esq.
Founding Partner
Cyber Law Firm, PLLC
Attorney to David Schwartz
Dear Ms. Kashman:
Thank you for your email of July 22 regarding the allegedly “false, defamatory, and harmful article on Wonkette” about your client, David Schwartz. It was a most welcome diversion during a frankly exhausting news week. However, it is not our habit at this little Mommyblog to respond to performative dickwagging masquerading as a cease and desist letter. (See “In The Matter Of Diamond And Silk’s Very Real Lawyer v. Wonkette: Bring It, Sh*thead.”) And so we will not be complying with your request to remove the post for the reasons stated below.
Background
The article in question, published on March 29, 2018, and entitled “Michael Cohen’s Lawyer David Schwartz Actually Worse At This Than Michael Cohen,” featured several actual quotes from your client, who was then counsel to former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen. At the time, Mr. Cohen was publicly claiming to have entered into the hush money agreement with Stormy Daniels without the knowledge of his own client, Donald Trump.
“The president was not aware of the agreement. At least Michael Cohen never told him about the agreement, I can tell you that,” he assured CNN’s Erin Burnett on March 28, 2018.
If true, this would have been a violation of New York’s Rules of Professional Conduct, particularly Rule 1.4 which requires an attorney to “promptly inform the client of any decision or circumstance with respect to which the client’s informed consent … is required by these Rules.” But of course it was not true.
Shortly thereafter, Mr. Cohen pled guilty to making an illegal campaign finance violation, and testified that he had entered into the hush money agreement at the behest of “Individual 1,” AKA Donald Trump. Indeed, he repeated that testimony under oath, most recently in May, at the former president’s criminal trial in Manhattan, which led to 34 convictions for creating a false business record to cover up the payment.
Mr. Schwartz went on to insist that it was ridiculous to suggest that Mr. Cohen would have sent someone to threaten Ms. Daniels.
“He never ordered a threat. He doesn’t do that,” said Mr. Schwartz, who was then representing Mr. Cohen. “Because he does it to someone’s face.”
Noting that Mr. Schwartz seemed to be conceding that his own client was in the business of accosting random women and threatening physical violence, we wrote, “We really didn’t think there was a lawyer stupider than Michael Cohen. Turns out we were wrong!” And then we repeated the Yiddish aphorism, “If he were twice as smart, he’d be an idiot.” Although, in light of your recent communication, we might have to revisit the math on that one.
Defamation
Your letter does not specify which statements are “false” or “defamatory” in the article, presumably because there are none. Quoting someone verbatim and then accusing him of “disgracing the legal profession” is a protected expression of opinion. And your client, who went on national television to discuss a pending criminal case, was clearly a public figure for the purposes of the Sullivan standard.
But even if the article did contain defamatory statements, any action would be time-barred.
Mr. Schwartz appears to be a resident of New York, and, as a member of the bar for almost a year now, you must be aware that the statute of limitations for libel in New York is one year. (See CPLR § 215(3).) In 2018 when the article was published, Ms. Dye, who wrote the piece, lived in Maryland, which also has a one-year SOL. Wonkette was domiciled in Montana, which allows two years to file an action for defamation. But since the article in question was published more than six years ago, the time to pursue Mr. Schwartz’s non-existent claim has long since passed. Linear time — it’s tricky!
Terms of Service
As for your demand to speak to the manager of Subtack, we would simply note, Karen, that neither the platform’s Publisher’s Agreement nor its Content Guidelines create a private right of action for third parties. And as you have failed to specify which statements in the article are “fraudulent, deceptive, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, [or] defamatory,” we will not be issuing any corrections, either.
Because saying mean words on the internet is not illegal. In fact, it is our job, and we think it’s pretty important.
So, if your client is interested in preventing reputational harm, perhaps he should refrain from saying abjectly foolish things on national television. Barring that, he could stop reminding people about those moronic utterances years after the fact, when absolutely no one remembers who he is. (See: Streisand Effect.)
In conclusion, the “offending” post will stay up.
Very truly yours,
Rebecca Schoenkopf and Liz Dye
P.S. Google is free. And you could have avoided this entire embarrassing exercise by using it.
The fire prompted 25,000 people to flee as it roared into the town overnight as a “wall of fire,” devastating up to half the structures in the picturesque resort.
[…] There were no immediate reports of injuries, following a mass evacuation of the town and a neighboring national park earlier in the week, but Jasper Mayor Richard Ireland said in a letter on the town’s website that the wildfire “ravaged our beloved community.” [video at the link]
[…] Danielle Smith, the premier of Alberta province, said from 30% to 50% of the town’s structures are potentially damaged. “We don’t know which structures have been damaged and which ones are destroyed, but that’s going to be a significant rebuild and significant displacement,” Smith said.
Smith teared up talking about the beauty of Jasper, noting that many families from the province regularly visit.
A postcard-perfect mountain town, Jasper is famous for hiking, skiing, kayaking and biking. It is also home to dozens of species such as elk, mountain goats, cougars, lynx, black bears and grizzly bears.
“We share the sense of loss with all who live in town,” Smith said at a news conference in Edmonton, Alberta. “Alberta’s government will provide the support needed to families and communities to recover and rebuild.”
Jasper and the neighboring Jasper National Park had been menaced by fires from both the north and south, and the town’s 5,000 full-time residents — along with 20,000 visitors — fled on short notice late Monday and Tuesday when the fires flared up. One of the fires entered the southern edge of the community Wednesday evening.
Alberta Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis said a wind gust moved the wildfire about 5 kilometers (about 3 miles) in probably less than 30 minutes toward the town with a wall of fire that he estimated was 100 meters high.
“People need to picture what those wildfire folks were experiencing at that time. Any firefighter will tell you there is little to nothing you can do when a wall of fire like that is coming at you,” Ellis said. “Nobody anticipated the fire to come so fast, so large.”
[…] Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his administration has approved Alberta’s request for federal assistance, including military resources.
On X, the account for the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge said the flames had reached the hotel’s grounds, but the extent of damage, if any, wasn’t immediately known.
Jasper National Park is considered a national treasure. The United Nations designated the parks that make up the Canadian Rockies, including Jasper, a World Heritage Site in 1984 for its striking mountain landscape.
Alberta has been baking under scorching temperatures that have already forced another 7,500 people out of remote communities. About 176 wildfires were burning across the province, including 54 that are burning out of control.
Alberta Forestry and Parks Minister Todd Loewen said many of the fires are caused by lightning, and Alberta Wildfire spokesperson Christie Tucker said firefighters expect winds will raise the danger.
Tucker said hundreds firefighters from Australia, Mexico, New Zealand and South Africa are arriving to help fight the wildfires throughout the province. […]
As the 2024 elections draw closer, Republicans want voters to believe the economy is awful. Reality keeps pointing in the opposite direction.
[…] NBC News reported:
Economic activity in the U.S. was considerably stronger than expected during the second quarter, according to an initial estimate Thursday from the Commerce Department. Real gross domestic product, a measure of all the goods and services produced during the April-through-June period, increased at a 2.8% annualized pace adjusted for seasonality and inflation. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for growth of 2.1% following a 1.4% increase in the first quarter.
[…] all of this comes against a backdrop of the 2024 election cycle, as the former president and his allies try to convince the public that the economy is dreadful, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding.
[…] there’s a lot for Americans to like about the current state of their economy. The job market remains strong, unemployment remains low, wages are up; and when it comes to inflation, the latest Consumer Price Index report showed that price increases slowing sharply — including the first month-to-month decline in more than four years.
What’s more, there’s an international context to consider. The World Bank last month not only noted that the Biden-era economy is the world’s strongest, it also concluded that the global economy is in better shape in large part because of the United States’ recovery.
“Globally, overall things are better today than they were just four or five months ago,” said Indermit Gill, the World Bank’s chief economist. “A big part of this has to do with the resilience of the U.S. economy.” Gill’s report further credited “U.S. dynamism” with helping to stabilize economies abroad.
A Washington Post report added, “The United States is the only advanced economy growing significantly faster than the bank anticipated at the start of the year.”
Around the same time, The Atlantic’s Rogé Karma described the U.S. economy as “the envy of the world.”
If the United States’ economy were an athlete, right now it would be peak LeBron James. If it were a pop star, it would be peak Taylor Swift. Four years ago, the pandemic temporarily brought much of the world economy to a halt. Since then, America’s economic performance has left other countries in the dust and even broken some of its own records. … There are many ways to define a good economy. America is in tremendous shape according to just about any of them.
Four years ago, Trump told supporters that Democratic policies would “unleash an economic disaster of epic proportions” and force the country “into depression.” Everything he said and predicted was wrong — and the former president hasn’t even tried to explain why his predictions were so hilariously misplaced.
In the aftermath of the assassination attempt targeting Donald Trump, many leading Republicans not only blamed Democrats, GOP officials pointed specifically to one Democratic talking point: Describing the former president as a threat to democracy, Republicans said, was simply beyond the pale.
The GOP nominee is apparently thinking along the same lines. Politico reported:
Former President Donald Trump suggested Wednesday that Democrats calling him a “threat to democracy” could have led a 20-year-old gunman to try to assassinate him, though the FBI has not unveiled a motive behind the July 13 shooting. “Such a distressed sick world but you know what could be caused when they call you a threat to democracy,” Trump told a crowd of supporters in North Carolina.
[…] Earlier this week, the former president said he was shot because “the Biden/Harris Administration did not properly protect me,” and as of last night, he tried to draw a direct connect between a Democratic talking point and the attempt on his life.
It’s wildly irresponsible to talk this way — investigators still don’t know what motivated the shooter — but Trump clearly doesn’t care.
What’s more, it’s tough to take the former president’s complaints about the rhetoric seriously given his own record. In fact, the week before the shooting in Pennsylvania, Trump described the Biden administration as a “fascist government,” as his campaign operation issued a fundraising appeal asserting as fact that President Joe Biden is “a threat to democracy.”
Two weeks earlier, the former president wrote on his social media platform, “JOE BIDEN IS A THREAT TO DEMOCRACY, AND A THREAT TO THE SURVIVAL AND EXISTENCE OF OUR COUNTRY ITSELF!!!” The hysterical missive dovetailed with months of rhetoric in which Trump has told voters the United States would likely cease to exist if he loses.
If he thinks it’s dangerous for Democrats to push such criticism, perhaps Trump can explain why he’s pushed the same criticism.
Complicating matters, the Republican candidate might not like the Democratic line, but it’s rooted in fact. As we’ve discussed, this is a White House hopeful who has repeatedly raised the prospect of creating a temporary American “dictatorship,” and who has talked about “terminating” parts of the Constitution that stand in the way of his ambitions.
He’s running on a platform of rejecting election results he doesn’t like, militarized camps, pardons for politically aligned criminals, friendships with foreign authoritarians he holds in high regard, and mass firings of federal bureaucrats who are deemed insufficiently loyal to Trump’s ideological ambitions.
If Trump doesn’t want to be accused of threatening democracy, then he might want to try curtailing his threats to democracy. […]
On Thursday [today], Vice President Kamala Harris delivered the keynote address at the American Federation of Teachers’ National Convention in Houston. The AFT, the second-largest teachers’ union in the country, endorsed Harris on Monday, one day after President Joe Biden announced he would no longer seek reelection. And Harris’ ovation at the convention was overwhelming.
Harris reminded the crowd that she is a child of public education and that her personal connection to that education formed who she is today. She told a story of her first grade teacher’s impact on her life. It was an eloquent, and moving, and direct acceptance of the AFT’s endorsement.
As you may know, I am a proud product of public education. Many of you know that my first grade teacher, Mrs. Francis Wilson, God rest her soul, taught me and educated me and encouraged me and inspired me. And years later, when I walked across the stage to receive my law school diploma, Mrs. Francis Wilson was in the audience.
And that’s who you are. I know who you are. I know who you are. This work is personal, and it is professional, and it is so critically important. And so it is because of Mrs. Wilson and so many teachers like her that I stand before you as vice president of the United States of America.
And that I am running to become president of the United States of America.
[video at the link]
Kamala Harris is an excellent communicator.
John Moralessays
Gotta love the way you conflate exploration with colonisation, KG.
So what? If there’s a single “big gap” between planetary and interplanetary endeavours, it’s been crossed. If it isn’t a single big gap, but a series of smaller ones, then that rather undermines your point.
Oh, right. Crashed some probes in some planets, landed some on our nearest neighbours.
Haven’t landed anyone on any other planet, but.
Again: how many orders of magnitude in the distances between planets in a solar system compared to stars in a galaxy and compared to galaxies in the cosmos?
For Justice Department employees who had spent weeks contemplating the possibility of two-time federal criminal defendant Donald Trump returning to the presidency, Joe Biden’s decision to drop out and endorse Kamala Harris offered a sense of relief.
Former and current Justice Department employees believe that a future president Harris, a former prosecutor, unlike Trump, would respect the norms that have been in place to ensure DOJ independence in the half-century since Watergate.
Those fears of another Trump term are central to a new letter endorsing Harris, signed by more than 40 former Justice Department officials who served under presidents of both parties. They include former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, former deputy attorneys general Sally Yates, David Ogden and Jamie Gorelick, and John McKay, who was appointed as a top federal prosecutor in Washington state during the George W. Bush administration, among others.
“The fabric of the nation, the rule of law and the future of the Democracy are at stake in this election,” reads the letter, first obtained by NBC News. It warns: “The stakes could not be higher. Former President Trump presents a grave risk to our country, our global alliances and the future of democracy.”
Trump “regularly ignored the rule of law” as president, the former officials wrote, pointing out that one of his first acts was an “unconstitutional Muslim travel ban” and one of his last acts was an attempt “to stay in power by defying election results and the will of the American people.”
Harris is “the best choice to defeat Donald Trump and lead the nation,” the letter says, citing her work in the Biden administration and as attorney general of California, where “she oversaw the largest state justice department in the country. She forged strong relationships with law enforcement to keep people safe, fought for American consumers and fought against those preying on the American people.”
Even before Trump tried to weaponize the Justice Department and get his appointees to help overturn the presidential election he lost, culminating in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, Justice Department officials of both parties expressed worry during the 2020 campaign that a second Trump term would put the Justice Department past “the point of no return.” Trump jump-roped the line of independence between the Justice Department and the White House during his time in office, worrying DOJ observers worried then and now that a second term for him would obliterate the firewall completely.
In his first four years, Trump ousted two attorneys general for refusing to go along with his personal agenda — interfering in Robert Mueller’s criminal probe into his 2016 campaign [and the Russian sabotage of the election!] in the first case, and pursuing bogus election fraud claims in the second. At the end of his term, Trump tried to convince the acting leaders of the Justice Department to help Republicans overturn the results, actions that helped lead to one of his pending criminal cases.
Fears about what an untethered president could spell for the Justice Department have only increased in the weeks since the Supreme Court’s decision on presidential immunity, a 6-3 ruling that largely shields presidents from criminal liability for “official acts.” Liberal justices said the ruling “puts the President above the law,” warning it would have “disastrous consequences” for the country and that it fundamentally “reshapes the institution of the presidency.”
Harris would take a much more reverential approach to the rule of law and the Justice Department’s tradition of independence than Trump, current and former DOJ employees said….
Russian propagandists seem to have been given instructions to speak as negatively as possible against Kamala Harris.
In this clip, Russian propagandist Markov says:
“We’re going to directly warn Americans that she’s an evil puppet that’s going to be imposed. You have to fight for American democracy. We’ve known America for 200 years. It has been the leader of democracy.” […]
Russian propagandists discuss Kamala Harris:
“Kamala Harris is distilled evil… She’s the devil who says ‘It’s okay’ with white teeth and talks about living one day at a time.”
Ha! Fox “News” cut the coverage of Kamala Harris’ speech with the claim it was a ‘campaign speech’.
As we all know Fox has never, ever broadcast a campaign speech by a Republican candidate, honest.
birgerjohanssonsays
Trump only mentions Hannibal Lecter when he has bern talking about immigrants. He is conflating ‘asylum seekers’ with ‘insane asylum’ in his mind.
birgerjohanssonsays
‘MAGA Voters Turn Against Trump For Weirdest Reason Possible’
Trump said a good thing…. and MAGA voters got angry.
Manhattan prosecutors are urging the judge who oversaw Donald J. Trump’s criminal hush-money trial to uphold his conviction, seeking to cast doubt on the former president’s long-shot bid to overturn the case because of a recent Supreme Court ruling.
A judge dismissed a bankruptcy case filed by the Gateway Pundit on Wednesday, saying the far-right outlet did not file the case in good faith. The ruling from US bankruptcy judge Mindy Mora in the southern district of Florida comes as the outlet faces significant defamation cases from two Georgia election workers and a former Dominion Voting Systems employee who say the site spread false claims about them after the 2020 election.
Senior Trump DOJ officials issued multiple statements weeks before the 2020 election suggesting anti-Trump election fraud in a critical swing state, knowing all the while that no crime had likely been committed and that the main suspect faced a severe mental disability, a DOJ Inspector General report found.
You may recall the widely covered story of nine ballots cast by overseas military voters found in the garbage in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. On its face, the initial reporting seemed to affirm the most intense, right-wing fever dreams of widespread voter fraud.
Then-Attorney General Bill Barr directed DOJ officials to take the virtually unheard of step of releasing details about the investigation – including that several of the ballots contained votes for Trump – even though the case “would likely not be criminally charged,” the report found.
[…] Per the report, Barr pumped Trump up with the juiciest details from the Luzerne County incident on Sept. 23, 2020. Several ballots had been found in the garbage, Barr told the President. They were military and, in a remark that was like waving red before a bull, they were pro-Trump. That same day, Trump refused to commit to the transfer of power. The next day, Trump went on a radio station and used the details Barr provided him about the investigation to rile up the public and reinforce Barr’s incorrect conclusions: mail-in ballots were a “horror show,” Trump said, and the DOJ would investigate.
The next day, senior DOJ officials – including U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania David Freed – released a statement falsely saying that nine pro-Trump ballots had been found discarded in the garbage, while adopting Trump’s language attributing the situation to “potential issues with mail-in ballots.” Freed was later forced to issue a follow-up statement clarifying that only seven ballots were for Trump; two remained sealed.
The report notes a key point: The DOJ’s public statements, and Barr’s private remarks to Trump, only mentioned the presidential race. But the discarded ballots included votes for all of the other races taking place in that region of Pennsylvania at the federal, state, and local levels, including auditor general and state treasurer. Barr, the report said, did not address questions from the inspector general about why he wanted Freed to include that the discarded ballots were cast for Trump. Freed, when asked about downballot races, told the IG “my concern was—the discussion around voter fraud had centered so much around the Presidential election.”
For more than a day, the report found, Freed and other senior officials had been aware of a key fact: The suspect accused of discarding the ballots had a mental disability, and, per one DOJ official interviewed by the IG, was working at the ballot processing station as part of a program for the disabled. FBI agents had interviewed the subject two days before the DOJ began to issue public statements; per the IG report, the agents found the subject “‘100% disabled’ due to a ‘vehicle accident’” and that the person was “not capable of following simple instructions.”
The IG report criticized Freed and other senior DOJ officials for issuing public statements about the case while knowing all this information […]
But the IG found that Barr’s actions remained within the line, if by a hair, largely because of expansive regulations that empower the Attorney General to inform the public about investigations if the official believes it to be in the interests of justice to do so. The IG similarly found that Barr did not violate policy by telling Trump about the Luzerne County case because such briefings remain at the attorney general’s discretion. [oh FFS]
[…] Barr did not cooperate with the investigation, responding to the IG in the form of two letters while declining to sit for an interview.
[…] On the morning of Sept. 24, Trump told a radio host that “they found six in an office yesterday in a garbage can. They were Trump ballots—eight ballots in an office yesterday in—but in a certain state and they were—they had Trump written on it, and they were thrown in a garbage can. This is what’s going to happen. This is what’s going to happen, and we’re investigating that.”
Several hours later, Barr and Freed spoke again. This time, Barr directed Freed to issue a public statement about the investigation, emphasizing that all of the ballots had been cast for Trump and that they were all ballots submitted by overseas military voters. After the conversation, Freed agreed to issue the statement. It went through DOJ’s Office of Public Affairs, before going out to the public.
The statement, which erred in saying that all nine ballots identified were cast for Trump, when only seven were identifiable, caused an immediate outcry, both within DOJ and without. The head of the Election Crimes Branch of the Public Integrity Unit, the report says, told the IG that he was “appalled,” and that the language in the statement made it appear as if the DOJ was “taking sides” for Trump.
“I mean, if you had to make any statement at all, it didn’t have to be so partisan,” the report quotes the official as saying.
This is the second DOJ Inspector General report released in the past two days addressing longstanding allegations that Barr politicized the Justice Department while serving as Trump’s attorney general. It has been more than three and a half years since Barr stepped down as attorney general.
[…] Multiple DNC delegates provided TPM with a copy of a memo outlining the process that was sent out by convention secretary Jason Rae on Wednesday night. It details the schedule for a virtual roll call vote where the party will nominate their presidential candidate ahead of the in-person convention, which will be held in Chicago starting Aug. 19. According to the memo, that vote could begin as early as Aug. 1.
Presidential nominees are typically selected via an in-person roll call vote at the convention. The DNC previously stated the virtual roll call would be necessary this year due to ballot access deadlines in multiple states. That process, which received renewed attention after Biden’s stunning exit from the race and endorsement of Harris, will mean the in-person convention only features what the memo described as “celebratory and ceremonial votes to recognize and affirm the presidential and vice presidential nominees of the Democratic Party.”
According to Rae’s memo, candidates attempting to pursue the nomination must submit a statement of intent by July 27 at 6:00 PM ET. Harris has enough support already locked in from delegates that there is almost no chance a challenge could succeed. So far, no one other than longshot candidate and “spiritually progressive” author Marianne Williamson has shown any signs of taking her on. After declaring their intent to pursue the nomination, candidates will need to obtain signatures from 300 delegates with “no more than 50 from a single state” by July 30 at 6:00 PM ET.
While there is almost no way a challenger could successfully take the nomination from Harris, if anyone goes for it and manages to obtain the signatures, it will have implications for the schedule. Rae’s memo noted, “If only one candidate for nomination demonstrates they have met the above qualifications, electronic voting by the delegates may begin as soon as August 1.” If Harris has a challenger, the rules committee approved a five day period for a brief contest.
[…] Democratic Convention Chair Minyon Moore has said she would hold back the virtual roll call vote until Aug. 3 if Harris has a qualified challenger. […]
Even though Harris has already effectively locked down the nomination, these details and the precise scheduling are important because they have an effect on her running mate selection. The permanent Democratic National Convention rules specify that the vice presidential nominee is typically affirmed by “a confirmatory and ceremonial vote … which may occur by voice vote” at the in-person convention. If the plan for a virtual roll call vote included having the delegates affirm the vice presidential nominee, it would have meant that Harris had to conclude her veepstakes process in time to declare her running mate’s intent to pursue the nomination alongside her own.
Instead of having the delegates affirm the vice presidential nominee along with the presidential nomination, the DNC memo notes that this year’s rules will allow Moore to officially confirm the running mate of the nominee’s choosing.
“Once a Presidential nominee is selected, the nominee may place a Vice Presidential candidate into nomination,” the memo said. “The Convention Chair may then declare that candidate to be the Vice Presidential nominee of the Democratic Party.”
That rule change means that Harris will have until Aug. 7 to choose her running mate. […]
With the party swiftly coalescing behind Harris, the virtual roll call plans and rule changes have not proved controversial. However, according to one delegate who spoke to TPM and requested anonymity to discuss internal party business, the new process has left some of them wondering what to do. Multiple sources told TPM the DNC was reaching out to delegates on Thursday to check in and see if they had questions about the plan.
“I have heard no grumbling about the process,” a delegate told TPM. “I’ve heard some confusion, but no grumbling.”
Justice Kagan calls for a way to enforce Supreme Court ethics code.
Justice Elena Kagan suggested Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. could appoint an outside panel of highly respected judges to review allegations of wrongdoing.
Justice Elena Kagan said Thursday that she would support the creation of a committee of judges to examine potential violations of the Supreme Court’s new ethics code, speaking out as President Biden and others are increasingly calling for reform at the high court. […]
The GOP-led House called it quits early on Thursday, leaving for its “August” recess after holding a bullshit vote attacking Vice President Kamala Harris—but without doing the planned job of funding large sectors of the government.
Representatives won’t be back from their break until Sept. 9, stretching their month at home to six weeks. And when the House does reconvene, it will have just 13 scheduled work days to make sure the government doesn’t shut down when the new fiscal year starts on Oct. 1. What that means is yet another fight in the badly splintered GOP over a short-term funding bill, with more shutdown threats and angst […]
[…] Last October, when he took over as speaker, Johnson made big promises there wouldn’t be any more funding chaos in his chamber. He pledged the following on behalf of House leadership: “DO NOT break for district work period unless all 12 appropriations bills have passed the House.”
How have House Republicans done on that goal? Not so great.
– They have passed five of the 12 necessary funding bills, all with conservative poison pills and under President Joe Biden’s veto threat.
– One bill was advanced to the floor without enough votes. It failed.
– Three have been yanked from the floor when it was clear they would fail.
– They haven’t even tried to bring the remaining bills.
We’ve seen the same story ever since the Republicans took over the House last year: chaos brought on by GOP infighting. It’s bad enough now that Republicans are running to Fox News to snipe at each other, mostly anonymously.
One Republican expressed their exasperation with party hard-liners trying to include even more outrageous amendments in these funding bills. “If you bring an amendment up that … makes me feel good … but it’s literally not going to pass a markup, or it’s not going to allow the bill to pass on the floor because the moderates are not going to like it, it’s just political masturbation at that point,” one Republican lawmaker told Fox. “So, what are we doing?”
[…] Expect that anger to fester over the next six weeks of vacation and for another miserable funding fight to take place in September, replete with government shutdown threats. They’ll have to pass a short-term funding bill to keep the government’s doors open. And if they don’t have that shutdown fight in September, they’ll have it after the election—whatever the results. Because at this point, that’s all Republicans know how to do.
[…] “After watching Fox News this morning we only have one question, is Donald Trump ok?”
No, he is not.
We are not going to subject you to all the videos from “Fox & Friends,” but we’ll link some from Aaron Rupar’s Twitter, for the masochists out there. [Embedded links are available at the main link.]
Trump doesn’t think they should 25th Amendment Joe Biden. Now why would he be against the 25th Amendment, besides how his own Cabinet talked about using it to get rid of him, and also maybe he’s even more scared of running against a Kamala Harris with incumbent status?
Does Trump regret picking JD Vance as his running mate? Noooooo, he likes that Ashley Furniture (allegedly!) frequent flyer just fine! Trump says he’s “for the worker,” and that he’s being “very well-received,” which is just another data point showing how insulated from reality Trump’s people keep him. [That’s for sure.]
“Fox & Friends” played a clip of Kamala Harris talking about her experience in the courtroom going after rapists and criminals, saying she knows Trump’s type, and asked Trump to respond. He said people told him to be nice after he got shot — he even made that into a “sir” story — but now he can’t, because it’s “disgusting,” and he’s “dealing against real garbage.” Then he [complained] and cried about his indictments.
He whined and [complained] about people burning the flag, declared people who do so should go to jail for a year, said it doesn’t matter if it’s unconstitutional, and he expressed sadness because the dictators he’s always mouth-hugging wouldn’t let that happen in their countries.
Trump has never heard of Project 2025, he agrees with some of the things in it, he doesn’t like others, “many of the points are fine, many of the points are absolutely ridiculous,” and again, “this is a document I know nothing about.”
Trump told his delusional lie that he always babbles like a Shark Battery Hannibal Lecter story about how everybody wanted Roe v. Wade overturned.
Trump told his voters they have so many votes “we don’t need the votes.” Hear that, MAGA? They already have enough, you can stay home […]
Panther Luna got scared and spoke😳🐆
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=j3VvMo0_gt8
A rather shy black leopard. If I recall correctly, this one was a rescue from a circus. It is also terrified of horses.
The Kamala Harris campaign has marked World IVF Day with a statement hitting out at Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance, who has been outspoken in his opposition to abortion and fertility treatment.
“Happy World IVF Day to Everyone Except JD Vance”, Harris’s campaign wrote in a statement posted to X. It continued:
True to form, JD Vance is marking World IVF Day by insulting couples struggling with infertility, demeaning women’s choices and their freedoms, and reminding voters about his and Donald Trump’s anti-IVF Project 2025 agenda.
…
The statement comes after the recent resurfacing of 2021 comments by Vance in which he said Harris, Pete Buttigieg, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable”.
The resurfacing of the comments also prompted Friends actor Jennifer Aniston to put out a rare statement criticising Vance in which she said, “I truly cannot believe this is coming from a potential VP. All I can say is … Mr Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day”. [If she wants to, presumably!]
Then, Stokes and his council members held a special election on Oct. 6, 2020, without notifying all of the town residents, resulting in the all-white group being elected….
WTF to this whole story. Imagine being a black person in that town.
Part of the problem here is that the Republican nominee is getting lazy, recycling stale insults, nicknames and attacks.
It’s all so tired and inane and just recycled year after year after year after year. I can’t believe the Republican Party has nominated this fool three fucking times in a fucking row.
Kate and Josh discuss the outpouring of euphoria from Democrats over VP Kamala Harris’ elevation as well as her breakneck veepstakes.
JMsays
@100 SC (Salty Current): The Republican party has been eaten by the hard right. Starting with the Tea Party crowd they began pushing the moderates out of Congress and state governments. This set the stage for Trump and the MAGA crowd, who are remarkably vengeful. Even after Trump won they worked to remove anybody in the Republican party that had opposed Trump and they continued this when Trump lost. The Congressional Republicans are now mostly either hard right MAGA or spineless and most of the state parties are close to the same.
The Republican party is little but the party of Trump at this point and him running again in 2028 is very possible. He could run every 4 years until his death and win a significant nomination vote at this point, and this is likely to happen even if he has to run from prison.
whheydtsays
Re: JM @ #102…
I wouldn’t put money on him being alive in 2028. Your point about him running from prison is–on the other hand–entirely possible. It’s been done twice before. Look up Eugene V. Debs and Lyndon LaRouche.
The Trump campaign said Thursday it would not agree to a general election debate with Vice President Harris “until Democrats formally decide on their nominee” after Harris said she was ready to debate the former president.
This is basically an excuse as the Democratic party convention will be in August so there won’t be any question by September when the next debate was scheduled. This is phrased such that it implies there will be a debate once the Democratic nominee is formally selected but there is a good chance it doesn’t happen. This gives Trump a chance to back out of the next debate and then load up negotiations after that with irrational demands.
Akira MacKenziesays
@ 102
Starting with the Tea Party crowd…
Oh, it’s goes back further than those dinguses. Reagan at the latest. Goldwater or McCarthy at the earliest.
Training artificial intelligence (AI) models on AI-generated text quickly leads to the models churning out nonsense, a study has found. This cannibalistic phenomenon, termed model collapse, could halt the improvement of large language models (LLMs) as they run out of human-derived training data and as increasing amounts of AI-generated text pervade the Internet.
This is a perfectly predictable result but it is a significant problem for companies trying to get data to feed into a LLM. As more content on the internet is generated by AI and that content isn’t marked it gets harder and harder to get source data that isn’t AI generated.
The underlying problem here is that a LLM trained on LLM generated data ends up emphasizing the quirks of the previous generation of AI. Lets say you have a generation 1 LLM for pictures that slightly favors bikinis when no clothing is included in the prompt. This is a small quick caused by the pictures used to generate the generation 1 LLM had a bit too many bikini pictures. When you use the pictures generated by the generation 1 LLM to train a generation 2 LLM it will have an even bigger bias towards bikinis because it picks up on the generation 1 pattern and uses it to build it’s own pattern. This creates a feedback loop that makes each generation emphasize the quirks of the previous generation stronger.
JMsays
@105 Akira MacKenzie: I was speaking specifically of the situation that put Trump in control of the Republican party.
The general problems of the Republican party certainly go back further. Politicians using fear to sell their campaign goes back as far as their are records, it can be seen in both Roman and Greek records. It was nothing new when McCarthy started the Red Scare.
John Moralessays
Training artificial intelligence (AI) models on AI-generated text quickly leads to the models churning out nonsense, a study has found.
Implicit generalisation.
‘Training [existant] artificial intelligence (AI) models on AI-generated text quickly leads to the models churning out nonsense, a study has found.’
The slow death spiral of the Republican party as a bona fide conservative party and with a smidgeon of concern for ordinary people started in the 1970s as the centrist Rockefeller Republicans were pushed out.
With Reagan it took a hard turn to the right. With the onset of talk radio and the malignancy that is Fox News the slippery slide was inevitable – consider the difference between Bob Dole and the later Republicans.
The astroturf Tea Party (in thrall to corporate interests) made populism really mainstream and it was probably inevitable that someone like Trump would show up and complete the process.
It is fortunate this someone was so goddamn inept and confused instead of someone like Dollfuss or Viktor Orban.
birgerjohanssonsays
Oh, and I should have mentioned Nixon and the Southern strategy.
birgerjohanssonsays
Biden’s Speech Got Under Trump’s Skin | Goodbye, Brat Summer | AP Debunking J D Vance Couch Sex Rumors.
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=NL1yGqQ3pnA
.
You know, it would be nice if someone had been as quick to debunk the claim that Danish newspaper published disrespectful Muhammed cartoons.
One of the imams who started the controversy included cartoons from a neo-nazi magazine which were obviously awful. But no one dared to correct the claim. This allowed the Saudi authorities to divert discontent towards Christians, leading in turn to Christians in Iraq being subjected to ethnic cleansing.
Bekenstein Boundsays
John Morales@23:
Our group had a rule that a certain threshold of instant damage was required for damaging structures.
No good punching a brick wall with your fist even a thousand times
And yet, in the real world throwing a few zillion sand grains at a mountain range eventually erodes it into nubs. As KG and StevoR have pointed out, “time is long”.
Advantage: real world.
John Morales@30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35 …
Are you drunk?
Lynna@64:
One of the ways we learned is that if you deal with the problems in country, it benefits everyone. It benefits us, it benefits the people, and it grows the economies there … diplomatic efforts with officials in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras to stem migration to the U.S.
Helping the people there is good. However, it’s still kinda shitty to do it motivated by the hope that then they’ll stay put because you don’t like them and you don’t want them to move closer to where you live, with the subtext being that the reason you don’t like them is the color of their skin, rather than helping them because you have a freaking heart.
Lynna@69:
A “dark money” group tied to Thiel, Per Aspera Policy
Oh, no, they didn’t. Nazis don’t get to appropriate the words on the Apollo 1 fire memorial and then taint them forever. Grrr at this defilement!
Lynna@72:
He added that “Prime Minister Netanyahu also ignored the warning signs that pointed to Hamas’ October 7th horrific attack, and championed the policies that led to Hamas’ increase in funds, power, and military capability.”
Anyone else here thinking maybe Netanyahu is the Palpatine to Hamas’s Count Dooku? The whole war a scheme to make them both more powerful, followed eventually by a betrayal by Palpatine who, of course, wants all of that power for himself?
Lynna@77:
No mention of how Danielle “Drill, Baby, Drill” Smith is partially responsible for the fire she shed those crocodile tears over …
The takeover of the Colorado GOP by the far right has led to weird things.
“Colorado GOP leaders meet under a bridge to hide from other members”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=zUwmPTqB-a8
BB, more like the gun pellets than the entropic threshold:
And yet, in the real world throwing a few zillion sand grains at a mountain range eventually erodes it into nubs. As KG and StevoR have pointed out, “time is long”.
Nope. Not if the thrower is a monkey-type, as we are.
Throwing a few zillion sand grains at a mountain range with sufficient energy will do that, but in the game, you can’t really punch a wall a thousand times, never mind a billion times.
Try it for yourself.
Tap a glass pane with a toothpick.
Tap it a thousand times. Tap it ten billion times.
Same result.
(Just don’t tap it with a hammer, even once)
Threshold values, they are a thing in real life.
John Morales@30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35 …
Are you drunk?
Heh.
You’ve reached that point, eh?
Nope.
I’m having fun with you.
—
Here, for you:
“I mean, d’you know what eternity is? There’s this big mountain, see, a mile high, at the end of the universe, and once every thousand years there’s this little bird-”
-“What little bird?” said Aziraphale suspiciously.
-“This little bird I’m talking about. And every thousand years-”
-“The same bird every thousand years?”
-Crowley hesitated. “Yeah,” he said.
-“Bloody ancient bird, then.”
-“Okay. And every thousand years this bird flies-”
-“-limps-”
-“-flies all the way to this mountain and sharpens its beak-”
-“Hold on. You can’t do that. Between here and the end of the universe there’s loads of-” The angel waved a hand expansively, if a little unsteadily. “Loads of buggerall, dear boy.”
-“But it gets there anyway,” Crowley persevered.
-“How?”
-“It doesn’t matter!”
-“It could use a space ship,” said the angel.
Crowley subsided a bit. “Yeah,” he said. “If you like. Anyway, this bird-”
-“Only it is the end of the universe we’re talking about,” said Aziraphale. “So it’d have to be one of those space ships where your descendants are the ones who get out at the other end. You have to tell your descendants, you say, When you get to the Mountain, you’ve got to-” He hesitated. “What have
they got to do?”
-“Sharpen its beak on the mountain,” said Crowley. “And then it flies back-”
-“-in the space ship-”
-“And after a thousand years it goes and does it all again,” said Crowley quickly.
There was a moment of drunken silence.
-“Seems a lot of effort just to sharpen a beak,” mused Aziraphale.
-“Listen,” said Crowley urgently, “the point is that when the bird has worn the mountain down to nothing, right, then-”
Aziraphale opened his mouth. Crowley just knew he was going to make some point about the relative hardness of birds’ beaks and granite mountains, and plunged on quickly.
-“-then you still won’t have finished watching The Sound of Music.”
Aziraphale froze.
-“And you’ll enjoy it,” Crowley said relentlessly. “You really will.”
-“My dear boy-”
-“You won’t have a choice.”
-“Listen-”
-“Heaven has no taste.”
-“Now-”
-“And not one single sushi restaurant.”
A look of pain crossed the angel’s suddenly very serious face.”
― Neil Gaiman, Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
John Moralessays
PS BB, #34 has nothing whatsoever to do with you.
(Appropriating is not a good look)
John Moralessays
OK, I know. Asynchronous comms, here.
Still.
Thing is, whether or not those comments are drunken ramblings, you have made no effort to even attempt to try to dispute them, have you, BB? You exemplify the informal logical fallacy with that silly attempt.
(Reality bites)
John Moralessays
[drunk, eh?]
“Stephen Colbert’s Cyborgasm: CrowdStrike Crashes The World”
The world has not crashed.
So, that’s a straight out untruth.
(Surely you must appreciate my fact-checking, Birger!)
[Chorus]
She comes in colours everywhere
She combs her hair
She’s like a rainbow
Coming colours in the air
Oh, everywhere
She comes in colours
[I went to a lot of effort to avoid just pasting the link and having the video embed, as this platform wants to do. But still, local rules. I do try]
StevoRsays
NASA’s Perseverance rover may have found signs of ancient life in a rock on Mars; the mission team’s scientists are ecstatic, but remain cautious as further analysis is needed to confirm the discovery.
The rover has come across an intriguing, arrowhead-shaped rock that hosts chemical signatures and structures that could have been formed by microbial life billions of years ago, when Mars was significantly wetter than it is today. Inside the rock, which scientists have nicknamed “Cheyava Falls,” Perseverance’s instruments detected organic compounds, which are precursors to the chemistry of life as we know it. Wisping through the length of the rock are veins of calcium sulfate, which are mineral deposits that suggest water — also essential for life — once ran through the rock.
The rover also found dozens of millimeter-sized splotches, each surrounded by a black ring and mimicking the appearance of leopard spots. These rings contain iron and phosphate, which are also seen on Earth as a result of microbe-led chemical reactions.
SC @100: “It’s all so tired and inane and just recycled year after year after year after year. I can’t believe the Republican Party has nominated this fool three fucking times in a fucking row.”
I am of the same mind.
JM @102. I keep thinking that the Republican Party is always in PURGE mode. It reminds me of religions that emphasize “purity.”
The former president and his wife told Harris she would make a “fantastic” president in a call posted to social media on Friday.
[…] The announcement was posted to the Obamas’ social media accounts, accompanied by a video of Harris — the current vice president and de facto Democratic presidential nominee — receiving a call from the Obamas offering their endorsement.
“Earlier this week, Michelle and I called our friend @KamalaHarris,” Obama said in his post. “We told her we think she’ll make a fantastic President of the United States, and that she has our full support. At this critical moment for our country, we’re going to do everything we can to make sure she wins in November. We hope you’ll join us.”
In the video, Michelle Obama can be heard saying, “I can’t have this call without telling my girl Kamala: I am proud of you. This is going to be historic.”
In response, Harris thanked them for their friendship over the years. “And we’re gonna have some fun with this too, aren’t we?” she said in the video. […]
Video at the link.
It is likely that at some point Barack Obama will join Kamala Harris on the campaign trail.
[…] The Trump campaign posted this on their campaign website:
Given the continued political chaos surrounding Crooked Joe Biden and the Democrat Party, general election debate details cannot be finalized until Democrats formally decide on their nominee. There is a strong sense by many in the Democrat Party – namely Barack Hussein Obama – that Kamala Harris is a Marxist fraud who cannot beat President Trump, and they are still holding out for someone “better.” Therefore, it would be inappropriate to schedule things with Harris because Democrats very well could still change their minds.
The debate is on the schedule. He could simply say, “I’ll debate whoever Democrats nominate on Aug. 1.” But this isn’t about confusion over the Democratic nominee. There’s no drama, as the party quickly coalesced around Harris.
The statement does leave Trump wiggle room to change his mind down the road, but he doesn’t want to debate Harris, and he’s reneged on the original deal for that second presidential debate.
Another day, another skeleton dancing from the seemingly bottomless closet of Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance.
As ABC News reported on Friday, Vance proposed in 2021 that Americans who don’t have children should pay higher taxes. According to Vance, this is because the government should “punish the things that we think are bad.” Like, you know, people who either can’t have or don’t want kids.
That skeleton will have to step around the pile of bones left by Thursday’s revelation that, also in 2021, Vance insisted people with more children should get more votes. (This is just another aspect of Vance’s deep obsessions with creepy far-right natalism.)
And that skeleton tripped on the remains of the recent revelation that, in 2022, Vance called for a “federal response” in dealing with women who tried to seek out-of-state abortions—which he wrapped up in a disgusting fantasy about Black people and George Soros, a Jewish billionaire and Democratic donor.
Don’t worry. There are surely more skeletons where those came from. I’m telling you, Vance is perfect. And he’s also profoundly weird. Not in a good way.
t’s been under two weeks since Donald Trump picked the guy who “liked me more than anybody liked me” to be his running mate.
[…] Vance is simply a dud: [video at the link: “[…] he’s not good on the stump.” Trump may have a form of charisma but Vance is “just dull,” PaulBegala added”].
[…] [more video at the link, including a post from “Republicans against Trump” that highlights Vance’s “zero charm.”]
[…] Vance, in February of this year, posted an image of a video in which a woman is purportedly “violated by a dolphin.” Maybe it’s not couches that he has the hots for after all. Or maybe it’s not just couches.
[I snipped some “cat lady” stuff that we’ve already heard about.]
[…] Vance’s call to up the taxes on the childless is getting showcased on Good Morning America, while Taylor Swift fans are lit over his cat-lady schtick. That’s a combination that could turn Vance’s “underwater” ratings into “just how deep is the Mariana Trench”?
Sen. JD Vance is perfect. Not in the sense that he helps Donald Trump. He’s perfect in illustrating what a disorganized, radical, shit-fest of a personality cult the Republican Party has become.
He’s also the perfect scapegoat for a Trump campaign that has foundered since Kamala Harris became the apparent Democratic nominee.
The pull of blaming it all on Vance and moving on to Trump Vice President No. 3 is likely to be irresistible. Don’t be surprised if Vance gets to go home soon […]
Supposedly, Donald Trump Jr. was one of those who pushed for Vance and helped in vetting him as Trump’s running mate. So what went wrong? [Video of Junior interviewing Vance. Junior sounds like he is hyper, speaking a double-speed.]
We are one step closer to the close of Louis DeJoy’s career as a public servant. Two new postal commissioners have been nominated by the President, Val Demings and Marty Walsh, to fill the two vacancies on the board. They still need confirmation, but hopefully DeJoy will be gone soon after.
Followup to SC’s comment 41, and to comments 51 and 52.
Yep, the “was it a bullet or not” argument is ongoing:
Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.), the ranking Republican member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, asked FBI Director Christopher Wray in a letter Friday to recant his testimony before Congress in which he questioned if former President Trump was grazed by a bullet or shrapnel during the attempted assassination at a rally in Butler, Pa.
“It is clear to everyone that President Trump survived an assassination attempt by millimeters, as the attempted assassin’s bullet ripped the upper part of his ear. This was made clear in briefings my office received and should not be a point of contention. Therefore, I urge you to immediately correct your statement and acknowledge that President Trump was hit by a bullet rather than glass or shrapnel,” Graham wrote to Wray.
[…] “I think with respect to former President Trump, there’s some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear,” Wray told House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).
Graham on Friday asked Wray to immediately correct the record.
“As head of the FBI, you should not be creating confusion about such matters, as it further undercuts the agency’s credibility with millions of Americans. Please correct this statement immediately,” he wrote.
Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), who served as White House physician under Trump, circulated a letter Friday disputing Wray’s claim that Trump could have been hit by something other than a bullet.
“There was no evidence it was anything other than a bullet,” Jackson wrote. [Ronny Jackson has proven himself to be untrustworthy.]
Former President Trump on Friday claimed there will be a major war in the Middle East and potentially a “third world war” if he does not win November’s election.
Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, one day after Netanyahu met at the White House with President Biden and Vice President Harris.
“If we win, it’ll be very simple. It’s all going to work out and very quickly,” Trump told reporters at the start of the meeting. “If we don’t, you’re going to end up with major wars in the Middle East and maybe a third world war. You are closer to a third world war right now than at any time since the second world war. You’ve never been so close, because we have incompetent people running our country.”
The former president has previously said the world is on the brink of another world war with the fighting in the Middle East between Israel and Hamas and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Trump has also made dire predictions about what might happen if he does not win back the White House, including a claim that the stock market would crash.
[…]Vice President Harris met with Netanyahu separate from Biden on Thursday, which she described as “frank and constructive.” She told reporters after the discussion that Israel has a right to defend itself, but she has “serious concern” about the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.
[…] “We’ve had a good relationship. I was very good to Israel, better than any president’s ever been,” Trump said.
The Biden administration has expressed optimism that a cease-fire deal and the release of hostages being held by Hamas is within reach.
Trump is just spewing hot air and bluster along with his usual lies. He does enjoy focusing on upping the fear factor.
JD Vance is now claiming that all of his past and current comments about “childless cat ladies” were sarcasm.
[…] calling it a “sarcastic comment” and pivoting to attack Democrats as “antifamily.” […]
“This is about criticizing the Democratic Party for becoming antifamily and antichildren.”
Vance pointed to support from some liberals for young children to continue to wear masks in the years after the coronavirus pandemic began. He also claimed the Harris campaign has opposed the child tax credit, though Harris as vice president has supported expanding that policy.
[…] Vance has come under fire in recent days because of comments he made in 2021 when he was campaigning for an Ohio Senate seat. He told then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson the country was being run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.”
“It’s just a basic fact — you look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC — the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children,” Vance said. “And how does it make any sense that we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?” […]
I don’t think Vance is going to get away with trying to back away from those comments.
NY DA: Covering Up Boning A Porn Star Not An Official Presidential Act, ACTUALLY
Trump can make sad eyes all he wants, but those NY 34 felony counts probably aren’t going anywhere.
The very day that Jonald T. Drump got his sparklemagic immunity for official presidential acts from the Supreme Court, July 1, his crying little shit of a lawyer Todd Blanche sent a letter to Justice Juan Merchan in New York to wah wah wah that the New York 34-election-fraud-felonies verdict should be set aside, because Trump did some of his coverup-scheming from the Oval Office, therefore the judge has gotta overturn the verdict, or at least gut the case like a fish and stuff it with old newspapers and then try it again, wah wah wah!
Well, that didn’t happen, though […] Trump got a little reprieve, with Justice Merchan agreeing to delay sentencing in lieu of the new development from the Supreme Court. His sentencing that was supposed to happen on July 11 was re-scheduled for September 18, and Justice Merchan scheduled September 6 to hear Blanche et al. [complain] in person.
But will Trump actually get his 34 felonies thrown out? Probably not, because as Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s office points out, Trump’s arguments are deeply stupid. In a 69-page scorcher of a memorandum that’s frankly a thrill to read, prosecutors take Trump’s IMMUNITY argument apart piece by piece […]
For one thing! The Supreme Court made a point of saying the President is not immune from prosecution for unofficial, personal acts, and it doesn’t get more unofficial or personal than paying off a porn star to shut up about how she was goaded into sex in exchange for maybe a role on his shitty game show, before Trump was even president. Doing a little election fraud with the help of his personal attorney, using money from his own company, has nothing to do with his holy Constitutional Presidential fucking duties.
Then there’s how Trump did not preserve many of the “official acts” objections he’s now making, before or during trial, so complaining about them now is against the rules. All it goes to show he knew he was aware he could have raised objections, but he didn’t.
And THEN there’s how Trump tried already to have the case moved to federal court a year ago because wah wah he’d been president, and US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein told him to kick rocks. Trump dropped his appeal, because even he knew the argument was a loser.
So now Trump’s lawyers are [complaining] that six categories of evidence should be excluded on account of the Supreme Court’s Donald Trump Is King decision, including the testimony of Trump’s secretary Madeleine Westerhout, his lawyer and coconspirator Michael Cohen, most of Hope Hicks’ testimony, and Trump’s social media posts.
But that is stupid too, because none of those discussions had to do with his kingly untouchable Constitutional Presidential duties either. Many didn’t even involve him at all, but instead were about Michael Cohen, the flow of his phone calls and mail, and how he wanted Hope Hicks to deal with the press concerning his very personal issue.
Trump also whined that his 2018 Office of Government Ethics financial filing with that payment/reimbursement to Michael Cohen on it, plus his Tweets as president should not be included, because Trump was president when he did them, therefore any conduct he did was OFFICIAL!
But even Chief Justice John Roberts knows that excluding public records from evidence would be ridiculous, even though he says prosecutors are not allowed to talk about a president’s sacred secret motives. Roberts noted, “of course the prosecutor may point to the public record to show the fact that the President performed the official act.” Tweeting trash talk about his former personal lawyer was not an official act. The details of his private finances in a public disclosure does not magically turn the workings of his private finances into an official presidential duty.
And finally, there’s how even if it was erroneous to admit some of this evidence, the remedy is not throwing the whole damn thing out, stupid. The prosecutors spend 26 pages lawsplaining how a public form and a sliver of Hope Hicks conversation would be at most a “harmless error” that is buried by a Mount Everest-sized avalanche of other evidence proving Trump’s 34x GUILT. Evidence rules change sometimes, juries hear something they maybe shouldn’t have sometimes. That does not mean that a judge should throw out an entire case that 12 jurors and 6 alternates spent 23 miserable days hearing. […]
September is going to be so fun. Don’t you love autumn in New York? We’ll get reminded of his New York civil trial, as the Appellate Division hears his whinings about how Judge Engoron was UGH SO UNFAIR to make him pay for all that fraud he did. We’ll be back to Judge Merchan’s courtroom for even more UGH TRUMP BIGGEST VICTIM OF ALL TIME, two days before he’s supposed to be debating Kamala Harris on ABC, if he doesn’t buk buk buk chicken out. And THEN Trump’s sentencing, assuming Justice Merchan doesn’t take Trump’s nonsense appeal seriously. Whatever shall his sentence be? Whatever it is, of course Trump will appeal it. He’s not going to Rikers before November, no matter what. But he is STILL A FELON, and the long [arm] of the law is still a-coming!
[…] MAGA Republicans are all sharing like, six-minute memes of a woman laughing and are just straight up fuming over them. Clearly Margaret Atwood was not wrong when she said “Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.”
I would, actually, like to take a moment here and congratulate all of the “liberal” pundits for not flying off the deep end with some OH NO KAMALA LAUGHS AND PEOPLE DON’T LIKE IT! nonsense as they have done in the past with basically everything.
The other thing they think they have on Harris is, to quote Laura Loomer, “her sexual history.” [Laura Loomer’s X post is available at the link]
They’re also on quite a tear claiming that she supposedly made it to the Vice Presidency by giving out blow jobs. [Examples at the link]
Aside from this being very obviously untrue, can we just acknowledge if it were remotely possible to “ascend to the top” by giving blowjobs, straight men would have nothing.
It’s clear that what Republicans are upset about is the mere concept of blow jobs to begin with! After all, Samuel Alito himself said that he was very much looking forward to overturning Lawrence v. Texas, which barred states from making sodomy illegal. Back in May 2023, the Heritage Foundation proposed eliminating recreational sex altogether! [Heritage Foundation X post is available at the link: “returning the consequentiality to sex” and “Conservatives have to lead the way in restoring sex to its true purpose” etc.]
[…] This is not necessarily Kamala-related, but earlier this week, I happened upon a tweet from right-wing British writer Isabel Oakeshott about how rainbow flags are forcing young men into the waiting arms of Andrew Tate.
“I’m not surprised boys look up to Andrew Tate,” she wrote on social media. “Police call it ‘terrifying’ but only have to look at themselves/all around them, to see why. Covering everything in rainbow flags and ‘celebrating’ men becoming women – no wonder lads admire a man who is proud to be 100pc male.”
So they hate rainbows so much that they are basically forced to continually listen to a sex-trafficking misogynist? Really? That’s super weird of them! Is she saying that the only way to stop men from admiring or even becoming sex-trafficking misogynists is for no one to ever be allowed to enjoy rainbows again and for all trans people to stay in the closet? I don’t know! If they’re that fragile, I’d assume something else would have just as good a chance to break them. Anything else, really. That’s no way to live!
[…] So let’s let the Right spend all of their time whining about people laughing and having recreational sex and petting adorable kittens and chasing rainbows or whatever and we can spend our time enjoying all of the nice things and also kicking their asses in November.
Well, here it comes, a filing at the Republican-controlled Sixth US Circuit Court of Appeals that could lead to the overturn of the rights to same-sex marriage, birth control, even the right to have same-sexy-sextimes in the privacy of one’s own home, courtesy of Apostolic Christian Kentucky court clerk Kim Davis and her designated-hate-group law firm, Liberty Counsel.
Yes, it’s THAT lady again, the one who’s been pitching one long legal fit since 2015, starting when she refused to sign marriage certificates for gay couples after Obergefell v. Hodges made same-sex marriage the law of the land, moaning that it would violate her right to religious expression to have her Godly Christian signature on such sinful paperwork.
The couples sued her for being a flagrant asshole who denied them their rights, and a jury agreed with them. Davis appealed to the Supreme Court, back in the saner days of old (2020 and before), they didn’t want to hear it.
Nevertheless, Justice Clarence “RV” Thomas took the opportunity to write a whole unsolicited statement about how the victim here wasn’t nice couples in love trying to get married like they were legally allowed to do, but poor Kim Davis, because now everybody thinks she’s a bigot instead of decent, good, and honorable, and that makes her sad. How dare Obergefell have not considered the right of Christian moral scolds to butt into everybody’s private life and make scenes, the way God intended?
In 2023 a judge ordered Davis to pay the plaintiffs $360,000 in attorney’s fees and expenses anyway, for all her performative assholing, and that might have been the end. But THEN Dobbs v. Jackson blew stare decisis out of the water in favor of “the customary procedures to which freemen were entitled by the old law of England,” or something.
So now Davis and Liberty Counsel have an in, using Thomas’s statement to take their legal spanking to the 6th Circuit as being UGH SO UNFAIR to Davis as an oppressed bigot-American. Also while the 6th Circuit is at it, Davis thinks they should “reconsider all of th[e] Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold [v. Connecticut], Lawrence [v. Texas], and Obergefell”, maybe the 6th Circuit could have a talk with the manager?
Separation of church and state, should we even have it? These people sure don’t think so […]
Back when this case started NINE YEARS AGO, Davis went on Megyn Kelly and couldn’t answer the most basic questions with anything but blood of Jesus talk. What about Catholics who don’t believe in remarriage? Muslims who wouldn’t marry a Muslim to a Christian? How about if someone denied a license to Davis herself for divorcing three times, which is not very sanctity-of-hetero-marriage of her?
“I have been redeemed by the blood of Christ,” Davis sniffed by way of an answer.
And anyway those gay guys trying to enjoy their wedding day were just so mean to her! “They demanded I talk to them, nothing would do them. They had cameras goin’ and everything. When I was talking to them they wanted to know why I wouldn’t issue the marriage license. I simply told them about when God created earth, he spoke everything into existence.”
Er, wouldn’t that mean He spoke the gays into existence too?
Davis’s profile got smaller after she was busted lying about having the support of the Pope, and even the Vatican said she was full of crap. Kentucky changed the law so that no county clerk’s name appears on marriage certificates any more, lest that imply a personal endorsement of some kind of wretched vergogna. And everybody should’ve lived happily ever after.
But guffaw, Liberty Counsel is never happy! Not for nothing the Southern Poverty Law Center designates them as a hate group! Their lawyers Mat (one ‘T’) Staver and Matt Barber have opined many times that gay sex is so ew yuck icky that we should all have an entire civil war about it. In 2019 Liberty Counsel was publicly mad that gay people were included in the federal Justice for Victims of Lynching Act, lest you think they aren’t deadly serious about wanting to kill people.
Getting rid of same-sex marriage is a goal that also tops Project 2025’s wish list, plus labeling content with LGBTQ people in it as pornography, making “pornographers” register as sex offenders, and giving sex offenders the death penalty. And Project 2025 would also like to throw out the Comstock Act and have the FBI spend their time searching people’s mail for suspected “abortifacients.”
They call it exercising their religious liberties, man!
Will Davis’s appeal get to the Supreme Court, and will they take it? Liberty lawyers Mat and Matt sure hope so. They also hope in the meantime other bigots will give them some money, preferably in the form of their credit card numbers for a recurring monthly donation.
Simply the worst people in the world.
whheydtsays
Re: Lynna, OM @ #143…
My hope is that Merchan sentences Trump to prison for long enough that the actual time in prison comes to 4 years…then require him to report to prison on 20 Jan 2025.
LaVon Bracy has been registering Florida voters ever since Lyndon Johnson signed the 1965 Voting Rights Act, because she wanted, she said, to give others the voice she was denied as a Black student in a largely white high school. In an average year, she said, the nonprofit Faith in Florida, where she serves as democracy director, used to add 12,000 new voters to the state’s rolls.
That ended last year, when Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation that imposed tough new rules on voter registration drives in the name of stopping fraud — and made voter registration groups that break the rules liable for fines as high as $250,000.
These days, Faith in Florida canvassers no longer help would-be voters fill out registration forms. Instead, they hand out slips of paper with a QR code that links to the state’s online registration website. And it’s not just small-time civic groups that are affected: The Florida chapter of the League of Women Voters has scaled back its trademark voter registration drives, too.
“These draconian laws and rules are like taking a sledgehammer to hit a flea,” said Cecile Scoon, a lawyer and the president of the Florida league….
The Florida law imposes new regulations, with criminal penalties for violations, on groups that sign up new voters and deliver the collected applications to election officials. For example, it allows fines of up to $2,500 if a registration form delivered to election officials contains a mistake. If a registration drive allows people with certain felony convictions to sign up new voters or handle registration applications, the fine could rise to $50,000….
Laws similar to Florida’s have been passed recently by a number of Republican-controlled state legislatures….[Kansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Alabama, to name a few]
whheydtsays
Re: Lynna, OM @ #146…
But they won’t go after the first big case–Loving v. Virginia. That might upset Clarence Thomas, not to mention Ginni…
Olympics Live Updates: Opening Ceremony Floats Down Seine as Paris Investigates Rail Sabotage
The sprawling ceremony is being held under rainy skies. Earlier, coordinated arson attacks disrupted service on three high-speed links to Paris, causing delays affecting more than a million travelers.
2024 Paris Olympics live updates: Opening ceremony underway as Team USA travels toward Eiffel Tower
Events are already underway in France, but today’s procession down the Seine will formally open the the Summer Games.
Excerpts:
The opening ceremony did not take place in a stadium. Athletes instead arrived via boat and cruised down the Seine, passing by historic Paris landmarks, including the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral and the Louvre. Lady Gaga and Mali-born French pop superstar Aya Nakamura were among the headline performers.
[…] Models are showcasing some of France’s fiercest looks on a runway atop the Seine.
The costumes are lavish and loud, with lots of sparkles, feathers and textures, and one model with matching, bedazzled prosthetic legs.
[…] If it were up to the internet, Team Mongolia’s uniforms for the Paris Olympics would win gold in the competition for most drip.
The uniforms, by Mongolian couture brand Michel & Amazonka, have a hold on people across social media. Fans have been praising the striking designs and intricately embroidered vests, dresses and accessories that heavily feature cultural motifs and are being worn during the opening ceremony.
[…] As the French anthem reverberated across the French capital, statues representing women in French history who had remarkable accomplishments stand out along the Seine.
Among them are French film pioneer Alice Guy and Simone Veil, former president of the European Parliament.
The statues were erected after creative planners for the ceremonies realized that four out of five statues in Paris represented men.
[…] After her performance, Lady Gaga posted to Instagram about feeling overwhelmed by the experience.
She referenced Zizi Jeanmaire, who inspired her performance, and explained how Jeanmaire inspired Gaga’s own career.
“Zizi starred in Cole Porter’s musical ‘Anything Goes’ which was my first jazz release. Although I am not a French artist, I have always felt a very special connection with French people and singing French music,” she wrote.
Gaga discussed collaborating with French designers, brushing up on French dance styles and other skills to make her performance as authentically French as possible.
“I bet you didn’t know I used to dance at a 60’s French party on the lower east side when I was first starting out!” she wrote. “I hope you love this performance as much as I do. And to everyone in France, thank you so much for welcoming me to your country to sing in honor of you—it’s a gift I’ll never forget!”
[…] The next segment of the opening ceremony, sportivité, began with what appeared to be a man in all white break-dancing along the Seine.
Breaking will make its debut as an Olympic sport in Paris on Aug. 9-10.
[…] Las Vegas visitors and residents are in for a treat: Highlights of the Paris opening ceremony will be broadcast on the Sphere tonight.
NBCUniversal announced today that segments of its opening ceremony coverage will light up the Las Vegas strip on the Exosphere — the official name of the outer LED surface of the Sphere — from 8 to 11 p.m. local time.
The broadcast is expected to include shots of Team USA’s and Team France’s boats finishing their floats down the Seine, passing the Eiffel Tower and the Trocadero, as well as the lighting of the Olympic cauldron.
The French are showing their range this evening. Not long after Lady Gaga’s dazzling performance in pink, French heavy metal rockers Gojira, clad in black, got heads banging with a dramatic balcony-edge performance. Straight after that? Opera.
[…] The hooded, masked figure carrying the Olympic torch — an homage to the Phantom of the Opera — has recurred throughout the opening ceremony, zip lining across the Seine to the Louis Vuitton atelier.
[…] Smaller teams like Argentina, Saudi Arabia and Armenia are sharing boats. There are 100 boats total making their way through the opening ceremony parade.
[…] Ukrainian tennis star Elina Svitolina will carry her country’s flag.
In 2021, JD Vance, the former CNN commentator and Ohio senator who is now Donald Trump’s running mate, had a message for many journalists: You are “miserable and unhappy” because your biological clock has run out and you can’t start a family. […]
“Calling to offer their endorsement, the former president and first lady sounded like parents in a Lifetime movie talking to their child at summer camp.”
An Australian field hockey player has opted to amputate part of his finger to compete at the Paris Olympics.
Matt Dawson badly broke a digit on his right hand during team training in Perth two weeks ago, and recovery from surgery to repair it would have taken months.
So, the 30-year-old decided to have the finger removed from the knuckle up in order to take part in his third Games, shocking his team-mates and coach.
He will take to the field with the Kookaburras as they face Argentina on Saturday, just 16 days after he was injured.
Dawson has told media the break was so bad that he passed out when he saw his finger in the changing room. He thought his Olympic dream was over.
He urgently consulted a plastic surgeon who said that even with surgery to repair the finger – and the long recovery time – it may not regain full function. But if it was amputated, he could be back playing in 10 days.
Despite being warned by his wife not to do anything “rash”, Dawson says he made his “informed” decision that same afternoon.
“I’m definitely closer to the end of my career than the start and, who knows, this could be my last [Olympics], and if I felt that I could still perform at my best then that’s what I was going to do,” he told the Parlez Vous Hockey podcast.
birgerjohanssonsays
I do not know enough chemistry to judge if this may be hype or not. If true, it is BIG news for elderly people.
President Joe Biden signed into law on Thursday a bill strengthening oversight of the crisis-plagued federal Bureau of Prisons after reporting by The Associated Press exposed systemic corruption, failures and abuse in the federal prison system.
[…] all those campaign Zoom calls, each of which has broken previous participant and money records. It started with Win with Black Women on Sunday, with 44,000 participants and $1.6 million raised. Then on Monday, Win With Black Men built on that with over 40,000 participants, netting about $1.3 million. […]
On Thursday night, “White Women: Answer the Call” literally broke Zoom with 164,000 participants handing over more than $2 million in just an hour. Not to be outdone, White Dudes for Harris, who “aren’t going to sit around and let the MAGA crowd bully other white guys into voting for a hateful and divisive ideology” will have their call next Monday.
Since Sunday, more than 100,000 people have signed up to volunteer for the Harris campaign, and more than 2,000 people applied for campaign jobs by Wednesday. That includes 6,600 new sign-ups in Florida, 3,000 in Michigan, 4,000 in Pennsylvania, more than 1,300 in Arizona, and more than 1,000 in Wisconsin, ready to start knocking on doors this weekend.
[chart of ActBlue donations is available at the link]
[…] Voter registrations spiked 700% on Vote.org in the first 48 hours of the campaign, led by a massive surge in young voters. […]
FBI confirmed: “What struck former President Trump in the ear was a bullet, whether whole or fragmented into smaller pieces, fired from the deceased subject’s rifle.”
Trump appeared Friday for the first time without a bandage on his right ear. Photographs and video showed no sign of continued bleeding, and no distinct holes or gashes
[…]
questions have persisted despite photographs showing the trace of a projectile speeding past Trump’s head as well as Trump’s teleprompter glass intact after the shooting […] [Ronny Jackson] said the bullet that struck Trump had “produced a 2 cm wide wound that extended down to the cartilaginous surface of the ear.”
tomhsays
Trump, going off the rails while speaking at the “Believers Summit” in Florida.
NYT:
“Kamala Harris will appoint hundreds of extreme far left judges to forcibly impose crazy San Francisco liberal values on Americans nationwide,” Mr. Trump told the crowd.
….. painting her as overly liberal on immigration and abortion and calling her a “bum” in a speech to a gathering of religious conservatives. [a bum???]
…As he spoke to a largely Christian audience, Mr. Trump insisted that Ms. Harris would “appoint hard-core Marxists” to an expanded Supreme Court in order “to shred our Constitution and all of our religious liberty.”…
And he took particular aim at her position on abortion rights…..he insisted on Friday that Ms. Harris wanted a federal law “for abortion to rip the baby out of the woman in the eighth, ninth month and even after birth,” a brazen falsehood.
[…]
James Singer, a Harris campaign spokesman, criticized Mr. Trump in a statement for insulting Jewish Americans and lying about the 2020 election. Mr. Trump, he said, “went on and on and on, and generally sounded like someone you wouldn’t want to sit near at a restaurant — let alone be president of the United States.”
John Moralessays
tomh, do you think there is any difference between [Trump, going off the rails] and [Trump, doing what Trump does]?
(I mean, man bites dog is remarkable, but dog bites man is not)
—
Isn’t it about time (what, 9 years by now?) that you stopped pretending that what Trump does is “off the rails”?
lumipunasays
Re 65:
Now Trump is trying to tag Vice President Kamala Harris with one of his nicknames. And that nickname is … “Laughing Kamala.”
If there has to be a dismissive nickname repeated ad nauseam, I’d vote for “Horrible Harris”, because that’s what “kamala” means in Finnish.
(Also, I like the seriousness of consistently using surname as the primary reference for politicians)
whheydtsays
Question for any lawyers out there… What would happen if a prosecutor questioned Trump’s mental ability to participate in his own defense? Could a judge order a psych evaluation by a government selected practitioner, whether Trump wanted one or not?
birgerjohanssonsays
John Morales @ 160
Trump jumped the tracks directly after becoming president. Ever since, he has been plowing along beside the rails, zig-zaging across the landscape.
Journalists have no name for this behaviour in an elected official, because prior to Trump such individuals had to face consequences.
John Moralessays
Trump jumped the tracks directly after becoming president.
Went off the rails was the actual idiom employed.
So. If he went off (‘jumped, as you paraphrase) directly after becoming president, then it follows that he is not on the rails any more (or do you think he jumped/went again after that?) and therefore he can’t possibly be jumping them again.
Journalists have no name for this behaviour in an elected official, because prior to Trump such individuals had to face consequences.
What a silly claim.
Thing is, only Congress or the House or the Supreme Court can hold him in check, because the USA has for decades ceded ever more power to the executive branch, and those are the rules.
(All are political bodies, including the SC. Weird to us Aussies, but there you go)
KGsays
John Morales@81,
John, exploration and even data-gathering, as well as colonisation, are “endeavours” (your word). Hence there is no single point at which thresholds from planetary to interplanetary to interstellar to intergalactic “endeavours” are crossed. Rather simple, really.
Some of the most carbon dioxide-rich deposits in the solar system reveal Ariel could be another solar system moon with buried liquid water. …(snip).. The discovery could supply an answer to a mystery surrounding this Uranian moon that has perplexed scientists: the fact Ariel’s surface is covered with a significant amount of carbon dioxide ice. This is puzzling because at the distance Uranus and its moons exist from the sun, 20 times further out from the sun than Earth, carbon dioxide turns to gas and is lost to space. This means some process must refresh the carbon dioxide at the surface of Ariel…(snip)..Ariel has some of the most carbon dioxide-rich deposits in the solar system. Not only did this add an extra 10 millimeters (0.4 inches) of thickness to the ice on the side of the tidally locked Ariel that permanently faces away from Uranus, but it also revealed clear deposits of carbon monoxide for the first time.
[…] According to a paper published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, an enormous number of Americans died unnecessarily during the COVID-19 pandemic. […]
As many as one-quarter of a million Americans died simply because their state governments refused to impose good public health standards. They died as appeasements to the twin gods of ignorance and politics.
The results of the study are clear—and brutal.
If all states had imposed restrictions similar to those used in the 10 most restrictive states, excess deaths would have been an estimated 10% to 21% lower than the 1.18 million that actually occurred during the 2-year analysis period; conversely, the estimates suggest increases of 13% to 17% if all states had restrictions similar to those in the 10 least-restrictive states.
In other words, if every state had followed the steps used in the 10 states that the study determined did the most to prevent COVID-19 through mask mandates, vaccination requirements, and limits on public gatherings, somewhere between 118,000 and 248,000 Americans would not have died.
“The death toll was probably considerably higher than it would otherwise have been in states that resisted imposing these restrictions, banned their use, or implemented them for only relatively short periods of time,” wrote Dr. Christopher Ruhm from the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia.
[…] restrictions (like mask mandates) had a direct and significant impact, especially when comparing states at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to pandemic-era restrictions.
“At the extreme,” wrote Ruhn, “the excess death rate in Massachusetts was less than one-fifth that of Mississippi (115 vs 590 per 100,000)” people.
Ruhn isn’t holding Mississippi and similar states to an impossible standard. He’s comparing their approach to the restrictions that were imposed in Massachusetts by Republican Gov. Charlie Baker.
[…] As the study shows, states largely followed the same patterns in the early days of the pandemic: All of them had declared a “state of emergency” by March 15, 2020, and the overall level of restrictions was high by early April.
[…] red states quickly ended limits on gatherings and mask mandates. When vaccines became available, those same states failed to impose mandates on schools or government agencies, resulting in low vaccination rates.
[…] deaths came while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was issuing an order that blocked mask mandates, threatening cruise lines that tried to check vaccination status, and defunding schools that tried to follow guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control.
The deaths mounted as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was blocking vaccine mandates even at private businesses, making mask mandates illegal, and stripping power from local governments and health agencies. They came as South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem was bragging about how she had kept her state “open” and demeaning the use of masks.
And those governors are still at it. DeSantis made his nonresponse to COVID-19 the center of his aborted presidential campaign. Abbott refuses to cede “emergency powers” that allow him to block vaccine mandates and other health guidelines. Noem was still crowing about her refusal to protect South Dakota citizens at the Republican National Convention this month.
Again, none of what they had to do was impossible—other states did it. They can’t even defend their actions through concerns about cost. The study also shows that the cost of lives lost was far in excess of any other expense.
Using value of statistical life estimates ranging from $4.7 million to $11.6 million, the estimated lives saved from strong (vs weak) restrictions over the 2-year period were worth $1.3 trillion to $5.2 trillion—6% to 22% of 2021 gross domestic product—providing a possible benchmark against which to evaluate this loss.
Those are jaw-dropping numbers. But then, the value of human lives is extremely high. You might think state governors would know that.
[…] Those amoral governors may never answer for these lost lives in any meaningful way, but voters can make sure those who are still in office get their just desserts at the ballot box.
Trump, even further off the rails, in closing at the Believers Summit, telling believers they’ll never have to vote again.
“Christians, get out and vote. Just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore, you know what? Four more years, it’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine, you won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.”
In 2022, Republicans in Arizona thought they had the niftiest idea ever: School choice for every family in Arizona, giving all parents, especially poor families, the chance to escape the “failing government schools” and use public tax dollars to send their kids to private and charter schools if they wanted! Under the state’s voucher law, taxpayers would foot the bill not only for public schools, but also for private school tuition and other expenses, truly making everyone equal!
Just one tiny problem, as ProPublica explains in a jaw-dropping exposé: It was open to all residents, including rich families who were already paying for their kids to go to pricey private schools, so instead of a lot of low-income folks “escaping” public schools with which they were dissatisfied, the program mostly subsidized people who could already afford private schools. The voucher law had been sold as a money-saver, since presumably it would simply shift tax dollars from bloated public school budgets to leaner, more efficient private schools. Instead,
Arizona’s voucher experiment has since precipitated a budget meltdown. The state this year faced a $1.4 billion budget shortfall, much of which was a result of the new voucher spending, according to the Grand Canyon Institute, a local nonpartisan fiscal and economic policy think tank. Last fiscal year alone, the price tag of universal vouchers in Arizona skyrocketed from an original official estimate of just under $65 million to roughly $332 million, the Grand Canyon analysis found; another $429 million in costs is expected this year.
No problem, though! To cover the shortfall (exacerbated by other revenue losses), all Arizona needed to do was slash other vital state programs, like cutting $333 million from water infrastructure, surely a luxury a desert state facing the climate crisis can go without. And $54 million was axed from a commitment to improve air conditioning in state prisons, because since when do criminals have a right to not die of heat stroke in their cells?
None of that has dissuaded other red states from wanting to copy Arizona’s “Empowerment Scholarship Account” voucher system, because the whole point of Republican control of state government is to gut public school funding to pay for private, often religious schools, which aren’t required to provide the range of services that public schools must.
The voucher system sure wasn’t sold as a money pit, ProPublica notes, no doubt suppressing the urge to say “of course it wasn’t, just like no other scam is sold that way”:
Advocates for Arizona’s universal voucher initiative had originally said that it wouldn’t cost the public — and might even save taxpayers money. The Goldwater Institute, a conservative think tank that helped craft the state’s 2022 voucher bill, claimed in its promotional materials at the time that the vouchers would “save taxpayers thousands per student, millions statewide.” Families that received the new cash, the institute said, would be educating their kids “for less than it would cost taxpayers if they were in the public school system.”
But as it turns out, the parents most likely to apply for these vouchers are the ones who were already sending their kids to private school or homeschooling. They use the dollars to subsidize what they were already paying for.
So now the state is paying for public schools and for private schools too! And instead of old-style voucher programs that were targeted at low-income families, now it’s anything goes, with money not just for tuition at Catholic schools and prep academies, but also for
recreational programs for their kids like ninja warrior training, trampoline park outings and ski passes, or on toys and home goods that they say they need for homeschooling purposes. (The average ESA award is roughly $7,000.)
And that’s what Republicans want for every state: Limitless public spending on private schools, for freedom. If anything needs to be cut, maybe it should be all that expensive special education money for kids that Donald Trump thinks would be better off dead, because they cost a lot to teach and even then he doesn’t like to think about being in a room with them.
But wait! At least this frenzy of spending is helping the low-income families who want something better for their kids than the cruel leftist indoctrination factories known as government schools, right? Haha, you knew the answer the moment we started asking, because you are wise to our rhetorical tricks:Most importantly, said Beth Lewis, executive director of the public-school-advocacy group Save Our Schools Arizona, only a small amount of the new spending on private schools and homeschooling is going toward poor children, which means that already-extreme educational inequality in Arizona is being exacerbated. The state is 49th in the country in per-pupil public school funding, and as a result, year after year, district schools in lower-income areas are plagued by some of the nation’s worst staffing ratios and largest class sizes.
Spending hundreds of millions of dollars on vouchers to help kids who are already going to private school keep going to private school won’t just sink the budget, Lewis said. It’s funding that’s not going to the public schools, keeping them from becoming what they could and should be.
Clearly, something is very wrong in Arizona. Maybe the Legislature should eliminate public schools altogether so parents will have to take their vouchers and use them for a private sector alternative. Fired government teachers could see if they could crowdfund the money to take over the closed schools if they think they were all that hot.
Trump on Friday: “Harris does not like Jews”
(she has a Jewish husband)
“She wants to have abortions even after birth”
(scare tactics aimed at low-information voters who believe anything)
birgerjohanssonsays
A question for Americans.
Surely it would be possible to make fire breaks perpendicular to the prevailing summer wind direction in the Californian forests? I know the wind brings embers deep into the terrain in front of the fires so if a buffer zone was planted with succulents or cacti after each firebreak the embers would not easily start new fires.
Wisconsin Pastor Matthew Trewhella has an affable routine when he’s trying to persuade government officials to abolish abortion, ignore gun laws and question election results.
The 63-year-old opens his talks with a photo of “Trewhella nation”: his wife of over 40 years, their 11 home-schooled children and dozens of grandchildren. He cracks jokes. He quotes history and scripture. He floats secession as a regretful possibility. With half-rim glasses and collared shirts, Trewhella looks and sounds more like a professor than a provocateur.
But when addressing his congregation at an Embassy Suites in suburban Milwaukee, he sneers and shouts, deriding his enemies as wicked dogs, whores and tyrants.
“When you see sodomy running rampant, when you see women in government, when you see men behaving like effeminate little squirrels, judgment is in the land,” Trewhella said during a 2020 sermon.
Last year, he said homosexuality should be treated as a crime, noting that the Bible called for the death penalty for “the filth of sodomy.”
For much of his public life, Trewhella has made a career of denouncing the law while railing against abortion and gun restrictions. Twenty years ago, that made him a political pariah. His reputation for blockading abortion clinics, calling for churches to form militias and defending the murder of abortion providers was so extreme that two state chapters of Right to Life, the anti-abortion group, condemned him.
But today, the world has changed. He has been invited to speak by local Republican parties and other groups across the country. He gave a prayer breakfast sermon to one of the nation’s preeminent law enforcement associations. And a prolific booster of election conspiracy theories has used his work as the basis for a campaign to disrupt elections.
[…] He’s gracious to the women who introduce him at political events but tells his congregation that the idea of women in government is “sickening” and “perverse.”
[…] Trewhella gained his newfound acceptance with a self-published 2013 book, “The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates,” which relies on a theory developed by 16th-century Calvinists seeking holy justification for fighting political oppression […] Trewhella has applied it to today’s political battles, writing that government officials have a divine “right and duty” to defy any laws, policies or court opinions that violate “the law of God.”
To him, that means outlawing abortion and same-sex marriage, or even violently resisting the government […]
In recent years, Trewhella’s teachings have popped up in legislatures and local boards as the Christian right has increasingly influenced Republican politics. […]
Former President Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, has praised Trewhella’s book several times […] a member of Trump’s 2020 campaign legal team, Jenna Ellis, cited Trewhella’s work as a solution to government overreach in her 2015 book advocating for a biblical interpretation of the Constitution.
[…] In Wisconsin, Trewhella has forged a close relationship with the Republican Party of Waukesha County, the stronghold for state GOP power. His book is the only one the group promotes on its website. […]
[…] “You may have to do things in the future you’re not authorized to do,” Trewhella told them. “The country is breaking apart. Counties are becoming important in the process. Counties may secede from one state and join an adjoining state as things break apart. Several adjoining counties may end up leaving a state and forming their own state. Remember, this happened during the Civil War.”
[…] Trewhella tells his own life story in biblical terms: a fallen man finds redemption. Trewhella said he wrote it all down in a 23-page conversion testimony after his 5-year-old son asked him, “Dad, when are you going to write a book where you can tell us how you went from being a bad guy to a good guy?”
Growing up in a Catholic family, Trewhella wrote, he was forced to attend “nearly unbearable” Sunday Masses. He described his mother as a “classic merciful mom” and his father as “short on words and quick on corporal punishment.” When Trewhella was 11, his parents divorced, which he called an “ugly thing” that “removes all innocence.”
As a bad guy, Trewhella wrote, he joined a Detroit gang and “dealt drugs, stole cars, firebombed houses, robbed businesses, burglarized homes, fought other gangs, and fenced stolen items to the Mafia.”
Then, he said, he landed in an evangelical rehab program at 17 and had an epiphany during church.
“Understand, I had told the shrink at the psyche ward just three days earlier that I would burn down more houses when I got out of jail,” Trewhella wrote. “But sitting there — I saw my sin for how truly reprehensible it was. I was in the presence of a holy God.”
As a good guy, Trewhella got married, graduated from a Pentecostal college and, in 1989, founded Mercy Seat Christian Church in the Milwaukee area.
He also became one of the nation’s most militant anti-abortion activists. He joined the so-called rescue movement, in which activists blockaded clinics. In 1990, he founded his own organization, Missionaries to the Preborn, whose members chained themselves to cars parked in front of clinic entrances.
[…] By 2007, the group took credit for permanently closing down six of eight Milwaukee clinics.
Trewhella has professed nonviolence. But after an activist killed an abortion provider in 1993, he signed a document describing the murder of these doctors as “justifiable.” Around the same time, Planned Parenthood recorded Trewhella urging churches to form militias and telling parents to teach their children to assemble weapons blindfolded: “This Christmas, I want you to do the most loving thing. I want you to buy your children an SKS rifle and 500 rounds of ammunition.”
[…] he visited a man awaiting execution for murdering an abortion provider, saying that “when abortion is outlawed,” future generations would view the man “as the sanest and bravest man of our age.”
[…] Through his anti-abortion militancy, Trewhella came across an idea that would give him a religious foundation for his crusade: the doctrine of the lesser magistrates.
For years, the theory had circulated among Christian Reconstructionists, who believe that all of society — including government, education and culture — should follow their strict reading of Old Testament law. Its adherents included some of the most violent members of the rescue movement.
[…] he veiled the more extreme elements of his philosophy in American patriotism, asserting that the doctrine influenced framers like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. In interviews with half a dozen academics, including conservative, Christian professors of government and religion, all but one disputed Trewhella’s claim. Two leading scholars on the revolutionary period and constitutional law said they had never even heard of the doctrine. All of them considered its application in modern-day America inappropriate and dangerous. […]
The book helped Trewhella attract the ear of high-level officials. In 2015, in a remarkable turnabout, Republican lawmakers welcomed Trewhella to the Montana Capitol for a sermon in which he discussed the doctrine.
[…] In 2017, Kentucky’s then-Gov. Matt Bevin met with Trewhella and Operation Save America, an abortion abolition group now run by Trewhella’s son-in-law.
[…] In 2019, Missouri state Rep. Mike Moon, now a state senator, helped run a conference on the doctrine of the lesser magistrates, where Trewhella spoke. A few months later, Moon introduced a bill to completely outlaw abortion in the state, leading Trewhella to claim credit on social media. […]
Trewhella’s ideas also gained favor among gun rights activists, as a wave of counties declared themselves “Second Amendment sanctuaries,” some of which state that local law enforcement will not act on any gun laws they deem unconstitutional. The hard-line Gun Owners of America has consistently cited Trewhella and his book in its support of such resolutions. At least 10 resolutions across the country specifically refer to lesser magistrates. One of the earliest, issued in 2019, was authored by a county commissioner who has described reading Trewhella’s book as a “turning point” in his leadership.
[…] “In light of the tyrannical acts by the state regarding COVID-19, we are rebooting our efforts,” he posted on social media in April 2020.
The doctrine appeared in local meetings in Indiana and Tennessee as officials challenged public health measures. Andy Ogles, then-mayor of Maury County, Tennessee, south of Nashville, invoked the doctrine when he took steps to allow unvaccinated health care workers to keep their jobs. Ogles is now a Republican member of Congress.
[…] Last spring, conservative activist David Clements made the 44th stop on his “Greater Magistrates Tour” in northwestern Wisconsin. The tour, which took its name from Trewhella’s book (revising it to promote the voters as “greater” magistrates), blended Christianity and conspiracy theory to encourage disrupting future elections.
[…] Referring to certain voting machine vendors, Clements told the crowd, Jesus Christ had been resurrected to “restore you to a place where there are no tears, there is no suffering, there are no Dominion or ES&S machines.”
Throughout his tour, Clements had the company of some of the nation’s most prominent election denialists, including Bannon and Mike Lindell, the founder of MyPillow. Joe Oltmann, an activist who concocted the baseless claim that a Dominion Voting Systems employee had rigged the election, appeared several times.
[…] Extremism researchers and pro-democracy groups say Trewhella’s influence on attempts to disrupt elections is particularly concerning because he claims some of his most vocal supporters have been sheriffs.
Sheriffs wield significant law enforcement power in much of America. Some have claimed they have the power to seize voting machines should they believe there’s fraud. A faction known as “constitutional sheriffs” claim that within their jurisdictions, they have the sole authority to interpret the constitutionality of state and federal laws. Leaders of the movement have promoted election conspiracies and urged sheriffs to investigate possible fraud. They have also celebrated Trewhella, name-dropping him at conferences and giving his book to attendees.
[…] He told a group of about 40 — each with a complimentary copy of his book placed in front of them — that sheriffs are “ministers of God first” and must defy laws, policies or court opinions deemed “unjust or immoral” under the law of God.
[…] Now, with a presidential contest looming, what worries Frederick Clarkson, an extremism researcher who has tracked Trewhella for decades, is not the pastor’s influence on who wins, but the impact he’ll continue to have on state and local politics.
“There’s a tectonic shift that’s gone on in American public life and politics,” he said. “All of those county commissioners and mayors and whatnot who are entertaining this stuff, they’re putting people’s lives and the entirety of civil order at risk by playing footsie with Matt Trewhella.”
More at the link. I snipped a lot of details and examples.
A bit of a random thought. Conventional wisdom says two things about presidential elections:
1) The incumbent has an advantage.
2) People disaffected with the status quo vote for the newcomer.
Is it possible that switching candidates, from Biden to Harris, benefits from both points? I.e. she get both the benefit of being on the side of the incumbent, but also being somewhat new?
birgerjohanssonsays
Unmanned airship produces accurate information about bark beetle damage | National Land Survey of Finland
@172 birgerjohansson: Trumps throwing stuff out at random to see what sticks.
He is also throwing out bits about her being a communist, Marxist and socialist, generic Republican insulting Democrat stuff. He has tried conspiracy theories about her being behind Biden’s disasters but that doesn’t work on several levels. In one bit I saw he kept coming back to her being a woman but had just enough self control to avoid saying anything offensive about it. He tried to make an issue about the way she laughs.
Apparently he is paying some attention to his campaign advisors though because he has not raised the obvious issue of gun control. That would be bad for him for the same reason he has been avoiding abortion. His right wing base expects him to take a hard line position but it’s one that is unpopular with the general population.
A key part of Trump’s campaigns has always been finding a way to insult his opponents. Nothing has stuck with Harris so far but he has only been at it a few days.
“She wants to have abortions even after birth”
(scare tactics aimed at low-information voters who believe anything)
“A Russian friend explained vranyo this way: ‘You know I’m lying, and I know that you know, and you know that I know that you know, but I go ahead with a straight face, and you nod seriously and take notes.'” —David Shipler
Government vranyo and fascist aspirational lies invite allies to participate in knowingly repeating them as a movement to warp reality for political gain. I recall having seen articles, but today I was unable to find a tidy link.
birgerjohanssonsays
I just thought I should mention that a woman with an immigranty name became the first olympic medalist for Sweden.
Here are two items I want to share; one is evil, the other funny
1) I read a report the israeli military has virtually destroyed all healthcare in gaza and as a result, there is a polio outbreak. Nastyyahoo’s response: get all israeli soldiers vaccinated for polio immediately. THESE ARE MONSTERS.
2) Our Heroic Heretic is laughing his ass off:
The sheople have two new popular games:
Pickle Ball – the favorite of pickle brains
and
Cornhole – for those who are so ignorant they think linguistics is a type of pasta
(apparently these two types of sexual activity are now mainstream at retirement homes.)
@173 birgerjohansson wrote: Surely it would be possible to make fire breaks perpendicular to the prevailing summer wind direction in the Californian forests?
I reply: 50 years ago when we were in our late teens, we used to drive up the MANY firebreaks all over Southern California mountains and forests to get to the top for a great view of So. Cal. And, there were manned fire watch towers everywhere so fires were detected when they had barely started and put out before burning thousands of acres. However, on the other hand, preventing all fire is as bad a forest management practice as tRUMP saying we should rake the forests.
Welcome to the new dark ages: sponsored by repugnantcants and fossil fuel corporations.
Dear Lynna, OM, I appreciate all the info you provide about the olympics. And, I’m not criticizing you. However, I do get tired of the mainstream snews covering ONLY ‘team usa’. Everyone in my organization has always been enthusiastic about hearing the international aspects of the olympics.
shermanj@185, good point. There’s way too much USA-centric coverage of the Olympics.
Australian swimmer Ariarne Titmus flew to her second consecutive Olympic gold medal in the women’s 400m freestyle at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 on 27 July, ahead of Canadian teenager Summer McIntosh who took silver and seven-time Olympic gold medallist Katie Ledecky, who finished in third.
This was the Australian’s third Olympic medal in the event, making Titmus the most decorated swimmer ever in the women’s 400m freestyle.
McIntosh, who is just 17 years old, held off Ledecky for the entirety of the race to claim her first ever Olympic medal.
Cyclist Grace Brown has won Australia’s first medal at the 2024 Olympics on the opening day of competition, taking gold with a dominant performance in the individual time trial held on the slippery city streets of a rainy Paris.
The 32-year-old completed the 32.4km course, starting close to the Eiffel Tower before a loop around the city’s east, in 39min 38secs, 1min 31sec ahead of silver medallist Anna Henderson of Great Britain and US rider Chloé Dygert in third
The Netherlands players jump into the pool for a women’s Water Polo Group A preliminary match between The Netherlands and Hungary.
Paris Olympics 2024: day one – in pictures
Read more
The woman who plans to step away from the sport at the peak of her powers only came to terms with her achievement an hour after she had crossed the line, in the middle of a scrum among the world’s media.
“I think it’s sinking in now that I’m speaking to everyone and replaying the race and just understanding the significance of winning a gold medal,” she said. “Like, it’s a really big deal.”
In an event where competitors are often separated by seconds, the gap to Henderson indicates this was an otherwordly performance. “The margin is a bit insane, to be honest,” she said.
The Victorian was updated via radio of her expanding lead over the course of the race. Yet she was mindful she didn’t want to let up, even as other riders around her – including Dygert – came to grief on the slippery surface. “I just gave it everything I had left in the last couple of ks, and I think I emptied the tank pretty well, but never faded.”
The victory is the first Australian women’s cycling Olympic gold since Anna Meares in 2012, and the first men’s or women’s gold on the road since Sara Carrigan in 2004.
When asked whether she was ready to be mentioned in the same conversations as other great Australian Olympians, Brown was modest. “It’s hard to get your head around other people viewing little old me in that same way, so yeah, I think it might take a little while to get used to,” she said.
Australia’s newest gold medallist had declared leading into the Games that missing a medal in Paris would be a disappointment, and last month she announced a plan to retire from the sport at the end of the year.
But on a dramatic day marred by several accidents by other riders, including a fall from Dygert, the Australian met her high expectations with a powerful performance that represented the culmination of her glittering career and kick-started her team’s Olympic campaign.
[…] The gold was an extraordinary achievement after Brown only took up cycling at 23 following an injury-plagued cross country career. “When I was running, I had this feeling, like if I really nailed everything, maybe I could get on an Olympic team or something,” she said.
“But I kept getting injured, so I never was able to get up to that next level. I started cycling just out of frustration with my injuries and – I don’t know – it just went really well.”
[…] Brown will compete again in Paris in the women’s road race in eight days.
Firebreaks don’t work well in high winds. Embers can be blown for miles. Also, fires frequently jump highways, which in some conditions may be effective firebreaks.
Queen Elizabeth II vacationed there, as did her parents before her. Hollywood’s royalty were regular visitors, too. Marilyn Monroe filmed scenes for “River of No Return” there, and “The Emperor Waltz” brought Bing Crosby and Joan Fontaine to its golf courses and tennis courts. The mountains of Jasper, Alberta, have also stood in for peaks around the world in other movies.
Above all, Jasper National Park represented Canada both to the world and for many Canadians for over a century.
Now, tens of thousands of acres of the park and its mountain town of Jasper are either burning in an inferno or have been reduced to rubble and ash. Parks Canada, the national agency, said that since two large-scale wildfires, which sent up a wall of flame more than 300 feet high, were whisked into the community on ferocious winds earlier in the week, 358 of its 1,113 buildings have been destroyed.
“The nature of this fire was such that it humbled the humans on the ground,” Richard Ireland, the mayor of Jasper, told reporters in Hinton, Alberta, on Friday. He added that he believed that nothing could have stopped the destruction and that all necessary preparations had been taken.
[…] In the vast mountain park, which attracts about 2.5 million visitors each year, the fire has consumed more than 140 square miles, Parks Canada said. About 20,000 park visitors and 5,000 Jasper residents were evacuated late Monday as ash began raining on the town in advance of the flames.
A team of researchers said last year that climate change has increased the risk of large wildfires in Canada, where the fire season typically runs from March to October. Earlier this year, Canadian wildfires also prompted air quality warnings in places including Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Before returning on Friday for a tour of the town, where the fire was still burning, Mr. Ireland had said that he was “prepared for the worst.” On the tour, the mayor discovered that his own home was a charred ruin.
[…] there were some glimmers of positive news on Friday.
Wildfire fighters from South Africa, Australia and New Zealand are expected to arrive over the weekend to help battle the 577 active blazes in Alberta and neighboring British Columbia. They will join crews that have flown in from other parts of Canada where wildfires have been relatively scarce this summer.
The Canadian National Railway restarted freight train service through Jasper on Friday, reopening an economically vital corridor between the Pacific Coast and the rest of North America.
Officials said that rain and lower temperatures had allowed 158 firefighters who remained in Jasper to at least halt the fire’s advance, although no one had any opinion on when it might be brought under control there (hot and dry weather is expected to return on the weekend). And all the town’s water-treatment facilities, its schools, hospital and other important infrastructure have been saved, according to Parks Canada.
[…] Along with the neighboring Banff National Park, Jasper was made a park in large part to promote tourist travel by train, which was initially the only way to reach the community. Claire Campbell, who edited and contributed to a scholarly history about what is now Parks Canada, said that the striking mountain scenery soon became an international symbol of the then young nation.
“Both at the founding of the original Rocky Mountain parks right through to the present day, images of these parks have been exported internationally as representative of Canada by the federal government,” said Professor Campbell, who is Canadian and teaches Canadian history at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania. “In some ways, we see how the world sees us, and then we adopt that image, as well.”
Both parks dislodged Indigenous people from their lands and, until recently, shut them out of their operations.
[…] The original Jasper Park Lodge burned down in the early 1950s. Its replacement, which opened in 1952 and is now known as the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge, survived the current fire, but four other buildings in the complex have been lost, the hotel chain said.
Mr. Ireland, the mayor of Jasper, said that he had no doubt that his town would rebuild.
“The mountains are still there,” he said. “They will be there and so will our community.”
Headline may be slightly misleading. Kelly is near the top, but has not been officially chosen.
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) has risen to near the top of the list of possible running mates as Vice President Harris considers who she wants to run alongside her.
Kelly has been sent vetting materials as one of a handful of Democrats under consideration for the role. A veteran and former astronaut, Kelly brings a background that is unique compared to other possibilities being considered.
He also enjoys strong popularity in his purple battleground state of Arizona, one that could help decide the winner of the November election.
“I think you need someone that’s got national ID and has been tested to a degree, and I think [Kelly] brings that,” said Democratic strategist Matt Grodsky, a former communications director for the state Democratic Party.
Democrats have expressed enthusiasm around Kelly since he first won his Senate seat in a 2020 special election to serve the remainder of late Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) term. He was then elected to a full term in the Senate in 2022.
In both cases, he won by a few points and performed better than President Biden in the state in 2020 and now-Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) in 2022.
Strategists and other observers said Kelly’s ability to perform well in a swing state demonstrates his political prowess and could carry over to other key states outside Arizona.
Kelly served in the Navy and took part in dozens of missions in Operation Desert Storm during the Persian Gulf War before being selected as an astronaut for NASA, according to his biography on his Senate website. He traveled into space four times and retired in 2011.
Grodsky said Kelly’s background gives him a certain “legitimacy” to be able to speak about issues concerning the military, national defense and foreign policy that other choices don’t have and could bring added crossover appeal to the ticket.
“That does have appeal across the aisle, with moderate Republicans, independents, people that are in more of that John McCain-mold, which I think is crucial not just for picking up Arizona or swing state votes but across the country,” he said.
Kelly has brushed off the “veepstakes” speculation around him but did not rule out being open to serve as Harris’s running mate if he were offered the role.
“This is not about me. But I’ve always, always when I’ve had the chance to serve, I think that’s very important to do,” he told reporters on Thursday.
Kelly has also caught attention for slamming Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), who is the GOP running mate, over various issues, including Vance’s position on Ukraine and comments the Ohio senator made in 2021 that “childless cat ladies” were running the country.
Kelly is one of several Democratic names that has received attention about potentially joining Harris, including Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D).
[…] Both of Kelly’s electoral victories illustrated his ability to bring in more voters to his coalition. He was able to flip the populous Maricopa County in 2020, as did Biden that year, after the county voted for Republican candidates for decades.
In 2022, Kelly won reelection by nearly 5 points, carrying two congressional districts that elected Republicans to the House.
[…] “Mark is in a great position to expose that, say, ‘Look, I represent the border state down there. I’m very aware of what’s going on,’” Kinsey said. “And I think it really gives him, it gives Democrats sort of a way to really have somebody who’s an expert on the situation speak authoritatively.”
Kelly also has a personal connection to political violence, an issue that has gained renewed attention in the aftermath of the shooting at Trump’s rally earlier this month. Kelly’s wife, former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.), was shot in the head in 2011 in Tucson, an event that received widespread national attention.
Giffords and Kelly founded a nonprofit organization to support gun control measures soon after the shooting, and Kelly has advocated for measures like enhanced background checks and red flag laws. But he is also a gun owner and sought to position himself as a supporter of the Second Amendment despite his calls for reform.
“There’s the narrative that Republicans often try to use against Democrats of the ‘gun grabbers,’” Kinsey said. “That’s not Sen. Kelly. He’s not cut from that cloth, but he is very passionate about gun safety.”
[…] Kelly was also particularly effective at raising large amounts of money, taking in about $90 million during his 2022 campaign
.
“You’ve got somebody with, frankly, the gravitas, legislative record of Mark Kelly, really compelling backstory and the ability to raise money and match up against these guys on the other side, he looks like the best choice,” Kinsey said.
John Moralessays
<
blockquote>Hence there is no single point at which thresholds from planetary to interplanetary to interstellar to intergalactic “endeavours” are crossed.</.blockquote>
An analytically-false conclusion.
The threshold from planetary to interplanetary involves interplanetary travel;
The threshold from interplanetary to interstellar involves interstellar travel;
The threshold from interstellar to intergalactic involves intergalactic travel.
There they are.
—
And remember, the whole conceit was based on the expectation that we’d get physical visitations if there were people out there, which is a monkey-thing to think. There’s no good reason for it.
John Moralessays
tomh: “Trump, even further off the rails [blah]”
You’ve stuffed up the metaphor; off the rails is off the rails, the distance is irrelevant.
Also, he very much is on the rails as far as his script and his message and his schtick at those rallies for the MAGA faithful True Believers.
(Seriously, you are about as factual as he is, given your claim)
@139 Lynna, OM wrote: We are one step closer to the close of Louis DeJoy’s career as a public servant.
I reply: I truly hope so. He has done so much damage, destroying millions of dollars in equipment, making the mail slow and unreliable, jacking up prices needlessly, etc. All in the name of ‘corporate welfare’ for his CEO friends. He is a corrupt thug.
@187 Lynna, OM wrote: Firebreaks don’t work well in high winds.
I reply: Yes, another problem that has gotten worse over the years. Another problem we face is people are more frequently building homes in dangerous areas (fire and flood) because the zoning is so irresponsible.
@170 Lynna, OM wrote: School Vouchers Such A Huge Success That They’re Bankrupting Arizona. That’s what the GOP wants for everyone, hooray!
I reply: We’ve seen the background of this exposed. Wealthy people whose children are already in private schools are now sucking up money that wasn’t intended for that purpose. Religious schools benefit tremendously. There is no oversight, no busses to transport students and pumping pure religious propaganda instead of providing a balanced education. We have teachers in our organization and they all say that scarizona is destroying public schools that could be greatly improved by those massive funds just to satisfy the greed of repugnantcant and xtian nationalism interests. Our society is being torn apart. tRUMP’s remark about WWIII is already coming true in a stealth way with project 2025, etc.
@191 John Morales wrote: tomh: “Trump, even further off the rails [blah]” You’ve stuffed up the metaphor; off the rails is off the rails, the distance is irrelevant. . . . He very much is on the rails as far as his script and his message
I reply: You got that right, John. A member of our organization (older than dirt) dragged out an old related saying, ‘run him out of town on a rail’
(There is an interesting diagram of types of tanks lost by Russia -at the end of this video- that supports the claim really old tanks increasingly appearing at the front during this year)
Combat Veteran React
“Vid Exposes RU Sending 62 Year Old Tanks to Front!”
J.D. Vance has a burnt monkey testicle problem (2022)
Vance and his venture capital firm were heavily invested in a biotech company that operates contrary to the anti-science anti-woke ‘values’ he espouses in campaigns.
CW: Mentions of animal suffering, which also occurred at the company.
Bekenstein Boundsays
Lynna@168:
They died as appeasements to the twin gods of ignorance and politics.
They left out “and capitalist greed”.
And those governors [DeSantis, Abott, and Noem the puppy killer] are still at it.
They should face a war crimes tribunal.
Meanwhile, I have more corroborating evidence for my thesis that the push to oust Biden was orchestrated by rich asswipes sore at Lina Khan’s trustbusting:
The CFPB can – and will – do something to protect America’s poorest parents from having $100m of their kids’ lunch money stolen by three giant fintech companies. But whether they’ll continue to do so under a Kamala Harris administration is an open question. While Harris has repeatedly talked up the ways that Biden’s CFPB, the DOJ Antitrust Division, and FTC have gone after corporate abuses, some of her largest donors are demanding that her administration fire the heads of these agencies and crush their agenda.
Tens of millions of dollars have been donated to Harris’ campaign and PACs that support her by billionaires like Reid Hoffman, who says that FTC Chair Lina Khan is “waging war on American business”.
Some of the richest Democrat[sic] donors told the Financial Times that their donations were contingent on Harris firing Khan and that they’d been assured this would happen.
Kamala Harris’ $7M support from LinkedIn founder comes with a request: Fire Lina Khan. FTC boss must be doing something right if folks will pay to get her binned.
They may have done the right thing for the wrong reasons; and Harris will be under tremendous pressure to rein in these fierce advocates for working Joes. I hope she will win the election and then tell these bozos to go pound sand.
And finally, on the topic of the Fermi Paradox (cue groans):
I’ve looked into the “grabby aliens” notion someone mentioned. It could explain much — but only if very fast expansion (1/3c or so) is possible. That’s not likely to be compatible with biological intelligences who have to set up a new civilization and build up its economy between each “hop” and the next, not even if they carried out the hops themselves at 100% of c somehow. So either there’s FTL (and likely time travel) or the grabby aliens are machine intelligences launching tiny, fast “starwisps” that infest a target system with nano-replicators able to rapidly assemble the infrastructure to launch the next wave of probes. This also is problematic, this time on thermodynamic grounds: where does the energy come from? Whither heat dissipation? Very fast exponentiation of a replicator is not easy in a hard vacuum if you don’t want to fry. Biological life tops out at a 15-20 minute doubling interval (bacteria and viruses) for a reason; and avoiding hard vacuum means dealing with deep gravity wells, also a handicap.
On the other hand, FTL (and time travel, likely to go along with it) seems rather far-fetched. Supposing it were possible, though, what happens if grabby aliens have time machines? Well, to avoid paradoxes it might be necessary for them to stay out of their own past light cones, and each other’s if a single one doesn’t colonize the vast majority of spacetime — it may even be enforced by the universe (chronology protection conjecture). In that event, the only places where “fallow” worlds exist and might give rise to novel intelligences and civilizations is inside of the past light cones of the births of such time-colonizers. Any such will see a fallow, uncultivated universe in their telescopes; and one from each such cone will go on to become one of the time-colonizers. This is consistent with the universe we observe, if we are proto-grabby-time-travelers (or doomed to collapse and failure).
Re: birgerjohansson @ #198…
I’m waiting to see how long it is before Russian T-34 tanks start showing up in Ukraine.
John Moralessays
Birger,
Combat Veteran React
Yeah, he does. Cute, really.
What he does is watch stuff and opine.
Rah rah rah, all good.
—
Bekenstein Bound:
And finally, on the topic of the Fermi Paradox (cue groans):
Why? Thread is endless.
I’ve looked into the “grabby aliens” notion someone mentioned. It could explain much — but only if very fast expansion (1/3c or so) is possible. [blah blah blah at length]
Pure speculation pretending to be knowledge.
(bah)
Biological life tops out at a 15-20 minute doubling interval (bacteria and viruses) for a reason; and avoiding hard vacuum means dealing with deep gravity wells, also a handicap.
You do know you’re wallowing in it, no?
More speculation.
(What, is that supposed to be a fact of nature?)
On the other hand, FTL (and time travel, likely to go along with it) seems rather far-fetched.
BTW, I’ve already mentioned Covert Cabal and their analysis using public data and satellite video imagery.
Amazing what crowdsourced intelligence can achieve.
(Thing is, I don’t spam links to my favourite YouTubers)
John Morales @ 206
I like diagrams.
.
BTW if Republicans want more entertaining crazies they should import some tory politicians. There are a lot of unemployed ones available now.
birgerjohanssonsays
With iron sights at 1 km using a 110 year old rifle.
I can get enthusiastic about old stuff that puts new stuff to shame. (But it was not so expensive to add more work hours to get better quality, a consequence of poor standards of living back then).
KGsays
Meanwhile, I have more corroborating evidence for my thesis that the push to oust Biden was orchestrated by rich asswipes sore at Lina Khan’s trustbusting – Bekenstein Bound@202
Bullshit. It’s simply evidence that rich asswipes will pressure anyone in or near political power. What your “thesis” needs is actual evidence of the “orchestration” you were rabbiting on about while damning anyone saying Biden should step aside as a patsy of said asswipes; while the evidence that Biden was going to lose should have been fucking obvious to anyone with eyes in their head – and clearly was obvious to Democratic leaders and activists at multiple levels. There was no “orchestration” required. The surge of relief and enthusiasm for Harris, which is probably due to her not being Biden more than to her own qualities, validates the polling which showed deep public dissatisfaction with being presented with a Biden vs Trump re-reun, and specifically a large proportion of Democratic voters wishing that Biden would step aside.
KGsays
John Morales@190,
The threshold from planetary to interplanetary involves interplanetary travel; blah, blah, boring blah.
(a) That’s not what you said earlier – you simply mentioned “endeavours”.
(b) Why must travel involve actual monkeys rather than the machines they manufacture?
(c) Since the Earth-Moon system is sometimes and reasonably described as a double planet, that threshold is not an unambiguous one.
And remember, the whole conceit was based on the expectation that we’d get physical visitations if there were people out there, which is a monkey-thing to think. There’s no good reason for it.
On what grounds do you think that none of the “people out there” wouldn’t have “monkey” thoughts and attitudes? After all, in the one case we can examine, it’s monkeys (literally, in cladistic terms) which have overrun the planet they evolved on and begun interplanetary “endeavours” with those monkey attitudes.
John Moralessays
KG:
(a) That’s not what you said earlier – you simply mentioned “endeavours”.
I don’t have eidetic recall.
Quote me, please?
(b) Why must travel involve actual monkeys rather than the machines they manufacture?
Whatever made you imagine that was what I was expressing?
Quote me, please?
(c) Since the Earth-Moon system is sometimes and reasonably described as a double planet, that threshold is not an unambiguous one.
Wrong; it is unambiguous one, it merely depends on one’s definition of ‘planet’.
You want to say landing on a planet’s satellite is the very same as an interplanetary landing, go right ahead.
Basically, you are playing language-games.
Point is obvious.
(But, sure, persevere. Assert that the Moon is the nearest planet to Earth)
On what grounds do you think that none of the “people out there” wouldn’t have “monkey” thoughts and attitudes?
This whole dynamic is so tiresome.
Quote me, please?
KGsays
John Morales@214,
If you can’t remember what you’ve said earlier, it’s not my fault. Fuck off.
birgerjohanssonsays
Sabine Hossenfelder:
“Groundbreaking New Solar Energy System – Too Good to be True?”
So a jailbird launches a product that converts sunlight to electricity with an efficiency with – get this- 3000%!
This guy should work for Boris Johnson or Trump.
[…] We begin today with Tony Romm of The Washington Post reporting about the embrace of the shoe salesman by the crypto industry.
Many of the nation’s leading cryptocurrency companies, executives, investors and fanatics are beginning to unite around former president Donald Trump, hoping their public embrace — and increasingly generous campaign checks — might entice and elect a presidential candidate who will spare the industry from federal regulation. […]
Under President Biden, the U.S. government has aggressively cracked down on crypto, seeking to protect average Americans from scams and prevent the largely anonymous tokens from enabling illicit activities. But the fierce oversight has chafed crypto advocates and angered wealthy political benefactors in Silicon Valley. To ward off new federal probes, environmental protections and financial regulations, they have gravitated toward Trump — even if they don’t always like him — in the hope that he will deliver relief in Washington. […]
Trump has gladly accepted the entreaties: Newly awash in crypto cash, he has celebrated bitcoin and other digital tokens, marking a shift from his time in office, when Trump proclaimed he was “not a fan” of bitcoin and linked such assets to drug sales.
Matina Stevis-Gridneff and Zolan Kanno-Youngs, writing for The New York Times :
In more than 30 interviews with officials on four continents, including foreign heads of state, senior diplomats and activists who have personally interacted with her, a consistent picture emerges. Ms. Harris can be many things at once: warm but steely on occasion; authoritative but personable.
She has represented the United States frequently during trips to Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas, and has met with more than 150 world leaders. And she has attended three Munich Security Conferences — an annual staple for top-level foreign policy officials to meet and set the Western defense agenda. In recent months, she has also become more directly involved in discussions with global leaders on the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. […]
What foreign policy remit she has had has been focused on Central America. Mr. Biden tasked her with working to improve conditions there — such as by fighting poverty and corruption — to discourage families from fleeing to the U.S.-Mexico border. As illegal crossings at the border soared, she has been criticized by Republicans and some Democrats who say she should have been more involved in enforcement efforts; her team argues that was not part of her role. […]
…the consensus among foreign officials and diplomats is that Ms. Harris has a firm grip on international affairs.
JD Vance responds to the backlash to his “childless cat ladies” comment by apologizing to cats and then doubling down on attacking women: “I’m sorry, it’s true”
Inside the powerful Peter Thiel network that anointed JD Vance.
A small influential network of right-wing techies orchestrated Vance’s rise in Silicon Valley — and then the GOP. Now the industry stands to gain if he wins the White House.
In the weeks before former president Donald Trump announced his vice-presidential pick, some of tech’s biggest names launched a quiet campaign to push for one of their own: Ohio Sen. JD Vance.
The former president fielded repeated calls from tech entrepreneur David Sacks, Palantir adviser Jacob Helberg, and billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel, Vance’s former employer and mentor, imploring him to add the one-time Silicon Valley investor to the ticket, according to three people familiar with the entreaties, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private conversations.
Vance’s most forceful Silicon Valley advocates are euphoric about the former never Trumper’s rise in the GOP. They see Vance as their emissary in Washington, spreading a doctrine that government and entrenched corporate giants from Google to Lockheed Martin stifle innovation, while nimble, bold-thinking start-ups — especially their own — can propel the national interest. And while the ascension of Vice President Harris has invigorated many left-leaning tech leaders, some in Thiel’s network would stand to benefit from having Vance in the White House — a new asset for venture capitalists who until recently shunned Washington.
“WE HAVE A FORMER TECH VC IN THE WHITE HOUSE GREATEST COUNTRY ON EARTH BABY,” Delian Asparouhov, a partner at Thiel’s Founder’s Fund, wrote on X after the announcement of Vance’s nomination.
For Thiel, Vance’s presence on the ticket is the payoff on a prescient bet placed a decade ago, when he embraced the Yale Law School graduate with Rust Belt roots as his protégé — joining a roster that included Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and OpenAI founder Sam Altman.
Especially after the publication in 2016 of his memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” Vance impressed Thiel’s rarefied Silicon Valley set with what they saw as an omnivorous intellect, mild manner and outsider story of growing up working-class in Ohio — a narrative that resonated after the 2016 election, as tech elites sought to understand how their obsession with building the future was leaving so many Americans behind.
Thiel made him wealthy, setting him up to invest in companies that became popular with the MAGA set. He shepherded Vance’s entry into politics, bankrolling, alongside other Silicon Valley donors, his successful bid for the U.S. Senate in 2022.
“For Peter,” said one of the people familiar with his thinking, “Vance is a generational bet.”
But Vance’s connections in the business world — along with his stances on social issues such as abortion and gay marriage — have also opened him up to criticism. Critics have called him a “shillbilly,” arguing that his relationship to the Thiel network could become a pay-to-play scenario.
“The best way for them to [instate] their elitist scheme and reactionary views is regulatory capture,” investor Del Johnson posted on X, using a term to describe the private sector’s control of the regulatory process. “You haven’t seen anything yet if you let the VC class get into the presidency.”
This report is based on 17 interviews with people familiar with Vance’s rise in the Valley, his relationship with Thiel, and the tech world’s ambitions for him should he win the country’s second highest political office, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect their relationships. […]
At the RNC, Sacks could be seen talking with Vance in Trump’s private box. Others present said they had never seen the event so flooded with donors, lobbyists and others from the technology industry. […]
More at the link.
birgerjohanssonsays
The Guardian
Women often outperform men in Olympic shooting. Is it time for open events? | Paris Olympic Games 2024 |
NYT
Elon Musk Shares Manipulated Harris Video, in Seeming Violation of X’s Policies
By Ken Bensinger / July 27, 2024
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has waded into one of the thorniest issues facing U.S. politics: deepfake videos.
On Friday night, Mr. Musk, the billionaire owner of the social media platform X, reposted an edited campaign video for Vice President Kamala Harris that appears to have been digitally manipulated to change the spot’s voice-over in a deceptive manner.
The video mimics Ms. Harris’s voice, but instead of using her words from the original ad, it has the vice president saying that President Biden is senile, that she does not “know the first thing about running the country” and that, as a woman and a person of color, she is the “ultimate diversity hire.”
In addition, the clip was edited to remove images of former President Donald J. Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, and to add images of Mr. Biden. The original, unaltered ad, which the Harris campaign released on Thursday, is titled “We Choose Freedom.”
[…]
Mr. Musk’s post, which has since been viewed 98 million times, would seem to run afoul of X’s policies, which prohibit sharing “synthetic, manipulated or out-of-context media that may deceive or confuse people and lead to harm.”
Some observers quickly called out the post. “This is a violation of @X’s policies on synthetic media & misleading identities,” Alex Howard, a digital governance expert and the director of the Digital Democracy Project at the Demand Progress Education Fund, posted on the site on Saturday. “Are you going to retroactively change them to allow violations in an election year?”
[…]
Mr. Musk did not respond to a request for comment.
JD Vance responds to the backlash to his “childless cat ladies” comment by apologizing to cats and then doubling down on attacking women: “I’m sorry, it’s true”
As an aside, Finnish news outlets have recently reported on the US “cat lady” discourse. However, since the Finnish language doesn’t have a separate word for “lady”, it comes out as “catwoman”, and I just love the ambiguity of connotations here.
birgerjohanssonsays
Kamala Harris is Finnish Catwoman!
The Guardian
Irish author Edna O’Brien dies aged 93
Doug Emhoff, husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, has a message for Donald Trump:
“Let me end with this. Mr. Trump, I know you have so much trouble pronouncing her name. Here’s the good news. After the election you can just call her Madam President.”
James B Sikking (Lt. Hunter in Hill Street Blues) dies at 90.
John Moralessays
KG, tsk.
John Morales@214,
If you can’t remember what you’ve said earlier, it’s not my fault. Fuck off.
If you can’t quote the specific claim (“Big threshold gap between planetary, interplanetary, interstellar, and intergalactic endeavours”) in a relevant context, expect such retorts.
The relevance of these endeavours is the degree of difficulty involved as they progress past each threshold. Each time, it becomes orders of magnitude harder, with concomitant increase in resources required and time taken.
(You want to imagine Star Trek as real, go for it)
John Moralessays
This is thinking like a monkey: if we could, we would, but we can’t, so we don’t.
How come others have not?
(aka the “Fermi Paradox”)
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Council of Geeks – About those Neil Gaiman allegations (and the outlet that broke the story) (1:59:49)
(13:03): [Found very little background on the outlet Tortoise Media, with regard to bias or accuracy. Same with a host of the podcast. However, one host is Boris Johnson’s more-extreme sister, Rachel Johnson.]
(17:45): [Multiple women] were consensually in these relationships with Gaiman, but there were nonconsensual violent sexual acts committed against them. It is Gaiman’s position that this was all consensual […] in the context of BDSM
(20:06): [Hosts had a dodgy habit of mixing sourced statistics of a general problem with narrower, unsourced, seemingly inaccurate stats or “Some people say” that misleadingly imply the former had relevance and the latter had rigor.]
(43:28): it is a fact—cuz we have the messages—that when the topic came up in their WhatsApp conversations, [Gaiman] immediately made it about his pain, not her trauma. That’s just a thing that happened.
(49:08): [The hosts included a sociologist whose testimony in the past had helped craft some of the UK abuse laws. He confidently spoke wrongly about BDSM, denying the concept of consensual degradation and presuming dominance is exclusively masculine.]
(1:02:17): episode 3 shouldn’t even exist […] padding to force the episode count up to four […] there’s ads running on this […] full of reiterated information or irrelevant information
(1:15:40): this is a 43-year-old asking […] a 19-year-old fan to sleep with him. That ain’t great.
(1:24:33): if you’re a sadist, and you impose those kinds of activities on someone who is not a masochist, that’s abuse. […] they paint the picture of a man who bumbles his way through these sexual encounters doing the things that he wants and hoping he happens to have linked up with somebody who’s also into it […] waiting to be told ‘no’ as opposed to getting a very strong affirmative ‘yes’.
(1:27:05): [Hosts] reached out to [Gaiman], heard back from his PR, but don’t SAY whether or not they actually got answers […] Where does his account come from? […] It’s OKAY if you couldn’t get one side of the argument. […] But they want so desperately for people to think that they have THE story from both sides, and they don’t. […] It’s always “Our understanding of Gaiman’s position is…” It’s this weird nebulous stuff.
(1:34:21): There are almost no direct quotes about Neil Gaiman’s position. In the article, it was literally single words put in quotes […] if any of it is direct quotes from either him or his PR, they never present it as [such].
The only things that I could think of were that it was to make it seem more balanced than it actually is as a podcast, to avoid potential issues of libel and/or defamation, or possibly both.
I cannot overstress the point that if you are presenting something as if you have both sides, you have to say where those sides actually came from. For one side [the accusers], they presented them very well, and you obfuscated everything about the other side […] feels like you are muddying the waters on purpose.
[…]
I’m all the angrier because if any of this is true, it deserved a proper platform from a trustworthy outlet from people who weren’t gonna do this with it.
(1:39:36): Stripping out all of the BS […] and the way this information was presented […] The worst case scenario is that we have a man who—for the last 20 years at least—has been using his position of prestige and fame in a predatory manner: he has been seeking out young women with limited experience […] to do whatever he felt like, get minimal pushback, and discard them when they became too troublesome.
[…] The best case scenario is that we have a man who either doesn’t understand—or is willfully ignoring—the inherent power discrepancy between someone of his age, his means, his wealth, his prestige and a woman in their 20s. That’s regardless of whether he’s 40, 50, or 60. That is a massive gap, and in the case especially of someone who’s being employed […] that is an irreconcilable power gap
(1:47:46): if he thinks that a lack of a ‘no’ is consent, then he honestly believes that what happened was all consensual in most of these instances—again, barring a couple specifics where it was laid out they said “No, don’t.” […] assuming all the reporting in this is accurate, then even stacking the deck in his favor as much as is possible, there’s still issues. […] I find it incredibly unlikely that the best case scenario […] is what actually happened […] he did stuff wrong. The question is how many things.
[…]
I am still left waiting […] for some other outlet with a better reputation [to] take a look […] I feel like I can’t trust the report. Not that I can’t trust the women’s stories. But I can’t trust the [journalists] who are giving it. […] They deserve better
John Moralessays
Meh.
So, Neil Gaiman is a bit of a creep.
(So?)
You know, I still enjoyed a lot of Piers Anthony’s stuff.
The best case scenario is that we have a man who either doesn’t understand—or is willfully ignoring—the inherent power discrepancy between someone of his age, his means, his wealth, his prestige and a woman in their 20s.
Yup.
A STONING!
(It’s the only option left)
John Moralessays
Ah, gotta say it.
between someone of his age, his means, his wealth, his prestige and a woman in their 20s.
His age is O so relevant!
His wealth is O so relevant!
His prestige is O so relevant!
But a woman in their 20s?
Well!
Surely such a woman lacks his age, his means, his wealth, and his prestige.
(Argument by insinuation, not a good look)
Bekenstein Boundsays
John Morales@231:
This is thinking like a monkey: if we could, we would, but we can’t, so we don’t.
How come others have not?
(aka the “Fermi Paradox”)
Presumes we’re at the absolute pinnacle of technological capability. And thus violates the Copernican principle by placing you, me, and the other posters to this thread at a special, privileged, unique point in history, the moment that that pinnacle was reached (since obviously we weren’t there just a few years ago).
(Come on, what’s with all these fastballs right over the plate? Pitch me something more difficult to hit, I’m getting bored.)
You know, I still enjoyed a lot of Piers Anthony’s stuff.
Somehow, I am not surprised. <smh>
[snip remainder of what looks suspiciously like rape apologia]
I’d say “you disappoint me”, but that ship sailed … what, around a week ago?
Just about.
John Moralessays
Presumes we’re at the absolute pinnacle of technological capability.
What?
Care to share the referential and inferential chain that made you proclaim that is your conclusion?
And thus violates the Copernican principle by placing you, me, and the other posters to this thread at a special, privileged, unique point in history, the moment that that pinnacle was reached (since obviously we weren’t there just a few years ago).
Since you are newish here, and unfamiliar with my nearly two-decade corpus here, be aware that I subscribe to the anthropic principle. And to the principle of mediocrity.
(Different anthropormism, of course. Don’t get hung up on the labels)
(Come on, what’s with all these fastballs right over the plate? Pitch me something more difficult to hit, I’m getting bored.)
<snicker>
You’re getting those, except you’re not ‘getting’ those.
I work on more than one level, on more than one band.
(It is fun, of course)
Somehow, I am not surprised. <smh>
I like John Ringo, too.
(heh)
[snip remainder of what looks suspiciously like rape apologia]
Fuck’s sake. You actually ever read that work?
I’d say “you disappoint me”, but that ship sailed … what, around a week ago?
What a stupid thing to say.
As if I somehow cared about your feeble, ignorant and conformist desires.
Bah.
Be as disappointed as you want to be; but also be aware that is one of many buttons that you might be able to push on naive, ignorant plebs, but never me.
But hey, to balance the cosmic scales: that you claim to be (heh, O so credibly!) disappointed with me is not disappointing to me.
(What it is, is informative)
Just about.
That’s probably the weakest, saddest, most pathetic addendum anyone has essayed unto me this week.
I know it’s supposed to come off as somehow superior, but (and this is what the poseurs miss) it has to work both on the literal and the contextualised metaphorical level to have any weight.
(Part of my inscrutable technique, but with specimens such as this it’s not like they can copy that)
Anyway, to condescend such that perhaps apprehension might be at hand, if ‘just about’ is equivalent to ‘not quite’.
—
Seriously, stop trying to establish your ego, and start being normal.
(Makes life ever so much easier!)
Bekenstein Boundsays
As if I somehow cared about your feeble, ignorant and conformist desires.
[JM proceeds to froth out several paragraphs of additional screed]
Yeah. That’s definitely the reaction of someone who doesn’t care.
:)
John Moralessays
You do amuse, BB.
Yeah. That’s definitely the reaction of someone who doesn’t care.
:)
It is your desires about which I do not care, should you care to parse me.
I do care that I enjoy your clueless caperings.
Most amusing, you are, and I care about being amused.
(Carry on. May hope never wither within you)
John Moralessays
BTW, notice the displacement?
Me: “Care to share the referential and inferential chain that made you proclaim that is your conclusion?”
BB: something about my reaction, as they claim to perceive it.
—
Still, the answer is clear.
Can’t avoid it by attempting to avoid it, that’s a neophyte trap.
You care not to even attempt the effort to try to share the referential and inferential chain that made you proclaim that is your conclusion.
Evidently, for did you care to do so, you would have at least have made the attempt, with such competence as lays within your grasp.
But you did not, did you?
Feeble bluster, that’s what I got.
—
Gotta love a live specimen. Shame they never last.
John Moralessays
(I do care about my amusement, and you provide. Gotta make that clear, for such as you, beebee)
John Moralessays
BTW, regarding “[JM proceeds to froth out several paragraphs of additional screed]”:
Be aware there is a commenter here (who is actually pretty clue) employing that ‘nym and who is not me.
(Whether that matters to you, not up to me to say, but I did inform you)
KGsays
John Morales,
Sorry, I shouldn’t have told you to fuck off. But I’m not going to trawl through everything you’ve said about the Fermi paradox to find the most apposite quotes to support my interpretation of your position – I have a lot of more useful andor more enjoyable ways to spend my time.
John Moralessays
KG, you are a gentleman.
(And you should know I am not being sarcastic)
KGsays
You want to imagine Star Trek as real, go for it – John Morales@230
Star Trek assumes the physically impossible: FTL travel. Point to anything I (or Bekenstein Bound) have said in this argument that does the same. And note that any argument relating to the Fermi paradox that relates directly or indirectly to the motivations of hypothetical aliens has to apply to all conceivable aliens if it is to have any force. And note also that your constant references to “monkey-things to think” and similar are (a) tedious and silly and (b) in no way establish or strengthen your position. I shall probably end my participation in this argument here, but I’m not promising – you may say something sufficiently annoying (or, much less likely, interesting) that I will be motivated to resume.
John Moralessays
Star Trek assumes the physically impossible: FTL travel.
“It’s worse than that, Jim.”
“Ya canna break the laws o’physics!”
—
[oops, did I do a Birger?]
KGsays
Grodsky said [Mark] Kelly’s background gives him a certain “legitimacy” to be able to speak about issues concerning the military, national defense and foreign policy that other choices don’t have and could bring added crossover appeal to the ticket.
“That does have appeal across the aisle, with moderate Republicans, independents, people that are in more of that John McCain-mold, which I think is crucial not just for picking up Arizona or swing state votes but across the country,” he said. – Lynna, OM@189 quoting The Hill
By the same token, choosing Kelly would be likely to reduce the enthusiasm for Kelly among the more leftish/progressive Democratic and independent voters; in particular, he’s an uncritical supporter of Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza – although Shapiro is apparently even worse with regard to trying to shut down pro-Palestinian protests. And many of those whom a Kelly or Shapiro choice would alienate are likely to actually campaign for Harris if she refrains from alienating them, which will not be the case for those in the “John McCain-mold”.
KGsays
“…enthusiam for Harris…” of course@247
John Moralessays
I shall probably end my participation in this argument here, but I’m not promising – you may say something sufficiently annoying (or, much less likely, interesting) that I will be motivated to resume.
Why so suddenly so formal?
Mate!
The only “argument”, such as there is, relates to my critiques of simplistic and unimaginative claims about the so-called Paradox. If you want to be with it, you have to grok the origins of the disputation and its basis.
—
And note also that your constant references to “monkey-things to think” and similar are (a) tedious and silly and (b) in no way establish or strengthen your position.
Heh.
Me monkey! Me fling poo! Too!
Ooook!
Mind you, whether or not they are tedious and/or bolstering my position (the position you either don’t get or pretend to not get, but which you do not get either way), it is quite noticeable you don’t even pretend to try to dispute them.
But sure, just ignore those considerations.
After all, they’re hardly conclusive towards some desirable conclusion, are they?
—
And note that any argument relating to the Fermi paradox that relates directly or indirectly to the motivations of hypothetical aliens has to apply to all conceivable aliens if it is to have any force.
Huh. Are you really crawling and groping thus to pretend to have extricated yourself out of your conceptual quagmire?
Kudos for the effort, but, honestly, it was not worth it. Not even slightly.
It’s not a matter of presuming that all possible intelligent expansionist $THINGIES$ think like us monkeys.
—
As is by now routine, I ask the inevitable question which shall unfortunately be ignored: do you dispute that you and I are monkey-types?
(Again, for the umpteenth time: sample size of one, not that great for inferential generalising)
birgerjohanssonsays
ScienceAlert
Surprise Hair Loss Breakthrough? Sugar Gel Triggers Robust Regrowth (NB only lab mice so far)
We are, cladistically, monkeys, as I’ve already said. So we are “monkey-types”. So what? Monkeys vary widely in their ecological roles and hence in their mentalities. As I said, the tedious repetition of this silly trope adds nothing to any argument you might have.
It’s not a matter of presuming that all possible intelligent expansionist $THINGIES$ think like us monkeys. –
No, it’s a matter of you presuming that they all don’t.
birgerjohanssonsays
“Bernie Sanders denounces ‘war criminal’ Benjamin Netanyahu’s US Congress adress.”
.https://youtube.com/shorts/ZmQfAA_m0g0
You could have had this guy as president. Yes, I know, Biden very narrowly beat ASCCFDT*
*I like Mano Singham’s adjucisted sex criminal convicted felin Donald Trump.
birgerjohanssonsays
“Did UK Ports Fail to Understand Brexit?”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=u-NekdEhZMQ
Summary: Neither BoJo nor Sunak had any intention to fully implement border checks on goods, because the disruption of trade would have guaranteed a lost election!
StevoRsays
Aussie ABC Media Watch looks at the Murdoch rhetoric attacking Kamala Harris here :
But now to US politics, where Donald Trump and the right-wing media have stopped beating up Joe Biden and turned their attacks on Kamala Harris: …(Snip!)… But will these attacks work? Or will they rebound by turning women against the Republicans? Trump’s former White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin predicts it will get very ugly very quickly, and warns of Trump: ..
There is a 30% chance of a strong geomagnetic storm on Tuesday.
birgerjohanssonsays
This stuff should be on TV ads everywhere in USA
“Maddow on Washington State Republicans taking a stand against democracy”
.https://youtube.com/shorts/hrd4NHagmEo
birgerjohanssonsays
This Fish Injects opioid venom into its Enemies:
The Fang Blenny from the Filippines
Bits and pieces of campaign news, as summarized by Steve Benen:
* In the six days following President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 race, the Harris campaign raised $200 million. That’s more than the incumbent president’s campaign raised in the first three months of the year. [source: New York Times]
* On a related note, it’s not just money: Axios reported in the wake of Biden’s announcement, more than 170,000 volunteers have signed up to help the Democrat’s campaign. [source: Axios]
* A relatively new political action committee, with Republican ties, has begun airing ads that tout independent presidential Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a “progressive Democrat” with “a long record fighting for abortion rights.” The commercials appear to be part of an effort to siphon off Democratic votes and help Trump. [source: NBC News]
* And speaking of the independent conspiracy theorist, Kennedy told CBS News late last week that “it’s quite possible” more women will make sexual assault allegations against him as the 2024 race continues. “I’m 70 years old,” the candidate said. “I had a very rambunctious life.”
Ahead of Election Day 2020, Donald Trump told supporters that a Joe Biden presidency would “unleash an economic disaster of epic proportions” and force the country “into depression.” We now know, of course, that the predictions were spectacularly wrong; the United States under Biden has seen a dramatic economic recovery, and Americans are now benefiting from the strongest economy on the planet.
In theory, this would be around the time that the former president offered some kind of explanation for being wrong. In practice, Trump is simply recycling the same false predictions. At an event over the weekend, for example, the GOP presidential nominee, pointing to a claim no credible observers have actually made, argued that some believe “if Trump isn’t elected, this country is going to go into a depression the likes of which you had in 1929.” [X post: “Trump: And if Trump isn’t elected, this country is going to go into a depression the likes of which you had in 1929… The stock market gained, they think, is because it looks like we’re going to win the election.” Video at the link]
This is, of course, effectively identical to what the Republican predicted four years ago. He was wrong then, and there’s obviously no reason to believe the absurd claim has improved with age.
But it’s not just the economy. Trump said crime rates would get worse under Biden, and instead they’ve improved dramatically.
On energy policy, in late October 2020, the then-incumbent president declared at a rally that a Biden presidency would mean “no heating in the winter, no air conditioning in the summer, no electricity during peak hours.”
Around the same time, Trump told voters: “Under Biden, there will no be no school, no graduations, no weddings, no Thanksgivings, no Easters, no Christmases, and no Fourth of July.”
How’d that one turn out?
In August 2020, he also predicted that if Biden were to win, “we will end up with one very boring socialist country that will go to hell.”
Four years later, capitalism remains intact, there’s nothing boring about the United States, and I’m pleased to report that the country isn’t going to hell.
I don’t doubt that Trump will continue to make ridiculous predictions in the coming months, but sensible observers should take note: This guy’s crystal ball clearly doesn’t work.
After the last few weeks, it is with extreme trepidation that I am queueing this cartoon several days before you will be reading it, so I can take the weekend off to visit my son (flying on Delta, so wish me luck). If some major story breaks while I’m traveling, please just use your imagination and pretend I included it in one of these panels.
Now that Ohio Sen. JD Vance has been elevated to the national stage as Donald Trump’s running mate, we’re getting a very good look at just how, well, weird Republicans are. Central to that weirdness is how overtly hostile they are to women.
Right now, Vance is garnering most of the headlines—and for good reason. His jibes about miserable “childless cat ladies” and working mothers who “shunt their kids into crap daycare so they can enjoy more ‘freedom’ in the paid labor force” barely scratch the surface of his anti-woman attitudes.
Vance’s extreme misogyny is turning out to be a drag on the GOP ticket—and a big problem for Trump. But Vance isn’t the only one appearing on ballots this fall while expressing the idea that childless women have no worth and therefore shouldn’t have a say in society. There are plenty of GOP Senate candidates who have that same fundamental problem with women, and the spotlight is going to turn on them, too.
Take Nevada’s Sam Brown and his long history of extreme anti-abortion activism. He’s been trying desperately to walk that back, but he can’t walk away from the actions he’s taken and the deplorable things he’s said.
Like when he was still living in Texas and running for the state legislature there. He lost and then endorsed one of the two women who went on to the runoff because, according to him, she was more qualified. That qualification? She had “shared experience” in the community, he said, whereas her opponent was “not married with children to provide for or nurture.”
When called out on making such a baldly sexist statement, he dug his hole even deeper.
“I would be fundamentally disqualified from the definition of a sexist because I’m endorsing a woman,” he said. He probably has a lot of Black friends, too.
How sexist is Brown? The “resources for women” section of his campaign website simply lists crisis pregnancy centers—the health care “clinics” tricking pregnant people into thinking they’re getting actual medical care.
Of course, it’s not just men who are sexist. Case in point: Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake. Her anti-woman policy positions are bad enough, but they seem to spring from her fundamental belief that women are less than men. She has said again and again that men and women aren’t equal. It’s a key theme for her.
– In a June 2021 interview on “Backyard Politics,” Lake repeated that “We are not equal to men.”
– In a November 2021 interview with the American Monetary Association, Lake reiterated that women are “being told […] to strive, to be equal to men. And you know what? We aren’t equal to men.”
– In an August 2022 interview on “Louder With Crowder” that was since deleted due to violations of YouTube’s misinformation standards, Lake told Steven Crowder, “God did not create us to be equal to men.”
In 2022, Lake even made a show out of vacuuming a rug that Trump would soon appear on. This move garnered praise from Newsmax host Benny Johnson, who praised her “servant leadership.” [JFC] [X post and photo of Kari Lake vacuuming]
[…] This casual sexism from male and female Republicans alike can veer from mildly amusing to outright shocking. Another example is Wisconsin’s Eric Hovde. When he was running for Senate back in 2012, he liked to talk about how he was “very concerned where this country is heading socially and morally” because of single mothers.
In 2016, Hovde showed just how anachronistically sexist he is.
“Most of the country, sadly, doesn’t know what the heck is going on … I like to say, sadly, with females, they spend too much time with what’s going on in Hollywood,” he said. “And with males, they engross themselves too much with sports. And now it’s not just sports, it’s fantasy sports.”
Rounding out the disturbing things coming out of Republican mouths, there’s Tim Sheehy, who is taking on Democratic Sen. Jon Tester in Montana, and this weirdness. He was complaining about Tester’s political attacks on him when he said something puzzling.
“People ask me, how do you fight back?” Sheehy said. “Number one, I can’t, because it’s like, if you’re not a rapist, how do you prove you’re not a rapist? I can’t prove it, it’s impossible.”
That’s not just a bizarre analogy to land on, but it’s problematic. He’s baldly assuming that women lie about rape. Good to know.
The whole raft of bad Republican Senate candidates has widespread problems this cycle. But the GOP’s problem with women is flowing from the top of the ticket—and it’s going to hurt them at the ballot box.
And note that any argument relating to the Fermi paradox that relates directly or indirectly to the motivations of hypothetical aliens has to apply to all conceivable aliens if it is to have any force.
More nuanced: the less rare civilizations are in time and space, the more rare highly aggressive expansion has to be for it to be at all likely for Earth not to have been long-ago colonized (or consumed, etc.) … if aggressive expansion is 1 in a million there could have been thousands in the Milky Way in the last 4Gy without being a problem, but if aggressive expansion is more like 1 in 6 then there’s unlikely to have been more than a handful of prior civilizations in the MW during that timespan.
Of course, we’ve no real information about either the frequency of civilizations arising nor the frequency with which they expand aggressively. Only some circumstantial evidence that the product of those two numbers is nearly certain to be below a certain amount.
Donald Trump tends to use vague language when talking about things he doesn’t understand, but when talking about cryptocurrencies, the Republican was willing to be specific. As regular readers know, the former president has called them a “disaster waiting to happen,” adding that as far as he was concerned, Bitcoin seemed “like a scam.”
When it came to crypto, Trump said he was “not a fan,” adding, “Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity.” While in office, he insisted that Bitcoin is “not money” and criticized it as “highly volatile and based on thin air.”
And then the evolution started.
Ahead of an appearance at the Libertarian Party’s national convention, the GOP nominee declared online in May that he was suddenly “VERY POSITIVE AND OPEN MINDED” on the issue. Around the same time, the former president’s 2024 campaign announced that it would accept donations in cryptocurrency.
Last month, one day after Trump met with leaders of several Bitcoin mining companies at Mar-a-Lago, he published a pro-Bitcoin message to his social media platform that he almost certainly didn’t write.
In case the flip-flop weren’t quite obvious enough, the Republican removed all doubt over the weekend. The New York Times reported:
Former President Donald J. Trump vowed on Saturday that he would turn the United States into a “Bitcoin superpower” if returned to the White House, wielding much of the same rhetoric of persecution that he has applied to himself and his supporters to appeal to cryptocurrency enthusiasts who want to see less regulation.
At times, the audience heard a disjointed message. As he wrapped up his remarks at the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville, for example, Trump said, “Have a good time with your Bitcoin and your crypto and everything else that you’re playing with.”
The words of a man who’s given the subject considerable thought, to be sure.
Earlier in his remarks, the candidate also asked event attendees to thank him for stopping the Biden administration from doing terrible things to the crypto industry. How, exactly, is Trump standing in the Biden administration’s way? I have no idea, and Trump didn’t say.
Perhaps most notably from a policy perspective, the GOP nominee also vowed to create a “national bitcoin stockpile“ for reasons unknown.
But with the election in mind, Trump also told his audience that Vice President Kamala Harris intends to wage an “anti-crypto crusade,” as part of an attack against the industry from “left-wing fascists.”
What he neglected to say was, “Can you believe Harris is critical of crypto the same way I was before some wealthy donors encouraged me to change my mind?”
Indeed, Politico recently published a report with a memorable headline: “Trump keeps flip-flopping his policy positions after meeting with rich people.”
Unfortunately, it’s happened quite a bit. For example, Trump supported banning TikTok, only to reverse course after chatting with Jeff Yass, a billionaire hedge fund manager — and prospective campaign donor — who has a multibillion-dollar stake in ByteDance, TikTok’s parent corporation. Something similar appears to have happened with the cryptocurrency industry.
Trump also started hedging on some of his immigration policies around the time he met with wealthy corporate executives at a Business Roundtable meeting.
A few months earlier, Trump publicly suggested that conservatives should give up on their opposition to Anheuser-Busch shortly before he attended a fundraiser hosted by an Anheuser-Busch lobbyist.
It’s tempting to see this as corruption, but it’s worth being more specific about what’s happened. Trump isn’t saying, “I’ll change my position in exchange for money,” he’s instead effectively saying, “Since I don’t care about governing or public policy anyway, I’ll just align my beliefs with my wealthy donors’ preferences.”
If recent history is any guide, it’s only a matter of time before this list grows.
Donald Trump went on national TV last week and proposed bombing Mexico.
Asked by Fox News’s Jesse Watters if he’d consider strikes against drug cartels operating in the country, Trump said yes — and framed his answer as a threat against the Mexican government. “Mexico’s gonna have to straighten it out really fast, or the answer is absolutely,” the former president said.
This is not a one-off answer to a stray question. Trump suggested firing missiles at Mexico during his presidency, asked advisers for a “battle plan” against the cartels last year, and recently proposed sending special operators to assassinate drug kingpins. The idea of war in Mexico is popular among the Republican elite; a Trump-aligned think tank even drew up a broad-strokes plan for how such a war might work.
There is every reason to take Trump’s proposal seriously. Presidents tend to at least try to deliver on campaign promises, and they have nearly unlimited war-making power nowadays. As unthinkable as it may sound, there is a reasonable chance the United States will be at war on its southern border in the coming years if Donald Trump returns to office.
So how come nobody is talking about it?
[…] A major party candidate is proposing the first North American war in over a century and, somehow, it’s not even on the radar in Washington.
[…] there are some times when it’s really clear that Trump means what he says. And in those areas where he clearly does — like trade and the southern border — a second Trump administration would have extraordinary consequences.
[…] Before I started writing this story, I asked my colleagues
The center-right Tax Foundation estimates that the tariffs would shave nearly 1 percent off of US GDP growth annually, costing roughly 684,000 jobs. This estimate did not take into account retaliation from other countries, who almost certainly would impose their own tariffs on American goods in response. A second estimate, from the centrist Peterson Institute, finds that every group of Americans — from the poorest to the wealthiest — would see drops in their annual income.
Neither of these estimates takes into account the all-but-certain retaliation from the affected countries, especially China (who Trump wants to hit with a special 60 percent across-the-board tariff). Typically during trade wars, countries respond to tariffs with in-kind measures. In this case, that would mean a flat tariff on all US-made goods. Both the American and world economy would suffer immensely from everything becoming more expensive everywhere.
The point is not just that the Trump trade policy is bad, though it is. It’s that it is shocking: such a radical break with the way that trade policy works that it would have massive ripple effects throughout the global economy.
Similarly, people don’t appreciate just how radical Trump’s proposals for mass deportations are.what stood out as Trump’s signature policy proposals in this election — the equivalent of “Build the Wall” in 2016. We came up with two big answers: Trump’s proposal for a general 10 percent tariff and his plan for “the largest deportation in American history.”
Each of these policies is genuinely extreme.
A 10 percent blanket tariff isn’t just putting a tax on specific imports to protect a particular industry, or to retaliate against a country like China engaging in unfair trade practices. It’s a blanket attempt to make all imports from every country, including from neighbors like Canada and allies like the European Union, 10 percent more expensive.
This is a radical shift from the way that trade policy typically works in the United States — one with huge and predictably negative implications for US consumers and the economy.
The tariffs mean that people will either buy American-made goods that cost more than their current foreign competitors, or they will keep buying foreign-made goods at a 10 percent markup. That’s inflation basically by definition: an odd proposal for a candidate running against inflation as his central issue.
[…] The point, in short, is that Trump is proposing sweeping changes to the way the US economy and legal system operates — ones with consequences for every American — and we’re barely even talking about what they would mean.
Part of the problem with Trump’s radical policies, from war in Mexico on down, is that they’re so outlandish that most people can’t believe they could happen. […]
“I honestly just don’t see it happening,” Blair said. “One, because I think it’s political suicide, and two, I think we need to focus on national security issues.”
Of course, this is exactly the kind of thing people said before Trump’s first term about policies like the Muslim ban or overturning Roe v. Wade. Those things happened, and so too could a 10 percent tariff or a war with Mexico — especially since trade, immigration, and war are three policy areas where presidents enjoy broad discretionary authority.
Moreover, it’s fairly normal for politicians to try and implement their campaign promises. Again and again, political scientists have found that elected leaders take such promises seriously and try to fulfill them. In this respect, Trump’s first term is not an aberration but in line with the historical norm.
[…] Yet there’s a difference between Trump’s random utterances, or what he might do about some obscure policy issue, and his consistent instincts on the issues central to his political identity — like trade and the southern border. And there, he could not be clearer: across-the-board tariff, mass deportation, and waging war on the drug cartels.
Even if we set aside everything else we know (or think we know) about what Trump would do, these three items alone would have the potential to transform life in America as we know it. It’s time to start covering Trump like he means what he says.
But before we bask on some highlights of Democrats enjoying this momentum, let’s look at some flailing from conservatives (and bad journalism).
Taking Trump Fascism Seriously AND Literally
Donald Trump, co-star of 1989’s Ghosts Can’t Do It and temporary occupant of the White House, spoke this weekend to religious conservatives at a Turning Point USA event and tried to get them excited by promising they wouldn’t have to bother with voting again if they elect again.
Unless you’ve just fallen out of a coconut tree, it’s not hard to realize that statement sounds like Trump is promising to get rid of elections once he’s in power. When you take it in the context of all Trump has said (“Day One Dictator”) and what came before (wanting to shoot protestors, admiring dictators who also happen to get rid of elections), it’s a legitimate concern.
But that didn’t stop Republicans from trying to minimize this.
On CNN’s “State Of The Union,” Arkansas GOP Senator Tom Cotton tried: [video at the link]
COTTON: I think he’s obviously making a joke about how bad things have been under Joe Biden and how good they will be if we send President Trump […] For four years, things were good with President Trump.
Oh yes, the “good times.” Kids in cages, impeachments, global pandemics, lackluster hurricane responses … we were living in a conservative utopia!
New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu said a similar thing on ABC’s “This Week” with zero pushback from host Martha Raddatz. [video at the link]
RADDATZ: Governor, what the heck did he mean there?
SUNUNU: Well, I think — I think that was a classic Trump-ism, if you will. I think he’s just trying to make the point that this stuff can be fixed. You know, obviously, it’s — we want everybody to vote in all elections. But I think he was just trying to make a hyperbolic point that — that it can be fixed as long as he gets back into office and all that. But, you know, classic Trump right there.
RADDATZ: OK. And just days — let’s — let’s turn to President Biden and Kamala Harris.
No follow-up question, no pushback, no attempt to have Sununu explain this at all? We now just take the suggestion of getting rid of elections as light banter, despite Trump’s anti-democratic history?
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, was on CBS’s “Face The Nation” when he made a similar statement. [video at the link]
GRAHAM: He’s trying to tell the Christian community and anybody else who’s listening, the nightmare that we’re experiencing will soon be over, give me four more years, and I’m going to right this ship called America, and pass it on to the next generation. […] But what President Trump is trying to tell people: I did it once, I can do it again. These problems can be solved.
I love that Lindsey Graham accidentally highlighted Trump’s age by mentioning “the next generation” in his attempt to advocate for him.
But this attempt to paint the Trump years as idyllic years we can return to is ridiculous. To prove it, let’s take a look at when this bullshit gets debunked by an expert.
Pete Buttigieg Is The Best There Is At What He Does
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg put on a master class on “Fox News Sunday,” as he so often does. [video at the link]
SHANNON BREAM: There are blue states, governors and mayors who say every state is a border state. Now that’s Democrats.
BUTTIGIEG: And now they’re saying, but what the false message of the RNC was that this was leading to an increase in crime. And I think it’s really important that we talk about. […] Trying to make people think that crime is up when crime is down under Joe Biden and crime was up under Donald Trump. Now, I don’t know how often that gets reported on this network. So, if you’re watching this at home, do yourself a favor and look up the data. […] So if you look this up at home, you will know that crime went down under Biden and crime went up under Trump.
BREAM: Certain categories!
BUTTIGIEG: And I think the violent crime for sure. So I think the really important thing to ask is, why would America want to go back to the higher crime that we experienced under Donald Trump?
Bream also tried to run cover for Republicans tanking a bipartisan border bill at the behest of Trump, and Buttigieg called her out on it.
BREAM: [T]here were a number of provisions that Republicans including Mitch McConnell ended up in the final product felt that there was something they could not vote for there and they could not move forward …
BUTTIGIEG: Come on, we know why they didn’t move forward. They DIDN’T move forward because Donald Trump swooped in, he said I don’t want Joe Biden to get a win.
BREAM: … it was a flawed piece of legislation, had too many loopholes and other things they couldn’t support…
BUTTIGIEG: It was transparent what happened.
We still believe Fox News letting Buttigieg embarrass them must be some type of humiliation kink.
Tim Walz Doesn’t Give A Fuck!
Jake Tapper asked Minnesota Governor Tim Walz on CNN’s “State Of The Union” about Democrats like himself being labeled “ultra-liberal,” and he had the perfect response: [video at the link]
WALZ: What a monster. Kids are eating and having full bellies, so they can go learn, and women are making their own healthcare decisions. And we’re a top five business state, and we also rank in the top three of happiness. […] Democratic governors across the country executed those policies, and quality of life is higher, the economies are better, all of those things. Educational attainment is better. So, yes, my kids are going to eat here, and you’re going to have a chance to go to college, and you’re going to have an opportunity to live where we’re working on reducing carbon emissions. Oh, and, by the way, you’re going to have personal incomes that are higher, and you’re going to have health insurance.
So, if that’s where they want to label me, I’m more than happy to take the label.
[…]
birgerjohanssonsays
“Complex life on Earth began around 1.5 billion years earlier than previously thought, new study claims”
The “U” got deleted somehow.
But I still think JD Vance shoukd be DJ Pants. And f*cking a couch was the most relatable aspect of him, why did they debunk that?
The governor of California has now ordered the “humane” removal of people who are too poor to have a home. I take it this means they will be sedated before he sets them on fire?
John Moralessays
KG:
As I said, the tedious repetition of this silly trope adds nothing to any argument you might have.
It’s certainly having its intended effect.
Also, remember the origins of the discussion?
The spat began because I noted the anthropomorphism implicit in the very question.
(A little linguistic joke, plus I drive the point home)
No, it’s a matter of you presuming that they all don’t.
You are mistaken.
I am not presuming anything, I’m just not excluding that possibility from consideration.
In the wake of Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential bid, Republicans are reigniting their manufactured paranoia about immigration and the myth of non-citizen voting in increasingly vile ways.
As Donald Trump and his allies struggle to hit presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris with anything of substance, MAGA world is resurrecting its fixation on the myth of non-citizen voting.
The Republican manufactured crisis — that hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants are voting in federal elections as some sort of “deep state” Democratic scheme to cheat their way into winning — has become a catchall for the laundry list of grievances Republicans are spewing during a politically chaotic moment.
Republicans, thirsting for a way to criticize Harris for the Biden administration’s border policies, are claiming the vice president has not done enough to tamp down on illegal border crossings, while simultaneously elevating the myth of non-citizen voting and so-called election integrity issues. As TPM has reported, Trump and his allies in Congress began fear mongering around non-citizen voting earlier this year, setting themselves up to cry voter fraud if things don’t go well for Trump in the fall.
And although Republicans making unfounded claims about non-citizens voting in elections is not new, the myths were, as David Levine, election integrity consultant, explained to TPM, “turbocharged when former President Trump made it a centerpiece of why he thinks that US elections are rigged.”
“It sows doubt about the integrity of the election,” he said, “it connects to issues that we’ve seen a lot of rhetoric around not only in election integrity, but immigration.”
[…] It’s illegal for non-citizens to vote in elections, and there is simply no evidence to suggest that this is something that happens. […]
The National Republican Senatorial Committee on X this month has been promoting what they call the “Democratic election Scheme,” claiming without evidence that “Democrats are calling for new elections laws to ALLOW illegals to vote in our elections.”
And on Monday, Chip Roy (R-Texas), similarly posted on X: “If you fix Dem candidates and primaries, and allow non citizens to vote… that is not “Democracy” at all.”
[…] And Elon Musk took to X on Monday to perpetuate the same conspiracy theories, claiming that the “Biden-Harris Administration is importing vast numbers of voters.”
[…] Republican state lawmakers have consistently clung to this debunked narrative since the 2020 election, per data from Voting Rights Lab. Nine states have successfully enacted laws preventing non citizens from voting, while similar legislation is currently active in sixteen states. And at the national level, Trump, the RNC, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and other Republican representatives are trying to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which is a redundant piece of legislation, primarily a messaging tool, that would make it illegal for non citizens to vote in federal elections. […]
Elon Musk reportedly urged a group of fellow billionaires and top political strategists in February to tell their friends to vote for Donald Trump in the 2024 election because he believes the GOP candidate will stop illegal immigration.
Some in the crowd at an oceanfront mansion in Palm Beach owned by activist investor Nelson Peltz shook their heads and winced after Musk’s backing of Trump, according to The Washington Post.
The X owner, who went public with his Trump endorsement after his assassination attempt on July 13, allegedly launched into a “lengthy discussion of illegal immigration” at the Feb. 16 meeting after initially saying he wasn’t a big supporter of Trump.
Musk reportedly claimed that President Joe Biden’s policies would allow millions of undocumented immigrants to cross over from Mexico into the U.S. and derail the country’s economy. It would also change the demographics to hurt the GOP’s chances in elections for years to come, he was quoted as saying.
The Post reported that Musk told fellow guests, who included former George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove, that his experience growing the Tesla brand had taught him the importance of word of mouth.
Musk’s reservations about Trump included a concern that he might use donor money to pay his spiraling legal bills. Musk later helped launch a fund-raising group, America PAC, targeting Silicon Valley investors interested in donating to Trump.
The world’s richest man said he supported Biden in 2020 but switched his allegiance to Trump and reportedly lobbied for J.D. Vance to be his running mate.
But the two men don’t appear to agree on everything. After the assassination attempt, Trump told a rally in Michigan: “Elon endorsed me the other day and I read, I didn’t even know this. He didn’t even tell me about it, but he gives me $45 million a month.”
Musk, in an interview with conservative psychologist Jordan Peterson, said that “what’s been reported in the media is simply not true. I’m not donating $45 million a month to Trump.”
He explained that he was donating to his America PAC, with the cash to be used “on the Democrat and Republican side.”
He said his slogan is MAG, to Make America Greater.
[Trump can’t figure out what to do about almost everything.]
Only two weeks ago, Donald Trump was riding high. An attempted assassination had left him with only a nick on the ear, pundits were predicting that his upcoming speech would drop calls for revenge in exchange for national unity. The Republican National Convention was just about to get underway with a program that was wall-to-wall Trump worship. Trump was planning to skate to a landslide victory.
Meanwhile, what attention Democrats were getting was all about divisions and tension inside the party. Trump felt so confident in the way the polls were going, and so comforted by the pundits that he picked a running mate without even giving a thought to expanding his base or showing any moderation in his extremist positions. Trump seemed to have everything going his way.
And then Kamala Harris simply kicked Trump off the national stage—and he’s having a real problem climbing back up.
Two weeks after he was on top of the world, Trump and the Republicans can’t find a consistent way to attack Harris. They can’t figure out what to do about their JD Vance-shaped boat anchor. They’re starting to realize that Trump may need to run a real campaign, with an actual platform and policies, and he’s completely unprepared.
The Republican nominee currently finds himself in unfamiliar territory—the media wilderness. News networks and other outlets are chasing everything the likely Democratic nominee is doing, reporting on her every word, her fantastic success in generating both enthusiasm and funds, and gushing over her rapidly rising approval ratings.
In short, they’re giving Harris something close to the level of attention they have lavished on Trump for years. Only Harris didn’t generate that attention through bullying or saying something outrageous; She just offered the nation relief.
In trying to push back, Republican leaders have already had to caution candidates and members of Congress about using overt sexism and racism in attacking Harris, because they have been doing exactly that.
When they aren’t dragging out attacks on Harris’ race or gender, Republicans seem to be chasing a conspiracy theory that Biden voluntarily passing the torch to Harris represents a “coup.” Trump has been pushing that same term in both social media and rallies. However, Americans don’t seem to be expressing anything but relief in Harris’ joining the campaign.
Trump tried to attack Harris over her exuberant, inviting laugh. But “Laughing Kamala” turns out to only be a concern to people who are intrinsically afraid of women who seem happy. Trump’s search for a better playground moniker remains underway.
The failure of Republican attacks on the vice president can be measured in how Harris’ approval ratings are rising sharply. Meanwhile, less than two weeks after he delivered a speech to close the Republican convention—the point when most candidates are enjoying a boost in their ratings—Trump has seen his approval rating decline by four points.
On Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Harris had pulled even with Trump in their polling.
By Sunday, Trump was reportedly having a fit over new polling from Fox that showed Harris opening a lead in a set of critical swing states. That includes a commanding 8% lead in Minnesota and an overwhelming 10% edge in Michigan.
Even a weekend visit to a cryptocurrency conference, where Trump completely reversed his previous disdain for Bitcoin to tell attendees that he would make America the “crypto capital of the planet” didn’t work out as planned. Attendees to the event failed to cheer Trump’s every statement and give him the well-trained love of his rally fans. Instead, they found Trump’s obvious lack of knowledge about cryptocurrency insulting and his evident confusion “embarrassing.” At least one person at the event said they fell asleep during Trump’s droning speech.
Trump had a bad week last week, but it may be more than that. The momentum has shifted. The season has turned.
This should have been Trump’s biggest week of the campaign. Instead, he’s fighting for relevance. Because both Harris and Biden completely outplayed him.
Americans are in the mood for something new and Trump … isn’t.
[…] in spite of the blandishment of large sums of promised contract money and the tight information controls on factual news about the war, news of the horrors facing Russian soldiers in Ukraine is slowly but surely filtering through to those destined to be cannon fodder. And they have started deserting. [X posted images of deserters]
Numerous news outlets are reporting on this spike in desertion:
Even though Putin is throwing in more bodies, the losses are mounting, especially in Vovchansk where President Zelensky is visiting today as Ukrainians collapse the Russian bridgehead and prepare to evict the Russians from the city.
euromaidanpress.com/…
Reports from Russian troops of the horrendous conditions facing Russians in Vovchansk … unevacuated dead and wounded causing an increasing epidemiological time bomb among the Russian soldiers must be finally filtering through. […]
Concerns over the legitimacy of Venezuela’s presidential election persist as its entrenched president and the country’s opposition both claimed victory Monday — prompting foreign nations, including the United States, to hold off on recognizing the results. Election officials declared President Nicolás Maduro the winner over opposition candidate Edmundo González early Monday during a press conference on Venezuelan state television.
The U.S. will send $1.7 billion in military aid to Ukraine, officials announced on Monday, including an array of munitions for air defense systems, artillery, mortars and anti-tank and anti-ship missiles. The package includes $1.5 billion in funding for long-term contracts through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, and $200 million in immediate military aid taken from Pentagon stockpiles.
The U.S. and other democracies in the hemisphere are facing a high-stakes test on how they’ll respond to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s claim of reelection victory amid widespread accusations of fraud.
The Biden administration is so far keeping its powder dry but has expressed serious concerns that the published results do not accurately reflect the will of the Venezuelan people.
“It’s absolutely critical that every vote is counted fairly and transparently, that election officials immediately share information with the opposition and independent observers without delay, and that the electoral authorities publish a full detailed tabulation of votes,” said John Kirby, the White House National Security Council communications advisor.
“We’re going to hold judgment until that time, we in the international community are watching and we will respond accordingly.”
[…] The Biden administration had worked ahead of the election to verify safeguards against fraud at the polls, touting progress in getting Maduro to agree even to permit opposition candidates and allow election observers in the country. The data collected and the testimonies from the opposition are viewed as key in building the case for any actions that may be imposed against Maduro if his loss is proven. […]
Re: Lynna 278
Musk and other bigots do like their vague looming threats.
I ran into the processing of looming threats via the visual looming threat and an auditory reward connection, but it’s an audio looming threat too. Meat computers…
“Corticostriatal control of defense behavior in mice induced by auditory looming cues” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7884702/
Akira MacKenziesays
@ 285
The governor of California has now ordered the “humane” removal of people who are too poor to have a home.
Maybe a useful way to think about this bigots mashing a “button” in irrational ways in here. Looming is an imminent thing.
“Threat and Reward Imminence Processing in the Human Brain” https://www.jneurosci.org/content/43/16/2973
beholdersays
@StevoR
You apparently have questions about my voting preferences and you want answers in dead or off-topic threads.
Ask in less of a loaded way, and for fuck’s sake stay away from the Sye-Ten-Bruggencate-esque variations on “These are the only two answers I will accept.”, and I’ll be happy to answer.
beholdersays
@StevoR
1) Do you support Trump?
No.
2) Do you support Putin?
Who gives a shit? When Putin is on the ballot for a U.S. presidential election I’ll consider answering that.
3) Out of the two actual choices
Sye-Tenning it up already, I see.
for holding political power in the USA do you prefer the Democratic party or the Republican party?
They are indistinguishably bad on issues I care about, particularly on foreign policy.
Last week, in a phone call with reporters, Trump was asked if he’d commit to debating Harris at least once. He responded: “Oh yes, absolutely. I’d want to,” and said there was an obligation to debate.
Trump likes the air time and likes bullying his opponent. He needs to setup a venue where he can control things though because he isn’t a good debater. He came off better the Biden at their debate but people generally thought they both did badly. I think Trump will look at his situation after the DNC and decide if he wants to show up. If he is falling behind he may think it’s his only chance but if things are looking up he won’t risk it.
Harris may be able to goad Trump into doing it by saying he is a coward for not showing up. Trump won’t like that but he hates looking like a fool worse. For once I think Trump is actually in the right here. He challenged Biden to a debate personally, now that Biden has dropped out his commitment is gone.
John Moralessays
Behold the beholder:
2) Do you support Putin?
Who gives a shit?
That is very informative.
Straight out direct answer to #1, evasive bluster to #2.
How afraid is Trump of showing fear towards a feeeeeemalllleeeeee? Especially with a challenge by a more socially complicated feeeeeemmmmmaaaaalllleeeee.
John Moralessays
Come on, I can behold too.
They are indistinguishably bad [to a bullshitter who is also clueless] on issues I care about, particularly on foreign policy.
Just clarifying what you actually expressed.
You are a perfect example of the sort of idiot who imagines [well, claims to imagine, but bad either way] that the two are indistinguishable on foreign policy.
Either you are a dolt, or you are disingenuous.
(There is no excluded middle there)
John Moralessays
I mean, not giving a shit about who supports Putin (the wanker who started the Ukraine war) is fine and all, but let’s not pretend that it’s in any way anything other than selfish stupidity.
(The world economy gives a big fucking sloppy stinky shit about it, did you but actually behold)
John Moralessays
Feh.
Come on, you cowardly ‘beholder’, try to engage me.
I know you.
Bluster, shit on the carpet, run away.
Drive-by wanker.
(You coulda been a slimey, back in the day)
John Moralessays
FWIW, StevoR comes across at least twice as smart as you, ‘beholder’, and about a thousand billion times more courageous.
Come on.
Engage me.
We’ll see just what sort of chew-toy you prove to be.
(Quick and crunchy, or delicate but delectable, or sweet and sour… Oh! so many possibilities)
—
Still. I know your type.
John Moralessays
[I do know I shall enjoy myself immensely]
John Moralessays
[sorry, everyone. I can come on a bit strong, sometimes. But these types…]
JMsays
Youtube Combat Veteran Reacts
He explains that rebels in Mali are suddenly doing well against Wagner group mercenaries. He makes a very good case that the rebels are getting help from Ukraine.
This may seem like an odd use of troops for Ukraine. As he points out, not only is messing with Wagner anywhere somewhat useful but Mali gold is probably important to Russians buying goods on the black market.
chigau (違う)says
I find that I really dislike living interesting times.
John Moralessays
Come on, you cowardly ‘beholder’, try to engage me.
(crunchiness is)
John Moralessays
chigau, heh.
(the joke is that all times are interesting times)
The Biden administration has quietly pushed more than a half-dozen countries to weaken, delay or rethink baby formula regulations aimed at protecting the public’s health—sometimes after manufacturers complained, a ProPublica investigation has found.
In the European Union, the U.S. opposed an effort to reduce lead levels in baby formula. In Taiwan, it sought to alter labeling that highlighted the health benefits of breastfeeding. And in Colombia, it questioned an attempt to limit microbiological contaminants—the very problem that shut down a manufacturing plant in Michigan in 2022
So much for that being a “hard step”. And maybe “eukaryotes”, barely any earlier, isn’t either, instead depending on an oxygenation clock. If that’s the case the only hard step we know of after abiogenesis is language, with the evidence being that smart social metazoans have been around for hundreds of millions of years and lots of them have (and in some cases still are) bumped up against a seeming “glass ceiling” of being near chimp-smart, social, and often tool-using, without making the leap to building a civilization or otherwise having a further leap in complexity and capabilities like we did — say, by troops/tribes/flocks becoming bona fide metaorganisms with distinct feeding strategies, like different prehistoric human foraging cultures (a thing that seems to need language, to transmit the metaorganism’s “genes”, the behavioral and toolmaking instructions that give it a distinct phenotype adapted to a corresponding, distinct feeding strategy).
This could actually be bad news. Since abiogenesis either happened off-planet or was not a hard step, the only on-planet hard step may be the one that happened about 4/5 of the way through its habitability span, distinctly later than the peak of the probability distribution of single-hard-step worlds-that-produce-successful-spacefarers. That could mean we won’t make it … or it could just mean that we’re statistically a bit unusual.
KGsays
They are indistinguishably bad on issues I care about, particularly on foreign policy. – beholder@292
This is an obvious lie. On Ukraine, on NATO, on the Paris Accord on climate change, on Iran, the differences are large and obvious. If you don’t care about any of these issues, it makes no sense to say you care about foreign policy.
KGsays
Bekenstein Bound@308
Wait, what? Metazoans at 2.1Gya?!
Wait, what? How do you think you know they were metazoans? The fossils (which have been known for some time) are described in your link as “enigmatic”. That is, no-one knows what they are.
So much for that being a “hard step”. And maybe “eukaryotes”, barely any earlier, isn’t either, instead depending on an oxygenation clock.
Why the scare-quotes around “eukaryotes”? And I again urge you to read Nick Lane’s “The Vital Question” if you haven’t. It explores in detail both abiogenesis and the origin of eukaryotes. What he says might not be correct, but unless you’ve engaged with it, you’re just spouting off in ignorance.
If that’s the case the only hard step we know of after abiogenesis is language, with the evidence being that smart social metazoans have been around for hundreds of millions of years and lots of them have (and in some cases still are) bumped up against a seeming “glass ceiling” of being near chimp-smart, social, and often tool-using
What evidence is there for any “chimp-smart” animals before the Cenozoic?
Lynna, OM@279,
I hope Harris and the Democrats are ready for the inevitable “Harris stumbles” or “Trump comes roaring back” headlines when the media get bored playing with their new toy and decide breaking it would be more fun! The choice of a running mate seems a likely point for the former – whoever she chooses. Mehdi Hasan claims the choice has narrowed down to three: Josh Shapiro, Mark Kelly, and his own recommendation, Tim Walz. Shapiro I think would be disastrous: his absurd and offensive likening of pro-Palestinian demonstrators to the KKK would likely crash the wave of enthusiasm from young, progressive and minority voters immediately. Kelly seems to be trying to play both sides, criticising Israel’s conduct of the war*, but apparently clapped when war criminal Netanyahu described protestors as Iran’s “useful idiots”. At my first link Hasan gives his reasons for supporting Walz (about whom I previously knew nothing, although since he’s Governor of Minnesota presumably PZ has a view).
*If such a one-sided slaughter can be described as such.
KGsays
John Morales@276,
As I said, the tedious repetition of this silly trope [about monkey-type thoughts] adds nothing to any argument you might have. – me
It’s certainly having its intended effect.
Only if that intended effect is simply to annoy people – which I admit is plausible.
No, it’s a matter of you presuming that they [aliens] all don’t [have a mentality similar to our own] – me.
You are mistaken.
I am not presuming anything, I’m just not excluding that possibility from consideration.
Only with that presumption is your position credible.
KGsays
Bekenstein Bound@165,
I accept your more nuanced statement..
John Moralessays
Only if that intended effect is simply to annoy people – which I admit is plausible.
Well, I did give the joke away.
Nah. It’s my little linguistic joke, and though you noted it adds nothing substantive, neither does it detract in an equivalent manner.
What is anthropomorphism if not monkey-perspective? :)
Only with that presumption is your position credible.
Well, then.
You were hardly generous in your interpretation, were you?
Either you got that, or you did not.
If you did, you pretended not to get it, and thus your comment,
If you did not, well then.
(But hey, thanks for actually engaging, unlike the cowards!)
StevoRsays
Latest on the Veepstakes for who will be on the ticket with Kamal a Harris – Roy Cooper and Gretchen Whitmer are out :
You were hardly generous in your interpretation, were you?
Either you got that, or you did not.
If you did, you pretended not to get it, and thus your comment,
If you did not, well then.
I have no idea what you are trying to say.
StevoRsays
@291-292 beholder
@StevoR – You apparently have questions about my voting preferences and you want answers in dead or off-topic threads.
Those threads weren’t dead when I asked you about them – at what point do we call a thread “dead” exactly anyhow? Plus I was responding to your comments on them too. So the one going off at the initial tangent away from the topic was you. Oh and I did NOT specify your voting preferences although I asked who you supported in a more general sense.
Ask in less of a loaded way, and for fuck’s sake stay away from the Sye-Ten-Bruggencate-esque variations on “These are the only two answers I will accept.”, and I’ll be happy to answer.
Sye-Ten-Bruggencate? Huh, wiki turns up nothing but Google notes he’s a Canadian Christianist apologist. Never heard of him before so something new learnt and thanks for that I guess.
Happy to get a range of answers but sadly well aware that the US of A’s political system is a binary given third parties can only realistically act as spoilers. (Frex Nader vs Gore Vs Dubya Bush.) In Oz where I live I can – and, FWIW, do vote Greens first then preference the ALP to send a message & try to shift the Overton window to the left. If I was a voter in the States however, I’d feel compelled to vote Democratic because doing otherwise would be likely to result in a Repub victory which would hurt me and others. That’s a flaw in America’s political position which i think I’ve pointed out and argued for changing about umpteen gazillion times here. (Slight hyperbole only..)
1) Do you support Trump?
No.
2) Do you support Putin?
Who gives a shit? When Putin is on the ballot for a U.S. presidential election I’ll consider answering that.
I give a shit obvs or I wouldn’t have asked. I suspect others here are curious about your answer too.
FWIW. There are almost always some people who “give a shit” for any given question and topic. There are implications and consequences associated with answering that question given who Putin is and who he influences and what that means for the rest of us humans.
Why does Putin needs to be on your ballot before you answer that question? Kamala Harris isn’t on my ballot paper as an Aussie But I absolutely do support her because the alternative is catastrophic for our planet and would make the whole world a lot worse off. Also I like her as a person from what I’ve seen of her. Among other reasons.
Putin isn’t on my ballot either but I strongly oppose him because he is an evil man who has taken actions and decision that have made the world a vastly worse place such as choosing to invade Ukraine and build a brutal homophobic, Christianist Supremacist authoritarian state murdering his political opponents. I find it odd that you can’t seem to bring yourself to simply say that much and some of the things you’ve written make me suspect you are a tankie supporting Putin and Russia.
Of course, there’s also the role Putin has played in interfering with previous American elections supporting Trump and using him as a puppet. As already noted elsethread It is very clear that Putin (& Netanyahu too) would much prefer Trump to be POTUS rather than any Democrat. It is also obvious that Putin is a man Trump admires and wishes he could emulate more..
I was wondering how you’d answer a direct question about this and turns out,you’ve tried to dodge it and not actually answer which is telling in itself. Is it really hard to simply say no you don’t support someone who is currently engaging in an invasion and genocide, a sadistic man who is a malevolent fascist dictator? If you think that’s an unfair characterisation of Putin then, please, do say so and explain why. If you don’t a simple no will suffice. Or you could try and be coy with a ‘maybe’ or ‘perhaps’.. possibly?
3) Out of the two actual choices
Sye-Tenning it up already, I see.
No, pointing out the obvious binary nature of Amercian politics because that’s the fundamental reality as already noted. I’ve said I wish it wasn’t the case and the system needs to be changed but for now, it actually is what it actually is. On November 6th either Harris or Trump will become POTUS those being the two nominees with any real chance of winning. To claim otherwise is to be wildly unrealistic and invoking improbabilities that are exceedingly unlikely to occur.
Okay, there is the slight chance that either or both of them won’t make it to the election due to extraordinary factors such as we nearly saw with Trump’s attempted assassination. But I’m not counting on or advocating or expecting anything like that to intervene and its not a fair thing to really do so. If you want to go down the unlikely hypotheticals route, well, that’s something we could get into if you want, but really, we know it is almost certainly going to be a question of choosing either Harris or Trump. So, again, given those two options, pIck one.
Note : if you pick neither or vote third party the fact is you are – in reality – picking Trump. Because that’s how the horribly flawed, in need of major reforms, political system in the US “works” currently. (Do I need to cite the 2000 & 2016 elections yet again? Really diarrhoeally?)
for holding political power in the USA do you prefer the Democratic party or the Republican party?
They are indistinguishably bad on issues I care about, particularly on foreign policy.
Which is where you are -as I’ve already noted here :
Trump has said he wants Israel to “finish the job.” His erstwhile rival Nikki Haley now typically turned loyal supporter wrote “Finish them!”* on a bomb that was literally dropped on Gaza. Trump recognised the Golan Heights as Israeli land, moved the USA’s embassy to Jerusalem, has a son in law openly licking his lips at the thought of taking Gazan waterfront property for his own financial gain** and, oh yeah, literally has an Israeli settlement named after him. (Trump Heights / Ramat Trump.)***
Would you rather have them in charge instead? Do you call Trump Genocide Don?
Biden criticised Israel and Netanyahu called on them to refrain from invading Rafah and withheld some weapons. Yes, I udnerstand that most here wish Biden would do more. That’s fair enough. But I think calling him by that stupid Trumpian nickname and ignoring the political reality that NO POTUS in the current USA with its large evangelical population and historic, close alliance with israel was ever going to oppose the Israeli war after October 7th is unfair.
Do you think Netanyahu and the israeli and American reichwingers prefer Biden or Trump? The Repugs or the Democrats in charge? Come on, we all know the answer to that.
Can you really not distinguish between Biden then – & now Harris fro the future – objecting to some of what Israel is doing and calling for restraint and threateneing even carryting out some consequecnes against them even if we’d liekt hem to do alot more
Vs
Trump and the Repugs cheering on and whole-heartedly endorsing a genocide and even using the very word “Palestinian” as a slur?
You, beholder, can’t distinguish between a person saying “don’t do that please” to a bully (metaphorically here = Biden) versus one encouraging them to attack their victim harder? (Metaphorically here = Trump.)
Wow. To think you accuse me of ignoring complexities and nuances and being too binary here!
Global emissions of methane, a powerful planet-heating gas, are “rising rapidly” at the fastest rate in decades, requiring immediate action to help avert a dangerous escalation in the climate crisis, a new study has warned.
Methane emissions are responsible for half of the global heating already experienced, have been climbing significantly since around 2006 and will continue to grow throughout the rest of the 2020s unless new steps are taken to curb this pollution, concludes the new paper. The research is authored by more than a dozen scientists from around the world and published on Tuesday.
While the world “quite rightly” has focused on carbon dioxide as the primary driver of rising global temperatures, states the paper published in Frontiers in Science, little has been done to address methane, despite it having 80 times the warming power of CO2 in the first 20 years after it reaches the atmosphere.
…
So far in the 2020s, global methane emissions have typically been about 30m tons higher each year than during last decade, with annual records in methane emissions broken in 2021 and again in 2022. While there is no single clear reason for this, scientists point to a number of factors.
Methane comes from the drilling and processing of oil, gas and coal, with a boom in fracking causing a rash of new gas projects this century. The gas is also emitted from livestock [sic], primarily through the burps of cows, and increased animal agriculture, as well as to a lesser degree expanding rice production, has contributed.
Meanwhile, rising global heat is causing the faster decomposition of organic matter in wetlands, thereby releasing more methane.
In 2021, the US and the European Union spearheaded a new initiative, called the Global Methane Pledge, which commits to a collective 30% cut in methane emissions by 2030. This scheme has now expanded to 155 countries yet only 13% of emissions are covered by current policies and only 2% of global climate finance goes towards cutting methane emissions, according to the new paper.
“I don’t think that target is necessarily out of reach yet but we have to redouble our efforts to get there,” said Shindell. “Countries are leading with oil and gas regulations, but it’s a challenge to get rules in place, and when it comes to livestock [sic] that’s just unpalatable to most governments, they just don’t want to touch it.”
But while CO2 can linger in the atmosphere for hundreds or thousands of years, unless removed, methane is a far shorter-lived threat. If all methane emissions were cut immediately, 90% of accumulated methane would have left the atmosphere within 30 years, providing a swifter way to reduce global heating than focusing just on carbon.
“Methane is the strongest lever we can quickly pull to reduce warming between now and 2050,” said Shindell. “There’s just such a rapid response to cutting it. We’ve already seen the planet warm so much that if we are to avoid worse impacts we have to reduce methane. Reducing CO2 will protect our grandchildren – reducing methane will protect us now.”
The new paper outlines a number of actions countries should take, including better linking CO2 and methane reduction efforts and identifying the most effective methane cutting projects under certain circumstances.
Last week, the White House held a summit on cutting “super-pollutants” that include methane. The summit outlined measures such as improved monitoring, including the placement of methane sensors on commercial United Airlines aircraft, and a mixture of philanthropic and regulatory programs aimed at getting emissions down.
“It’s been somewhat ignored until now but methane really is at the point of the spear in climate protection,” said Paul Bledsoe, who was a climate adviser to Bill Clinton’s White House.
“If we want to limit near-term temperature rises, we need to get methane under control.”
The article understates the role of animal agriculture in methane emissions. As it alludes to, methane only lasts in the atmosphere for around 12 years. It’s vital that we get methane emissions under control as quickly as possible, and animal ag corporations and their shills are going all out to stop it.
Questions continued to mount about the political transformation of Donald Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, after the release of emails from a former friend in which Vance called Trump a “morally reprehensible human being” and said: “I hate the police.”…
Not long after Lady Gaga’s dazzling performance in pink, French heavy metal rockers Gojira, clad in black, got heads banging with a dramatic balcony-edge performance.
This whole tableau, with the headless Marie Antoinettes and the blood-red streamers, was so good.
Quoted in Lynna’s #168:
As many as one-quarter of a million Americans died simply because their state governments refused to impose good public health standards.
How is this not one of the biggest news stories in the country???
Quoted in Lynna’s #170:
leaner, more efficient private schools
LOL.
Quoted in Lynna’s #174:
his father as “short on words and quick on corporal punishment.”
Shocker.
As a bad guy, Trewhella wrote, he joined a Detroit gang and “dealt drugs, stole cars, firebombed houses, robbed businesses, burglarized homes, fought other gangs, and fenced stolen items to the Mafia.”
Bull. Shit.
LykeX @ #175:
Is it possible that switching candidates, from Biden to Harris, benefits from both points? I.e. she get both the benefit of being on the side of the incumbent, but also being somewhat new?
I think (and hope) so!
Quoted in Lynna’s #217:
Newly awash in crypto cash
Um…
lumipuna @ #226:
As an aside, Finnish news outlets have recently reported on the US “cat lady” discourse. However, since the Finnish language doesn’t have a separate word for “lady”, it comes out as “catwoman”, and I just love the ambiguity of connotations here.
:D
#282, etc., re Venezuela – my longstanding policy has been (an continues to be) not to trust almost any English-language news source about Venezuela (or pretty much the entire region). But since a lot of the Spanish news now is like CNN in Spanish or the BBC in Spanish (incidentally, did you know there’s a BBC Pidgin?) and many of the anti-US-imperialist sources have become untrustworthy I’m having a hard time finding reliable news.
Akira MacKenzie @ #288:
“Vote Blue no matter who.”
I swear this is like the fourth or fifth time I’ve seen you use this phrase in an odd context or manner that suggests to me that you don’t really understand what it’s meant to convey.
Former President Donald J. Trump, in an interview broadcast Monday night, repeated his recent assertion that Christians will never have to vote again if they vote for him this November, and brushed aside multiple requests to walk back or clarify the statement.
Mr. Trump said last Friday to a gathering of Christian conservatives: “I love you. You got to get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not going to have to vote.”
His interviewer on Monday, Fox News’s Laura Ingraham, noted that Democrats have highlighted that quote as evidence that Mr. Trump would end elections, and urged Mr. Trump to rebut what she called a “ridiculous” criticism.
But Mr. Trump declined to do so, repeating a pattern he frequently employs in which he makes a provocative statement that can be interpreted in varying ways, and makes no attempt to quiet the uproar. This comment was especially striking, given his attempts to overturn the 2020 election and his shattering of other Democratic norms.
The exchange began when Ms. Ingraham told the former president: “They’re saying that you said to a crowd of Christians that they won’t have to vote in the future.”
Mr. Trump started off his response, saying: “Let me say what I mean by that. I had a tremendous crowd, speaking to Christians all in all — I mean, this was a crowd that liked me a lot.”
He added that Catholics are “treated very badly by this administration” and that “they’re like persecuted,” then digressed, saying that Jewish people who voted for Democrats “should have your head examined,” a sentiment he has expressed many times before, drawing criticism of antisemitism. He then reiterated his statement from Friday.
“I said, vote for me, you’re not going to have to do it ever again. It’s true,” he said. “Because we have to get the vote out. Christians are not known as a big voting group. They don’t vote. And I’m explaining that to them. You never vote. This time, vote. I’ll straighten out the country, you won’t have to vote anymore. I won’t need your vote.”
Ms. Ingraham offered him an off-ramp: “You mean you don’t have to vote for you, because you’ll have four years in office.”
Mr. Trump began talking about gun owners not voting, but Ms. Ingraham interrupted him.
“It’s being interpreted, as you are not surprised to hear, by the left as, well, they’re never going to have another election,” she said. “So can you even just respond —”
Mr. Trump cut her off, claiming again that Christians “vote in very small percentages,” and digressing into how he would change voting practices.
He then repeated his statement from Friday once more, saying his message had been: “Don’t worry about the future. You have to vote on Nov. 5. After that, you don’t have to worry about voting anymore. I don’t care, because we’re going to fix it. The country will be fixed and we won’t even need your vote anymore, because frankly we will have such love, if you don’t want to vote anymore, that’s OK.”
[…]
In one more exchange, Ms. Ingraham noted that Democrats were arguing that Mr. Trump might never leave office if elected again, and prompted, with a laugh, “But you will leave office after four years?”
“Of course. By the way, and I did last time,” Mr. Trump said.
He left office in 2021 after his and his allies’ sweeping campaign to overturn the election failed, and after his supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 to try to stop Congress from certifying the results.
Bits and pieces of campaign news, as summarized by Steve Benen:
* In a bit of a surprise, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper withdrew from vice presidential consideration yesterday, informing Vice President Kamala Harris and her team that he supports her candidacy, but this “just wasn’t the right time for North Carolina and for me to potentially be on a national ticket.” [source: NBC News]
* There are quite a few primary races in Arizona today, and as is usually the case, Bolts has a very helpful rundown on the contests worth watching.
* A new group called White Dudes for Harris hosted their first event online last night, and by all appearances, it was a striking success: The gathering, featuring quite a few famous “white dudes,” reportedly attracted more than 180,000 participants and raised almost $4 million. [PZ also posted about this. https://proxy.freethought.online/pharyngula/2024/07/30/dude/ ]
* While the conventional wisdom was that Georgia was slipping away from Democrats, Harris will be campaigning in Atlanta tonight. [source: Associated Press]
* Donald Trump’s campaign has made its first significant ad buy of the general election, investing more than $12 million into a new, 30-second anti-Harris attack ad. The commercial will run in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada, and Wisconsin. [source: New York Times]
* In Pennsylvania, a new statewide poll from Susquehanna Polling & Research found Harris leading Trump, 47% to 43%. (Click the link for information on the survey’s methodology and margins of error. https://x.com/SusquehannaPR/status/1818309340928901514 )
* In still more news out of the Keystone State, the latest Fox News poll found incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey leading his Republican challenger in Pennsylvania, David McCormick, 55% to 42%. (Click the link for information on the survey’s methodology and margins of error. https://www.foxnews.com/official-polls/fox-news-poll-harris-trump-dead-heat-pennsylvania )
* Speaking of competitive Senate races, the latest Fox News poll found Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin leading former Republican Rep. Mike Rogers in Michigan, 51% to 46%. (Click the link for information on the survey’s methodology and margins of error.)
* And in Wisconsin, the latest Fox News poll found the latest Fox News poll found incumbent Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin leading likely Republican challenger Eric Hovde, 54% to 43%. (Click the link for information on the survey’s methodology and margins of error.)
During his relatively brief tenure as Congress’ top Republican, House Speaker Mike Johnson has confronted a couple of important personnel challenges. The first came several weeks ago when the Louisiana congressman had to choose two new members of the House Intelligence Committee — and as members of both parties came to agree, Johnson did not choose wisely.
His second personnel challenge came this week, and by some measures, the House speaker’s newest failure was even more dramatic than his first. The Washington Post reported:
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) have tapped seven Republican and six Democratic lawmakers to serve on a bipartisan task force investigating the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. […]
To be sure, there is no controversy surrounding the existence of this new congressional task force. There’s broad support for investigating the attempt on Trump’s life, and the official inquiry will move forward with bipartisan backing.
But as the process advances, it’s worth pausing to consider who Johnson appointed to the panel. Indeed, it’s difficult to pick which of the task force’s GOP members is the most controversial.
Rep. Pat Fallon of Texas, for example, is an election denier who voted against certifying the 2020 presidential race, and who’s also faced some unfortunate ethics questions. Rep. Mark Green of Tennessee is also an election denier who voted against certifying the 2020 presidential race, and his right-wing background was so controversial in 2017 that the Senate wouldn’t confirm him when Trump nominated him to serve as secretary of the Army.
The panel will be chaired by Republican Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania, who, in addition to being an election denier who voted against certifying the 2020 presidential race, is also up to his ears in the fake elector scandal; has accused Barack Obama of running a secret “shadow government”; and initially responded to the recent assassination attempt targeting Trump by describing it without evidence as an “attack from the left.”
But perhaps most notable of all is Republican Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana — an election denier who’s also taken a leading role in concocting deeply weird conspiracy theories about the Jan. 6 attack, including bizarre allegations related to the FBI and “ghost buses.”
As a recent New York Times report summarized, “Even by a conspiracy theorist’s standards, the wild claims made by Representative Clay Higgins, Republican of Louisiana, stand out.”
Some might see this and question the relevance. Perhaps, the argument goes, these House Republicans pushed ridiculous conspiracy theories related to the 2020 elections and the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, but this investigation is about the shooting that nearly killed Trump. It is, some might argue, an entirely unrelated matter.
Perhaps, but judgment matters. The shooting in Pennsylvania was deadly serious and deserves to be scrutinized by credible and responsible members of Congress who care about evidence and reality. The goal is to produce findings that the American public will be able to believe.
For Johnson to choose fringe figures such as Higgins for this task force was an avoidable mistake.
Vice President Kamala Harris picked up endorsements this week from several mayors of border towns in Arizona, but one new endorsement from the Grand Canyon State stood out from the rest. John Giles, the mayor of Mesa, Arizona’s third-largest city, endorsed the likely Democratic in an op-ed for The Arizona Republic, despite the fact that Giles is a Republican.
The time has come for my fellow Arizona Republicans to return to the core foundations of the Grand Old Party. Our party used to stand for the belief that every Arizonan, no matter their background or circumstances, should have the freedom, opportunity and security to live out their American Dream. But since Donald Trump refused to accept the outcome of the 2020 election, Republicans have yet to course correct. The Republican Party with Trump at its helm continues down the path of political extremism, away from focusing on our fundamental freedoms.
The mayor described Harris as “the competent, just and fair leader our country deserves,” while describing Trump as “a felon” and “a serious threat to our nation.”
Giles went on to write, “I believe my party has a moral and ethical responsibility to restore faith in our democratic institutions. In the spirit of the late Sen. John McCain’s motto, ‘Country First,’ I call on other Arizona Republicans to join me in choosing country over party this election and to vote against Donald Trump.”
This announcement comes on the heels of a similar endorsement from former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, a lifelong Republican who threw his support behind Harris last week.
For the vice president, this isn’t a bad start. After all, Harris has only been a candidate for nine days, and given the state of the cotemporary GOP, it’s not easy for any Democratic candidate to pick up cross-party backing.
Looking ahead, though, it’s only natural to wonder whether Giles and Duncan represent the start of a trend or whether they’ll be 2024 outliers.
Before President Joe Biden ended his re-election bid, he’d picked up some Republican backing, including a high-profile endorsement from former Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger. Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson also encouraged people to vote for the Democratic incumbent, and former deputy White House press secretary Sarah Matthews made a similar announcement.
As best as I can tell, they haven’t yet thrown their support behind Harris, though it wouldn’t come as too big of a surprise if they did.
But will other Republicans follow suit? I kept a close eye on this dynamic four years ago and found quite a few GOP partisans — former Republican National Committee chairs, former Republican cabinet secretaries, former Republican governors and former Republican members of Congress — who publicly expressed support for the Biden-led Democratic ticket.
As Election Day 2024 approaches, they are likely to face some pressure to do the same this year. Watch this space.
The federal classified documents case
In Florida, Judge Aileen Cannon ruled this month that Attorney General Merrick Garland’s November 2022 appointment of Smith as special counsel and the Justice Department’s funding of the special counsel office’s expenses were inconsistent with not one, but two provisions of Article II of the Constitution: the so-called Appointments and Appropriations Clauses. Therefore, Cannon held that the case could not continue, regardless of whether Trump’s other objections were valid.
Smith’s office has made clear how and where it plans to forge ahead. Specifically, with the blessing of the DOJ, the special counsel filed an appeal of Cannon’s July 15 order with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, which oversees federal trial courts in Florida, as well as Alabama and Georgia.
according to former U.S. attorney and MSNBC legal analyst Joyce Vance, “If the special counsel pursues the appeal, the DOJ is extremely unlikely to reindict during its pendency, among other reasons because it would likely moot the appeal.”
Note also that to date, Smith’s office has only filed a notice of appeal, which is like a declaration of its intent. The actual brief is not due until Aug. 27. Currently, Trump’s opposition to the appeal is due 30 days thereafter, and the special counsel can submit a reply 21 days after that. With briefing ending in mid-October and no oral argument date set, it is unlikely the 11th Circuit would issue an opinion before the election — and to date, the special counsel’s office has not asked the court to expedite briefing and consideration of the appeal.
Yet in 2022, Smith requested — and got — an expedited briefing when he successfully appealed Cannon’s appointment of a special master to review materials seized at Mar-a-Lago in August of that year. The time frame for Smith’s appeal could be equally critical here.
The bottom line: The Mar-a-Lago documents case is over for now — but it could come back with a vengeance after the 11th Circuit rules, assuming Trump is not back in the Oval Office by then.
The federal election interference case
[…] the federal election interference case pending in Washington, D.C., before Judge Tanya Chutkan has yet to be restarted after the Supreme Court’s broad immunity decision in Trump v. United States. But that case is widely expected to be curtailed.
For example, the majority opinion holds unambiguously that Trump is “absolutely immune from prosecution for the alleged conduct involving his discussions with Justice Department officials.” Therefore, going forward, legal experts expect neither the charges themselves nor the evidence can refer to Trump’s conversations with then-Attorney General Bill Barr; his acting successor, Jeffrey Rosen, and Rosen’s deputy, Rich Donoghue; and even Trump’s alleged co-conspirator, then-acting Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Bossert Clark.
Yet the Supreme Court was equally clear that sorting through when immunity applies to the remainder of the indictment, at least “in the first instance,” is a job for Chutkan. Under the Supreme Court’s ruling, she must:
– Determine “with appropriate input from the parties, whether a prosecution involving Trump’s alleged attempts to influence the Vice President’s oversight of the certification proceeding … would pose any dangers of intrusion on the authority and functions of the Executive Branch”;
– Conduct a “close” and “fact-specific” “analysis of the indictment’s extensive and interrelated allegations” about Trump’s interactions “with a wide variety of state officials and private persons,” including Trump’s communications about and organization and implementation of the “fake elector” scheme;
– Perform another “necessarily factbound” and admittedly “challenging” review of “Trump’s conduct in connection with the events of January 6 itself,” including an “objective analysis of ‘content, form, and context’” of Trump’s tweets and public statements on that day.
The court therefore ordered that the case be remanded — or returned — to Chutkan to determine whether these categories of alleged conduct are official or unofficial, and if official, whether the presumption of immunity can be rebutted.
[…] Some legal experts believe the Supreme Court’s repeated references to “factbound” or “fact specific” analyses require Chutkan to hold one or more evidentiary hearings “replete with important witness testimony,” as MSNBC legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann has written. After all, in classifying Trump’s public statements and tweets on and about Jan. 6, the Supreme Court noted that Chutkan could find relevant “what else was said contemporaneous to the excerpted communications, or who was involved in transmitting the electronic communications and in organizing the rally.” That sort of information is not evident from the indictment and would require additional proof.
On the other hand, other aspects of the task thrust into Chutkan’s hands seem to lend themselves to a more straightforward, albeit close, reading of the indictment, supplemented by briefs from the parties, as the Supreme Court suggests. Public reporting also indicates Trump’s team intends to argue that Chutkan can resolve which conduct is and is not immune “based on legal arguments alone, negating the need for witnesses or multiple evidentiary hearings,” which could be embarrassing or even politically damaging to Trump as he again campaigns for the presidency.
But no matter how Chutkan intends to move ahead, she cannot start quite yet. Rather, a Supreme Court rule provides that unless the whole court or an individual justice orders or the parties themselves agree otherwise, a case does not come back to the trial court for 32 days after the judgment is entered. […]
Still, why wouldn’t the special counsel attempt to revive the case more quickly? Some believe that in lieu of delving into an extensive fight over which allegations and charges can be leveled against Trump, Smith’s office might first attempt to narrow its case by streamlining its indictment. That could mean substituting a new or superseding indictment for the existing one, but it’s not as simple as merely preparing a revised document.
Instead, Smith would need a grand jury to review and approve such an indictment. Experts note that given the extensive testimony previously presented, prosecutors would not need to recall witnesses. A so-called summary witness, such as an FBI agent assigned to the case, could read relevant excerpts of such testimony to a grand jury, for example.
But in any event, the case will not be sent back to Chutkan earlier than Aug. 2. And in February, during a hearing in another Jan. 6-related case, Chutkan revealed plans to be out of the country days later, on Aug. 5, unless the Trump trial were ongoing then. A review of publicly available court calendars reflects that Chutkan does not have any scheduled matters next month until Aug. 15.
[…] some reports suggest Trump’s lawyers intend to file other pretrial motions unrelated to immunity once Chutkan retakes the reins. For example, despite successfully litigating the issue before Cannon, Trump’s team never moved to dismiss the Washington case on the grounds that Smith was unlawfully appointed and that his office was unlawfully funded. That could be because, in 2019, the D.C. Circuit rejected nearly identical arguments concerning the appointment of then-special counsel Robert Mueller. Nonetheless, at oral argument in the presidential immunity case, Trump lawyer John Sauer intimated it was just a question of timing: “We hadn’t raised it yet in this case when this case went up on appeal.”
Given Trump’s potential challenge to Smith’s very authority to indict Trump in Washington and with Chutkan perhaps not assuming control of the case again for several more weeks, it’s not clear that the evidentiary hearings some think are warranted will happen any time soon. In fact, Chutkan holding any evidentiary hearing at all before year’s end might be a feat of judicial oversight and control in and of itself.
The bottom line: Though the federal election interference case has technically survived the Supreme Court’s ruling, that decision will almost certainly bog the case down with legal wrangling over the coming months. And whether even a slimmed-down case progresses will hinge on further appeals and the election itself, because if Trump wins in November, this case is effectively over.
[…] The ugliness of JD Vance’s rhetoric — rooted in the idea that those without biological children are somehow lesser, unreliable, and undeserving of positions of leadership — generated considerable attention, leading the vice presidential candidate to concede his comments were “sarcastic.” But when offered an opportunity to walk back his rhetoric, Vance instead doubled down on the underlying point.
In a separate media appearance last week, Vance also tried to defend himself by arguing that Harris called for “an end to the child tax credit,” which wasn’t true.
But matters even worse is the totality of Vance’s record. CNN reported:
Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance has a history of making disparaging remarks toward people without children, a CNN KFile review of his comments shows, including fundraising off his now-infamous “childless cat lady” remarks in a series of emails that called Democratic leaders “childless sociopaths” who “don’t have a direct stake in this country.”
As recently as November 2020, for example, Vance said on a podcast that childless Americans, especially those in the country’s “leadership class,” were “more sociopathic” than those with children and made the country “less mentally stable.” Vance went to say that in his experience, the “most deranged” and “most psychotic” people he sees on social media were also typically childless. [video at the link]
The “childless cat ladies” comments, in other words, were not a one-off. Vance has been condemning Americans without kids repeatedly, for years.
Indeed, it’s been genuinely challenging to keep up with the avalanche of reporting on this, just from the past few days. Media Matters, for example, uncovered several additional Fox interviews in which Vance lashed out at “childless” Democrats. Media Matters also found a Breitbart news interview in which the Ohio Republican claimed that the left’s “next generation leaders,” including “the Kamala Harrises, they don’t have kids. And so there’s this weird way where they want to take our kids and brainwash them so that their ideas continue to exist in the next generation.”
There’s also been extensive reporting of late about Vance suggesting that parents should have greater voting rights than Americans without children, and federal tax policies should “punish” those without children for their “bad” choices.
Mother Jones’ David Corn, meanwhile, uncovered a speech in which Vance said he receives unflattering media coverage because he thinks most journalists are “childless adults.”
Remember, as far as Trump is concerned, Vance is “not against” those without biological kids of their own. All people have to do, the former president said, is “listen to his words.”
I have a follow-up question for the Republican nominee: “Have you listened to his words?”
[…] July 21: Within hours of Biden ending his 2024 candidacy, Trump started hedging on a possible debate and complaining about ABC News, despite the fact that his campaign team had already agreed to have ABC News host the next event.
July 23: Trump doubled down on his original message, adding that he believes ABC “is not worthy of holding a Debate.” Later in the day, he told reporters he was “absolutely” prepared to debate Harris, though he quickly added, “I haven’t agreed to anything.”
July 25: Aides to Trump said they wouldn’t commit to another debate.
July 29: Trump appeared on Fox News and hedged some more, arguing that he “can also make a case for not doing it.”
After the interview aired, the Harris campaign issued a press release with a headline that referred to the former president as “Duckin’ Don.” The statement from the vice president’s spokesperson added, “Why won’t Donald Trump give a straight answer on debating Vice President Harris? It’s clear from tonight’s question-dodging: He’s scared he’ll have to defend his running mate’s weird attacks on women, or his own calls to end elections in America, in a debate against the vice president.
Vice President Harris will be on the debate stage September 10th. Donald Trump can show up, or not.”
The Trump campaign had at least a month of forewarning that President Biden ending his re-election bid was a plausible scenario, and they let every reporter within earshot know that if that happened they were ready. It did, and they weren’t.
GOP vice presidential nominee JD Vance fessed up to donors in Minnesota over the weekend that Kamala Harris has thrown the Trump campaign for a loop:
All of us were hit with a little bit of a political sucker punch. The bad news is that Kamala Harris does not have the same baggage as Joe Biden, because whatever we might have to say, Kamala is a lot younger. And Kamala Harris is obviously not struggling in the same ways that Joe Biden did.
A sucker punch is a cheap shot, delivered without warning to an unsuspecting victim. It’s fitting that Vance would couch it in terms of victimization, the perpetual posture of MAGA adherents. Their constant whining about fairness […] The result was a transformation of older white voters into a special interest group of their own, with a parallel set of grievances that mirrored what they had railed against for so long. That’s how you get canards like reverse discrimination against whites.
Back in the real world, Harris’ ascension to the nomination was not without warning or time to prep. The failure of the Trump campaign to do so effectively remains inexplicable and a bit mystifying. They seemed wedded to what they thought was a winning campaign strategy against Biden. They may have been right about that; we’ll never know.
But in the meantime, there’s a campaign to be run, and Trump finds himself with an opponent whose age and vigor isn’t an issue but more importantly who has captured the zeitgeist in a way that Trump craves and can’t possibly reproduce himself. His mass appeal has always been narrower than the broad cultural currents of our time. He’s pro wrestling, not the Olympics.
MAGA’s complaining about it all being unfair is weak sauce in the face of the transcendent energy and enthusiasm Harris is initially generating.
As much as Donald Trump denies it, it’s clear that Project 2025 is a blueprint for what will happen if he manages to occupy the White House a second time. With more than 140 members of Trump’s past and current staff involved in writing the Heritage Foundation’s plan and running mate JD Vance lavishing praise on it, this is a document custom-written for Trump.
Vance even wrote the foreword for Heritage leader Kevin Roberts’ new book. The connections between Trump, Roberts, Vance, and the 900-page handbook for scrapping American democracy and replacing it with a Christian nationalist authoritarian government run deep.
But that doesn’t mean Project 2025 is just about Trump. Because it takes more than the power of the White House to rip apart our institutions—at least at the start. To really get the wrecking balls flying, Project 2025 would also need some quislings in Congress. And few are more open about their support for the Heritage Foundation than Florida Sen. Rick Scott.
Scott is deeply connected with both Project 2025 and Roberts. It’s not just a matter of Scott praising Roberts (although that has certainly happened), or of Roberts praising Scott (although … that too).
This has been a long-term collaborative partnership. Scott has worked directly with Roberts and the Heritage Foundation to produce a video series blaming Democratic policies for the national debt without mentioning the effects of Republican tax policies. Scott’s video series also blamed inflation on President Joe Biden’s policies while ignoring the need to keep businesses and individuals solvent during the pandemic or the disaster that Trump left behind.
[…] With its nationwide ban on abortion, plan to replace public education with a voucher scheme, and of course “keeping men out of women’s sports” talking point, Scott’s 12-point agenda (which actually includes over 100 policy proposals) contains a lot of the same ideas as Project 2025.
In fact, Scott has already put the Heritage Foundation to work in the war on democracy. When he was governor of Florida, Scott hired the author of Project 2025’s chapter on election reform, attorney Hans von Spakovsky, to help conduct a purge of Florida’s voter rolls. Voter suppression has become critical to the GOP’s hold over Florida.
[…] “Consider our situation in America today,” Scott said. “The militant left now controls the entire federal government, the news media, universities, Hollywood, big tech, and most corporate boardrooms. But they want more. They’re redefining America and silencing their opponents.”
Not only was Scott strangely able to speak up despite this so-called militant left, this was March 2022. Fox News, Newsmax, and One America News were all on the air. […]
Scott would be back at the Heritage Foundation in November for the Heritage Action Sentinel Summit, where he again spoke out against “radical woke indoctrination” and “the woke demands of the radical left who are destroying our country with debt, indoctrination, and socialism.” While there, he warned about “woke schools” and the “woke military.” And he told the gathered conservatives that the best way they could fight all this wokeness was by coming together to … send Herschel Walker to the Senate. [JFC]
[…] it didn’t stop Scott from coming back in 2023 to join GOP senators including Josh Hawley, Mike Lee, Tim Scott, and some guy named JD Vance.
Reportedly, the biggest concern Trump had when it came to vetting potential 2024 running mates was whether they would go where his previous vice president did not. As The Washington Post wrote earlier this month, Vance “passed the central test Trump posed to his last vice-presidential pick, former Indiana governor Mike Pence: If asked, Vance has said that he would have tried to throw the 2020 election to Trump.”
Considering his deep association with the Heritage Foundation and Roberts, there’s no doubt that Vance would be there every step of the way to try and implement Project 2025’s nationalist takeover if he and Trump win the election in November.
And he’ll surely have help from some in Congress—including Rick Scott.
We fans of real democracy are all feeling lifted by the new enthusiasm and vibrancy in the election cycle. And that is wonderful! And then, along comes Maddow, pointing out, again, the apparently huge chink in democrcy’s armour that threatens the whole damn thing.
Republicans have placed dozens of election deniers in positions to refuse to certify the coming vote.
Are we wrong to be extremely concerned about this? I would like to see Mark, Kos, Joan, someone here addressing this in detail — and what can or is being done about it. Because Maddow keeps talking about it and no one else does. Do the Democrats have a real plan to deal with this?
Video at the link. The video snippet from The Maddow Show is 6:31 minutes long, and it is excellent in my opinion.
birgerjohanssonsays
God Awful Movies!
GAM467 Pride and Prejudice A Latter Day Comedy
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=5f9dnTEuVzE
Enthusiasm: Cara Santa Maria sounds like she has been kidnapped and forced to review this awful film.
AOC Correct Again: Trump And JD Vance Are Running An Incel Campaign
On Monday, Vivek Ramaswamy, who is apparently still hard at work trying to make himself happen, pouted on social media about the recent characterization of Trump and JD Vance as just being “weird.”
“This whole ‘they’re weird’ argument from the Democrats is dumb & juvenile,” he wrote. “This is a presidential election, not a high school prom queen contest. It’s also a tad ironic coming from the party that preaches ‘diversity & inclusion.’ Win on policy if you can, but cut the crap please.”
Yes, the famously policy-driven approaches of the Trump campaign, like calling women fat and ugly, and all the rest of it we don’t have the energy to catalog.
This would be reasonable if we were talking “weird” like just being unique and different. That’s the kind of weird we love and are happy to embrace! But we’re talking about “weird” as in “it’s super weird to get upset about childless women in the year 2024.”
“Being obsessed with repressing women is goofy,” responded Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a quote tweet. “Trying to watch what LGBTQ+ people do all the time is abnormal. Punishing people who don’t have biological offspring is creepy. It’s an incel platform, dude. It’s SUPER weird. And people need to know.”
She’s right, and they do.
[…] lingo and ideas from […] the incel boards, has migrated into the mainstream. Zoomers on Tiktok now talk about “looksmaxxing” — a term that came about on incel sites like PUAHate, SlutHate, and Lookism (commonly referred to as PSL) to describe efforts at looking better physically. Many have also become obsessed with the “canthal tilt” (whether eyes are turned up, down, or are neutral) as something that incels have long insisted distinguishes attractive people from unattractive people (it absolutely does not!) and other bits and pieces of PSL “looks theory.” There was even a trend of people using a filter to test themselves for a positive canthal tilt, with those who had a negative canthal tilt responding with the incel-ese maxim “It’s over.” (Incels are famously fond of declaring “It’s over if …” and then citing some ridiculous reason they think women won’t fuck them, outside of the fact that they hate women.)
But the biggest impact overall has been in the Republican Party, which has become increasingly obsessed with “childless women,” with pressuring people to get married at younger ages, with virginity, with the distribution of women, with tradwives, with ending no-fault divorce, and other things that incels […] have been dreaming about for ages. Not to mention their extra creepy obsession with Kamala Harris’s sex life. You know who gets real angry at women for having sex? Incels. You know who sits around seething and fantasizing about all of the sex that bad women must have had/be having with men who aren’t them? Incels. And, well, Republicans.
In fact, earlier this month, over on one of the main incel messageboards, there was a discussion on “How would you solve inceldom if you became a dictator?” and some of the answers were eerily similar to what we see in Project 2025 and hear from the mouths of vice presidential nominee JD Vance and conservative pundits all over.
Here’s one especially comprehensive answer, from user VideoGameCoper (not linking for obvious reasons):
I know my first steps would be to ban government support for single mothers, which would disincentivize them from getting pregnant from a chad who will just leave her. I would also ban alimony to women in divorce and make it so the divorce laws do not favor women. Next steps are to ban onlyfans and diversity hiring that favors women. After that, I would start destroying social media that boosts women’s egos. Paternity tests would become mandatory. This will all make women depend on men more and be more incentivized to get with a looksmatched man who will be loyal instead of getting pumped and dumped by chad.
[…] a lot of these ideas have been popular with conservatives for a long time, but they’ve only recently gotten so bold as to start talking about banning pornography and no-fault divorce, or being comfortable ragging on “childless cat ladies” in public. […]
I’m not saying they’re purposely cribbing from the incel boards (not that this would be too surprising), just that Republicans are somehow coming out with many of the same ideas. And when you have the same ideas held by a group of people notorious for repulsing other human beings and going on killing sprees, you can’t be too surprised when people get the ick. […]
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow last night called attention to some very strange things that Donald Trump has been saying lately, connecting them to what seems likely to be a crucial part of Republicans’ plans to throw the outcome of the 2024 election into doubt.
[…] Like so much Trumpfuckery, it’s completely out in the open, and not so much an effort to rig the election as to create chaos, pouring maple syrup into the gas tank of democracy while cramming a banana up the tailpipe of election certification. (Do we know our audience, or what?)
Here’s the video, which lays out a pretty straightforward case for at least one component of MAGAWorld’s hopes for ratfucking the 2024 election: [video at the link, same video as referenced in comment 331]
Maddow starts off with that bizarre Trump assertion at a rally Friday that if Christians just vote in sufficient numbers this fall, he will get America “fixed so good” in just four years that “it’ll be fine, you won’t have to vote anymore.” Well yes, that sounds just a little facscist, given the whole “a republic if you can keep it” thing we’ve been working on for nearly 250 years.
But while that line is entirely worrying enough on its own, Maddow followed up with another set of statements that have gotten less attention, which are strange because Trump isn’t talking about that glorious no-voting-needed paradise coming in the future, but saying it’s here right now, as he did at a June rally in Florida: “I actually tell our people we don’t need your vote. We have so many votes, we don’t need them.” [video at the link]
And again when he told Fox & Friends on July 25 the very same thing: “In fact, my instruction — we don’t need the votes. I have so many votes.” [video at the link]
Could be routine Trump braggadocio about how invincible he is, of course, because the first rule of being a Mafia don is never to speak too explicitly, to always have some plausible deniability — no, he’s not going to end elections, he’ll just make America such a paradise for fundagelicals that there won’t be any need to fight so hard in 2028, wink wink.
But then there’s this other shoe hitting the floor, as Maddow calls attention to this joint investigation by Rolling Stone and the politics newsletter American Doom (worth the $5/month subscription) found: There are roughly 70 elections officials in swing states who have publicly stated — often on social media — that they buy into Trump’s Big Lie that the 2020 election was fraudulent. What’s more, quite a few of them have already delayed or refused certification of election results, even though legally they aren’t supposed to have that power As Rolling Stone explains,
Certification of election results is what legal experts consider a “ministerial task,” and one required by state and local law. But as Trump’s lies about the 2020 election have taken hold, Republicans nationwide have decided that certification provides them an opportunity to hear fraud allegations — and refuse to officially count their local votes. Republicans have refused to certify election results at least 25 times since Trump lost the 2020 election to President Joe Biden.
The story cites Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias, who has more experience knocking down crappy GOP vote suppression efforts than anyone, saying that,
“I think we are going to see mass refusals to certify the election” in November. […] “Everything we are seeing about this election is that the other side is more organized, more ruthless, and more prepared.”
The story is careful to note that such attempts to delay or refuse certification haven’t held up in court, but that in two states, Georgia and Arizona, lawsuits making their way through state courts are seeking to have certification declared “discretionary,” so Trump-friendly elections officials could jam up the works in November. [Yikes!]
[…] Not only are a lot of these folks election deniers, many believe every crazy rightwing conspiracy that comes down the pike, too, a “veritable stew simmering with the toxicity of the online American right.” If you haven’t used up your one free guest visit at Rolling Stone this month, do read the whole thing.
[…] Republicans, Elias says,
“are counting on not just that they can disrupt the election in big counties, they are counting on the fact that if they don’t certify in several small counties, you cannot certify these statewide results.”
It’s an electoral version of Steve Bannon’s media strategy: Flood the zone with shit and sow chaos, and there’s always the chance that sympathetic courts will help you to victory, or at least slow the outcome of the vote count down enough to precipitate a crisis that Trump’s six best pals on the Supreme Court would have to “resolve.”
robro @339, my bet is that they will just rebrand by changing the name of Project 2025 … and then they will continue on the same track.
The Washington Post article to which you referred makes the point that the Trump campaign was/is “furious” with the Heritage Foundation over media coverage of Project 2025. That does sound likely. The Trump campaign is fine with Project 2025, but with the fact that everyone knows about it.
Excerpts:
[…] While some participants in the project started avoiding interviews and public appearances, Trump advisers grew furious that Heritage leaders continued promoting the project and feeding critical news coverage.
Trump senior adviser Susie Wiles repeatedly called Heritage leaders instructing them to stop promoting Project 2025. She and Trump strategist Chris LaCivita repeatedly wrote public statements disavowing the project, and then Trump started saying so in his own social media posts. More recently, LaCivita has started saying that people involved in the project would be barred from a second Trump administration.
[…] Some Project 2025 participants have responded by doubting a ban could be enforced when contributors include close Trump advisers such as former White House speechwriter Stephen Miller, former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Tom Homan, and former White House economic adviser Peter Navarro. Miller has denied his involvement in Project 2025, but his America First Legal group is a participating organization, and his deputy, Gene Hamilton, wrote the playbook’s chapter on the Department of Justice.
Many of the plan’s proposals overlap with official pronouncements from Trump’s campaign.
Both Trump and Project 2025 have proposed eliminating the Department of Education and reversing President Biden’s student loan relief program. Both have said they want to reintroduce a policy change to weaken tenure protections for career civil servants and tighten White House supervision of the Justice Department and other agencies. Both have proposed large-scale immigration raids and repealing temporary protections for migrants from unsafe countries. Both proposed ending affirmative action and rolling back Biden administration environmental regulations.
At least some Heritage employees are considering leaving the organization because they do not want to alienate a future Trump administration and hurt their future job prospects, according to a current employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail internal dynamics. While Heritage President Kevin Roberts has told people privately that the storm will blow over, employees have texted and messaged one another with dismay about the Trump campaign’s continued attacks on the organization.
“We are extremely grateful for [Dans’s] and everyone’s work on Project 2025 and dedication to saving America,” Roberts said in a statement. “Our collective efforts to build a personnel apparatus for policymakers of all levels — federal, state, and local — will continue.”
[…] “We are extremely grateful for [Dans’s] and everyone’s work on Project 2025 and dedication to saving America,” Roberts said in a statement. “Our collective efforts to build a personnel apparatus for policymakers of all levels — federal, state, and local — will continue.”
[…] Vice President Harris’s campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, said Democrats will not stop talking about Project 2025. “Hiding the 920-page blueprint from the American people doesn’t make it less real — in fact, it should make voters more concerned about what else Trump and his allies are hiding,” she said in a statement. “Project 2025 is on the ballot because Donald Trump is on the ballot. This is his agenda, written by his allies, for Donald Trump to inflict on our country.”
Project 2025 published its playbook in 2023, and it always planned to wind down the policy program and hand off recommendations to the official presidential transition when it starts this summer. Another arm of the project, a personnel database of more than 20,000 applicants for potential political appointments should Trump be reelected, will remain in operation, people familiar with the matter said. Trump has not established a transition, even though it is almost August. Should he win the presidency, his administration would have to immediately fill thousands of political jobs. Trump has told advisers in the past he did not want a transition because he was superstitious and had not won yet. [May be bullshit from Trump.]
[…] In another recent message to participants, communications adviser Mary Vought advised them to respond to questions about the project saying it is not partisan and not affiliated with any candidate. [LOL] “If asked during a media interview, you can use these points to pivot,” she wrote. […]
Ok, now I’m interested. But it’s still modification of acetate for terrestrial life (glycine polypeptide backbone: acetate + nitrogen. Purine biosynthesis: ribose phosphate + nitrogen=phosphoribosylamide + glycine)
“Generation of long-chain fatty acids by hydrogen-driven bicarbonate reduction in ancient alkaline hydrothermal vents” https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-023-01196-4
Biology attached a 2C and a 3C (acetate, malonate) to extend chains. But this chemistry is about adding single carbons. And modern membranes could recreate things that were available. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer%E2%80%93Tropsch_process
Now this all ends up as hydrogen on carbon only, hydrocarbons (aside from the carboxy end) leaving me to wonder about the source of carbohydrates (carbon and water, hydroxals). Glycolysis looks interesting because from the perspective of the 3C the pathway can be about adding and moving around hydroxals.
To add to biology making membranes, the fatty acid is made by adding a 2C and a 3C, with the loss of a 1C, resulting in an extension of 2.
birgerjohanssonsays
Tories Really Did Lie About the Finances
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=cNg6maFCoTs
The sad bit is, the tories will deny it despite the evidence, and the tory-supporting media will help in the cover-up. It is like Fox News.
Faster than Light Particles Could Exist After All, New Study Says
I think the technical term for this is ‘clickbait’. IMO, Hossenfelder has jumped her own personal shark. She always had good delivery, and made many interesting physics presentations. But now she just seems to go for what’s ‘sexy’. I read the paper she based this on, and as with all such highly speculative papers, the take-home is at the end, with the ‘much work remains to be done’ punchline.
Sci-fi fanbois and fangrls love it, of course. Someone might even pop in with one of [insert idiot sci-fi author]’s ‘laws’ which they think lends credence to the horseshit.
I got the last one from Phys.org and they rarely have clickbait.
There was also news about yet another wasteful Russian attack getting repelled but that is like saying it rains in England.
Rob Grigjanissays
birger @349: The papers themselves aren’t clickbait. The posts hyping the papers are.
StevoRsays
Didn’t see it myself but seems some Aussies In Tassie and Victoria got another speccy aurora last night :
/A dressing-down shouting “What’s the first rule of Project 2025?!”
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
* reenacted
beholdersays
@318 StevoR
some of the things you’ve written make me suspect you are a tankie supporting Putin and Russia.
That you use the term “tankie” seriously means I shouldn’t take you seriously. Noted.
Of course, there’s also the role Putin has played in interfering with previous American elections supporting Trump and using him as a puppet.
I don’t subscribe to the Russiagate conspiracy theory. You’ve apparently latched on and taken it so far as to claim Trump is “a puppet”, which is pure brainworms. Nothing about Trump’s actions towards Russia during his time as president even remotely suggests Russia was secretly controlling him and expecting a favorable outcome. What actually happened is rather the opposite.
Can you really not distinguish between Biden then – & now Harris fro the future – objecting to some of what Israel is doing and calling for restraint and threateneing even carryting out some consequecnes against them even if we’d liekt hem to do alot more
Vs
Trump and the Repugs cheering on and whole-heartedly endorsing a genocide and even using the very word “Palestinian” as a slur?
The outcomes are identical. Biden has raised it to the level of genocide, which makes moral comparisons between genociders nonsensical.
You’re asking me to distinguish between a genocider selling the idea to his base, versus a presumptive genocider selling the idea to his base. Clearly you feel Biden has justified a genocide sufficiently for your moral system, which only tells me I shouldn’t touch your moral system with a ten-foot pole.
John Moralessays
The outcomes are identical.
What a remarkably stupid claim.
You can’t know the outcome of a counterfactual administration’s actions.
(So idiotic!)
StevoRsays
Ismail Haniyeh, main Hamas leader killed inTehran – likely to have pretty severe consequences incl ending any chance of ceasefire anytime soon & potential for major regional escalation :
The Palestinian militant group Hamas has released a statement saying its top political leader Ismail Haniyeh has been killed in Iran.
In the statement, the group mourned the death of Haniyeh, and pointed the finger of blame at Israel, saying he was killed in “a treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran”.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard also released a statement saying Haniyeh was “assassinated” but gave no details on how.
WaPo:
Trump suggests Harris would struggle with world leaders based on her appearance
“She’ll be like a play toy,” Trump said in a Fox News interview with Laura Ingraham, a portion of which aired on Tuesday night. “They look at her and they say, ‘We can’t believe we got so lucky.’ They’re going to walk all over her.”
Trump then turned to look directly at the camera and added: “And I don’t want to say as to why. But a lot of people understand it.”
Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said he was not referring to race or gender…..
Bekenstein Boundsays
KG@317:
I have no idea what you are trying to say.
Neither does he.
SC@319:
What’s with the two “[sic]”s? Neither occurrence of the word “livestock” is misspelled.
Lynna@329:
Their constant whining about fairness
A perennial refrain from privileged dickheads with aggrieved entitlement. “No fair scoring a point against me! The game’s supposed to be rigged in my favor!”
Lynna@335:
I’m not saying they’re purposely cribbing from the incel boards
They’re not — it’s only cribbing if you’re copying from somebody else.
Lynna@341:
Trump has told advisers in the past he did not want a transition because he was superstitious and had not won yet.
Yet elsewhere he’s been bragging that the fix is in. Guy has no consistent position on anything, other than “Trump good, everything else bad”.
birgerjohansson@344:
Tories Really Did Lie
And somebody was surprised?
beholder@354:
Nothing about Trump’s actions towards Russia during his time as president even remotely suggests Russia was secretly controlling him and expecting a favorable outcome.
Oh really? I seem to recall allll the way back in like June or July of 2016 Don Jr. got together with a bunch of other Trump campaign people and three Russian agents in a hotel room and basically agreed on a deal where Russia would support Trump if Trump would repeal the Magnitsky sanctions. Subsequently, Russia hacked the Podesta emails and released them publicly, and as soon as Trump was installed in office he tried to repeal the Magnitsky sanctions (but was overruled by Congress, despite the GOP majority there).
Then there was his attempt to withhold military aid to Ukraine, his unheard-of act of sometimes meeting with Putin alone (no US translators or State Department people recording, no SS detail, nor their Russian counterparts, just the two of them).
Not to mention his ongoing opposition to Ukraine aid since the start of the overt war in 2022. Or his professed love for Putin. Or numerous pro-Russia and anti-Ukraine statements made both before and after the American people, on Nov. 3 2020, collectively told him “you’re fired!” …
StevoR@356:
Ismail Haniyeh, main Hamas leader killed in Tehran
So, we’re now at the part where Palpatine has Vader behead Dooku. If that’s the case, the end of democracy in Israel can’t be very far behind, and an Order 66 night of the long knives to purge moderates from Likud and wipe out dissident leaders …
Oh, and of course Iran has now been drawn into the war, and Iran has Russian backing. So now it’s a proxy war between Russia and the US — we have Vietnam all over again. Only this time the proxies are also armed with nuclear weapons.
What could possibly go wrong?
tomh@357:
Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said he was not referring to race or gender.
Then what on Ear…oh, wait, you said “Trump campaign spokeswoman”. So these must be what are known in Trump campaign spokeswoman circles as “alternative facts”. Now it makes sense.
Silentbobsays
@346 Grigjanis
From your position of self-declared smartness, could you clarify which SF authors are “idiots”? We could all use a laugh, smartguy.
John Moralessays
Silentbob, the set of candidates is rather limited.
“… one of [insert idiot sci-fi author]’s ‘laws’ …” indicates it has to be one with whom at least one ‘law’ is associated.
Me, I reckon it’s a reference to either Clarke or Asimov, each of whom has these laws.
(Pretty sure he was not referring to Sturgeon’s law, which I reckon is rather understated)
John Moralessays
BTW, bob, nice to see you’re making an effort to try to not try to harass me.
@354. beholder : “That you use the term “tankie” seriously means I shouldn’t take you seriously. Noted.”
So is that your way of admitting you are, in fact, a tankie? You think pro-Putin people who support Russia’s genocide of Ukraine are okay and make valid points? Those being _____ ?
Your continued failure to give a direct answer to the question of whether or not you support Russia’s homophobic, murderous genocidaire dictator is again noted.
I don’t subscribe to the Russiagate conspiracy theory.
Trump’s links with Putin and his admiration of the man and appeasement and siding with him are hardly “Conspiracy” but rather established fact and common knowledge at this point. I guess you’re going to ignore all the well known evidence available here :
The outcomes are identical. Biden has raised it to the level of genocide, which makes moral comparisons between genociders nonsensical.
Again, Beholder, you are totally wrong here. You are blaming Biden for what Netanyahu has done and is doing. Ignoring the indisputable fact that Trump would be far worse and show much less reluctance and restraint in his support for Israel against Gaza. Netanyahu is committing a plausible genocide – to use the words of the ICJ. Yes, Biden is supporting Israel and is somewhat complicit, sure but Biden and the Democratic party aren’t the ones doing it and are trying, however unsuccessfully, to stop it and get a ceasefire. Trump wants the genocide finished quicker and shows no ethical qualms whatsoever about it – or anything else. The Republiklans are openly in favour of wiping out the palestnians entirely and are fanatically islamophobic -recallteh muslim ban – and they view Biden and the Dems as far too sympathetic to and soft on the Palestinians. They want a brutal racist crackdown on the pro-Palestinian protesters just as they do against Black Lives Matter protesters.
There is some hope and growing hope of the Democratic party putting increasing pressure on Israel to stop and be reigned in and made at least somewhat accountable internationally. There is some hope of a Two state solution under a Harris presidency. There is NO hope whatsoever of a Trump regime doing that. These positions and prospects are very much NOT the same. Not remotely.
Again, to think you have the gall to accuse me of not seeing complexities and being binary here.
You’re asking me to distinguish between a genocider selling the idea to his base, versus a presumptive genocider selling the idea to his base. Clearly you feel Biden has justified a genocide sufficiently for your moral system, which only tells me I shouldn’t touch your moral system with a ten-foot pole.
No, I don’t think Biden has justified a genocide. I disagree with Biden’s position here and wish he and the Dems would go much further in forcing a ceasefire although I’m also realistic enough to know that after October 7th any POTUS would’ve thrown their full support behind Israel – and Trump would’ve been far worse in this regard than Biden or Harris .
Do you support the genocide of Ukraine by Putin? Are you going to ignore the fact that with Putin’s puppet Trump in charge we’ll get two genocides not just one? What a hypocrite and binary thinker you are. You target and demonise only Biden and ignore the alternative and political realities and are just beyond contempt here really. Beholder the Putin supporter.
birgerjohanssonsays
The last nine years have delivered much material for satire and for late-night TV hosts. But I look forward to USA getting far more boring, like after Dubya left. Or like Britain has been the last four weeks.
“She’ll be like a play toy,” Trump — who has a history of using sexist attacks and stereotypes in campaigns against women — said in a Fox News interview with Laura Ingraham, a portion of which aired on Tuesday night. “They look at her and they say, ‘We can’t believe we got so lucky.’ They’re going to walk all over her.”
Trump then turned to look directly at the camera and added: “And I don’t want to say as to why. But a lot of people understand it.”
Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said he was not referring to race or gender and went on to criticize Harris over her record on immigration and other Biden administration policies.
It’s easy to see how this happened. One of his campaign advisors told him that it would be bad for him to directly say Harris would be a bad president because she is a woman. So Trump is being indirect and subtle.
StevoRsays
Easily overlooked but light pollution is literally costing us the stars.
Last summer, astronomer Brad Tucker took a bunch of US university students outside to look at the night sky.
As they gazed up, Dr Tucker was asked to point out the Milky Way — that broad swathe of bright stars, comprising our galaxy, that crosses the sky.
He was surprised by the request because these were astronomy students.
“It’s not that they didn’t know what the Milky Way was,” Dr Tucker said.
“They had just never seen it.”
The students, from Portland, Oregon, were amazed to finally set eyes on the Milky Way in real life. …
Asteroid Didymos is young – just a dozen million years old and its tiny moon Dimorphis is even younger at just 0.3 million years. The dinosaurs could not have seen either space rock – even if they had telescopes because they didn’t yet exist and the asteroid moonlet whose orbit our spacecraft changed the last year has existed for only about half as long as our species has.
The findings helped Barnouin and colleagues determine that Dimorphos likely formed from material flung away from Didymos and then clumped together under the influence of gravity.
The team used the number of craters on both asteroids to gauge the ages of the two asteroids. they determined that the parent body Didymos is 12.5 million years old, between 40 to 130 times older than Dimorphos. They estimated the age of the moonlet to be around 0.3 million years.
whheydtsays
Re: John Morales @ #360…
Sturgeon’s Law may be recursive.
birgerjohanssonsays
The last week Keanu Reeves turned 63 while Wesley Snipes turned 62. My generation are all getting old…
whheydtsays
Re: birgerjohansson @ #369…
Earlier this month, my son turned 50. What was that about getting old?
Arguably the most notable result in Arizona’s primary contests was further down the ballot: Stephen Richer lost his re-election bid for Maricopa County recorder, losing to a right-wing primary rival. Local Republicans punished Richer for telling them accurate information about the 2020 election results that they didn’t want to hear.
Other campaign news:
– When the Democratic National Committee holds its virtual roll call, Harris will be the only name on the ballot. No other candidates qualified.
Kamala Harris will be the only candidate on the Democratic National Committee’s virtual roll call ballot for president, cementing her status as the party’s all-but-certain nominee.
Convention delegates will begin voting on Harris’ nomination on Thursday and finish by Aug. 5, according to a statement released by the DNC Tuesday night. The vice president secured support from 3,923 delegates to appear on the virtual ballot. […] Politico link
The Harris campaign says she will take the stage, with her pick for vice president, in Philadelphia on Tuesday. So, I guess we will know then who her running mate is.
News summarized by Steve Benen from a Bloomberg article:
Before President Joe Biden ended his re-election bid, a Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll found Donald Trump ahead in each of the nation’s most competitive battleground states. A new Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll, however, shows Harris leading Trump, 48% to 47%, across these seven states.
[…] A Trump campaign spokesperson told the Post the Republican nominee wasn’t referring to race or gender, and if you believe that, I have a lovely Trump University seminar I’d love to sell you.
The obvious problem with the former president’s comments was that they were overtly offensive in ways even he should be able to understand. But there are plenty of less obvious problems, too.
For one thing, Harris has spent the last four years in national office, meeting with international officials and leaving no doubt that she’s a force to be reckoned with. For another, if Trump is so convinced that international leaders will walk all over the Democrat, perhaps he could explain why he’s so afraid to share a debate stage with her.
But perhaps most important is the degree to which Trump keeps failing tests of self-awareness.
Indeed, if he’s looking for an American leader who wasn’t taken seriously abroad, Trump probably ought to find a mirror. In 2018, for example, he addressed the United Nations general assembly, where foreign diplomats literally laughed at him. China’s state-run media routinely characterized Trump — during his presidency — as a bumbling fool who had a habit of slapping himself in the face.
Even U.S. allies quietly conceded that they perceived the then-president as an intemperate child with a short attention span.
Let’s also not forget about a 2019 international gathering in which Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, French President Emmanuel Macron, and the U.K.’s Boris Johnson were overheard mocking Trump, treating him like a punch-line to a joke they found rather exasperating.
Russia’s Vladimir Putin was more reluctant to ridicule Trump in public, but that’s only because he enjoyed walking all over the Republican and didn’t feel the need to put that advantage at risk.
All of which is to say, Trump’s latest line of attack isn’t just ugly, and it isn’t just wrong. It’s also the latest example of the former president engaging in projection.
Donald Trump seems determined to convince voters that Vice President Kamala Harris is antisemitic. She’s not, and the former president’s attacks are as ugly as they are false, but Trump appears preoccupied with pushing this line anyway.
During a speech last week, for example, the GOP nominee falsely said his likely Democratic rival is “totally against the Jewish people” — a curious claim about someone who’s married to a Jewish person — and as the Associated Press reported, Trump went even further yesterday.
[…] Trump in an interview on Tuesday claimed Vice President Kamala Harris, who is married to a Jewish man, “doesn’t like Jewish people” and seemed to agree with a radio host who called second gentleman Doug Emhoff “a crappy Jew.”
The former president seemed quite worked up on the issue, ranting that Harris dislikes both Israel and Jews — it’s something “everybody knows,” Trump said, reality notwithstanding — while adding that Jewish voters are “fools” to vote Democratic.
The radio host, Sid Rosenberg, proceeded to say that Harris’ Jewish husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, is “a crappy Jew” and “a horrible Jew.”
And while Trump didn’t use those words himself, as an audio clip makes clear, he seemed to agree with the condemnations.
A Politico report described the comments as “bizarre.” A press statement from the Harris campaign, not surprisingly, went much further, describing the on-air exchange as “disgusting” and adding, “America is better than the fear, hate, and despicable insults of Donald Trump.”
At this point, we could spend a few paragraphs talking about how wrong the Republican’s attack is. We could also highlight the fact that Trump hasn’t even tried to substantiate his absurdities with evidence.
But as important as those points are, I’m struck by a larger point: Trump apparently believes he has credibility when it comes to antisemitism, but he really doesn’t.
[…] the GOP nominee invoked a familiar dual loyalty trope by claiming that Jewish voters who support Democrats hate Israel. To put it mildly, Jewish Democrats in Congress were not impressed.
An Axios report quoted Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, for example, saying, “Trump demonstrates daily his lack of fitness for the presidency by spreading dangerous stereotypes and embracing antisemites.” Rep. Kathy Manning of North Carolina added that the former president’s rhetoric is “particularly disgraceful and dangerous at a time when Jews are facing dangerous levels of antisemitism nationwide.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland issued an especially pointed response, noting, “Luckily I don’t know any Jews who look to Donald Trump for advice on how to be Jewish. After all, this is the guy who saw ‘very fine people on both sides’ of an antisemitic riot and entertained the neo-Nazi Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes over at his house at Mar-a-Lago for dinner.”
[…] In the closing days of the 2016campaign, Trump again faced accusations of antisemitism, claiming Hillary Clinton met “in secret with international banks to plot the destruction of U.S. sovereignty in order to enrich these global financial powers.”
While in office, the then-president used some highly provocative rhetoric about Jews and what he expected about their “loyalties.” Trump also spoke at the Israeli American Council’s national summit, where he suggested Jewish people are primarily focused on wealth, which is why he expected them to support his re-election campaign.
There was also his ugly reaction to a racist event in Charlottesville in 2017, in response to torch-wielding bigots chanting, “Jews will not replace us.”
After his defeat, Trump kept this going, whining that Jewish voters “don’t love Israel enough,” dining with prominent antisemites at Mar-a-Lago and arguing that Jews need to “get their act together” and “appreciate” Israel “before it is too late.”
In late 2022, the former president went so far as to declare that Jewish leaders “should be ashamed of themselves” over their “lack of loyalty.” Around the same time, he added to the list, using related rhetoric about Jews with a documentary filmmaker.
In his earlier campaigns, Trump has struggled badly with Jewish voters. If he thinks lying about Harris will change that, the Republican probably ought to lower his expectations.
Re: JM 365
““She’ll be like a play toy,” Trump — who has a history of using sexist attacks and stereotypes in campaigns against women — said in a Fox News interview with Laura Ingraham, a portion of which aired on Tuesday night. “They look at her and they say, ‘We can’t believe we got so lucky.’ They’re going to walk all over her.”
Trump then turned to look directly at the camera and added: “And I don’t want to say as to why. But a lot of people understand it.””
Trump is also susceptible to mockery and dismissal based on implied, unstated physical or behavioral characteristics. The only thing protecting him is the people he surrounds him with. The ones that would prevent such a challenge left open in terms of content by his implied words are all over the place.
I would performatively take up such mockery as an object example if I were allowed access and Trump would whine, showing his own weakness. Remember the reporter(s) who asked Trump where he got some information? He collapses into “how dare you” like my parents. Yes, I would temporarily abandon my disuse of such mockery and dismissal as a lesson.
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., on Wednesday went after former President Donald Trump over his role in sinking a bipartisan Senate bill as the former president seeks to cast Vice President Kamala Harris as a “border czar” [not real, does not exist] who failed to secure the border amid record increases of migrant crossings.
Commentary:
[…] “This was not meeting the Republicans on the 50-yard line, this was meeting them on the 10-yard line,” the Arizona Democrat said during an appearance on MSNBC.
“On their side of the field, we realized, we’ve got to get operational control over the border. I realized this, Kamala Harris realizes this, and this legislation was going to do that,” Senator Mark Kelly added. “And our goal here was to get this legislation passed and then start working on comprehensive immigration reform. But this was stopped dead in its tracks by Donald Trump because he wanted to have this as an election issue. Like a lot of other Republicans, they don’t actually want to solve this problem.”
[…] whether Kelly makes Harris’ 2024 ticket or not, the point he emphasized this morning deserves to be at the center of the public conversation: Every time Trump and Republicans reference conditions at the border, they should be reminded of the fact that they, at the former president’s behest, rejected a conservative border reform package — twice — that they co-authored and requested.
[…] The Harris campaign released a new video via social media this morning highlighting a variety of instances in which Republicans have conceded that the Democratic claim is true. [Video available at the link, 1:35 minutes long. It’s a good one.]
The video didn’t include Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, but the Kentucky Republican said largely the same thing in April.
Kelly helped put all of this in the spotlight this morning, and no one should be surprised when other Democrats do the same thing every time Trump brings up the border between now and Election Day 2024.
Attorney General Merrick Garland told NBC News he disagreed with U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s recent ruling that his appointment of special counsel Jack Smith was unconstitutional. “I picked this room for this interview. This is my favorite room in the Justice Department. It’s a law library. For more than 20 years, I was a federal judge,” Garland said. “Do I look like somebody who would make that basic mistake about the law? I don’t think so.”
Re: “weird”
Excellent! We’re acting like “dog whistles” aren’t just bad things, but part of human nature with good and bad uses.
A subset of group specific implied information.
Similar to gossip and politics itself. I can’t imagine how we deal with a general human behavior problem without accepting the general instincts to control them. You lock away your own instinct instead of controlling it as yours, and it doesn’t just disappear.
Or you end up like the people who unthinkingly do it as a matter of course while denying it and socially disparaging it as bad. I imagine that comes with lots of flaws.
birgerjohanssonsays
0 days since… http://youtube.com/post/UgkxR5gvUgDMUC6sPyN1HuvxM9MM6cfQ9pkU
.
Not related. Archaeologists just found a 5000 year old clay figurine in the Åland achipelago near Finland. Even if yersina pestis killed most of the early farmers, we still carry part of their heritage in our genes (along with the Yamnaya people who arrived later).
-Admittedly, the aborigines in parts of Australia have beaten us Europeans in terms of cultural continuity by an order of magnitude.
birgerjohanssonsays
(I approve of this debunking. There are aspects of nuclear power that need debate, but this one is BS)
Sabine Hossenfelder :
“Small modular reactor fuel *could be used to build nuclear bomb, experts say”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=dwL0XX0qEAI
* Nope. Not very likely. In fact, this was debated in Sweden back in the 1960s.
CHICAGO — Donald Trump on Wednesday berated a Black reporter who pressed him about past offensive comments and accused his opponent, Vice President Harris, of downplaying Black heritage she routinely highlights as a sit-down meant to showcase Trump’s outreach to voters of color immediately turned hostile.
ABC News’ Rachel Scott began the Q&A session at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago by noting — among other comments — Trump’s insults toward Black prosecutors, his repeated false claims that America’s first Black president was born in Africa and his comments that four congresswomen who are racial minorities should “go back” to the places they came from.
“Why should Black voters trust you after you have used language like that?” Scott said.
“Well first of all, I don’t think I’ve ever been asked a question in such a horrible manner,” Trump said, calling the interview “disgraceful” and criticizing a “rude introduction.” He alleged he was invited under a “false pretense” because he had expected his opponent to be there as well and criticized the organizers for starting late.
“I love the Black population of this country, I’ve done so much for the Black population of this country,” he said.
[…]
Trump claimed Harris used to only promote her Indian heritage — even though, as a moderator pointed out, she was part of a historically Black sorority and embraced her Black identity in many ways.
“I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black. So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?” Later he said “she was Indian all the way” but then “became a Black person.”
“I think somebody should look into that too,” he said, speaking over his questioner. He continued his frequent mispronunciations of Harris’s first name, which many have called disrespectful.
The remarkable scene came as Trump and Harris were both set to court Black voters on Wednesday. Democrats hope their new candidate can re-energize their most reliable constituency and prevent the GOP from making gains.
Trump’s itinerary on Wednesday reflects his continued hopes to chip away at Democrats’ traditional dominance with Black Americans. But it also underscored the resistance he is facing — largely due to his own public comments. His plans for a Q&A at the National Association of Black Journalists convention immediately drew backlash from some members and that one former White House correspondent called a “slap in the face.”
“False. False. False!” one attendee yelled out, as Trump falsely asserted that undocumented immigrants arriving to the U.S. are “taking votes away from all of the people in this room.”
“You just lie!” one audience member said.
Trump is also holding a rally Wednesday night in Harrisburg, Pa.
[…]
Donald Trump spoke to the National Association of Black Journalists Wednesday, in a move rife with controversy. Trump exceeded expectations that he’d say something horrific again and again—particularly when asked whether or not he considered his likely Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, to be a “DEI hire.” The Republican nominee replied with a stream of jaw-dropping racism that should be immediately disqualifying.
Trump began by asking ABC’s Rachel Scott to define DEI—Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. When she did just that, Trump repeatedly insisted, “You have to define it.” Finally, Scott stopped allowing Trump to dodge the heart of the issue.
Scott: Do you believe Kamala Harris is only on the ticket because she is a Black woman?
Trump: Well, I can say now I think, maybe, it’s a little bit different. So, I’ve known her a long time indirectly, not directly, and she was always of Indian heritage. And she was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black.
But it got so much worse. [video at the link]
Trump: Now she wants to be known as Black. I don’t know. Is she Indian, or is she Black?
Scott: She has always identified herself as a Black woman and went to a historically Black college.
Trump: I respect either one, but she obviously doesn’t. Because she was Indian all the way, then all of a sudden she made a turn and she went—she became a Black person.
To get the full sneering, disrespectful effect, you have to watch the video.
Harris faces scrutiny for her diverse heritage, and not just from the right. Trump’s attacks on her at Wednesday’s event were particularly egregious, even for him.
The media has done a great job overlooking Trump’s statements and cherry-picking one reasonable thing he said out of a pile of excrement proves he’s a changed man. But they’re really going to have a hard time with this one.
In fact, they already are.
Aaron Rupar:
lol even Fox News is dumbfounded by Trump’s showing at NABJ
On Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris appeared at a large, boisterous, and joyful rally in Atlanta where she challenged Donald Trump over his refusal to debate.
Since Harris took center stage as the likely Democratic nominee, Trump has repeatedly tried to weasel out of meeting her in a debate. At first, Trump’s excuse was that Harris hadn’t secured the endorsement of Barack Obama, but when that endorsement came only a few hours later, Trump still didn’t agree to face off with Harris. Trump continued to backpedal in interviews this week, demonstrating his obvious fear.
Harris went straight at Trump’s cowardice in Atlanta. “Well, Donald,” she began, before pausing to smile as the crowd cheered. “I do hope you’ll reconsider to meet me on the debate stage. Because, as the saying goes, if you’ve got something to say, say it to my face!” [video at the link]
A capacity crowd estimated at 10,000 joined Harris at the Georgia State Convention Center. Before the event, people reportedly waited hours in 90-degree heat in a line that wrapped around the building.
Once that crowd got inside, the level of noise and enthusiasm was at times overwhelming. Attendees laughed, cheered, and danced to music from Quavo and Megan Thee Stallion; applauded speeches from Georgia politicians including Stacey Abrams, Sen. Raphael Warnock, and Sen. Jon Ossoff; and gave Vice President Harris a raucous welcome. It was all a huge challenge to the MAGA mythology that only Trump can draw large crowds to a political rally. [Awesome]
Harris challenged Trump directly, not just over his refusal to debate, but over the policy that’s at the heart of Trump’s fearful, downbeat campaign.
“Donald Trump does not care about border security, he only cares about himself,” Harris said. “When I am president, I will work to actually solve the problem. As president, I will bring back the border security bill that Donald Trump killed, and I will sign it into law and show Donald Trump what real leadership looks like.”
Trump is slated to be at the same venue next week along with running mate JD Vance. That should make for some interesting comparisons.
Meanwhile, Harris is scheduled to make a tour of battleground states next week, accompanied by her soon-to-be announced running mate. Stops are planned in at least six states. If all those events are as energized as the rally in Atlanta, it’s going to be an incredible week. [another video at the link]
Maddow points out frightening truth about Trump’s lack of concern about votes. 70 Republican election-deniers are already in place in swing states. Maddow doesn’t fully spell it out, but presumably the idea is to block certification of votes and hence deny the Democrats enough electoral college votes to win even if they take all the swing states. As I understand it, this would punt the choice of president to the House, where each state would get one vote, determined by the majority of representatives from that state. Putting Trump back in the White House even if he would have lost the electoral college if votes were certified as they should be.
JMsays
@384 tomh & @385 Lynna, OM
It’s also important to note that this was supposed to be an hour long question and answer. Trump’s team shut it down half way through, realizing he was doing terribly and getting worse.
Trump’s team obviously that Trump would get some level of automatic respect and get softball questions. Otherwise why go to this event in front of a neutral at best crowd. From the start of the QA part he got pretty rough questions and couldn’t handle it.
This follows his pattern, he has had trouble even on Fox news when given softball questions. When in a more aggressive interview he has generally done poorly. Hit with actually aggressive questions he just came apart and didn’t know how to answer.
[…] Let’s flash back to the 2020 Olympics, which happened in 2021 because of COVID.
Charlie Kirk […] called Biles a “selfish sociopath” and a “shame to the country.” He [complained] that “we are raising a generation of weak people like Simone Biles.”
And then there was JD Vance, that paragon of achievement. Wait, did we say “achievement”? We meant to say “Peter Thiel’s money and influence.”
The DNC war room sent out a press release that reminded us of Vance’s words toward Biles at the time. It began with this statement from DNC Rapid Response Spokesperson Aida Ross:
“While the rest of the country is celebrating the USA women’s gymnastics team’s performance at the Olympics, JD Vance is facing his weakest moment amid a gaffe-filled roll-out that has left him as the most unpopular VP pick in decades. Three years ago, Vance was called out on Fox News after choosing to attack Simone Biles and saying she shouldn’t be praised for putting her health first. Today, everything the American people are learning about Vance is making it obvious that he is an out-of-touch creep who is more focused on tearing Americans down than bringing the country together – and is in no position to be talking about anyone else’s ‘weakest moments.’”
Then they brought the receipts on that repellent pig. Like when he said he preferred gymnasts who don’t have the twisties:
“We tried to turn a tragic moment, Simone Biles quitting the team, into this act of heroism,” Vance stated. “I think it reflects pretty poorly on our therapeutic society that we try to praise people not for moments of strength, not for moments of heroism, but for their weakest moments.”
The act of heroism was standing up for her own mental health, and for being humble enough to step aside from her team and let somebody else come in when she wasn’t able to be the Simone Biles they needed her to be.
And lookie there, Biles stepped away, took care of herself, came back, and look at all those gold medalists up there. The people who criticized Biles at the time were always beneath her […]
That’s why Biles — again, the GOAT, and now the most decorated Olympic gymnast of all time — just had some fun clapping back at those who called her “lazy” and “untalented.” [Biles’ post is available at the link.] (It also appears to partially be a pointed reference to comments from a former teammate, the one who replaced her on the team in Tokyo, and who is very sorry and embarrassed.)
The DNC press release goes through what an unmitigated, embarrassing disaster JD Vance has been for the Trump campaign. His creepy fixation on whether women have birthed babies, his authoritarian Christian nationalist extremism, and all the people now talking about what a huge mistake Trump made when he listened to Uday and Qusay about who to pick as his running mate, instead of listening to professionals. […]
Sigh. Once again Putin goes from really bad to even worse:
To help Make Russia Great Again, President Vladimir Putin is telling Russian women to stop getting educated, stay out of the paid workforce, reject the dangerous Western poison of feminism, and have as many babies as they can for the Motherland, because he’ll be needing the boys just as soon as they’re old enough to carry a Kalashnikov, OK? In a depressing longread published yesterday, the Washington Post examines just how far Russia is going to force women back into “traditional” roles for the supposed good of the nation.
Oh sure, there’s a little bit of a cost to women in terms of having to give up their freedom, a few human rights they didn’t need anyway, and whatever steps toward equality they’ve taken since Czarist times, but it’s all for the best, say Putin and his cronies, who are in charge, which means they must be right. And if feminists and human rights advocates complain, that means Putin was right to declare them agents of foreign influence who must be suppressed.
“Many of our grandmothers and great-grandmothers had seven or eight children, and maybe even more,” Putin declared to an audience of ultraconservative religious and political figures who had convened in the State Kremlin Palace in November. “We should preserve and revive these wonderful traditions.”
[Putin must love JD Vance.]
He said all that in Russian so nobody would mistakenly think they were listening to a Trump rally. [good point]
Russian officials have taken up the cause, the Post reports, and are urging women to have great big families, and to do so as soon as they’re 18. “Women are being told to forgo education and careers to prioritize child-rearing, even as the war in Ukraine drains men from the workforce, creating critical labor shortages.” Well look, you want factory goods, you just need to birth more babbies and in a couple decades there’ll be no more labor shortage, unless of course Vlad or his successors are still having some excellent wars.
Putin wants to defeat the corrupt West with more babies, more militarism, and more Orthodox Christianity that enforces Puritanical rules about gender roles, all of which suggests to us that American rightwingers are going to love him even more than they already do — our own culture-war weirdos want much the same:
In pursuing these sweeping changes, Putin has cast Russia as the global leader in a fight against what he considers Western debauchery, and has branded democracy advocates and other liberals as purveyors of “destructive ideology” who must be suppressed. Feminists, LGBTQ+ activists, independent journalists and political opposition figures have been designated as foreign agents, extremists or terrorists and arrested, jailed or forced to flee the country.
Women who embody the traditional image, which is constantly reinforced on state television, are being promoted to high-level positions — such as national children’s ombudswoman Maria Lvova-Belova, who has 10 children, five of them adopted. Lvova-Belova, along with Putin, was accused of war crimes by the International Criminal Court over the forced relocation of Ukrainian children.
[…] The article is full of stories of rightwing Russian women who simply can’t wait to make other Russian women conform, no matter how cartoonishly they might sound like they stepped right out of Orwell. There’s Yekaterina Mizulina, the daughter of a Russian senator, who heads up the Junior Anti-Sex League “Safe Internet League, a censorship organization.”
Mizulina’s denunciations have ruined the careers of risqué celebrities, and led to the closures of gay bars and the blocking of LGBTQ+ internet sites. Asked in an interview what she thought about feminism, she answered flatly: “I don’t think about it.” Russian women, she said, think men should come first.
“Many women in Russia feel fine if they’re deputy to someone. They don’t want to be in charge of something. This is our character,” Mizulina said. European countries made a mistake, she said, when they put women “in weird positions like minister of defense.”
Among other great steps toward restoring the patriarchy and moral order, we learn that Russia actually rolled back several domestic violence laws in 2017, because if parents can’t beat their children and men can’t beat their wives, how will you ever have a just and decent society?
Putin has even resurrected an old Soviet-era award for “Heroine Mothers” who have 10 or more children, because, as he said in a video conference to promote the awards:
Making sure Russians have “as many children as possible,” he declared, is “the underlying goal of our state policy.”
The parallels to American fundagelical ideology are scary at times; we half-expected to hear about Russian girls having to dance with their dads at “purity balls” where they would be given a ring to pledge they’ll stay virgins until they marry, but that’s still only an America thing, it seems. Give them time.
OK, we have room for maybe one more blockquote before we hurl, so here we go:
Senior officials have repeatedly hammered the message for large families and behavioral changes in women. Last July, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko attacked “the downright vicious practice” of women pursuing education and careers before childbirth. The deputy prime minister for social policy, Tatiana Golikova, in March said that the “correct” age for women to have children is 18 to 24.
“The earlier the first child is born, the earlier the second and third will be born,” Golikova said at a youth festival. […]
Margarita Pavlova, a senator from the Chelyabinsk region, in a television interview in November said: “We need to stop encouraging girls to get higher education … which then leads them nowhere.”
Why yes, this all sounds like it could come from Turning Point USA, perhaps with some boilerplate about gender studies programs added in.
The story also looks at the fetishization of military wives, who are of course 100 percent supportive of the husbands they’ve sent off happily to the “special military operation” in Ukraine, which is like the Great Patriotic War except if you call it a “war” you’ll go to prison.
Happily, there are women who are sick and tired of all this, although the Post has to protect their identity lest they too be arrested. One Moscow-area businesswoman whose husband has been fighting in Ukraine explained,
“They’re trying to create an image of a very obedient woman, like a slave.”
Women, she said, are being treated “like incubators,” even as men are dying in the war. […]
“We are in the middle of the war and they’re calling on women to give birth to children,” the businesswoman said. “Are they crazy? I’m not going to give birth to children in a war.” If Russia wins, she added, there will soon be another war.
“So why should I have babies who will live till the next war and then be killed in this next war,” she asked. “No! No way.”
[…] these are scary times in Russia, and you just know that the American Right is looking on and hoping to import much of the same poison.
The “poison” is not so much an import as it a case of cross pollination of rightwing/authoritarian/patriarchal ideologies.
A group of more than 100 Silicon Valley investors, including Mark Cuban, the TV host and NBA owner, and Reed Hastings, a co-founder of LinkedIn, launched a website in support of Kamala Harris.
A statement said vcsforkamala.org expressed support for the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee from “venture capital investors, founders and tech leaders who pledge to vote for Kamala Harris in the 2024 election”.
It added: “We spend our days looking for, investing in and supporting entrepreneurs who are building the future. We are pro-business, pro-American dream, pro-entrepreneurship, and pro-technological progress.”
[…]
The arrival of VCs for Kamala also pointed to growing rifts among the giants of Silicon Valley, where Vance worked for Peter Thiel, a leading donor to Republicans and propagator of “new right” political thought notable for its authoritarian bent.
VCs for Kamala followed Tech for Kamala, an open letter seeking contributions and orchestrated by “technology leaders and innovators”.
The Tech for Kamala letter said: “We acknowledge there are a few people in tech with very loud microphones who support a very different vision of the future. But as the names on this letter show, they do not at all represent the entire tech community.
birgerjohanssonsays
Random feel-good music
The B-52’s – Party Out of Bounds – Rock in Rio 1985
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=s2eRkB3FeJE
-Ricky Wilson would be dead just a few months after this performance.
Remember, Reagan (and the other Republicans) were indifferent to HIV until Rock Hudson died.
[…] It’s all so embarrassing now that Trump put the screws on Heritage to make the project quietly go away, and will now “I don’t know her” to the grave, as is his way.
His senior adviser Susie Wiles even issued a threatening statement to anyone at Project 2025 who might think to claim an association with him:
President Trump’s campaign has been very clear for over a year that Project 2025 had nothing to do with the campaign, did not speak for the campaign, and should not be associated with the President or the campaign in any way.
Reports of Project 2025’s demise would be greatly welcomed and should serve as notice to anyone or any group trying to misrepresent their influence with President Trump and his campaign — it will not end well for you.
Mad and desperate much?
A lot of the plan has already done what it set out to do, anyway. The Supreme Court already ended the right to abortion, and defanged government administrative agencies, and put the president above the law. All that’s missing now is a President Trump to finish up the conservative coup, this time with a staff of loyalists to ensure that he ends voting forever in a very official way. Which is not going to happen if voters keep getting reminded how horrible his policies are, and how he’s connected to this Brain Trust Think Tank of horrible people.
Also, most importantly to Trump, he wants loyalists who are loyal to him, not some other cult! According to Roger Sollenberger at The Daily Beast, Project 2025’s loyalist staffing plan has created an “ongoing power rift over staffing control for potential second Trump admin.” [LOL]
Project 2025’s self-immolation also helps Trump because only worse news can keep coming out about the creepy people behind it.
Case in point! In the latest reportage, at least five of Project 2025’s contributing scrods have histories of YEEKS OVERT racist writing and/or white supremacist activity, which USA Today’s Will Carless helpfully details. What else would you expect, from the brain trust behind Reagan’s dogwhistle “welfare queen” slur back in the ‘80s?
After all, when they say “Heritage Foundation,” there is only one heritage they mean (the white, hetero, male-dominant Christian one, of course)! If you’ve scrolled through their 922-page Project 2025 screed, one of the things you may have said to yourself was, gee, this sounds an awful lot like if a hundred David Dukes with a hundred typewriters went to Yale.
They’ve got a plan to eliminate racism … by not collecting any demographic data that might show it exists, and censoring any talk about its existence, in schools and government! What’s left of schools and government, anyway, after they eliminate the Department of Education, fire the disloyal civil servants and gut most of the agencies.
The only discrimination in the world, they say, is against white conservatives and their viewpoints. That’s the real bigotry the Office of Civil Rights should be probing! Sam Alito, Kim Davis, and Trump agree. Trump recently moaned to Time Magazine, “I think there is a definite anti-white feeling in this country and that can’t be allowed.”
So maybe it’s no surprise that the tank that’s been doing the thinking for Trump features fine people such as these?
There’s Richard Hanania, who under the name “Richard Host” wrote decades’ worth of pro-eugenics essays. Reported Huffington Post,
He expressed support for eugenics and the forced sterilization of “low IQ” people, who he argued were most often Black. He opposed “miscegenation” and “race-mixing.” And once, while arguing that Black people cannot govern themselves, he cited the neo-Nazi author of “The Turner Diaries,” the infamous novel that celebrates a future race war.
When busted, Hanania quickly disavowed his own racist sentiments in his online newsletter:
“I generally hate when people play the “mental illness” card … That said, it would be dishonest to pretend like my thinking has always been purely the result of dispassionate analysis.”
But he was quickly back to his old tricks, blogging quips like “Asians love listening to authority.” No lesser racist than punchable Nazi Richard Spencer told USA Today that Hanania hasn’t changed a bit. “I think it’s very clear that Richard is a race realist and eugenicist.”
Writing in his home from a plantation in old Virginny is failed GOP Senate candidate Corey Stewart, a champion of Confederate flags and statues who believes that slavery was not the cause of the Civil War. He’s friends with “Unite The Right” organizer Jason Kessler, reported the New York Times in a profile titled “White Nationalists Love Corey Stewart.”
There’s Michael Anton, a former senior national security official in the Trump administration and one of the 31 out of 38 authors or editors of Project 2025 with a direct connection to the Trump administration. Anton wants to end birthright citizenship, just like Trump does, so “Third World foreigners” don’t make America less “traditional”:
[…] That’s a view shared by contributing author Jason Richwine, whose PhD thesis used junk science to argue that the US should limit Hispanic immigration because Hispanics are parasites with lower IQs.
Then there’s author Stephen Moore, remember him? He was the nominee to the Fed after Herman Cain (RIP) withdrew, until his uncovered writings revealed he was a big old sexist pig. He haw-hawed in a speech about health care that the first thing Trump did as president was kick a Black family out of public housing, haw haw!
So, no wonder Trump can’t distance himself enough from his old friends. But will Project 2025 really go away, are they going to get rid of the plan they have to staff the government with a whole affirmative action program for people who love authoritarianism and think white people are the most discriminated-against people in the world?
Ha! Heritage has been working on its plan to rule for 50 years, those people and their 200-year-old ideas aren’t going anywhere. They think they’re being commanded by God, for Pete’s sake. Their project will simply reconstitute in another form, like Robert Patrick in Terminator 2. And too late anyay, we all saw the plan already! All 922 pages of it, right out there on the Internet!
But isn’t it fun to watch them furiously shaking the Etch-a-Sketch, trying to make it all go away?
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has issued an order for Iran to strike Israel directly, in retaliation for the killing in Tehran of Hamas’s leader, Ismail Haniyeh, according to three Iranian officials briefed on the order.
Iran’s leaders probably feel the need to do something but don’t want to provoke Israel or US into greater action. The assassination itself has serious consequences. The death of Haniyeh will at least get in the way of negotiations and may make any cease fire impossible. Hamas has a command structure designed to resist collapse when a few leaders are arrested or killed but how well that will work now I have no idea.
birgerjohanssonsays
SaveAFox:
‘Update on our Fasa Fasa Fox Mufasa Fox’
birgerjohanssonsays
Dang. My excuse is, it is one in the morning local time.
Britain: “Brave patriot does his bit to heal grieving community by travelling to Southport to hurl bricks at policemen” – NewsThump
The United Auto Workers has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris over Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump.
The union’s endorsement shouldn’t be surprising. UAW President Shawn Fain has been outspoken against Trump. The Detroit union also has historically supported Democrats, including President Joe Biden.
It comes after Biden withdrew his re-election bid and endorsed Harris to become the Democratic nominee against Trump.
Fain and Trump have been at odds — publicly trading remarks — since the union leader was elected early last year. Trump called for Fain to be fired during a speech earlier this month at the Republican National Convention.
The union responded with a post calling Trump a “scab and a billionaire,” continuing “that’s who he represents. We know which side we’re on. Not his.”
Quickly after Biden dropped out of the election, the UAW praised him and showed support for Harris, who walked a picket line with union members during a strike in 2019.
[…] The UAW’s endorsement is crucial for any candidate looking to secure the battleground state of Michigan, because of the UAW’s potential influence there. The Detroit-based union has roughly 370,000 active members and 580,000 retired members, many of which reside in the Midwest.
Summary of news related to Hamas, Iran, and Israel:
* In the Middle East: “Hamas’ political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed early Wednesday in the Iranian capital, according to Iran and the Palestinian militant group, both of which blamed Israel for an attack that has raised fears of spiraling conflict in the region. Haniyeh, 62, was assassinated in Tehran after he attended the inauguration ceremony for Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Hamas said.” [source: NBC News]
* On a related note: “Israel warned that no Hamas leader was safe, but the assassination of the militant group’s political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, in Iran’s capital has sent shockwaves across a region hardened by war and conflict. Not only did the strike — which Iran and Hamas have blamed on Israel — deepen fears of an all-out war in the Middle East, it has dimmed hopes for a cease-fire deal that could help wind down the catastrophic war in the Gaza Strip and ensure the release of hostages still being held there. [Netanyahu’s intention?]” [source: NBC News]
* Meanwhile, in Iran: “Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has issued an order for Iran to strike Israel directly, in retaliation for the killing in Tehran of Hamas’s leader, Ismail Haniyeh, according to three Iranian officials briefed on the order.” [source: New York Times]
The South Carolina Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that death by electrocution, firing squad or lethal injection are all legal forms of execution in the state, finding that none could be considered a cruel or unusual punishment because inmates can choose the option they consider the least painful.
Nearly 1,000 American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian children died while attending boarding schools that were set up by the U.S. government for the purpose of erasing their tribal ties and cultural practices, according to a report released on Tuesday by the Interior Department.
July is on track to see the fifth consecutive monthly drop in migrant apprehensions along the U.S.-Mexico border and the lowest level in illegal immigration there since the fall of 2020, during the Trump administration, the internal Department of Homeland Security figures show.
In early June, President Biden invoked a far-reaching presidential authority to suspend the entry of most migrants entering the U.S. illegally, effectively shutting off access to the American asylum system outside of official ports of entry.
Commentary:
[…] To help drive the point home, Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut added via social media that border crossings are now even lower “than in Trump’s last non-pandemic summer.”
A New York Times report also noted last week that while the rhetoric from Trump and his party remains the same, “the reality on the ground has recently changed.”
To be sure, conditions might yet change again, and there are a variety of factors that have contributed to the improved numbers. The bottom line, however, remains the same: To believe that “the greatest invasion in history” is underway at the U.S./Mexico border is to believe stale and discredited nonsense.
[…] Trump was in Chicago this afternoon for an event at the National Association of Black Journalists conference, where he sat for a Q&A with ABC News’ Rachel Scott, Semafor’s Kadia Goba and Fox News host Harris Faulkner. The event was disastrous for Trump, who appeared flustered, hostile and angry throughout the interview process, which his campaign, it appears, decided to cut short. Trump not only spewed some of the most racist attacks seen yet on Harris as a biracial woman, he also appeared tone deaf, defensive and downright unhinged right out of the gate, downplaying the significance of Sen. JD Vance’s role as his VP pick and extensively attacking the moderators while attempting, somewhat unsuccessfully, to dodge their questions.
Here are some of the lowlights from Trump’s racist field trip to the NABJ.
The Q&A session began with Scott asking Trump a direct and eloquent question about why Black voters should trust Trump due to his record of racist remarks and actions. It’s worth reading the question in full:
“You have pushed false claims about some of your rivals, from Nikki Haley to former President Barack Obama, saying that they were not born in the United States, which is not true. You have told four congressmen, women of color, who were American citizens, to go back to where they came from. You have used words like ‘animal’ and ‘rabbit’ to describe Black district attorneys. You’ve attacked Black journalists, calling them a ‘loser,’ saying the questions that they ask are ‘stupid and racist.’ You’ve had dinner with a white supremacist at your Mar-a-Lago resort.
“So, my question, sir, now that you are asking Black supporters to vote for you, why should Black voters trust you after you have used language like that?”
Trump responded belligerently.
“Well, first of all, I don’t think I’ve ever been asked a question in such a horrible manner, a first question. You don’t even say hello. Who are you? Are you with ABC? Because I think they’re a fake news network. A terrible network,” Trump began.
“I think it’s disgraceful that I came here in good spirit. I love the Black population of this country, I’ve done so much for the Black population of this country,” he said, a line he attempted to push throughout the interview sans evidence.
Arguably the most racist remarks from Trump came in response to another question posed by Scott. She asked Trump if he thinks his supporters and some Republicans on the Hill calling Harris a “DEI hire” is acceptable, and whether he would tell them to stop using that language.
Trump started off with a seeming misdirection, asking Scott to define DEI.
“Diversity, equity and inclusion,” Scott told Trump.
“Give me a definition,” Trump kept repeating, to which Scott responded, “I just defined it, sir. Do you believe that Vice President Kamala Harris is only on the ticket because she is a Black woman?”
“Well I can say maybe it is a little bit different,” Trump said. “She was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago, when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black. So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?”
“I respect either one, but she obviously doesn’t,” Trump added. “Because she was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden, she made a turn and she went … she became a Black person.”
Trump was later asked by Faulkner what his message was to the audience of Black journalists who were attending the conference.
“My message is to stop people from invading our country that are taking, frankly, a lot of problems with it, but one of the big problems … coming from the border are millions and millions of people that happened to be taking Black jobs.”
“What exactly is a Black job sir?” Scott jumped in to ask.
“A Black job is anybody that has a job,” Trump said. “That’s what it is. Anybody that has a job.”
Donald Trump’s campaign is desperately trying to clean up his latest mess after he bombed Wednesday while speaking to the National Association of Black Journalists Wednesday.
In a racist tirade, Trump accused Vice President Kamala Harris of playing cynical games with her heritage. [see details in previous comments]
The campaign knew it was a disaster before it was even over. What was supposed to be an hour-long question-and-answer session was abruptly cut short by Trump’s campaign after just 34 minutes—“an indication of how much of a train wreck it was for him,” tweeted Axios reporter Sophia Cai, “and also how good the questioning was.”
Trump came out of the event on defense.
“The questions were Rude and Nasty, often in the form of a statement, but we CRUSHED IT!” Trump posted on social media. [JFC, that’s several lies in one sentence.]
The campaign immediately started spinning, issuing a statement blasting “Liberal Mainstream Media Malpractice” and the “unhinged and unprofessional” journalists and their “biased and rude treatment from certain hostile members of the media” acting out their “fake outrage.”
Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, tried to spin the disaster by painting Trump as valiant.
“President Trump walked right into the NABJ conference and showed he had the courage to take tough questions, while Kamala Harris continues to hide from any scrutiny or unfriendly media like the coward she is,” he tweeted.
The only courage on display during those 34 minutes came from ABC’s Rachel Scott, who moderated the event.
The Harris campaign responded quickly with a statement as well.
“The hostility Donald Trump showed on stage today is the same hostility he has shown throughout his life, throughout his term in office, and throughout his campaign,” communications director Michael Tyler said.
“Trump lobbed personal attacks and insults at Black journalists the same way he did throughout his presidency—while he failed Black families and left the entire country digging out of the ditch he left us in,” he continued. “Donald Trump has already proven he cannot unite America, so he attempts to divide us.”
The blatant racism on display was shocking but not surprising to anyone who’s watched Trump’s political career. He rode to political prominence in 2011 by leading the “birther” conspiracy against then-President Barack Obama […]
This is who he is. His campaign can’t control him, they can’t fight 78 years worth of poison in him. That’s on full display in the 11-minute supercut compiled by journalist Aaron Rupar: [video at the link]
That Trump could lose to a woman who is both Black and South Asian might just break him.
The hardline approach Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito takes usually gets him what he wants.
This year it backfired.
Behind the scenes, the conservative justice sought to put a thumb on the scale for states trying to restrict how social media companies filter content. His tactics could have led to a major change in how platforms operate.
Twice in the last term of the court Alito was positioned to write a majority decision after the court had made an initial vote. In both he managed to split the conservative majority, leading to a more liberal decision. He seems to have been too activist, going beyond what the court was asked to decide to laying out something conservatives wanted as a general principle.
It’s also very interesting to ask who leaked this information. It’s unlikely that anybody outside the judges and their law clerks would have this information. It obviously makes Alito look bad but the liberal judges on the Supreme Court don’t seem the type to do this. It looks more like one of the conservative judges is trying to get Alito to act more carefully.
Bekenstein Boundsays
Desperate to take back the slimelight from running mate Vance, Trump attends a Black journalism press event and steps on all the rakes:
May these two goad each other into losing ever more of the Midwestern moderate voters that handed Trump the Oval Office in 2016, then lose the election, and then get a room already.
Lynna@403:
Nearly 1,000 American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian children died while attending boarding schools that were set up by the U.S. government for the purpose of erasing their tribal ties and cultural practices
That will be the tip of the iceberg. The real number is likely in the five or six figures. So maybe “humanity” (if I may use that term loosely) deserves what’s apparently about to happen to it, about which more anon.
Shorter summary of news related to Hamas, Iran, and Israel:
* In the Middle East: Oh no WTF what were they thinking?!
* On a related note: Oh fuck no oh nononononono!
* Meanwhile, in Iran: Oh hell, oh shit, we’re all about to die!
Welp. So much for the 2024 election mattering. If Iran’s centrifuge program managed to scrounge up the material to make so much as a satchel nuke, by November there might not be a habitable planet orbiting Sol to hold the election on.
KGsays
the assassination of the militant group’s political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, in Iran’s capital has sent shockwaves across a region hardened by war and conflict. Not only did the strike — which Iran and Hamas have blamed on Israel — deepen fears of an all-out war in the Middle East, it has dimmed hopes for a cease-fire deal that could help wind down the catastrophic war in the Gaza Strip and ensure the release of hostages still being held there. [Netanyahu’s intention?]” – Lynna, OM@401, quoting NBC News
Yes of course that’s Netanyahu’s intention. All this drivel about “hopes for a cease-fire deal” from MSM sources is absurd misinformation – if not disinformation. Netanyahu has absolutely no intention of allowing peace to break out – if it does, he’ll likely be out of power and on his way to jail for corruption – and Biden has simply enabled his genocidal slaughter and torture of Gazan civilians to continue unabated for approaching a year.
Bekenstein Boundsays
Haniyeh was the Dooku to Netanyahu’s Palpatine: they both needed each other to boost their own power, but in the end Dooku was demoted to “just idiot”.
I don’t know how to fix it now, short of fomenting a coup in Israel … though maybe withholding all US military aid would grind the genocidal “war” to a halt and buy time for a more permanent solution.
John Moralessays
Haniyeh was the Dooku to Netanyahu’s Palpatine: they both needed each other to boost their own power, but in the end Dooku was demoted to “just idiot”.
So weak!
A feeble reference to a pop cultural thing that failed back in the day.
I don’t know how to fix it now, short of fomenting a coup in Israel
Well, duh.
Use the force!
John Moralessays
First movie was good, second was ok, third was passable.
what do they want, and what do they think they can achieve? On paper, they’re super clear. Hezbollah, Hamas—both of them—they’re like, we want to destroy Israel. […] this is the sort of thing that they’re not going to really speak to you honestly about. […] it’s just mixed up with a lot of bluster.
[…]
if you look at Israel on the map, they are surrounded by enemies who are getting stronger, with the exception of Hamas. So you have Hamas in Gaza in the south of Israel. And then to the north you have Hezbollah [created, funded, and controlled by Iran]. And then […] you have the Shiite militias that have been armed by Iran in Syria and in Iraq. And then you have Iran itself. And then you have the Houthis in Yemen, who’ve been firing missiles at Israel for the last several months.
So Israel is really under siege, and they’ve been under siege since October 7. And it’s not just Hamas. It’s not just the war in the south. It’s all around. […] It’s an Iranian creation. I think it’s fair to say, like, all roads here lead to Tehran. […] Israel is confronting […] an existential threat.
John Moralessays
So Israel is really under siege, and they’ve been under siege since October 7.
FFS.
They’ve been under siege since before I was born.
Silentbobsays
Weird how Israel is facing an existential threat and since 1949 it’s everyone else who keeps ceasing to exist.
Silentbobsays
if you look at Israel on the map, they are surrounded by enemies
Huh. Almost like Britain dumped them in the midst of Arab muslim lands and then the French and Americans gave them nuclear weapons. Is it possible that wasn’t a great idea?
KGsays
Heh.
“‘Say it to my face’: Harris is having a blast taunting Trump”
Did she say it to his face?
The irony is obvious, no? – John Morales@391
No.
John Moralessays
She did not say it to his face, but demanded he ‘Say it to my face’.
Pure case of ‘do as I ask, not what I do’.
Hypocrisy.
Obvious to me, KG.
KGsays
John Morales@418,
If you’re challenging someone to meet you face to face, that implies that they are refusing to do so, or at least have not agreed to do so. So how could you possibly issue the challenge face to face? Calling issuing the challenge in some other way “hypocrisy” or “irony” is just daft.
John Moralessays
KG, there’s a quotation right there. It’s not a matter of opinion.
“Well, Donald,” she began, before pausing to smile as the crowd cheered. “I do hope you’ll reconsider to meet me on the debate stage. Because, as the saying goes, if you’ve got something to say, say it to my face!”
She had something to say to Donald, but she did not say it to his face.
The first part, the challenge, was indeed a challenge.
The first statement.
It is the second statement that’s cringey. To me, anyway.
“Well, Donald,” she began, before pausing to smile as the crowd cheered. “I do hope you’ll reconsider to meet me on the debate stage.
That’s the actual challenge.
Because, as the saying goes, if you’ve got something to say, say it to my face!
That was not part of the challenge; that was the bullshit hypocritical “do what I ask not what I do” moment.
(So bloody obvious!)
coffeepottsays
have you ever tried lightening up just a bit
KGsays
KG, there’s a quotation right there. It’s not a matter of opinion.
The quotation is not a matter of opinion. But whether it is hypocritical or ironic is.
It is the second statement that’s cringey. To me, anyway. – John Morales@420
And to absolutely no-one else, I’d guess – except perhaps Trumpoids pretending to take the same view as you. Because everyone else will recognise that if she was going to issue the challenge, she could not issue it face-to-face; and that the “something to say” she was talking about was the racist and misogynistic insults he’s been aiming at her.
Tethyssays
Say it to my face.
I’m not sure if it’s common to all English speaking people, but in America this phrase is generally understood as a call-out response to a person who has been talking crap about you behind your back.
I’m positive the orange coward saw and heard her challenge while he obsessively doom-scrolled through all the very bad news about his terrible speech in PA and the racist dumpster fire of the Black Journalists event.
The entire thing can be summed up as “Bigot says what?”.
Here’s a link to the Guardian liveblog about the major prisoner swap underway:
A major prisoner exchange between Russia and the west is under way involving the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been freed from Russian custody, Bloomberg has reported, citing people familiar with the situation.
Sources with knowledge of the planned exchange confirmed to the Guardian that a major swap would take place on Thursday in a location outside Russia. They declined to make further details public until after the swap had taken place owing to sensitivity of the matter.
Gershkovich and the former US marine Paul Whelan, both accused by Russian authorities of espionage, had already been freed and were en route to a destination outside Russia, Bloomberg reported.
The Guardian understands the exchange will also involve Russian political prisoners being freed as well as numerous Russians jailed in the west for espionage, murder and other crimes being returned to Russia.
Turkey’s National Intelligence Organisation (MIT) said it was conducting the biggest prisoner exchange operation of recent times in Ankara.
It said the deal involved the exchange of 26 individuals from the prisons of seven different countries — the United States, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, Russia, and Belarus).
The prisoners were transported to Turkey by a total of 7 aircraft, including 2 from the United States and one each from Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, and Russia, as part of the operation, according to a MIT statement.
Ten prisoners, including two minors, were relocated to Russia, with 13 prisoners headed to Germany, and three prisoners to the United States.
“This operation has been recorded in history as the most extensive prisoner exchange between the United States, Russia, and Germany in recent years,” said MIT.
– US and Russia, other counties take part in largest prisoner swap since end of Cold War
– Turkey says it is coordinating prisoner exchanges
– WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich, ex-US marine Paul Whelan, Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara Murza released by Russia as part of deal
Turkey’s National Intelligence Organisation, known as MIT, said that it “conducted the most extensive prisoner exchange operation of recent times,” on the tarmac in Ankara, exchanging 26 different people held in seven different countries: the United States, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, Russia, and Belarus.
“The prisoner exchange encompassed the exchange of significant figures that have been sought by all parties for a long period,” they said, naming just five, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US marine Paul Whelan who were both jailed in Russia.
Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin and German Rico Krieger were also named in the statement. Vadim Krasikov, a hitman jailed in Germany who MIT described as a colonel with Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, was also named as part of the prisoner swap.
Seven different aircraft carried the 26 different individuals to Turkey, they said.
Two flew from the United States, one each from Russia, Germany, Poland, Slovenia and Norway to perform the intricate operation in the Turkish capital. Mediation for the swap began under the auspices of MIT in Turkey last month, they added.
The large number of prisoners involved in the swap came with added complications.
Prisoners were taken off each aircraft and then moved to secure locations by MIT, to undergo health checks and ensure that each part of the swap deal was ratified, before being placed back onto the planes heading to their respective destinations.
“Ten prisoners, including two minors, were relocated to Russia, thirteen prisoners to Germany, and three prisoners to the United States,” they said. “This operation has been recorded in history as the most extensive prisoner exchange between the United States, Russia, and Germany in recent years.”
Dual citizens Vladimir Kara-Murza and Alsu Kurmasheva will also reportedly be included in the anticipated exchange, according to U.S. media.
Activist Kara-Murza, who holds British citizenship in addition to Russian, was imprisoned on treason charges last year.
Kurmasheva, a journalist at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty who holds both American and Russian citizenship, was sentenced last month to six and a half years in prison for “spreading false information” about the Russian army.
While there’s still no confirmation from the West or Russia about whether a prisoner exchange is happening — or whether it’s already finished — supporters of 19-year-old Kevin Lik, a Rusian-German dual national who was jailed last year for treason, said he was released today.
“We are very pleased to announce that [Kevin Lik’s] stay in a Russian prison has come to an end. Kevin spent 526 days behind bars and is finally returning to his homeland — Germany — where he was heading before his arrest,” the group of supporters said.
From the DW liveblog:
How is Germany involved in the swap deal?
Among those said by Turkish intelligence to involved in the deal is the German citizen Rico K., who had been sentenced to death in Belarus.
The 30-year-old had been shown on Belarusian public television last week asking leader Alexander Lukashenko to be pardoned.
He had been found guilty of six articles in the Belarusian Criminal Code: mercenary activity, espionage, being part of an extremist organization, destruction of a vehicle, illegal handling of weapons, explosives and ammunition and terrorism.
Lukashenko pardoned K. on Tuesday after “taking into account all the circumstances,” the Belarusian leader’s press service said.
Meanwhile, Vadim Krasikov, a Russian who was jailed in Germany for assassinating a former Chechen rebel commander, has also been released as part of the prisoner swap, according to Turkey.
A German court has said the 2019 killing, in a Berlin park, was an assassination ordered by the Russian state. The Bellingcat investigative outlet has reported that Krasikov was working for Russia’s FSB security service.
Joe Biden has released a statement about the prisoner exchange.
Today, three American citizens and one American green-card holder who were unjustly imprisoned in Russia are finally coming home: Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich, Alsu Kurmasheva, and Vladimir Kara-Murza.
The deal that secured their freedom was a feat of diplomacy. All told, we’ve negotiated the release of 16 people from Russia—including five Germans and seven Russian citizens who were political prisoners in their own country. Some of these women and men have been unjustly held for years. All have endured unimaginable suffering and uncertainty. Today, their agony is over.
I am grateful to our Allies who stood with us throughout tough, complex negotiations to achieve this outcome— including Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, and Turkey. This is a powerful example of why it’s vital to have friends in this world whom you can trust and depend upon. Our alliances make Americans safer.
And let me be clear: I will not stop working until every American wrongfully detained or held hostage around the world is reunited with their family. My Administration has now brought home over 70 such Americans, many of whom were in captivity since before I took office. Still, too many families are suffering and separated from their loved ones, and I have no higher priority as President than bringing those Americans home.
Today, we celebrate the return of Paul, Evan, Alsu, and Vladimir and rejoice with their families. We remember all those still wrongfully detained or held hostage around the world. And reaffirm our pledge to their families: We see you. We are with you. And we will never stop working to bring your loved ones home where they belong.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has said that “Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich, and Alsu Kurmasheva are on their way to the United States to reunite with their families.” [Vladimir Kara-Murza is presumably headed to Germany with the twelve others.]
“I’m grateful for all of those who worked to secure their freedom and for our allies and partners who made this deal possible,” he added.
The mood in the Wall Street Journal newsroom: “Best day ever.”
tomhsays
@ #391 “‘Say it to my face’: Harris is having a blast taunting Trump”
Did she say it to his face?
(The irony is obvious, no?)”
Wow. That’s as far off the mark as it’s possible to get.
An Economist/YouGov poll conducted roughly two weeks ago found Trump leading President Joe Biden by two points. The new Economist/YouGov poll, however, found Harris leading Trump, 46% to 44%.
In other news: Gaffe points to Trump’s declining mental state, (as reported in summary form by Steve Benen):
At a campaign event in Pennsylvania last night, Trump suggested that Republican Senate hopeful David McCormick is running for governor. Later, during the same remarks, the former president repeated the same mistake.
A man named David Brian Howard is poised to appear in court tomorrow, where he’ll likely become the latest Jan. 6 defendant to receive a criminal sentence. As part of his legal defense, however, Howard is blaming Fox News for having an unhealthy influence on his perspective. As The New Republic reported:
The defendant “is/was simply a small-town man who between the years of 2014 and 2020 followed the media and news which much of his small community seemed to follow — Fox News,” [the defendant’s latest court filing] read. While Howard “bought the lies sold to him and millions of others for many years and especially in the wake of the 2020 election,” the defense noted he has since had a change of heart, and is now “horrified by their ongoing misinformation, influence and affect and veers away from any of that.”
If this sounds at all familiar, it’s probably because Howard isn’t the first Jan. 6 defendant to reference the controversial cable network as part of a legal defense. NBC News also reported on a different Jan. 6 defendant — who pleaded guilty — whose lawyer said ahead of sentencing that his client was infected with “Foxmania” from watching too much Fox News.
Anthony Alexander Antonio, a 29-year-old who lives in Delaware, pleaded guilty to a felony count of obstruction of an official proceeding and aiding and abetting. The guilty plea came the same day the Supreme Court agreed to take up a challenge to the use of obstruction of an official proceeding charges in Jan. 6-related cases. At an early hearing in his case, Antonio’s attorney Joseph Hurley said that Fox News “played constantly” in his home for six months.
“He became hooked with what I call ‘Foxitus’ or ‘Foxmania’ and became interested in the political aspect and started believing what was being fed to him,” the defense attorney said.
We don’t yet know the extent to which this argument will matter — Antonio’s sentencing is still a few weeks away — and Howard will also soon learn whether the “Foxmania” defense works in his favor.
Let’s Be Clear About This
Again, it’s as if we’ve learned nothing from the last eight years.
Donald Trump, his campaign having lost its edge to Kamala Harris, predictably resorts to his well-used playbook of racism, white grievance, and othering. Major national news outlets fumble the coverage, unable or unwilling to call out the racism. The headlines are either too tepid or shift the focus to Harris. We should know by now that racist attacks are not about the victims of those attacks, they’re about the perpetrators. Putting the spotlight on Harris is a form of complicity.
But even well-meaning people stop at the incomplete conclusion that Trump himself is a racist. No doubt he is. But that fails to do justice to the toxicity he brings to the public square. Not since George Wallace has a national candidate exploited racism for personal political gain the way Trump has consistently now for going on a decade. It started with his embrace of Obama birtherism, continued throughout his term in the White House with, among many other things, virulently anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant policies, and is playing out exactly the way you would expect it to now that he’s facing a biracial opponent.
It takes a racist to exploit the kind of divisions that Trump traffics in, but focusing on his personal animosity toward people of color, his own retrograde 1950s attitudes, the darkness of his soul runs the risk of making this a psychological profile or a morality play or another in the long line of old white men stuck in the past. This isn’t your grandpa or your crazy uncle raving in the privacy of your holiday dinner.
It’s the former president of the United States turning his cult and his campaign’s hundreds of millions of dollars against people of color on a public stage in the middle of a presidential campaign. It’s a way of declaring open season on vulnerable minorities. It’s a rallying cry for every white extremist, fringe loner, and KKK wannabe out there looking for an excuse to act out their rage.
We talk a lot about how racism in the form practiced by Trump takes it upon itself to define what is white and what is not, mocks racial and gender distinctions it considers illegitimate, and reserves to itself an imagined gatekeeper role for what is acceptable. All true. But more relevant for our purposes is that the purpose of that kind of racism is to dehumanize people, reduce them to less than, marginalize them – and the net effect is to grant permission to inflict all manner of atrocities and degradations on people deemed less than people.
Just Watch
A lowlight reel of Trump’s NABJ appearance: [video at the link]
[…] A Telling Moment
Among the many indignities of Trump’s NABJ appearance was the moment he whiffed on a question about whether JD Vance will be ready on Day 1 to assume the presidency. The answer Trump gave received considerable attention because he minimized the effect of the veep choice on the outcome of the election, but he totally failed to affirm that Vance is ready for the presidency, the barest litmus test of a vice presidential candidate. That whiff did not go unnoticed by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg: [video at the link: Buttigieg: Trump was asked about Vance and his answer was it doesn't matter that much to the outcome who you pick for VP. Which means it did not occur to him to even pretend to be interested in the impact of the vice presidential choice on the country.]
In related news, Trump allies are accusing Kellyanne Conway of badmouthing Vance:
In interviews with The Bulwark, twenty Trump campaign staffers, allies, confidants, and advisers were quick to shoot down any notion that Trump was turning his back on Vance or was displeased with him amid his rocky rollout. But more than a dozen of those sources volunteered without prompting that they believed Conway, who initially opposed the selection of Vance, was undermining him through leaks to the press expressing doubts about his readiness and the campaign’s vetting.
Lilia Chanysheva
Oleg Orlov
Alexandra Skochilenko (she wasn’t on the list above – she’s the artist who was imprisoned for replacing supermarket price tags with anti-war messages!)
Opposition figures Ilya Yashin and Andrei Pivovarov were also released in the prisoner exchange, Russian independent media reported.
Yashin, a longtime ally of Navalny, was handed an eight-and-a-half-year prison sentence in 2022 for publically condemning Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine earlier that year.
Pivovarov, the former head of the pro-democracy group Open Russia, was detained in 2021 and later sentenced to four years in prison for “carrying out the activities of an undesirable organization.”
Three more yet to be named…
Tethyssays
I’m very happy to learn about Evan Gershkovich and all the other prisoners being released and returning home.
It’s a nice feather in Biden’s cap, with bonus points for dominating the news cycle. Meanwhile, the other side has nothing but impotent rage at women for being ‘weak’ Olympic athletes, ‘nasty’ journalists that ask questions, and running for President while being black, Asian, AND female. Oh the humanity!! Woe!!
Debunking JD Vance’s claim that Democrats are a “childless cabal”:
[…] Is there even truth to this notion of Democrats being childless? I wasn’t about to waste my time looking up every member of Congress, but I did want to run a little truthiness test. So I looked up the parental status of every member of the House of Representatives from my liberal state of California—also the nation’s most populous state.
California has 52 House members: 40 Democrats, 12 Republicans.
Forty percent of those Democrats are women and only 16 percent of the Republicans are. Given the rigors of public office and the fact that moms are often saddled with the lion’s share of childcare duties, you might then expect an overall higher rate of childlessness among the Democratic politicians. But you would be wrong.
With the caveat that one of the Democratic women has stepchildren, not biological ones, 85 percent of the Dems have kids, as opposed to 83 percent of the Republicans. If you exclude Rep. Sydney Kai Kamlager-Dove’s stepkids, which isn’t very nice, it becomes even: 83 percent for both.
Let’s break down those numbers. On the Democratic side, 88 percent of the male reps have kids and 81 percent of the women do—three-quarters if you exclude the poor stepkids. The Cali Republicans have only two women in their caucus—both with kids—while 8 of the 10 men have them. (And, to be fair, one of the childless ones was just recently married.)
The remaining childless Republican dude, a MAGA type known for his adamant opposition to abortion rights and LGBTQ rights, tried to tell local police back in 1993 that he and the prostitute he was doing stuff with in his car were “just talking.” (He later admitted they were having sex.) But debauchery has no party affiliation: In 1986, one of the childless male Dems had been cited by police for soliciting prostitution.
[…] So what is this guy Vance even talking about? Based on my California House sample, Dems are no more likely to be childless than Republicans are.
[…] For a reality check, though, I looked at Georgia’s House delegation—9 Republicans, 5 Democrats. Republican Andrew Clyde, a firearms dealer, is the only one of them who hasn’t had kids, although he does have a doberman named Kit. Georgia Democratic Rep. Lucy McBath, who is Black, used to have a child. She ran for Congress only after her son, Jordan, was murdered at a gas station by a 46-year-old white man complaining about Jordan and his friends’ “loud music.”
The upshot of this little experiment, I suppose, is that if America’s childless are indeed some sort of cabal, it would appear to be pretty minor—and bipartisan. But a hearty thank you to JD for making it all possible.
Evan Gershkovich
Paul Whelan
Alsu Kurmasheva
Ilya Yashin
Oleg Orlov
Sasha Skochilenko
Vladimir Kara-Murza
Kevin Lik
Rico Krieger
Ksenia Fadeyeva
Liliya Chanysheva
Going/Returning to Russia:
Vadim Krasikov
Artem Dultsev and Anna Dultseva and their two children
Mikhail Mikushin
Vladislav Klyushin
Roman Seleznev
Vadim Konoshchenok
Pablo González/Pavel Rubtsov
He has information about each. This appears to be an exhaustive list of those going/returning to Russia, but is still missing several of those freed from Russia/Belarus.
Germany ‘did not take decision lightly’ to release assassin Krasikov
Germany has also confirmed the prisoner swap with Russia involving the United States and European allies.
German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said in a statement the deal had involved close and trusting cooperation with the United States and European partners.
US President Joe Biden, when asked by reporters about what Germany wanted in return for its cooperation, replied: “nothing.”
According to the German statement, the exchange agreement secured the release of 15 people who were unlawfully detained in Russia and a German citizen, Rico K. who had been sentenced to death in Belarus.
Among those returning to Russia was Vadim Krasikov, convicted in 2021 of shooting to death a Georgian citizen of Chechen ethnicity in a Berlin park in 2019.
The victim, 40-year-old Zelimkhan Khangoshvili was shot in an “execution-style” killing at Berlin’s Kleiner Tiergarten park. The killing was carried out the drive-by style shooting on a bicycle in broad daylight — shooting the victim in the head and chest, prosecutors said.
A German court concluded it was an assassination ordered by the Russian security services and Krasikov was sentenced to life imprisonment.
“The German government did not take this decision lightly,” said a statement.
“The state’s interest in enforcing the prison sentence of a convicted criminal was offset by the freedom, physical well-being and — in some cases — ultimately the lives of innocent people imprisoned in Russia and those wrongfully imprisoned for political reasons. Our obligation to protect German citizens and solidarity with the United States were important motivators.”
“We hope that all those released today will recover from their physical and psychological suffering in the company of their family and friends. Our thoughts are with all those who are still being imprisoned in Russia today for expressing their opinions and telling the truth about Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Their courage must be an example to all democrats!”
“The federal government calls on the Russian and Belarusian leadership to release all other unjustly politically imprisoned people.”
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian US politics liveblog. From there:
– Harris is set to deliver a eulogy for the late Texas Democratic representative Sheila Jackson Lee in Houston at 2.20pm ET.
– The former House speaker Nancy Pelosi said doctors voiced their concern for Trump’s mental health to her in 2019, saying there was something “seriously wrong”, according to her new book.
– The supreme court is set to take on several major education issues including Joe Biden’s student debt program and transgender policies in its next term, the Hill reports.
Donald Trump’s questioning of Kamala Harris’s racial identity during his NABJ appearance yesterday has triggered criticism from both Republicans and Democrats alike….
With Kamala Harris on the campaign trail in hopes of winning the 2024 presidential election, her job as vice president continues.
In an statement on Thursday, Harris announced that her and Joe Biden’s administration has proposed a ban on airlines charging fees for families wishing to sit together on flights.
“Families should be able to sit together on a flight without paying more,” Harris wrote.
In a separate statement, the transportation department announced that proposing the ban on the so-called junk fees would in turn “require airlines to seat parents next to their young children for free when adjacent seating is available at booking.”
“Mandating fee-free family seating would lower the cost of flying with young children – saving a family of four as much as $200 per roundtrip if seat fees are $25,” it added.
Chuck Schumer will introduce a bill in the Senate today to declare explicitly that presidents do not have immunity from criminal conduct, overriding last month’s supreme court ruling that Donald Trump has some immunity for his actions as president.
The No Kings Act, which would apply to presidents and vice-presidents, has more than two dozen Democratic co-sponsors.
“Given the dangerous and consequential implications of the court’s ruling, legislation would be the fastest and most efficient method to correcting the grave precedent the Trump ruling presented,” the Senate majority leader said in a statement.
With this glaring and partisan overreach, Congress has an obligation – and a constitutional authority – to act as a check and balance to the judicial branch.
The bill would stipulate that Congress, rather than the supreme court, has the authority to determine to whom federal criminal laws are applied.
JD Vance, the Ohio senator and Donald Trump’s running mate, visited the Mexico-Arizona border on Thursday, during which he criticized the immigration policies of the Biden administration, which he repeatedly referred to as the “Harris administration”….
There’s a photo at the link and he looks like a dipshitty poser in a costumey Western shirt. The fetishizing of the southern border is another bit of weirdness.
Thom Tillis, the Republican senator for North Carolina, would not say if JD Vance was the right pick to be Donald Trump’s running mate.
Tillis told CNN:
I’ve never been in a selection pool for VP, so I don’t necessarily – I’m not going to opine on that.
Pressed on whether the Ohio senator would make a good candidate, Tillis replied:
I know JD well. I’ve gotten to know him pretty well over the past couple of years. I think he’s a smart guy. I think that the Biden – or the Trump campaign picked him for a reason. I’m behind the ticket.
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan says the Biden administration is proud to celebrate the return of more than 70 Americans from around the world.
Sullivan says today’s exchange is a “feat of diplomacy” that could have “only been achieved by a leader like Joe Biden”.
Under Biden’s direction, the national security, foreign policy and intelligence community worked “tirelessly and relentlessly” to secure the release of 16 individuals who were detained in Russia, Sullivan says.
Those freed from Russian detention were three American citizens, one American green card holder, five German citizens and seven Russian political prisoners, in exchange for eight individuals held by the US, Germany, Norway, Slovenia and Poland.
Sullivan says Biden was “personally engaged” in the diplomacy that brought the exchange about, including “multiple conversations” with the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, as well as other leaders.
Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) suggested on Thursday that fear of a second Trump administration motivated Russia to agree to the historic prisoner swap with the U.S., in an interview with CNN.
Vance, former President Trump’s 2024 running mate, called the prisoner exchange “great news.”
“We certainly want these Americans to come back home. It was ridiculous that they were in prison to begin with,” Vance said.
“But we have to ask ourselves: Why are they coming home? And I think it’s because bad guys all over the world recognize Donald Trump’s about to be back in office, so they’re cleaning house,” he said. “That’s a good thing, and I think it’s a testament to Donald Trump’s strength.” [eyeroll]
The prisoner swap, which involved seven countries, was the largest prisoner swap between the U.S. and Russia since the end of the Cold War. […]
Veteran GOP political pundit Scott Jennings said former President Trump made a big mistake with his remarks about Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’s race during a gathering of Black journalists in Chicago on Wednesday.
“He did crap the bed. … The only question is whether he’s going to roll around in it or get up and change the sheets,” Jennings, a CNN contributor, said after Trump fielded questions at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) convention Wednesday. […]
President Joe Biden and his vice-president, Kamala Harris, will welcome the released American citizens at Joint Base Andrews, the White House’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan says.
Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan and Alsu Kurmasheva are expected to arrive on US soil tonight, he says.
Vladimir Kara-Murza will be travelling to Germany, and his family will be travelling there to meet him. He is expected to return to the US to meet the president later on, Sullivan says.
The UK foreign secretary, David Lammy [I don’t think I’d realized David Lammy was now the foreign secretary!], has issued a statement welcoming the news of the release.
I strongly welcome the news that Russia has released a number of prisoners today, and am particularly relieved that British nationals Vladimir Kara-Murza and Paul Whelan will soon be reunited with their families.
Mr Kara-Murza is a dedicated opponent of Putin’s regime. He should never have been in prison in the first place: the Russian authorities imprisoned him in life-threatening conditions because he courageously told the truth about the war in Ukraine. I pay tribute to his family’s courage in the face of such hardship and hope to speak to him soon.
Paul Whelan and his family have also experienced an unimaginable ordeal. I look forward to speaking to him as he returns home to his family in the United States after over 5 years in detention.
[…] let’s not lose sight of the fact that Trump’s new line of attack [racist attack against Kamala Harris] wasn’t limited to the stage in Chicago. After the event, he used his social media platform to push a follow-up salvo. “Crazy Kamala is saying she’s Indian, not Black,” he wrote alongside a video of Harris referencing her Indian heritage. “This is a big deal.”
Soon after, ahead of a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, Trump’s political operation promoted images on a giant screen featuring headlines noting Harris’ Indian-American identity.
On Thursday morning, as NBC News noted, the Republican nominee pushed the line of attack again.
A day after attacking the vice president race during a contentious interview with Black journalists, Trump posted a picture on his Truth Social website of Harris wearing a saree alongside members of her family. Trump and his allies have falsely accused Harris, who is biracial, of deciding to “turn Black.” Harris, the first Black and Indian American vice president, attended the historically Black Howard University and is a member of the first intercollegiate Black sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha.
This, evidently, is Trump’s idea of a gotcha. [X post and image at the link]
So, why in the world is he doing this? I won’t pretend to have any special insights into the former president’s weird perspective, but the answer isn’t immediately obvious.
It’s possible that Trump thinks he can convince Black voters that Harris isn’t Black enough. Or maybe Trump thinks it’s up to him, and not Harris, to decide how she should describe her own race and ethnicity.
It’s also possible that Trump, whose lengthy record of overt racism is well documented, is genuinely confused about the very idea of someone being biracial. If Harris has celebrated her mother’s background, as far as the Republican sees it, it necessarily means she rejected her father’s background. [Harris’s father is a black man from Jamaica.]
Or maybe Trump’s brand of racism is based in part on the idea that those in communities of color get special breaks and benefits, making him uncomfortable with the idea of an opponent being able to check more than one box.
Whatever the explanation, it seems like a safe bet that voters haven’t heard the last of this line of attack, even if many GOP officials would prefer to hear Trump say anything else.
UPDATE (August 1, 2024, 2:26 p.m. ET): Shortly after I published this piece, Trump used his social media platform to amplify a related online item from right-wing media personality Laura Loomer, who claimed that Harris’ birth certificate “proves” that she’s not Black.
Oh FFS. Just looks like a new twist on birtherism, with added racism and ignorance. Truly disgusting.
According to tech journalist Kara Swisher, the problem with JD Vance isn’t that he hates “childless cat ladies” who haven’t performed their role as biological baby factories, stamping out new copies of a man’s genetic code. It’s simpler than that. Vance just seems to hate women.
“I’m not joking about it,” Swisher told Fortune. “Go pay attention to what he’s saying.”
What Vance has been saying includes demanding an end to no-fault divorce leaving women trapped in abusive relationships. He feels that abortion should be completely outlawed with no exception for rape and incest. Vance explains that “federal action” needs to be taken to prevent women from crossing state lines to obtain a safe abortion. And Vance isn’t just demeaning women who don’t have children or calling them mentally ill, he’s declared that “we have to go to war” against the whole idea that women can opt out of having children.
Where does Vance get these sick ideas? From the same place he gets his money: a group of billionaire techbros who see Vance as their chance to seat a figurehead on the throne.
Vance’s positions are so obviously anti-woman that Republicans have already pushed some of his family members in front of the spotlight to talk about all the strong women in his life. But Vance doesn’t seem to be doing anything to moderate his past statements.
Given a chance to walk back his “cat lady” comments on Megynn Kelly’s podcast on Friday, Vance instead doubled down.
“Obviously, it was a sarcastic comment,” he said. “I’ve got nothing against cats.”
Which seems to underscore Swisher’s point.
It’s not about the cats, it’s about wresting control of women’s lives away from women and making them into the property of men where they can validate their worth through reproduction. It’s almost as though Vance thought “The Handmaid’s Tale” was an instruction manual.
As HuffPost reports, Vance didn’t hold back in a 2021 interview during his run for a Senate seat in Ohio.
“To be a little stark about this, I think we have to go to war against the anti-child ideology that exists in our country,” said Vance. He ripped into the idea that women could have a fulfilling life without children as a “ridiculous effort by millennial feminist writers.”
“You’re going to be a sad, lonely, pathetic person and you’re going to know it internally,” Vance said.
That latest not-so-hidden statement follows previous interviews or speeches in which Vance called for people without children to pay higher taxes and for people with children to get more votes in elections.
As Vox reports, the demand that parents should get additional votes illustrates one source for Vance’s ideas. “Vance’s intellectual debt to peculiar segments of the conservative elite has led him to embrace a brand of politics that’s alien to the vast American middle.”
Long before the Harris campaign started using the term, Vance himself said that he is “plugged into a lot of weird, right-wing subcultures.” But it’s not just neofascist dictators who capture the attention of Trump’s running mate.
By far the most important of Vance’s influences, The Washington Post reports, is a network of tech billionaires led by would-be vampire Peter Thiel.
Vance described a speech given by Thiel as “the most significant moment” of his years at Yale. After graduation, Thiel adopted Vance into his network, helped him get his first big-money tech job, and then brought him into his investment firm. Just a year later, Vance was back in Ohio, creating a nonprofit that spent more on a consultant to launch his political career than it did addressing the issues it was supposed to be tackling. When Vance was ready to run for the Senate, Thiel was there with a $15 million contribution to bankroll his campaign.
As the Post reports, Thiel’s network “orchestrated Vance’s rise in Silicon Valley—and then the GOP.” They feel that his brief but lucrative foray into the tech industry, and the ties they have maintained with rivers of cash, make him “one of them.”
When it came time for Trump to select a new running mate to replace the one he tried to have killed, Thiel’s network—including fellow tech billionaires Elon Musk and David Sacks—was there to make it clear they wanted Vance in the role.
According to Swisher, who worked with Vance in the tech industry, his real role in any Trump government would be acting as a “butler” for the tech billionaires who put him in place as Trump’s running mate. His job would be to see that Trump’s policy was their policy, including their attitudes toward women.
Vance is a stalking horse, there to hand over power to Thiel, Musk, Sacks, and other techbroligarchs. It doesn’t matter how many Republican senators think Vance was a bad choice, the power behind the throne is on his side.
Politico warns that “If there is a Trumpism after Trump, it might look a bit like Thielism.” That’s not a good thing.
If Vance is “weird” he gets a lot of his weirdness from these guys, whose policies are chaotic, self-serving, and disconnected from reality. Their dreams are billionaire dreams—living forever, building cities on Mars, and ruling over a techno-feudal future where artificial intelligence and robots make workers superfluous while the tech lords exchange cryptocurrency in a world stripped of government regulation. They don’t give a damn who gets hurt in the process.
Neither does Vance. But if he can hurt a few childless women while doing his masters’ bidding, he would certainly see that as a bonus.
Re: Lynna 451
I think Trump just doesn’t have a concept of assumptions based on skin color, as well as no concept of multiracial identity. It’s white, black, indian only.
EVAN GERSHKOVICH, a Wall Street Journal reporter, was detained in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg in March 2023. Without providing evidence, authorities accused him of “gathering secret information” at the CIA’s behest about a military equipment factory — an allegation that Gershkovich, his employer and the U.S. government vehemently denied. Jailed since then, a court convicted Gershkovich, 32, of espionage in July after a closed trial and sentenced him to 16 years in prison.
PAUL WHELAN, a corporate security executive from Michigan, was arrested in 2018 in Moscow, where he was attending a friend’s wedding. He was accused of espionage, convicted in 2020 and sentenced to 16 years in prison. Whelan, 54, has rejected the charges as fabricated.
ALSU KURMASHEVA, a dual U.S.-Russian national, was arrested in 2023 in her hometown of Kazan, where she was visiting her ailing mother. The Prague-based editor for the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Tatar-Bashkir service was accused of not self-reporting as a “foreign agent” and was convicted in July of spreading false information about the Russian military — charges rejected by her family and employer. Kurmasheva, 47, was sentenced to 6½ years in prison.
VLADIMIR KARA-MURZA, a dual Russian-U.K. citizen and prominent opposition politician, was arrested in 2022 after criticizing the war in Ukraine that had begun weeks earlier. He was convicted in 2023 of treason and other charges, and sentenced to 25 years in prison in a case he called politically motivated. A columnist for The Washington Post, Kara-Murza, 42, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize this year. He fell ill in 2015 and 2017 from near-fatal poisonings he blamed on the Kremlin. His wife said his health deteriorated in prison as a result of the poisonings.
ILYA YASHIN is a prominent Kremlin critic who was serving an 8 1/2-year sentence for criticizing Russia’s war in Ukraine. Yashin, a former member of a Moscow municipal council, was one of the few well-known opposition activists to stay in Russia since the war.
ANDREI PIVOVAROV, 42, headed the opposition group Open Russia, outlawed in 2021. He was pulled off a flight and arrested that same year. In 2022, he was convicted of carrying out activities of an “undesirable” organization and sentenced to four years in prison.
OLEG ORLOV, a veteran human rights campaigner, was convicted of discrediting the Russian military and sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison in February for his protests of the war in Ukraine. Orlov, 71, is co-chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning human rights group Memorial.
SASHA SKOCHILENKO, 33, was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison in November 2023 for replacing several price tags in a supermarket with anti-war slogans.
KSENIA FADEYEVA, LILIA CHANYSHEVA and VADIM OSTANIN are former coordinators of regional offices of the late opposition figure Alexei Navalny. They were arrested after Navalny’s political network was outlawed in 2021 and later convicted of extremism. Fadeyeva, 32, and Ostanin, 47, each were sentenced to 9 years in prison, and Chanysheva, 42, got a 9 1/2-year term.
KEVIN LIK, 19, a dual Russian-German national, was arrested in southern Russia in 2023 and accused of taking photos of a military unit and sending them to a “representative of a foreign state.” Court officials said he opposed to the war in Ukraine. He was convicted of treason and sentenced to four years in prison, with rights advocates saying Lik, who was 17 at the time of his arrest, was the youngest person convicted of that crime.
RICO KRIEGER, a German medical worker, was convicted in Belarus of terrorism charges in June, and sentenced to death. He was pardoned Tuesday by authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko.
DEMURI VORONIN, a dual Russian-German national, is a political scientist who ran a consultancy that reportedly collaborated with journalists. He was arrested in 2021, convicted of treason in 2023 and sentenced to 13 years and three months in prison. He was implicated in the treason trial of Ivan Safronov, who allegedly passed him information on Russian military activities, which Voronin allegedly then gave to German intelligence.
PATRICK SCHOEBEL, a German national, was arrested in February 2024 at Pulkovo Airport in St. Petersburg when gummies containing a psychoactive component of cannabis were allegedly found in his possession. He has been detained since then, facing drug-smuggling charges.
GERMAN MOYZHES, a dual Russian-German national, is a migration lawyer who helped Russians apply for European Union residence permits. He was arrested in May in St. Petersburg and reportedly accused of treason, but little else is known about his case.
Kamala Harris’s campaign team has met with six potential vice president contenders, NBC reports.
On Thursday, the outlet reported that according to two sources familiar with the matter, the six contenders are Minnesota governor Tim Walz, Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, Illinois governor JB Pritzker, Kentucky governor Andy Beshear, Arizona senator Mark Kelly and rransportation secretary Pete Buttigieg.
According to a source speaking to NBC, Shapiro met with Harris’s vetting team on Wednesday. Harris herself was not present, the source said.
NBC further reports that two sources said Kelly met with Harris’s vetting team on Tuesday afternoon and that according to his aide, Kelly was “off campus” from the Senate floor.
KGsays
In the UK, a number of far-right riots, with rioters trying to attack mosques and injuring a number of police, have followed a horrible mass stabbing in which three children were killed and several others as well as two adults seriously hurt. The suspect arrested has now been named, and identified as a 17-year-old British citizen born in Cardiff (capital of Wales) of parents who immigrated from Rwanda, to counter online disinformation claiming he was an asylum seeker who had arrived by illegally crossing the Channel. Police say there is no evidence of a terrorist motive, enquiries are focused on his mental health. The riots have been sufficiently large and widespread to suggest a considerable degree of planning, and Nigel Farage has been “just asking questions”, suggesting that key information has been withheld.
This video is obviously from a pro-Ukraine source, but it occurs to me drones with a termite charge could be a humane way to disable armoured vehicles.
Drop a drone on top of the engine/oil system /fuel tank and the vehicle will be disabled, standing in the middle of the bsttlefield.
If the crew are smart, they will now run away. Even if the fire does not spread to the ammunition it will be a matter of minutes before artillery start shooting at the vehicle.
.
‘Ukraine Ups Drone Game, “Metal Burning” Thermite Drones To Take Down Putin’s “Cope cages”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=jvzqHL5TSQ0
…but it occurs to me drones with a termite charge could be a humane way to disable armoured vehicles.
WOW! I knew that Russia was pulling heavily from old stocks of tanks, but tanks susceptible to a termite infestation must really be old!!. ;-P Thanks for the (inadvertent) laugh for the day!
birgerjohanssonsays
Johnson Catman @ 462
I accidentally spelled it the Swedish way, OK.
Signal boost here for this excellent post on what Putin is doing to Russia :
For the sake of a dictator’s ego, an entire nation is being fed to the flames. It may turn out to be the greatest act of national self-immolation in history.
It’s been more than two years since Russia launched its genocidal invasion of Ukraine. In that time, they’ve suffered half a million casualties, squandered almost their entire stockpile of Soviet arms, made themselves an international pariah, and achieved none of their original war aims.
As the war drags on and the costs mount up, the Russian state is becoming more paranoid, autocratic and violent at home. Putin’s thugs are no longer satisfied with shutting up anyone who tells the truth about the regime. They’ve resorted to murdering or imprisoning anyone who even has the ability to tell the truth.
KG is correct after all. Didn’t know that till seeing the midday news personally.
Bekenstein Boundsays
Lynna@451:
Or maybe Trump’s brand of racism is based in part on the idea that those in communities of color get special breaks and benefits, making him uncomfortable with the idea of an opponent being able to check more than one box.
Meanwhile, due to the combination of whiteness and maleness, Trump does get to check more than one box to get actual special breaks and benefits. The projection — it never ceases with him, does it?
Laura Loomer, who claimed that Harris’ birth certificate “proves” that she’s not Black.
And here I’d been hoping we’d heard the last from Laura Lo0ner … what’s next, a campaign team shuffle that brings back Sarah Palin?
JD Vance seems to hate women, but he loves tech billionaires
As far as I’m concerned, he can have them. Preferably on board a Musk-designed-and-built “Ark B” …
Vance’s intellectual debt to peculiar segments of the conservative elite has led him to embrace a brand of politics that’s alien to the vast American middle.
that’s alien
ALIEN👽alien👽aLiEn👽ALIEN
… and launched on a course to return them to Vance’s home planet.
Institute of Art and Ideas
“Does beauty deceive physics?” | Michio Kaku, Sabine Hossenfelder, Max Tegmark, Juan Maldacena
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Zzj7GpKHZjE
The federal appeals court ruled 12-5 that different racial and ethnic groups cannot form coalitions to challenge racial gerrymandering under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a decades-old precedent that allows different racial and ethnic groups to form coalitions to seek legal remedies under the Voting Rights Act. The ruling will likely be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 2021, the Republican-majority government of Galveston County, Texas redrew its political boundaries to eliminate the one district in which non-white voters represented a majority. A group of current and former officeholders sued, charging that violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which bans racial gerrymandering. They were joined by multiple civil rights groups and the Biden administration, in a case that was consolidated as Petteway v. Galveston County.
The county argued that neither Blacks nor Latinos alone constituted an outright majority anywhere in its boundaries and that Section 2 does not protect the rights of different racial or ethnic groups to form coalitions.
On Thursday, the U.S. 5th Circuit ruled 12-5 in favor of Galveston County, throwing out a precedent its own judges had set in 1988, Campos v. City of Baytown.
“After reconsidering Campos en banc, this court holds that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act does not authorize separately protected minority groups to aggregate their populations for purposes of a vote dilution claim,” said Judge Edith H. Jones, writing for the majority.
Leading the dissent, Judge Dana M. Douglas wrote, “Today, the majority finally dismantled the effectiveness of the Voting Rights Act in this circuit, leaving four decades of en banc precedent flattened in its wake.”
The ruling comes just over a year after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, in a case involving racial gerrymandering of congressional districts.
Valencia Richardson, an attorney with the Campaign Legal Center representing the plaintiffs, told Houston Public Media, “We’re disappointed with this decision, which not only ignores decades of legal precedent but also the language of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. We’re considering next steps at this time.”
* We don’t yet know who Vice President Kamala Harris will choose as her running mate, but the vetting process, led in part by former Attorney General Eric Holder, is over: The New York Times reported, “Covington & Burling, the Washington law firm tasked with the vetting, completed the job on Thursday afternoon and turned over its findings to Ms. Harris.”
* On a related note, the Democratic National Committee’s virtual nominating process is now underway, which will formally make Harris the party’s 2024 nominee.
* Donald Trump boasted by way of his social media platform, “There has never been anything like the MAGA Movement. We raised $139 Million Dollars in July alone.” Soon after, the Harris campaign said it had raised $310 million in July, more than double the Republican’s figure.
* A recount in Virginia found that House Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good really did narrowly lose his primary race, ending his congressional career, at least for now. The incumbent congressman is the only congressional Republican to lose in a primary in the 2024 cycle.
* On a related note, Republican Rep. Andy Ogles, another House Freedom Caucus member, fended off a well-funded primary challenger in Tennessee yesterday.
* NBC News reported that Republican Voters Against Trump is rolling out its biggest ad campaign yet, putting $3.5 million behind video ads and billboards in key swing states. The push includes testimonials from voters who’ve switched from Trump to Harris. [video at the link]
[…] Trump can’t claim credit: Sure, some Republican partisans, including his running mate, peddled silly claims about the former president playing some indirect role in the developments [the recent prisoner swap], but Trump seemed to realize that he had nothing to do with this. And if Trump can’t plausibly claim credit for good news, then the news, practically by definition, can’t be good.
Trump said this wouldn’t happen: The Republican spent months publicly arguing that he, and he alone, would have the wherewithal to bring Gershkovich home. Oops.
Trump almost certainly couldn’t have pulled this off: The lynchpin of the deal was diplomatic work with Germany. When Trump was in office, he tapped a notorious online pest to serve as the U.S. ambassador to Germany, where he managed to routinely infuriate our allies in Berlin. In fact, Trumps ambassador was so reviled that some German officials spoke publicly about the possibility of asking him to leave the country.
The agreement was the result of alliances that Biden strengthened and Trump intends to weaken: As Biden explained on Thursday, he and his team “rebuilt NATO. We rebuilt the circumstances to allow this to happen. That’s why it happened.” These are the same alliances, of course, that Trump has been hostile toward for years.
Britain: far-right thugs plan attacks for the weekend.
Meanwhile: The tory PM who lasted a shorter time than a lettuce.
“Truss Manages to Out-Humiliate Lee Anderson
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=__ZG5Z3dF80
“Researchers highlight the genetic complexity of schizophrenia” https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-08-highlight-genetic-complexity-schizophrenia.html
The genetic correlate to mental disease was never going to be straightforward considering how complex the mind is.
-But maybe children that have multiple risk genes can get screened for symptoms every couple of years during adolescence and early adulthood when the disease usually manifests.
On Thursday evening, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris stood on the tarmac at Andrews Air Force Base and greeted journalists Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan after their release from Russian prison in a historic prisoner swap.
Gershkovich, who’d been held by Russia since March 2023, repeatedly embraced Biden and Harris before running to meet his mother. Biden removed the American flag pin from his lapel and fixed it to Whelan’s clothing. Meanwhile, Kurmasheva, held since October 2023, was immediately swarmed by her two young daughters. After meeting with his family, Gershkovich walked over to reporters and expressed his thanks not only for his own release but for the freedom of Russian political prisoners who were being held by dictator Vladimir Putin’s repressive regime.
“There’s one thing I would like to say,” Gershkovich said. “It was great to get on that bus today and see not just Americans and Germans but Russian political prisoners.” He expressed how he had spent his time among prisoners held for their opposition to Putin’s regime and his hope that more of them would be freed. [Gershkovich is a good guy.]
It was a touching, uplifting, and glorious moment. And it was the result of complex diplomatic exchanges that both Biden and Harris had worked for literal years to achieve.
Naturally, Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, want to make this story all about Trump.
Vance took the most direct—and pathetic—approach on Thursday, saying that the credit for the release of American prisoners should go to Trump.
“We certainly want these Americans to come back home. It was ridiculous that they were in prison to begin with,” said Vance. “But we have to ask ourselves: Why are they coming home? And I think it’s because bad guys all over the world recognize Donald Trump’s about to be back in office, so they’re cleaning house.” [JFC]
Vance went on to call the release “a testament to Donald Trump’s strength.” But what he failed to mention was that Whelen was arrested in Russia in 2018. Trump’s “strength” didn’t get him out then. That strength also failed in freeing former Marine Trevor Reed, whom Russia arrested in 2019 and freed in 2022 after Biden negotiated a deal.
The Biden-Harris administration has now secured the release of over 70 Americans held by governments around the world. Not only is that well above the 58 Trump claimed to have freed, many of those freed by Biden were held prisoner while Trump was in the White House.
Trump had previously stated that he was the only one who could secure Gershkovich’s release and that the journalist “will be released almost immediately after the Election, but definitely before I assume Office.”
“He will be HOME, SAFE, AND WITH HIS FAMILY,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social website in May. “Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, will do that for me, but not for anyone else, and WE WILL BE PAYING NOTHING!”
Shortly after being proven wrong on Thursday, Trump criticized the prisoner exchange, saying that U.S. negotiators were an “embarrassment.”
“I got back many hostages, and gave the opposing Country NOTHING – and never any cash,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Thursday.
That was, of course, also a lie.
Trump repeatedly handed over U.S.-held prisoners in exchange for Americans held abroad. Some of these were one-for-one exchanges, but some were far more lopsided. In 2020, Trump agreed to the release of over 200 Houthi militants in exchange for Americans Sandra Loli and Mikael Gidada.
Those Houthi militants were allowed to return to Yemen, which has served as the base for Houthi attacks on Israel and dozens of ships in the Red Sea. Whether any of the militants released by Trump were directly responsible for attacks leading to ships lost and sailors killed in the Red Sea this year isn’t known. But it is certainly possible.
What Trump and Vance are saying has nothing to do with the reality of Thursday’s exchange, which brought Americans home to tearful families and freed political prisoners from an oppressive Russian regime. Like Trump’s disgusting appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists on Wednesday, the attacks on the prisoner exchange are another sad attempt to inject Trump into a news cycle that has largely cast him aside. [yep]
To complete this latest swap, Biden pulled together a coalition of international allies, calling it a “feat of diplomacy and friendship.” It’s a feel-good moment for the nation and the world. [video at the link]
“First of all, I don’t know, between the Olympics, Simone Biles’ floor routine, the hostages coming home—like, the vibe right now should be tattooing an American flag on your chest and running through the streets,” Sarah Longwell, an anti-Trump Republican, told CNN on Friday. “But what does [Trump] do? He sits there on his phone grumpy that the hostages are home, mad that he doesn’t get the fame, like he and Putin have some special deal, so he’s going to be able to negotiate this. He’s always Trump first, America last, despite his rhetoric, and people should be more offended by things like this than a lot of the other crazy stuff Trump does.”
It’s not just Trump who’s looking old. So is his me-me-me schtick.
Vice President Kamala Harris has secured enough votes from Democratic delegates to become the party’s nominee for president, Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison said Friday.
The online voting process doesn’t end until Monday, but the campaign marked the moment when she crossed the threshold to have the majority of delegates’ votes.
Harris is poised to be the first woman of color at the top of a major party’s ticket.
“I am honored to be the presumptive Democratic nominee,” Harris said on a call with supporters.
Harrison said “we will rally around Vice President Kamala Harris and demonstrate the strength of our party” during its convention in Chicago later this month.
Democrats have pushed ahead with a virtual vote to nominate Harris, nearing the culmination of a turbulent process that was upended by President Joe Biden’s decision not to seek reelection.
Delegates to the Democratic National Convention began voting via secure email on Thursday, and the voting will remain open until Monday evening. Harris has not yet chosen her running mate, and she’s expected to interview candidates over the weekend.
The formal nomination is expected to be finalized by Aug. 7 even though the party’s convention in Chicago isn’t scheduled to begin for more than two more weeks. Democratic officials have said the accelerated timeline was necessary because of an Aug. 7 deadline to ensure candidates appear on the Ohio ballot.
[…] Democrats still plan a state-by-state roll call during the convention, the traditional way that a nominee is chosen. However, that will be purely ceremonial because of the online voting.
The party insists it has to have its nominee in place before its convention opens in Chicago on Aug. 19 to make sure it meets ballot access deadlines in Ohio — an argument that the state’s Republicans dispute.
Ohio state lawmakers have since changed the deadline, but the modification doesn’t take effect until Sept. 1. Democratic attorneys warn that waiting until after the initial deadline to determine a presidential nominee could prompt legal challenge.
Thursday’s prisoner swap with Russia was the largest since the fall of the Soviet Union and required years of work behind the scenes involving a variety of world leaders.
That included Vice President Kamala Harris, who conducted a pair of low-profile meetings at the Munich Security Conference in February with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob. Germany was holding Russian hitman Vadim Krasikov and Slovenia had two other Russian prisoners that Russia wanted as part of any deal.
When President Joe Biden needed someone to conduct these critical, secretive, high-level negotiations, he knew he could count on Harris to get it done.
[…] Harris’ involvement in the swap shows that she’s already an experienced and trusted figure in dealing with America’s allies. In fact, her encounter with Golob marked the highest-level meeting between America and Slovenia in history.
[…] Harris is uniquely positioned to build on what Biden accomplished. She’s already a familiar and trusted presence among America’s allies, and she and all of her potential running mates are strong supporters of Ukraine.
Donald Trump had attempted to free Whelan, a Trump supporter, after his 2018 arrest in Russia. But in 2022, Trump claimed he had turned down a deal to free Whelan while criticizing Biden’s deal to free WNBA star Brittney Griner.
Trump claimed that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin would only release Gershkovich if Trump was elected to a second term. To no one’s surprise, that turned out to be a lie. [video at the link]
[…] But the article drops this bombshell at the end: “While Alito is still relatively young as far as justices go (most in recent years haven’t left the bench until their 80s), he has reflected in private about retirement.”
If Trump wins this year’s presidential election, Alito may very well step down and go home to fly whatever flags he and his wife want, secure in the knowledge that Trump would install someone just as extreme—and a lot younger—in his seat.
That goes for Justice Clarence Thomas as well. At 75, he’s the both the oldest and the most senior member of the court, having been appointed in 1991 by then-President George H.W. Bush. If Trump wins, Thomas may very well decide it’s time to enjoy his $493,700 motorhome, also knowing his seat would go to a like-minded hack. There’s been rampant speculation that he’ll step down if Trump wins.
“The next president is likely to have two new Supreme Court nominees. Two more,” President Joe Biden said at a fundraiser in June. “He’s already appointed two that have been very negative in terms of rights of individuals.” […]
Bet you didn’t have this on your bingo card. Mormons are organizing a Zoom call for Kamala Harris next Tuesday. Here’s the announcement posted on X, formerly Twitter, for the event. [X post and invitation are available at the link]
[…] Given the church’s history it doesn’t seem likely that many Mormons would support Harris in her bid to be the first female U.S. president. The majority of Mormons are still likely to back Donald Trump.
Only boys and men can be ordained to the lay priesthood. Mormon women who formed a group Ordain Women wrote: “Despite their gifts, talents, and aspirations, women are excluded from almost all positions of clerical, fiscal, ritual, and decision-making authority.“
The church itself opposes same-sex marriage and relations which it considers “to be against God’s commandments,” but surprisingly did support the federal Respect for Marriage Act in 2022. It wasn’t until 1978 that black men were allowed to be ordained as priests.
But in what is likely to be a close election, if Harris can shave off a few percentage points from Trump’s support among LDS members it could help in some swing states.
Organizers of the call said they don’t expect Utah to be in play. Trump won the state in 2020 by a margin of 58% to 38% over Joe Biden.
But they believe Latter-day Saints voters could make a difference in some swing states. Mormons represent about 6% of the population of both Arizona and Nevada. Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was one of the highest-ranking Latter-day Saint elected officials ever. […]
Earlier this week, John Giles, the mayor of Mesa, Ariz, who is a registered Republican, publicly endorsed Harris and urged Arizona Republicans to support her. […]
Giles studied political science at Brigham Young University and is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
In 2020, former Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, also a Mormon, endorsed the Biden-Harris ticket, saying it marked the first time he had ever supported a Democrat for president. Flake said the country needed a president “who will stop the chaos” and “unifies rather than divides.”
[…] And here’s a video ad for Brian King, the Democratic candidate for Utah governor, who is also a member of The Church of Latter-Day Saints. [video at the link]
In his latest Fox Business interview, Donald Trump was asked about Vice President Kamala Harris’ potential running mates. “I don’t care,” the Republican responded. “Let them do whatever; they still want to have open borders.”
The “open borders” line was obviously gratuitous and unnecessary. It was also, of course, wrong. But it was also poorly timed, as evidenced by the latest Arizona Republic report.
Arizona customs officers seized four million blue fentanyl pills weighing in at more than 1,000 pounds at the Lukeville border crossing in what is the largest single fentanyl seizure in the history of the agency responsible for securing the nation’s borders. U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced the seizure Thursday, but it happened a month earlier on July 1.
A CPB press release, issued yesterday, this seizure resulted from an American citizen who crossed the border, obtained the fentanyl, and allegedly tried to smuggle them into the United States by packing them to the frame of a sport recreational vehicle.
[…] This roughly coincided with CBP officials also seizing 270 pounds of meth that suspected smugglers were trying to bring onto American soil.
[…] I realize that for the former president and his party, the repetition of the “open borders” phrase is habitual to the point of being mindless. For all intents and purposes, Republicans no longer know or care if the claim is true — or was ever true. It’s simply what the party has decided voters are supposed to believe.
But as the latest evidence makes clear, the GOP’s talking points are overdue for a rewrite.
Democrats want voters to realize that the future of the Affordable Care Act is on the ballot in 2024. It’s generous of JD Vance to admit they’re right.
[…] JD Vance spoke with NOTUS this week, and the report noted, the Ohio Republican “suggested repealing Obamacare would still be a priority” if voters return Trump to power.
“Well, I think we’re definitely gonna have to fix the health care problem in this country,” he said. “The problem with Obamacare is that for a lot of people, it just doesn’t provide high-quality health care, right? So you have a lot of people paying out the ass, paying very high prices for health care that isn’t high quality. And I think the president actually, unlike a lot of Republicans, frankly, cares a lot about people having access to high-quality care.”
The report added that Vance went on to say in the same interview that the Trump-era “repeal and replace efforts” were “fundamentally focused around the idea of fixing what was broken, not about stripping people’s health care away. So yeah, I think you’re certainly gonna see efforts to reform the system. Obviously, what that looks like will depend a little bit on Congress because Congress has to have a role to play.”
As a substantive matter, Vance’s assessment didn’t make a lot of sense. His condemnation of the ACA — which he’s too inexperienced to have voted on — not only misdiagnoses the existing challenges surrounding the Affordable Care Act, it also badly misstates what transpired during Trump’s first term.
But looking ahead, what arguably matters most about Vance’s comments was the fact that he left little doubt in a Trump second term, Americans should “certainly” expect a prospective Republican White House to “reform” the nation’s health care system.
“Donald Trump and JD Vance are the greatest threat to Americans’ health care today,” Harris for President spokesperson James Singer said in a statement, responding to the NOTUS interview. “Terminating the Affordable Care Act has been Trump’s goal for years, which will make America sicker, rip away preexisting condition protections from more than 100 million Americans, and increase health care costs. … The stakes this November couldn’t be higher for the American people.”
[…] some of Trump’s congressional allies have added their voices to this debate. Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas told Axios in late November, “I think Obamacare has been one of the biggest deceptions on the American people. I mean just look at your health care premiums.” (Premium costs, in reality, have gone down, not up.)
The same report added that Republican Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho, who’d likely chair the Senate Finance Committee if the GOP retakes control of the chamber, also said he’s open to repeal-and-replace plans.
Remember, the Republicans’ 2017 effort to tear down the ACA was a disaster for the party, which Democrats exploited to help take back the House majority in the 2018 midterm elections. […]
Trump has repeatedly vowed to replace the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)— but he has never provided any details about how that would work. He just claims that his non-existent plan would be “better.” Trump is a liar who knows fuck all about how to govern or how to provide healthcare. But I don’t think that would stop him and his cohorts from repealing Obamacare.
A new report out this morning in the WaPo reveals extensive new details about a since-closed federal investigation into whether Egypt funneled $10 million to Donald Trump during his 2016 campaign for president.
The criminal investigation was predicated on “classified U.S. intelligence indicating that Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi sought to give Trump $10 million to boost his 2016 presidential campaign.”
But it wasn’t until almost two years later, in early 2019, that investigators learned of a withdrawal of nearly $10 million in U.S. cash from a Cairo branch of the state-run National Bank of Egypt five days before Trump’s 2017 inauguration:
The Post investigation reveals that investigators identified a cash withdrawal in Cairo of $9,998,000 — nearly identical to the amount described in the intelligence, as well as to the amount Trump had given his campaign weeks earlier. A key theory investigators pursued, based on intelligence and on international money transfers, was that Trump was willing to provide the funds to his campaign in October 2016 because he expected to be repaid by Sisi, according to people familiar with the probe.
The deeply sourced WaPo report is mostly focused on how Trump political appointees at DOJ allegedly blocked further investigative steps on Trump’s end of the alleged transaction and brought the probe to an end without any charges being filed. […]
The investigation took a circuitous path from DOJ proper to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team then back to DOJ again, where it ultimately died in the DC U.S. attorney’s office, according to the WaPo. The investigation spawned a long-running legal battle over a federal grand jury subpoena to the Egyptian bank that was mostly fought behind closed doors. The occasional inklings of what was going on secretly in federal court had mostly been interpreted – wrongly it turns out – as related to Russia, not Egypt. CNN was the first to reveal some of the details of the investigation, back in 2020. The WaPo report is apparently the first to reveal the $9,998,000 withdrawal from the Egyptian bank:
Five days before Donald Trump became president in January 2017, a manager at a bank branch in Cairo received an unusual letter from an organization linked to the Egyptian intelligence service. It asked the bank to “kindly withdraw” nearly $10 million from the organization’s account — all in cash.
Inside the state-run National Bank of Egypt, employees were soon busy placing bundles of $100 bills into two large bags, according to records from the bank. Four men arrived and carried away the bags, which U.S. officials later described in sealed court filings as weighing a combined 200 pounds and containing what was then a sizable share of Egypt’s reserve of U.S. currency.
For his part, former DC U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin told the WaPo he stood by his decision to close the case for lack of sufficient evidence. The WaPo report ends with the observation that the statute of limitations for illegal campaign contributions expired more than two years ago.
JD Vance has had a six-figure stake in Rumble, an online video platform. The company has played host to Russian propaganda and to far-right personalities like Stew Peters and Tim Pool.
It has also featured even more extreme content, including explicitly neo-Nazi images and themes like this song touting the “Reich” and calling for Jews to be placed in ovens from a “dissident rapper” with a dedicated page on the site.
The site features a plethora of channels and videos dedicated to the concept of “white genocide,” which is a core belief for white supremacists. It also hosts channels for explicitly white supremacist organizations including VDare and Patriot Front, which has led masked demonstrations around the country.
[…] Vance has been backed by the Silicon Valley investor and right-wing donor Peter Thiel. The pair co-founded a firm, Narya Capital, in 2020. In keeping with Thiel’s preferred styling, the company was named after a reference to the “Lord of the Rings” fantasy novels.
In 2021, Narya Capital made a major investment in Rumble. The investment, which made Narya one of Rumble’s top shareholders, also gave the firm a seat on Rumble’s board. Financial disclosures filed by Vance in conjunction with his Senate bid also show that he made a personal investment in Rumble that was valued between $100,000 and $250,000.
Rumble went public in 2022 following Narya’s investment. In a filing last year that was reported by CNBC, Narya indicated it planned to sell more than three million shares of Rumble. Narya’s initial investment in Rumble totaled over seven million shares.
Vance has not yet filed required financial disclosures for last year. He sought an extension in April. His most recent disclosure, which covered 2022, showed the Rumble investment.
he stake is notable because it represents a direct financial link between Vance and a key outlet for some of the most extreme elements of the far right. […]
A spokesperson for Vance’s campaign told the paper “J.D. does not play an active role at Rumble, nor does he set Rumble’s content moderation policies” and noted his belief in “free speech rights online.” […]
Donald Trump Jr., the former president’s son, signed a seven-figure podcast deal with Rumble last year.
[…] While the bad headlines have seemingly led Vance’s political stock to drop among some Republicans, shares in Rumble have fared far better. According to CNBC Pro, Rumble stock went up 17 percent on the week Trump picked Vance. The movement prompted a note from JP Morgan analyst Kamal Tamboli, who said the surge was a “quarterly record” for the extremist platform. […]
Tony Rinaudo had been attempting to reforest degraded land in Niger in the 1980s at a rate of 6,000 trees a year, but most of them died.
While driving to a village hosting one such project, he caught sight of what he initially thought was a bush. Upon closer inspection, […] The degraded land he was attempting to reforest in fact contained “millions and millions” of them [growing out of old stumps], which, if protected from browsing animals and encouraged to grow, would sprout trees to rebuild the region’s depleted soil and water tables, and provide nutrients and partial shade that farmers’ crops could grow better in, via a system called agroforestry.
Thus began his journey promoting what is now known as farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR), which has reforested 6 million hectares (15 million acres) in Niger—an area twice the size of Belgium—and even more globally. […] And the world’s farmland could use such restoration efforts: the United Nations says as much as 40% of the world’s land is degraded due to human mismanagement
* The embedded podcast doesn’t add much to the article.
a low-cost, sustainable land restoration technique used to combat poverty and hunger amongst poor subsistence farmers in developing countries by increasing food and timber production, and resilience to climate extremes. […] FMNR is especially applicable, but not restricted to, the dryland tropics. As well as returning degraded croplands and grazing lands to productivity, it can be used to restore degraded forests
[…]
FMNR adapts centuries-old methods […] called coppicing and pollarding, to produce continuous tree-growth for fuel, building materials, food and fodder without the need for frequent and costly replanting. […] When FMNR trees are integrated into crops and grazing pastures there is an increase in crop yields, soil fertility and organic matter, soil moisture and leaf fodder. There is also a decrease in wind and heat damage, and soil erosion.
the [Energy Information Agency] released electricity generation numbers for the first five months of 2024 […] generation by solar power has shot up by 25 percent compared to just one year earlier. […] other generating sources were largely flat, year over year. […] Because natural gas is the largest single source of energy on the grid, however, its 5 percent rise represents a lot of electrons—slightly more than the total increase in wind and solar. […] electricity usage in the US […] has stayed largely flat for decades.
[…]
It’s worth noting that this data all comes from before some of the most productive months of the year for solar power; overall, the EIA is predicting that solar production could rise by as much as 42 percent in 2024.
[…]
If we combine nuclear, hydro, wind, and solar under the umbrella of carbon-free power sources, then these account for about 45 percent of US electricity production so far this year. […] By contrast, facilities that are scheduled for retirement over the next year largely consist of coal and natural gas plants.
birgerjohanssonsays
Having seen the film “Nope” the things seen in the sky take on a more sinister aspect.
ELO: “Mr. Blue Sky – But every lyric is an AI generated image”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=nyD6g47DHQk
birgerjohanssonsays
During COVID I compulsively checked on online tables showing numbers if sick people in different regions.
This summer I have been compulsively checking US polls.
But after Kamala Harris started running I can take it at least slightly easier. Harris has got this.
we may be significantly underestimating the potential of trees to regulate the variables of climate change.
[…]
It’s long been thought that soil is the only effective terrestrial methane sink, as certain microorganisms use methane as a food source, but similar creatures live under a tree’s layer of bark, meaning that not only do our woody cousins withdraw CO2 from the atmosphere and store it in their roots, but also remove methane as well, about as effectively or perhaps more so than soil.
[…]
On average the newly discovered methane absorption adds around 10% to the climate benefit that temperate and tropical trees provide.
Cop: ‘For being undercover, they’re not very good at it.’
Whenever you see “Project Veritas” in a story, it’s a guarantee that ridiculam comoediam will ensue! You remember them, and if not, please enjoy a select few of our previous posts about the antics of these hilarious dumbfuck assholes!
James O’Keefe Spent Veritas Donor Money Like A Drunken Sailor On A Dildo Boat
Did Project Veritas Get Sources To Steal Ashley Biden’s Stuff? Because That Is Not How Journalism Goes.
Guilty Plea From Degenerates Who Stole Biden Daughter’s Diary And Sold It To Project Veritas
Come Let’s All Dance On Project Veritas’s Grave
Project Veritas Is Back, Harassing Private Schools
[embedded links for the articles listed above are available at the main link]
NBC News’s Rich Shapiro reports that a former Project Veritas “field director,” one Michael Spadone, brought a passel of three “undercover journalists” to Dearborn, Michigan, in May, hoping to do some kind of secret-camera ding-dong-zing-zong gotcha at the People’s Conference on Palestine that was happening there that weekend. (You’ll have to click through to watch the video!)
Instead, the group got rip-roaring hammered and rowdy to the point that the Henry Hotel called the police, who put up with their blathering, cursing shenanigans for 81 impressive minutes before hauling Spadone to lockup, after he refused to leave after being asked to about a dozen times. Then the drunkards cursed at each other while waiting on an Uber outside, because they can’t even get along with each other.
The group’s run-in with the law started at 1:13 a.m., when police knocked on their hotel room door. It was answered by an unidentified boozy white lady, disputing that the hotel had already warned them to STFU.
“That’s false,” she said, and a hotel guest walking down the hall interjected.
“Well, I’m a witness. It’s fucking true,” the guest said.
“Really?”
“Yes, I’m right over here trying to get some sleep,” the guest said, gesturing to her room next door.
“Oh, waaaaaah,” mocked the lady “journalist,” who Project Veritas later confirmed was a former employee of theirs who’d specialized in organizing QAnon rallies.
“When is she leaving?” asked the hotel guest.
“Right now.”
This inflamed the Karen. “What’s your name, ma’am? Are you an American citizen?”
“I know you better get the fuck out of my face. White trash.”
“Yeah, fucking brown trash [B-word],” QAnon lady slurred in retort to the guest (who appeared to also be white).
Once police were inside the room, Spadone treated the patient officers to even more entitled, delusional and hateful rantings, can you believe it?
“Are you guys Americans? Do you care about America?” fumed Spadone. “Do you care about the future? Do you care about what’s going to fucking happen in this country?”
(This is where we will note, if you were unaware, that Dearborn has a very large Arab community. And two of the officers appear to be of Middle Eastern descent while a third appears to be a Black lady. […]
“Do you care about the people in this hotel right now?” retorted the officer. “Yeah, I do,” said Spadone, proceeding to chug what looks like a beer. Penurious on brains, but rich in entitlement!
“You’re trying to intimidate me right now!” groused Spadone to an officer who was standing there looking bored, if anything. Clearly not his first time at the hotel boozehound rodeo!
“You trying to intimidate me right now makes you look like a fucking [F-word that is derogatory toward gay men], so, stop doing it. And we can be cool.” The officers let him go on. “Any of you guys wrestle? Any cauliflower ears? I can take all three of you guys right now. Easy,” said the guy built like a potato and several inches shorter than the officer he was ranting at.
“All right,” shrugged the officer.
Eventually the foursome were escorted from the hotel, and bodycam footage caught them ranting and arguing with each other some more, while they waited for an Uber.
“Weak-ass motherfuckers. If they took their vest off and their badges, they’d get knocked the fuck out. Every one of you would get knocked the fuck out. Choked the fuck out. Bunch of weak-ass fucking [F-word that is derogatory toward gay men, in plural form]. It’s amazing these fuckers hate America so much,” Spadone huffed, oblivious to any trace of irony.
Then he turned his ire to a different white-lady traveling companion.
“You guys are all being weak motherfucksers,” Spadone slur-fumed.
“Weak motherfuckers?! I worked for you for three years. You’re going to call me a weak motherfucker?”
Spadone called her a child, told her to “grow the fuck up” and said she was fired.
“You’re really going to fire me for this?! Fuck you.”
Footage then cuts to a bearded guy who identifies himself as the group’s “security director,” and explains to the officers that they were there to “infiltrate” the rallies and do “undercover stuff” with secret cameras, and they’d spent all day doing “reconnaissance.”
“For being undercover, they’re not very good at it,” noted the officer.
It’s unclear what happened next, as the group seemed well on their happy way to getting into an Uber and finally out of the officers’ and weary hotel guests’ hair, then footage jumped to Spadone being escorted away in a pair of matching silver bracelets, ranting, “You didn’t give me a chance to leave! This was the first time you told me to leave!” Having a blackout, perhaps?
Not leaving people alone sure is a thing of Spadone’s! When he worked for Veritas his code name was “Jitsu,” and he got sued by a married lady whom he allegedly fired after she refused to sleep with him. Her lawsuit described a work atmosphere where drug use and supervisors having sex with employees was so rampant that the company kept a corporate apartment “frat house” that it used for drinking, sex and parties. And they didn’t even pay overtime!
Spadone left Veritas, and got a job with Louder With Crowder, a web show that has also been accused of bullying, inappropriate drug use, and lewd sexual workplace misconduct. (Crowder likes showing everybody his dick, reportedly.)
Isn’t it funny how these right-wingers always claim to love America so much, and yet always show themselves to be the worst possible co-workers, neighbors, and fellow-citizens in general? Every time!
The United States is preparing to send additional combat aircraft to the Middle East in response to threats from Iran and its proxies in Gaza, Lebanon and Yemen to attack Israel in the coming days to avenge the death of Ismail Haniyeh this week, American officials said on Friday.
Venezuela’s opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia thanked the U.S. on Friday for recognizing him as the official winner of Sunday’s controversial presidential election, in which both González Urrutia and President Nicolás Maduro claimed victory.
Mystery oxygen source discovered on the sea floor
@1 CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain wrote: ‘Something is pumping out large amounts of oxygen at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean’
I reply: interesting, thanks for the info. However, I’m more concerned about reading articles on huge methane deposits on the ocean floor buried under the surface that could also be released by offshore drilling or deep-sea mining; not, to mention the danger of all the toxic hot fumes coming from politicians.
From Lynna’s #494 in the previous thread chapter quoting from a escription of FBI Director Chris Wray’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee today:
Did he or didn’t he?
What?
The closing lines of Biden’s speech:
Re: SC (Salty Current) @ #4…
Not bad, though I could do without all the god-bothering….even making allowances for Biden’s religious beliefs.
whheydt @ #5, I wish I could say it’s like water off a duck’s back for me at this point, but it isn’t – I still roll my eyes and sigh when it’s mixed in among reasonable statements I’m reading or quoting.
@ SC
I’ve just been listening to Wray’s testimony, there is no ambiguous “may” there (whoever relayed that incorrectly inserted that). He testified that Crook’s weapon had a collapsible stock.
@SC #3: There was apparently no easy direct access to the roof of American Glass Research. The assassin had climbed an adjacent building’s air conditioning unit to reach its roof, then crossed over to the AGR roof, where he prepared to shoot from. A local policeman was vaulted up by a colleague to peek above AGR’s roof and got startled by a gun barrel.
Martin MacInnes wins Arthur C Clarke award for ‘intense trip’ of a novel | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/jul/24/martin-macinnes-novel-wins-arthur-c-clarke-award-in-ascension-science-fiction
John Morales@443:
Nonbaryonic matter seems to interact very little with the baryonic kind. It can largely be ignored for these purposes. “Where are all the baryonic aliens?” is still something that warrants explanation as it seems there should be more, and the existence of hypothetical non-baryonic ones wouldn’t change this, as a) they’d be invisible to us and b) their existence wouldn’t come at the expense of baryonic ones — they wouldn’t be competing for anything with baryonic forms of life.
Life is hegemonic, of its very nature. It spreads and it converts as much of what it encounters as it can into more of itself.
The topic. Is. The Fermi Paradox.
The Fermi Paradox. Basically. Is asking. “Why there either aren’t other colonizers, or they haven’t already gotten here long since.”
I don’t see how I can rephrase that further so that the point might get through …
<smh>
OK, tell you what. When you find life that does flagrantly violate the laws of thermodynamics, you can point to it and tell me “I told you so” and I will accept it. :P
SC@452:
Shouldn’t he be in Commerce, or some other business or finance related committee?
Also: isn’t he dead? Like, maybe a century dead kind of dead?
And could someone please elect Karl Marx and try to get him in as labor secretary or something? Some balance would be nice. :)
Lynna@480:
How the hell did “covfefe” not make the list? To say nothing of “hamberder”. And who can forget the great nation of “Nambia”?
Lynna@483:
But we’re supposed to believe it’s Obamacare that will create “death panels” …
Mmmhm. Quite definitive, that.
(Let’s ignore it, you say)
No, it does not and it is not.
(Remember, tube worms)
You imagine I’m suggesting that such life exists and can be found?
No.
What I’ve been saying all along is that this colonisation thingy you have going on in your brain, whether interstellar (heh) or intergalactic (snort) is very very silly and anthropomorphic.
Look, before that we’d notice Kardashev type II or above.
—
You, alas, are stuck in this rut where aliens are wrinkly-foreheaded people, as in star trek.
(You also clearly don’t get the scales involved)
birgerjohansson@445:
Fascinating. This greatly limits the time frame to pull off abiogenesis at red dwarves, whether on planets or in comets (though the latter have a second ticking clock: 26Al decay, whence most of ’em freeze solid after a few Gyr).
You’d think this might explain why we find ourselves at a relatively uncommon type of star, but since Earth got bacteria in only a couple hundred million years tops after it got surface water, it totally doesn’t.
Unless you combine it with red dwarves’ nasty penchant for giant superflares during their youths. By the time they stop doing that, the UV window of opportunity has closed. Perhaps not the case for larger stars, whose:
x Planets are farther away and less affected by flares, less often;
x UV window lasts far longer; and
x Superflare-prone periods are perhaps shorter, in proportion perhaps to their overall lifespans.
Finding ourselves at a yellow dwarf system might then be circumstantial evidence against cometary seeding of life. Still think it’s weird we speed-ran abiogenesis, RNA world, and ribo-world, and got to fully fledged bacteria and archaea, in less than a tenth the time it took to get from those, in turn, to inventing the cell nucleus …
Okay, Mr. Morales, you go ahead and put forth your hypothesis for what stops intelligent life from spreading very far from its origins, despite the obvious instrumental value of spreading one’s investments out and hedging one’s bets in an uncertain universe.
Sure.
I’ll just quote Douglas Adams:
“Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.”
Einstein’s equation.
“New Poll Gives Bad News For Donald Trump”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=8JA6-mXCA
I am trying to tone down the hyperbole but the boost on interest from Democrats and the drop in interest from Republicans seem strong enough to be outside the margin of error.
The “death panels” had their origin in a suggestion during the W administration that people should have a say in how far the hospitals should go in prolonging life when life obviously is at the end.
As the idea came back under Obama (aka the slick conservative Democast) one Republican- maybe Kellyanne Conway, maybe Ann Coulter – started the death panel thing and when Fox News realised their low-information viewers believed it, they turned on the afterburner.
I don’t want to get into a knife fight about the Fermi paradox, but I am more pessimistic today than in my youth.
Two books played a big role in this:
Rare Earth and Lucky Planet.
Other, more novel concepts; google the ‘grabby aliens’ concept.
The flares of red dwarf systems are already known by most commenters here.
I will not adress which part of the cosmic filters that are more devastating, it is a cumulative process. Late-stage capitalism and its shills probably also play a role in bringing down the odds.
Super-rich being advised how to avoid Labour tax clampdown, undercover investigation suggests | Tax avoidance | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/jul/25/super-rich-being-advised-how-to-avoid-labour-tax-clampdown-undercover-investigation-suggests
John Morales@14,
It’s true: space is big. But time is long.
Stephen Colbert.
Harris: We Are Not Going Back | Why Did Trump Pick Vance? | Fox News Is Grasping At Plastic Straws
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=rLgF8ThFrFM
Y’know – a hundred million years is quite a long time.
Back in the day, I played V&V.
Our group had a rule that a certain threshold of instant damage was required for damaging structures.
No good punching a brick wall with your fist even a thousand times — what was needed was a mere hundred times or so the equivalent energy of a punch.
In game mechanics, that meant a damage threshold of x; blows below that magnitude would be pointless.
(Is the point not clear? Big threshold gap between planetary, interplanetary, interstellar, and intergalactic endeavours)
[bah, forgot to link]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villains_and_Vigilantes
Meanwhile: Sharks Do Cocaine | Snoop Dogg To Carry The Olympic Torch | Hello Kitty Is Not A Cat
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=S3qTIYLOr9Y
What Cats Do At Night…
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=nRzsgCp60YU
[nostalgia]
I had two main characters; Ironheart (robotic) and Mindmaster (obs).
Due to the nature of the game and my friends’ familiarity with proper concepts, I got to be like a Lensman in some ways with Mindmaster by having the sense of perception.
As with the regular game mechanics, I had to mind-power through various layers in order to perceive.
Same principle; threshold values.
cf.
(cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lensman_series )
<snicker>
“Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr known professionally as Snoop Dogg is an American rapper, record producer, and actor.”
About as Olympic as I am.
Re:
“What Cats Do At Night…”
Whatever. Piss. Shit. Eat. Lurk. Doze. Patrol. Yowl. Fight. Miaow.
Etc.
(I don’t need to watch a video, I already know about cats)
—
Look, you gonna keep posting videos with zero context, I’m gonna keep mocking that.
(Don’t believe me?)
Of course. Our technoculture has already crossed the first gap, and Breakthrough Starshot suggests a moderately plausible way to cross the second – in the unlikely event it survives.
In fact, you could say it’s already crossed all three, since it is able to gather information on distant galaxies.
Purr. Whine to get out. Whine to get in. Scratch your hair, in winter.
(Cats do lots of things)
Um, welcome to the real world.
No moon base, even.
—
Point is orders of magnitude, no?
Big threshold gap between planetary, interplanetary, interstellar, and intergalactic endeavours.
Lots of zeroes, alas that Einstein got it right.
Time of travel, energy requirements, Lorenz factors, all that sort of shit.
Fucking vapourware, I’ve always hated that shit.
We gathered information on distant galaxies back in the days before we got fire; it’s called “looking up at the sky at night”.
Remember the topic at hand? Fermi “paradox”.
Israel’s Propaganda Campaign To Silence Critics
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Z1i0UbAyrpk
You think cats look up at the sky at night?
Why would they not?
And they have damn good night vision.
So, they too can gather information on distant galaxies
(Whoo! Big bar to cross!)
Whatever that video may be (again, no context), clearly that Campaign has failed.
I mean, there are Critics who are not Silenced, right?
—
Look: naked links with no context and vague headlines, not a good technique.
Maybe, I dunno, some sort of context? Some adumbration?
Anyway. Israel is obs no good at silencing critics, since critics criticise Israel.
So, technically, that video should have been titled “Israel’s Failed Propaganda Campaign To Silence Critics”, no?
(Bad titling, right there!)
Meanwhile, in the real world:
Thirty-Five Degrees Celsius. In Winter.
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1816147426308227119
In Southern Africa. If its that hot now, what’s Summer going to be like temperatures~wise?
FWIW. Skukuza is the administrative centre of the Kruger National Park & has a population of 1,600 people :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skukuza
Whilst Hoedspruit is a place named after a hat being washed a way by a river in flood – yes really, Wikipage :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoedspruit
Source : https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/24/rashida-tlaib-netanyahu-israel-gaza
Just heard about that here Kyle Kulinski – Secular talk -Netanyahu’s Disgusting lie-filled speeech nearly twenty minutes long.
AJ analysis here : https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/7/24/key-takeaways-from-netanyahus-speech-and-the-protests-outside-us-congress too.
@22. KG : “Y’know – a hundred million years is quite a long time.”
Its relative. Astronomically? Interms of deep Time? Not so much..
Xanthë @ #7 and CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain, @ #8, thank you!
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian US-politics liveblog. From there:
HuffPo – “‘I Approve This Message’: Kamala Harris Instantly Uses Trump’s Own Words Against Him”: “That didn’t take long….”
That was cute! It’s old but I hadn’t seen it. Thanks!
JohnMorales@34, 35,
It may be that some critics have been silenced and some not. But in any case, there has been an Israeli campaign to silence as many as possibe, so your quibbles are just silly.
So what? If there’s a single “big gap” between planetary and interplanetary endeavours, it’s been crossed. If it isn’t a single big gap, but a series of smaller ones, then that rather undermines your point.
OMG! Bette Midler just released this video about the Supreme Court.
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=ArHkWrez7EI
Ms Miller is still going strong. Last time I saw her, she did a cameo in The Nanny (Fran accidently startles an old person so much he dies).
No Moon base YET so far. KG.
Robotic landing craft aside.
I do expect it will happen relatively soon.
Whether the US of A does it or China or somebody else.. we’ll see.
Hopefully in my lifetime sicne I’d love to see it. Hopefully a stepping stone to travelling much further and taking more giant leaps for Humanity as a whole & in peace and co-operation.
John Morales
OK. I will try to add more context to links, but it is hard to do when I am falling asleep (either daytime in the heat*, or at night)
.
we had +23° C which is ridicilous by Americsn standards… but my twisted metabolism thinks it is the Amazonas rain forest. Heat is crp.
-Noah, Eli and Heath should be coming up with another issue of Skepticrat soon, I will post a link.
WTF!? Just WT? Really NASA?
he Dumbest NASA Decision In Years? Why NASA is Being Forced To Ground Rover and Sent Ballast
@ birgerjohansson : “..it is hard to do when I am falling asleep (either daytime in the heat*, or at night)”
Can. Relate. So. Very. Very. Much.
I don’t think I’ve been fully awake (despite being “woke”” AF) in many years here personally.
SC in comment 41,
About time a knowledgeable official questioned Trump’s account!. See comment 351 in the previous set of Infinite Thread comments.
Seven years after Donald Trump tapped Chris Wray to lead the FBI, he now wants the director to “resign immediately.” It’s worth understanding why.
Being hit by shrapnel during an assassination attempt is bad enough. Trump did not have to lie to present his dramatic story to the RNC audience. It would serve Trump right if his whole victim shtick was undermined because he could not stop himself from exaggerating (lying).
Vice President Kamala Harris’ new 2024 campaign released its first video this morning, which emphasized “freedom” against a Beyonce soundtrack.
Video at the link.
Link
Bits and pieces of campaign news, as summarized by Steve Benen:
Link
Trump keeps Project 2025 in the news by repeatedly denying that he backs the plan, or that he knows anything about it. For once, Trump’s penchant for repetition is backfiring.
See also comment 496 in the previous set of Infinite Thread comments.
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-25/federal-court-herbicide-roundup-cancer/104142688
The main herbicide we use in bushcare – weeding basically – here.
Kind of funny … and pathetic.
Link
A bit of Olympics history that’s probly too oft forgot :
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-25/paris-olympics-first-50-50-male-female-athletes-alice-milliat/103908400
LucyMercury in the sky with diamonds..https://www.space.com/mercury-diamond-layer-10-miles-thick-nasa-messenger
Turns out our innermost planet is carbon rich and, well, extreme heat & pressure deep below surfaces..
Followup to comments 41 (SC), 51 and 52.
Josh Marshall:
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-26/hostage-rescue-organisation-says-israel-sabotaged-ceasefire/104144282
Democracy Docket
Newbern, Alabama Will Hold First Election Since 1965
By Courtney Cohn / July 24, 2024
Why people think the Trump shooting was a conspiracy | If You’re Listening | ABC News (17 mins long mini doco)
No, Harris is not Biden’s ‘border czar’
Trump coins ‘Laughing Kamala’ nickname—but the joke’s on him
Watch: Biden addresses nation for first time since dropping reelection bid
Video at the link. The video is 11 minutes long.
Excerpts:
Cartoon: Republican Women-Haters Club
Why Elon Musk suddenly wants to mask his Trump support
JD Vance isn’t the second coming of Sarah Palin—he’s far worse
We also should note that JD Vance was the strongly favored pick of Donald Trump Junior, and of Eric Trump. They were/are friends.
Yesterday (Wednesday), Trump reverted to ranting about some of the legal proceedings in which he is involved … or was involved:
Link to an article by Lisa Rubin.
Lots more details at the link, including Trump’s false claims about a gag order, about Judge Aileen Cannon’s reasoning, and more.
Pelosi says Netanyahu gave ‘the worst’ speech to Congress from any foreign leader
Nadler accuses Netanyahu of hypocrisy and dishonesty in address
What to know about Project 2025’s plan for agriculture, and how it could lead to ‘real chaos’
Guardian liveblog:
Peak Joseph Smith!
“GAM466 Out of Liberty”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=YuPbwt3TvKo
How a totally honest prophet escaped from prison.
Oh Honey, Are You Sure You Want To Send This Takedown Demand To Your Wonkette?
Fast-moving wildfire in the Canadian Rockies ravages the town of Jasper
The fire prompted 25,000 people to flee as it roared into the town overnight as a “wall of fire,” devastating up to half the structures in the picturesque resort.
Economic growth exceeds expectations
As the 2024 elections draw closer, Republicans want voters to believe the economy is awful. Reality keeps pointing in the opposite direction.
Democrats accuse Donald Trump of being a threat to democracy. This increasingly appears to be the one talking point that bothers him most.
Watch Kamala Harris praise power of educators in speech to teachers union
Kamala Harris is an excellent communicator.
Gotta love the way you conflate exploration with colonisation, KG.
Oh, right. Crashed some probes in some planets, landed some on our nearest neighbours.
Haven’t landed anyone on any other planet, but.
Again: how many orders of magnitude in the distances between planets in a solar system compared to stars in a galaxy and compared to galaxies in the cosmos?
NBC – “Fearing a Trump takeover, Justice Department alumni endorse Kamala Harris”:
https://x.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1816388042455654832
Video at the link.
Lynna, OM @ # 69, quoting a Kossack: According to CNN, Vance is the least-liked VP pick since 1980.
So they report that poll result all over.
Funny how nobody says, “Vance is the least-liked VP pick since George H.W. Bush.”
“Celebrating Dixie’s Golden Birthday with all the foxes!”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=kL4FBhlcNe0
Ha! Fox “News” cut the coverage of Kamala Harris’ speech with the claim it was a ‘campaign speech’.
As we all know Fox has never, ever broadcast a campaign speech by a Republican candidate, honest.
Trump only mentions Hannibal Lecter when he has bern talking about immigrants. He is conflating ‘asylum seekers’ with ‘insane asylum’ in his mind.
‘MAGA Voters Turn Against Trump For Weirdest Reason Possible’
Trump said a good thing…. and MAGA voters got angry.
New York Times:
Well, duh.
The Guardian:
Barr Pushed DOJ To Publicize Bogus Voter Fraud Claim Before 2020 Election, IG Finds
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/where-things-stand/heres-how-the-democratic-national-convention-is-going-to-work
Washington Post link
Justice Kagan calls for a way to enforce Supreme Court ethics code.
Justice Elena Kagan suggested Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. could appoint an outside panel of highly respected judges to review allegations of wrongdoing.
House GOP jets off on early vacation instead of funding government
JFC
https://www.wonkette.com/p/kamala-harris-ad-very-good-trump
Panther Luna got scared and spoke😳🐆
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=j3VvMo0_gt8
A rather shy black leopard. If I recall correctly, this one was a rescue from a circus. It is also terrified of horses.
“Scathing Atheist 597 Veep What You Sew Edition”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Dvvhsla9Fis
Guardian liveblog:
From tomh’s #62:
WTF to this whole story. Imagine being a black person in that town.
Quoted in Lynna’s #57:
It’s all so tired and inane and just recycled year after year after year after year. I can’t believe the Republican Party has nominated this fool three fucking times in a fucking row.
Josh Marshall Podcast – “Ep. 334: Yes We Kam”:
@100 SC (Salty Current): The Republican party has been eaten by the hard right. Starting with the Tea Party crowd they began pushing the moderates out of Congress and state governments. This set the stage for Trump and the MAGA crowd, who are remarkably vengeful. Even after Trump won they worked to remove anybody in the Republican party that had opposed Trump and they continued this when Trump lost. The Congressional Republicans are now mostly either hard right MAGA or spineless and most of the state parties are close to the same.
The Republican party is little but the party of Trump at this point and him running again in 2028 is very possible. He could run every 4 years until his death and win a significant nomination vote at this point, and this is likely to happen even if he has to run from prison.
Re: JM @ #102…
I wouldn’t put money on him being alive in 2028. Your point about him running from prison is–on the other hand–entirely possible. It’s been done twice before. Look up Eugene V. Debs and Lyndon LaRouche.
Hill: Trump won’t commit to debates yet
This is basically an excuse as the Democratic party convention will be in August so there won’t be any question by September when the next debate was scheduled. This is phrased such that it implies there will be a debate once the Democratic nominee is formally selected but there is a good chance it doesn’t happen. This gives Trump a chance to back out of the next debate and then load up negotiations after that with irrational demands.
@ 102
Oh, it’s goes back further than those dinguses. Reagan at the latest. Goldwater or McCarthy at the earliest.
Nature: AI models fed AI-generated data quickly spew nonsense
This is a perfectly predictable result but it is a significant problem for companies trying to get data to feed into a LLM. As more content on the internet is generated by AI and that content isn’t marked it gets harder and harder to get source data that isn’t AI generated.
The underlying problem here is that a LLM trained on LLM generated data ends up emphasizing the quirks of the previous generation of AI. Lets say you have a generation 1 LLM for pictures that slightly favors bikinis when no clothing is included in the prompt. This is a small quick caused by the pictures used to generate the generation 1 LLM had a bit too many bikini pictures. When you use the pictures generated by the generation 1 LLM to train a generation 2 LLM it will have an even bigger bias towards bikinis because it picks up on the generation 1 pattern and uses it to build it’s own pattern. This creates a feedback loop that makes each generation emphasize the quirks of the previous generation stronger.
@105 Akira MacKenzie: I was speaking specifically of the situation that put Trump in control of the Republican party.
The general problems of the Republican party certainly go back further. Politicians using fear to sell their campaign goes back as far as their are records, it can be seen in both Roman and Greek records. It was nothing new when McCarthy started the Red Scare.
Implicit generalisation.
‘Training [existant] artificial intelligence (AI) models on AI-generated text quickly leads to the models churning out nonsense, a study has found.’
(Not exactly a mature technology, is it?)
Also, remember: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_a_Strange_Loop
Zzzzzz…lemme sleep! Growl.
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/KPZffzcHeMcfbr1R/
The slow death spiral of the Republican party as a bona fide conservative party and with a smidgeon of concern for ordinary people started in the 1970s as the centrist Rockefeller Republicans were pushed out.
With Reagan it took a hard turn to the right. With the onset of talk radio and the malignancy that is Fox News the slippery slide was inevitable – consider the difference between Bob Dole and the later Republicans.
The astroturf Tea Party (in thrall to corporate interests) made populism really mainstream and it was probably inevitable that someone like Trump would show up and complete the process.
It is fortunate this someone was so goddamn inept and confused instead of someone like Dollfuss or Viktor Orban.
Oh, and I should have mentioned Nixon and the Southern strategy.
Biden’s Speech Got Under Trump’s Skin | Goodbye, Brat Summer | AP Debunking J D Vance Couch Sex Rumors.
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=NL1yGqQ3pnA
.
You know, it would be nice if someone had been as quick to debunk the claim that Danish newspaper published disrespectful Muhammed cartoons.
One of the imams who started the controversy included cartoons from a neo-nazi magazine which were obviously awful. But no one dared to correct the claim. This allowed the Saudi authorities to divert discontent towards Christians, leading in turn to Christians in Iraq being subjected to ethnic cleansing.
John Morales@23:
And yet, in the real world throwing a few zillion sand grains at a mountain range eventually erodes it into nubs. As KG and StevoR have pointed out, “time is long”.
Advantage: real world.
John Morales@30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35 …
Are you drunk?
Lynna@64:
Helping the people there is good. However, it’s still kinda shitty to do it motivated by the hope that then they’ll stay put because you don’t like them and you don’t want them to move closer to where you live, with the subtext being that the reason you don’t like them is the color of their skin, rather than helping them because you have a freaking heart.
Lynna@69:
Oh, no, they didn’t. Nazis don’t get to appropriate the words on the Apollo 1 fire memorial and then taint them forever. Grrr at this defilement!
Lynna@72:
Anyone else here thinking maybe Netanyahu is the Palpatine to Hamas’s Count Dooku? The whole war a scheme to make them both more powerful, followed eventually by a betrayal by Palpatine who, of course, wants all of that power for himself?
Lynna@77:
No mention of how Danielle “Drill, Baby, Drill” Smith is partially responsible for the fire she shed those crocodile tears over …
Stephen Colbert’s Cyborgasm: CrowdStrike Crashes The World |
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=pBsc7UYnHB0
And R2D2 will attempt to massage your back
The takeover of the Colorado GOP by the far right has led to weird things.
“Colorado GOP leaders meet under a bridge to hide from other members”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=zUwmPTqB-a8
Israel-Gaza war live: West Bank Hamas leader dies in Israeli custody, Palestinian authorities say
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/jul/26/israel-gaza-war-live-west-bank-hamas-leader-dies-in-israeli-custody-palestinian-authorities-say
‘Sadistic and manipulative’ ex-Spandau Ballet singer guilty of rape | UK news | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/jul/25/sadistic-and-manipulative-ex-spandau-ballet-singer-guilty-of
This wanker was in the band 2017-2019 so it was not in the heyday of the band.
BB, more like the gun pellets than the entropic threshold:
Nope. Not if the thrower is a monkey-type, as we are.
Throwing a few zillion sand grains at a mountain range with sufficient energy will do that, but in the game, you can’t really punch a wall a thousand times, never mind a billion times.
Try it for yourself.
Tap a glass pane with a toothpick.
Tap it a thousand times. Tap it ten billion times.
Same result.
(Just don’t tap it with a hammer, even once)
Threshold values, they are a thing in real life.
John Morales@30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35 …
Heh.
You’ve reached that point, eh?
Nope.
I’m having fun with you.
—
Here, for you:
PS BB, #34 has nothing whatsoever to do with you.
(Appropriating is not a good look)
OK, I know. Asynchronous comms, here.
Still.
Thing is, whether or not those comments are drunken ramblings, you have made no effort to even attempt to try to dispute them, have you, BB? You exemplify the informal logical fallacy with that silly attempt.
(Reality bites)
[drunk, eh?]
“Stephen Colbert’s Cyborgasm: CrowdStrike Crashes The World”
The world has not crashed.
So, that’s a straight out untruth.
(Surely you must appreciate my fact-checking, Birger!)
Congratulations Mick Jagger, 81 🍾
[I went to a lot of effort to avoid just pasting the link and having the video embed, as this platform wants to do. But still, local rules. I do try]
Source : https://www.space.com/nasa-perseverance-mars-rover-rock-ancient-life
New Scientist
“Read an extract from science fiction novella ‘All Systems Red’ by Martha Wells, which introduces Murderbot”
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2432953-read-an-extract-from-all-systems-red-by-martha-wells/
A much recommended book series, with both action and food for the brain.
The Thicket
(film)
Peter Dinklage as the Man With No Name
Betty Bowers on Jan 6th vs the failed assassination attempt on Trump under 3 mins long
A strong man
9http://youtube.com/post/UgkxURO9xL54ZYdUVxD_GHdVFNWw41mIRx22
BTW do not diss chicken. They are social, complex animals.
Trying again
http://youtube.com/post/UgkxURO9xL54ZYdUVxD_GHdVFNWw41mIRx22
Mike Johnson just said he wants to put a lot of people into ‘camps’.
.https://youtube.com/shorts/KQ2kaCpe0Dw
Dark Brandon:
‘A Special Message For The Cat Ladies’
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=CGzFirzMarM
The Guardian
“Doctor behind trial of HIV prevention drug recounts breakthrough moment”
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/jul/26/lenacapavir-drug-trial-linda-gail-bekker-treating-hiv-aids-africa-women-pregnancy
SC @100: “It’s all so tired and inane and just recycled year after year after year after year. I can’t believe the Republican Party has nominated this fool three fucking times in a fucking row.”
I am of the same mind.
JM @102. I keep thinking that the Republican Party is always in PURGE mode. It reminds me of religions that emphasize “purity.”
Barack and Michelle Obama called Vice President Kamala Harris to endorse her a couple of days ago, and they made official endorsement today.
Barack and Michelle Obama endorse Kamala Harris, throwing ‘full support’ behind her
The former president and his wife told Harris she would make a “fantastic” president in a call posted to social media on Friday.
Video at the link.
It is likely that at some point Barack Obama will join Kamala Harris on the campaign trail.
The stench of desperation and fear is strong:
Link
Cartoon: Tom the Dancing Bug attends Supreme Court Justice Roberts’ Umpiring Academy
Link
Link
Followup to SC’s comment 41, and to comments 51 and 52.
Yep, the “was it a bullet or not” argument is ongoing:
Link
Oh FFS.
Trump tells Netanyahu there will be ‘third world war’ if he loses in November
Trump is just spewing hot air and bluster along with his usual lies. He does enjoy focusing on upping the fear factor.
JD Vance is now claiming that all of his past and current comments about “childless cat ladies” were sarcasm.
I don’t think Vance is going to get away with trying to back away from those comments.
Link
https://www.wonkette.com/p/ny-da-covering-up-boning-a-porn-star
NY DA: Covering Up Boning A Porn Star Not An Official Presidential Act, ACTUALLY
Trump can make sad eyes all he wants, but those NY 34 felony counts probably aren’t going anywhere.
Biden is moving in the right direction.
http://youtube.com/post/UgkxxvxqRZvX7KFmGk2JDNmP86PkBvhylGZH
https://www.wonkette.com/p/laughing-non-procreative-sex-rainbows
https://www.wonkette.com/p/kim-davis-is-back-yall-and-shes-coming
Re: Lynna, OM @ #143…
My hope is that Merchan sentences Trump to prison for long enough that the actual time in prison comes to 4 years…then require him to report to prison on 20 Jan 2025.
NYT:
How Some States Are Making It Harder to Register Voters
By Michael Wines / July 26, 2024
Re: Lynna, OM @ #146…
But they won’t go after the first big case–Loving v. Virginia. That might upset Clarence Thomas, not to mention Ginni…
Trump Gets Zero Percent in Michigan Poll of Black voters
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=vh0j5PtHmUM
New York Times link
Olympics Live Updates: Opening Ceremony Floats Down Seine as Paris Investigates Rail Sabotage
The sprawling ceremony is being held under rainy skies. Earlier, coordinated arson attacks disrupted service on three high-speed links to Paris, causing delays affecting more than a million travelers.
NBC link
2024 Paris Olympics live updates: Opening ceremony underway as Team USA travels toward Eiffel Tower
Events are already underway in France, but today’s procession down the Seine will formally open the the Summer Games.
Excerpts:
“One of the weird lies the elites have been told is that it’s very easy to start a family when you’re 45,” Vance claimed. “God says otherwise.”
More at the link.
The New York Times can’t say anything nice: The Obamas Called Kamala Harris. Cameras Rolled. Hokeyness Ensued.
“Calling to offer their endorsement, the former president and first lady sounded like parents in a Lifetime movie talking to their child at summer camp.”
In the news, an example of dedication:
I do not know enough chemistry to judge if this may be hype or not. If true, it is BIG news for elderly people.
“New study shows ‘dancing molecules’ can regenerate cartilage in 3 days
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-07-molecules-regenerate-cartilage-days.html
Associated Press:
It’s called the Federal Prison Oversight Act.
More good news:
Link
FBI confirmed: “What struck former President Trump in the ear was a bullet, whether whole or fragmented into smaller pieces, fired from the deceased subject’s rifle.”
Trump, going off the rails while speaking at the “Believers Summit” in Florida.
NYT:
tomh, do you think there is any difference between [Trump, going off the rails] and [Trump, doing what Trump does]?
(I mean, man bites dog is remarkable, but dog bites man is not)
—
Isn’t it about time (what, 9 years by now?) that you stopped pretending that what Trump does is “off the rails”?
Re 65:
If there has to be a dismissive nickname repeated ad nauseam, I’d vote for “Horrible Harris”, because that’s what “kamala” means in Finnish.
(Also, I like the seriousness of consistently using surname as the primary reference for politicians)
Question for any lawyers out there… What would happen if a prosecutor questioned Trump’s mental ability to participate in his own defense? Could a judge order a psych evaluation by a government selected practitioner, whether Trump wanted one or not?
John Morales @ 160
Trump jumped the tracks directly after becoming president. Ever since, he has been plowing along beside the rails, zig-zaging across the landscape.
Journalists have no name for this behaviour in an elected official, because prior to Trump such individuals had to face consequences.
Went off the rails was the actual idiom employed.
So. If he went off (‘jumped, as you paraphrase) directly after becoming president, then it follows that he is not on the rails any more (or do you think he jumped/went again after that?) and therefore he can’t possibly be jumping them again.
What a silly claim.
Thing is, only Congress or the House or the Supreme Court can hold him in check, because the USA has for decades ceded ever more power to the executive branch, and those are the rules.
(All are political bodies, including the SC. Weird to us Aussies, but there you go)
John Morales@81,
John, exploration and even data-gathering, as well as colonisation, are “endeavours” (your word). Hence there is no single point at which thresholds from planetary to interplanetary to interstellar to intergalactic “endeavours” are crossed. Rather simple, really.
Secular talk – World Has Hottest Day IN HISTORY As Climate Collapse Accelerates | The Kyle Kulinski Show 9 mins long.
Source : https://www.space.com/uranus-moon-ariel-hidden-ocean-james-webb-space-telescope
Link
Trump, even further off the rails, in closing at the Believers Summit, telling believers they’ll never have to vote again.
School Vouchers Such A Huge Success That They’re Bankrupting Arizona
That’s what the GOP wants for everyone, hooray!
A cave discovered on the moon opens up new opportunities for settlement by humans
https://phys.org/news/2024-07-cave-moon-opportunities-settlement-humans.html
Trump on Friday: “Harris does not like Jews”
(she has a Jewish husband)
“She wants to have abortions even after birth”
(scare tactics aimed at low-information voters who believe anything)
A question for Americans.
Surely it would be possible to make fire breaks perpendicular to the prevailing summer wind direction in the Californian forests? I know the wind brings embers deep into the terrain in front of the fires so if a buffer zone was planted with succulents or cacti after each firebreak the embers would not easily start new fires.
How a militant anti-abortion activist is influencing GOP politics
More at the link. I snipped a lot of details and examples.
A bit of a random thought. Conventional wisdom says two things about presidential elections:
1) The incumbent has an advantage.
2) People disaffected with the status quo vote for the newcomer.
Is it possible that switching candidates, from Biden to Harris, benefits from both points? I.e. she get both the benefit of being on the side of the incumbent, but also being somewhat new?
Unmanned airship produces accurate information about bark beetle damage | National Land Survey of Finland
https://www.maanmittauslaitos.fi/en/topical_issues/unmanned-airship-produces-accurate-information-about-bark-beetle-damage-koli
It is the European spruce bark beetle whose damage is automatically spotted by cameras operating across several wavelengths inside the automated airship.
@172 birgerjohansson: Trumps throwing stuff out at random to see what sticks.
He is also throwing out bits about her being a communist, Marxist and socialist, generic Republican insulting Democrat stuff. He has tried conspiracy theories about her being behind Biden’s disasters but that doesn’t work on several levels. In one bit I saw he kept coming back to her being a woman but had just enough self control to avoid saying anything offensive about it. He tried to make an issue about the way she laughs.
Apparently he is paying some attention to his campaign advisors though because he has not raised the obvious issue of gun control. That would be bad for him for the same reason he has been avoiding abortion. His right wing base expects him to take a hard line position but it’s one that is unpopular with the general population.
A key part of Trump’s campaigns has always been finding a way to insult his opponents. Nothing has stuck with Harris so far but he has only been at it a few days.
Big drop in US kids, teens misusing prescription meds
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-07-big-kids-teens-misusing-prescription.html
Good news, for a change.
@birgerjohansson #172:
“A Russian friend explained vranyo this way: ‘You know I’m lying, and I know that you know, and you know that I know that you know, but I go ahead with a straight face, and you nod seriously and take notes.'” —David Shipler
Government vranyo and fascist aspirational lies invite allies to participate in knowingly repeating them as a movement to warp reality for political gain. I recall having seen articles, but today I was unable to find a tidy link.
I just thought I should mention that a woman with an immigranty name became the first olympic medalist for Sweden.
“Trouble For Trump As Nikki Haley Voters PAC Endorses Kamala Harris”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=dx4m-9_ea30
Here are two items I want to share; one is evil, the other funny
1) I read a report the israeli military has virtually destroyed all healthcare in gaza and as a result, there is a polio outbreak. Nastyyahoo’s response: get all israeli soldiers vaccinated for polio immediately. THESE ARE MONSTERS.
2) Our Heroic Heretic is laughing his ass off:
The sheople have two new popular games:
Pickle Ball – the favorite of pickle brains
and
Cornhole – for those who are so ignorant they think linguistics is a type of pasta
(apparently these two types of sexual activity are now mainstream at retirement homes.)
A few updates from the Olympics:
Link
@173 birgerjohansson wrote: Surely it would be possible to make fire breaks perpendicular to the prevailing summer wind direction in the Californian forests?
I reply: 50 years ago when we were in our late teens, we used to drive up the MANY firebreaks all over Southern California mountains and forests to get to the top for a great view of So. Cal. And, there were manned fire watch towers everywhere so fires were detected when they had barely started and put out before burning thousands of acres. However, on the other hand, preventing all fire is as bad a forest management practice as tRUMP saying we should rake the forests.
Welcome to the new dark ages: sponsored by repugnantcants and fossil fuel corporations.
Dear Lynna, OM, I appreciate all the info you provide about the olympics. And, I’m not criticizing you. However, I do get tired of the mainstream snews covering ONLY ‘team usa’. Everyone in my organization has always been enthusiastic about hearing the international aspects of the olympics.
shermanj@185, good point. There’s way too much USA-centric coverage of the Olympics.
Link
Cyclist Grace Brown defies the wet to deliver Australia’s first gold of Paris Olympics
Followup to comments 173 and 184.
Firebreaks don’t work well in high winds. Embers can be blown for miles. Also, fires frequently jump highways, which in some conditions may be effective firebreaks.
New York Times link
Kelly emerges as a top contender for Harris’s VP pick
Headline may be slightly misleading. Kelly is near the top, but has not been officially chosen.
<
blockquote>Hence there is no single point at which thresholds from planetary to interplanetary to interstellar to intergalactic “endeavours” are crossed.</.blockquote>
An analytically-false conclusion.
The threshold from planetary to interplanetary involves interplanetary travel;
The threshold from interplanetary to interstellar involves interstellar travel;
The threshold from interstellar to intergalactic involves intergalactic travel.
There they are.
—
And remember, the whole conceit was based on the expectation that we’d get physical visitations if there were people out there, which is a monkey-thing to think. There’s no good reason for it.
tomh: “Trump, even further off the rails [blah]”
You’ve stuffed up the metaphor; off the rails is off the rails, the distance is irrelevant.
Also, he very much is on the rails as far as his script and his message and his schtick at those rallies for the MAGA faithful True Believers.
(Seriously, you are about as factual as he is, given your claim)
@139 Lynna, OM wrote: We are one step closer to the close of Louis DeJoy’s career as a public servant.
I reply: I truly hope so. He has done so much damage, destroying millions of dollars in equipment, making the mail slow and unreliable, jacking up prices needlessly, etc. All in the name of ‘corporate welfare’ for his CEO friends. He is a corrupt thug.
@187 Lynna, OM wrote: Firebreaks don’t work well in high winds.
I reply: Yes, another problem that has gotten worse over the years. Another problem we face is people are more frequently building homes in dangerous areas (fire and flood) because the zoning is so irresponsible.
@170 Lynna, OM wrote: School Vouchers Such A Huge Success That They’re Bankrupting Arizona. That’s what the GOP wants for everyone, hooray!
I reply: We’ve seen the background of this exposed. Wealthy people whose children are already in private schools are now sucking up money that wasn’t intended for that purpose. Religious schools benefit tremendously. There is no oversight, no busses to transport students and pumping pure religious propaganda instead of providing a balanced education. We have teachers in our organization and they all say that scarizona is destroying public schools that could be greatly improved by those massive funds just to satisfy the greed of repugnantcant and xtian nationalism interests. Our society is being torn apart. tRUMP’s remark about WWIII is already coming true in a stealth way with project 2025, etc.
@191 John Morales wrote: tomh: “Trump, even further off the rails [blah]” You’ve stuffed up the metaphor; off the rails is off the rails, the distance is irrelevant. . . . He very much is on the rails as far as his script and his message
I reply: You got that right, John. A member of our organization (older than dirt) dragged out an old related saying, ‘run him out of town on a rail’
OOPS, if that wasn’t clear ‘run him out of town on a rail’ was referring to tRUMP! and JD vancehole can ride it with him.
shermanj, :)
No worries.
“Beating Donald Trump Is Vital”: Mehdi Hasan on Joe Biden Dropping Out, Kamala Harris (notably being better than biden on -ed), Gaza & More via Democracy Now! youtube channel and 15 mins long.
(There is an interesting diagram of types of tanks lost by Russia -at the end of this video- that supports the claim really old tanks increasingly appearing at the front during this year)
Combat Veteran React
“Vid Exposes RU Sending 62 Year Old Tanks to Front!”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=bpAs0QIoJoo
Last night’s episode of Aussie ABC’s Planert America show featruing interviews with Dr Howard Dean and Congress rep Seth Moulton – 50 minutes long.
If You’re Listening – Why nobody challenged Kamala Harris for the nomination just over 15 minutes long & a good analysis show I’d recommend watching. (Aussie ABC again.) ON LBJ and Biden, 1968 and now. Including a previous nomination of a literal pig during Vietnam’s American War.
J.D. Vance has a burnt monkey testicle problem (2022)
Vance and his venture capital firm were heavily invested in a biotech company that operates contrary to the anti-science anti-woke ‘values’ he espouses in campaigns.
CW: Mentions of animal suffering, which also occurred at the company.
Lynna@168:
They left out “and capitalist greed”.
They should face a war crimes tribunal.
Meanwhile, I have more corroborating evidence for my thesis that the push to oust Biden was orchestrated by rich asswipes sore at Lina Khan’s trustbusting:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/26/taanstafl/#stay-hungry
https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/26/harris_hoffman_ftc_boss/
They may have done the right thing for the wrong reasons; and Harris will be under tremendous pressure to rein in these fierce advocates for working Joes. I hope she will win the election and then tell these bozos to go pound sand.
And finally, on the topic of the Fermi Paradox (cue groans):
I’ve looked into the “grabby aliens” notion someone mentioned. It could explain much — but only if very fast expansion (1/3c or so) is possible. That’s not likely to be compatible with biological intelligences who have to set up a new civilization and build up its economy between each “hop” and the next, not even if they carried out the hops themselves at 100% of c somehow. So either there’s FTL (and likely time travel) or the grabby aliens are machine intelligences launching tiny, fast “starwisps” that infest a target system with nano-replicators able to rapidly assemble the infrastructure to launch the next wave of probes. This also is problematic, this time on thermodynamic grounds: where does the energy come from? Whither heat dissipation? Very fast exponentiation of a replicator is not easy in a hard vacuum if you don’t want to fry. Biological life tops out at a 15-20 minute doubling interval (bacteria and viruses) for a reason; and avoiding hard vacuum means dealing with deep gravity wells, also a handicap.
On the other hand, FTL (and time travel, likely to go along with it) seems rather far-fetched. Supposing it were possible, though, what happens if grabby aliens have time machines? Well, to avoid paradoxes it might be necessary for them to stay out of their own past light cones, and each other’s if a single one doesn’t colonize the vast majority of spacetime — it may even be enforced by the universe (chronology protection conjecture). In that event, the only places where “fallow” worlds exist and might give rise to novel intelligences and civilizations is inside of the past light cones of the births of such time-colonizers. Any such will see a fallow, uncultivated universe in their telescopes; and one from each such cone will go on to become one of the time-colonizers. This is consistent with the universe we observe, if we are proto-grabby-time-travelers (or doomed to collapse and failure).
More on anti-Khan agitation by assholes:
https://truthout.org/articles/sanders-rebukes-billionaire-effort-to-get-harris-to-dump-antitrust-champion-khan/
Re: birgerjohansson @ #198…
I’m waiting to see how long it is before Russian T-34 tanks start showing up in Ukraine.
Birger,
Yeah, he does. Cute, really.
What he does is watch stuff and opine.
Rah rah rah, all good.
—
Bekenstein Bound:
Why? Thread is endless.
Pure speculation pretending to be knowledge.
(bah)
You do know you’re wallowing in it, no?
More speculation.
(What, is that supposed to be a fact of nature?)
It seems so, does it?
(Clearly, it does to you)
—
So, perhaps consider this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tractatus_Logico-Philosophicus#Proposition_7
whheydt, expertise will help, instead of a rahrahrah combat verteran reactor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF-S4ktINDU
BTW, I’ve already mentioned Covert Cabal and their analysis using public data and satellite video imagery.
Amazing what crowdsourced intelligence can achieve.
(Thing is, I don’t spam links to my favourite YouTubers)
Here: https://www.youtube.com/c/CovertCabal
… he says, immediately before spamming a link to his favorite YouTuber.
Childless cat ladies who get shit done.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/KuEZmGdL8HxfMxK7/
“Japan’s Tiny Forests are Thriving in Britain – here’s why”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=R0d7Hox5J4M
John Morales @ 206
I like diagrams.
.
BTW if Republicans want more entertaining crazies they should import some tory politicians. There are a lot of unemployed ones available now.
With iron sights at 1 km using a 110 year old rifle.
“6.5 x 55 Swedish Mauser 1155 yards (1056m)”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Xm-359DgpjA
I can get enthusiastic about old stuff that puts new stuff to shame. (But it was not so expensive to add more work hours to get better quality, a consequence of poor standards of living back then).
Bullshit. It’s simply evidence that rich asswipes will pressure anyone in or near political power. What your “thesis” needs is actual evidence of the “orchestration” you were rabbiting on about while damning anyone saying Biden should step aside as a patsy of said asswipes; while the evidence that Biden was going to lose should have been fucking obvious to anyone with eyes in their head – and clearly was obvious to Democratic leaders and activists at multiple levels. There was no “orchestration” required. The surge of relief and enthusiasm for Harris, which is probably due to her not being Biden more than to her own qualities, validates the polling which showed deep public dissatisfaction with being presented with a Biden vs Trump re-reun, and specifically a large proportion of Democratic voters wishing that Biden would step aside.
John Morales@190,
(a) That’s not what you said earlier – you simply mentioned “endeavours”.
(b) Why must travel involve actual monkeys rather than the machines they manufacture?
(c) Since the Earth-Moon system is sometimes and reasonably described as a double planet, that threshold is not an unambiguous one.
On what grounds do you think that none of the “people out there” wouldn’t have “monkey” thoughts and attitudes? After all, in the one case we can examine, it’s monkeys (literally, in cladistic terms) which have overrun the planet they evolved on and begun interplanetary “endeavours” with those monkey attitudes.
KG:
I don’t have eidetic recall.
Quote me, please?
Whatever made you imagine that was what I was expressing?
Quote me, please?
Wrong; it is unambiguous one, it merely depends on one’s definition of ‘planet’.
You want to say landing on a planet’s satellite is the very same as an interplanetary landing, go right ahead.
Basically, you are playing language-games.
Point is obvious.
(But, sure, persevere. Assert that the Moon is the nearest planet to Earth)
This whole dynamic is so tiresome.
Quote me, please?
John Morales@214,
If you can’t remember what you’ve said earlier, it’s not my fault. Fuck off.
Sabine Hossenfelder:
“Groundbreaking New Solar Energy System – Too Good to be True?”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=maqwEI3VpTA
So a jailbird launches a product that converts sunlight to electricity with an efficiency with – get this- 3000%!
This guy should work for Boris Johnson or Trump.
Trump and crypto:
Link
JD Vance benefitted from contributions by crypto and other tech companies.
Matina Stevis-Gridneff and Zolan Kanno-Youngs, writing for The New York Times :
KamalaHQ:
Audio at the link.
https://x.com/KamalaHQ/status/1816884505942065601
Washington Post link
Inside the powerful Peter Thiel network that anointed JD Vance.
A small influential network of right-wing techies orchestrated Vance’s rise in Silicon Valley — and then the GOP. Now the industry stands to gain if he wins the White House.
More at the link.
The Guardian
Women often outperform men in Olympic shooting. Is it time for open events? | Paris Olympic Games 2024 |
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/jul/28/women-often-outperform-men-in-olympic-shooting-is-it-time-for-open-events
Paris ‘sorry’ for any offense to Catholics over Olympics opening ceremony – Raw Story
https://www.rawstory.com/paris-sorry-for-any-offense-to-catholics-over-opening-olympic-ceremony/
“US Air Force B-2 bomber used in exercise to sink surface ship [USS Tarawa] with low-cost bomb” | CNN
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/07/27/asia/rimpac-air-force-b2-bomber-low-cost-bomb-sinking-exercise-intl-hnk-ml/index.html
Normally not a fan of the military industrial complex but if this makes Xi cool down a bit, it is a good thing.
NYT
Elon Musk Shares Manipulated Harris Video, in Seeming Violation of X’s Policies
By Ken Bensinger / July 27, 2024
A 15-minute video by Dr Ben Miles
“We Just Discovered “Dark” Oxygen on Earth – Breakthrough Explained”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=iixZ6UptVNo
As an aside, Finnish news outlets have recently reported on the US “cat lady” discourse. However, since the Finnish language doesn’t have a separate word for “lady”, it comes out as “catwoman”, and I just love the ambiguity of connotations here.
Kamala Harris is Finnish Catwoman!
The Guardian
Irish author Edna O’Brien dies aged 93
https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/jul/28/irish-author-edna-obrien-dies
She was a literary icebreaker that got banned in Irland and had to struggle as a single parent in London.
Doug Emhoff, husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, has a message for Donald Trump:
YouTube link
James B Sikking (Lt. Hunter in Hill Street Blues) dies at 90.
KG, tsk.
If you can’t quote the specific claim (“Big threshold gap between planetary, interplanetary, interstellar, and intergalactic endeavours”) in a relevant context, expect such retorts.
The relevance of these endeavours is the degree of difficulty involved as they progress past each threshold. Each time, it becomes orders of magnitude harder, with concomitant increase in resources required and time taken.
(You want to imagine Star Trek as real, go for it)
This is thinking like a monkey: if we could, we would, but we can’t, so we don’t.
How come others have not?
(aka the “Fermi Paradox”)
Council of Geeks – About those Neil Gaiman allegations (and the outlet that broke the story) (1:59:49)
Meh.
So, Neil Gaiman is a bit of a creep.
(So?)
You know, I still enjoyed a lot of Piers Anthony’s stuff.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Color_of_Her_Panties means he’s not readable, to some)
O, so damning!
Yup.
A STONING!
(It’s the only option left)
Ah, gotta say it.
His age is O so relevant!
His wealth is O so relevant!
His prestige is O so relevant!
But a woman in their 20s?
Well!
Surely such a woman lacks his age, his means, his wealth, and his prestige.
(Argument by insinuation, not a good look)
John Morales@231:
Presumes we’re at the absolute pinnacle of technological capability. And thus violates the Copernican principle by placing you, me, and the other posters to this thread at a special, privileged, unique point in history, the moment that that pinnacle was reached (since obviously we weren’t there just a few years ago).
(Come on, what’s with all these fastballs right over the plate? Pitch me something more difficult to hit, I’m getting bored.)
Somehow, I am not surprised. <smh>
[snip remainder of what looks suspiciously like rape apologia]
I’d say “you disappoint me”, but that ship sailed … what, around a week ago?
Just about.
What?
Care to share the referential and inferential chain that made you proclaim that is your conclusion?
Since you are newish here, and unfamiliar with my nearly two-decade corpus here, be aware that I subscribe to the anthropic principle. And to the principle of mediocrity.
(Different anthropormism, of course. Don’t get hung up on the labels)
<snicker>
You’re getting those, except you’re not ‘getting’ those.
I work on more than one level, on more than one band.
(It is fun, of course)
I like John Ringo, too.
(heh)
Fuck’s sake. You actually ever read that work?
What a stupid thing to say.
As if I somehow cared about your feeble, ignorant and conformist desires.
Bah.
Be as disappointed as you want to be; but also be aware that is one of many buttons that you might be able to push on naive, ignorant plebs, but never me.
But hey, to balance the cosmic scales: that you claim to be (heh, O so credibly!) disappointed with me is not disappointing to me.
(What it is, is informative)
That’s probably the weakest, saddest, most pathetic addendum anyone has essayed unto me this week.
I know it’s supposed to come off as somehow superior, but (and this is what the poseurs miss) it has to work both on the literal and the contextualised metaphorical level to have any weight.
(Part of my inscrutable technique, but with specimens such as this it’s not like they can copy that)
Anyway, to condescend such that perhaps apprehension might be at hand, if ‘just about’ is equivalent to ‘not quite’.
—
Seriously, stop trying to establish your ego, and start being normal.
(Makes life ever so much easier!)
[JM proceeds to froth out several paragraphs of additional screed]
Yeah. That’s definitely the reaction of someone who doesn’t care.
:)
You do amuse, BB.
:)
It is your desires about which I do not care, should you care to parse me.
I do care that I enjoy your clueless caperings.
Most amusing, you are, and I care about being amused.
(Carry on. May hope never wither within you)
BTW, notice the displacement?
Me: “Care to share the referential and inferential chain that made you proclaim that is your conclusion?”
BB: something about my reaction, as they claim to perceive it.
—
Still, the answer is clear.
Can’t avoid it by attempting to avoid it, that’s a neophyte trap.
You care not to even attempt the effort to try to share the referential and inferential chain that made you proclaim that is your conclusion.
Evidently, for did you care to do so, you would have at least have made the attempt, with such competence as lays within your grasp.
But you did not, did you?
Feeble bluster, that’s what I got.
—
Gotta love a live specimen. Shame they never last.
(I do care about my amusement, and you provide. Gotta make that clear, for such as you, beebee)
BTW, regarding “[JM proceeds to froth out several paragraphs of additional screed]”:
Be aware there is a commenter here (who is actually pretty clue) employing that ‘nym and who is not me.
(Whether that matters to you, not up to me to say, but I did inform you)
John Morales,
Sorry, I shouldn’t have told you to fuck off. But I’m not going to trawl through everything you’ve said about the Fermi paradox to find the most apposite quotes to support my interpretation of your position – I have a lot of more useful andor more enjoyable ways to spend my time.
KG, you are a gentleman.
(And you should know I am not being sarcastic)
Star Trek assumes the physically impossible: FTL travel. Point to anything I (or Bekenstein Bound) have said in this argument that does the same. And note that any argument relating to the Fermi paradox that relates directly or indirectly to the motivations of hypothetical aliens has to apply to all conceivable aliens if it is to have any force. And note also that your constant references to “monkey-things to think” and similar are (a) tedious and silly and (b) in no way establish or strengthen your position. I shall probably end my participation in this argument here, but I’m not promising – you may say something sufficiently annoying (or, much less likely, interesting) that I will be motivated to resume.
“It’s worse than that, Jim.”
“Ya canna break the laws o’physics!”
—
[oops, did I do a Birger?]
By the same token, choosing Kelly would be likely to reduce the enthusiasm for Kelly among the more leftish/progressive Democratic and independent voters; in particular, he’s an uncritical supporter of Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza – although Shapiro is apparently even worse with regard to trying to shut down pro-Palestinian protests. And many of those whom a Kelly or Shapiro choice would alienate are likely to actually campaign for Harris if she refrains from alienating them, which will not be the case for those in the “John McCain-mold”.
“…enthusiam for Harris…” of course@247
Why so suddenly so formal?
Mate!
The only “argument”, such as there is, relates to my critiques of simplistic and unimaginative claims about the so-called Paradox. If you want to be with it, you have to grok the origins of the disputation and its basis.
—
Heh.
Me monkey! Me fling poo! Too!
Ooook!
Mind you, whether or not they are tedious and/or bolstering my position (the position you either don’t get or pretend to not get, but which you do not get either way), it is quite noticeable you don’t even pretend to try to dispute them.
But sure, just ignore those considerations.
After all, they’re hardly conclusive towards some desirable conclusion, are they?
—
Huh. Are you really crawling and groping thus to pretend to have extricated yourself out of your conceptual quagmire?
Kudos for the effort, but, honestly, it was not worth it. Not even slightly.
It’s not a matter of presuming that all possible intelligent expansionist $THINGIES$ think like us monkeys.
—
As is by now routine, I ask the inevitable question which shall unfortunately be ignored: do you dispute that you and I are monkey-types?
(Again, for the umpteenth time: sample size of one, not that great for inferential generalising)
ScienceAlert
Surprise Hair Loss Breakthrough? Sugar Gel Triggers Robust Regrowth (NB only lab mice so far)
https://www.sciencealert.com/surprise-hair-loss-breakthrough-sugar-gel-triggers-robust-regrowth
John Morales@249,
We are, cladistically, monkeys, as I’ve already said. So we are “monkey-types”. So what? Monkeys vary widely in their ecological roles and hence in their mentalities. As I said, the tedious repetition of this silly trope adds nothing to any argument you might have.
No, it’s a matter of you presuming that they all don’t.
“Bernie Sanders denounces ‘war criminal’ Benjamin Netanyahu’s US Congress adress.”
.https://youtube.com/shorts/ZmQfAA_m0g0
You could have had this guy as president. Yes, I know, Biden very narrowly beat ASCCFDT*
*I like Mano Singham’s adjucisted sex criminal convicted felin Donald Trump.
“Did UK Ports Fail to Understand Brexit?”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=u-NekdEhZMQ
Summary: Neither BoJo nor Sunak had any intention to fully implement border checks on goods, because the disruption of trade would have guaranteed a lost election!
Aussie ABC Media Watch looks at the Murdoch rhetoric attacking Kamala Harris here :
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/episodes/kamala/104156094
Don Old
http://youtube.com/post/UgkxVTNhgpVPJVJbleGH06BpBAvZyUKHo78P
There is a 30% chance of a strong geomagnetic storm on Tuesday.
This stuff should be on TV ads everywhere in USA
“Maddow on Washington State Republicans taking a stand against democracy”
.https://youtube.com/shorts/hrd4NHagmEo
This Fish Injects opioid venom into its Enemies:
The Fang Blenny from the Filippines
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=-hB92he8lho
Bits and pieces of campaign news, as summarized by Steve Benen:
[source: CBS Mornings on X]
As Donald Trump peddles ridiculous predictions, sensible observers should take note: This guy’s crystal ball clearly doesn’t work.
Cartoon: Too many things are happening
Link
Gun crimes
JON STEWART says Republicans are the problem #shorts subscribe for more!
.https://youtube.com/shorts/h88YxKDEyWk
Trump is weird
http://youtube.com/post/Ugkx3bs_CJfmDRQOdMo2PtE6IZNIker0T339
KG@245:
More nuanced: the less rare civilizations are in time and space, the more rare highly aggressive expansion has to be for it to be at all likely for Earth not to have been long-ago colonized (or consumed, etc.) … if aggressive expansion is 1 in a million there could have been thousands in the Milky Way in the last 4Gy without being a problem, but if aggressive expansion is more like 1 in 6 then there’s unlikely to have been more than a handful of prior civilizations in the MW during that timespan.
Of course, we’ve no real information about either the frequency of civilizations arising nor the frequency with which they expand aggressively. Only some circumstantial evidence that the product of those two numbers is nearly certain to be below a certain amount.
Donald Trump has a habit of flip-flopping after meeting with wealthy potential donors. Take his approach to cryptocurrencies, for example.
Link
Conservatives In Chaos! Your Sunday Shows Roundup
We watch so you don’t have to.
“Complex life on Earth began around 1.5 billion years earlier than previously thought, new study claims”
https://phys.org/news/2024-07-complex-life-earth-began-billion.html
Take this with a grain of salt, but if the Trump clones are failing for these reasons, it is a good omen for the post-Trump world.
‘Republican Candidates Are Freaking Out As Trump Dooms Their Election Chances.’
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=UQQBnk-w7-8
Republican mayor in 3rd largest city in Arizona endorses Harris
https://meidasnews.com/news/republican-mayor-of-3rd-largest-city-in-az-endorses-harris
Skepticrat 230 Veep State Edition
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=I2rQGdqOox
DJ Pants? I like it. If he doesn’t pronounce “Kamala” correctly thst is what we should call him.
Correction:
The “U” got deleted somehow.
But I still think JD Vance shoukd be DJ Pants. And f*cking a couch was the most relatable aspect of him, why did they debunk that?
Sorry about the link.
‘Goth’ pubs in Scotland (The Gothenburg system)
https://www.facebook.com/share/ssoP4r8gveJ5c2U1/
The governor of California has now ordered the “humane” removal of people who are too poor to have a home. I take it this means they will be sedated before he sets them on fire?
KG:
It’s certainly having its intended effect.
Also, remember the origins of the discussion?
The spat began because I noted the anthropomorphism implicit in the very question.
(A little linguistic joke, plus I drive the point home)
You are mistaken.
I am not presuming anything, I’m just not excluding that possibility from consideration.
MAGA Resurrects Most Vile Non-Citizen Voting Hysteria As It Flails In Attacking Harris
In the wake of Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential bid, Republicans are reigniting their manufactured paranoia about immigration and the myth of non-citizen voting in increasingly vile ways.
Some people in the crowd of rich donors reportedly winced and shook their heads after the world’s richest man told them they should tell their friends to vote for Donald Trump.
Trump can’t figure out what to do about Harris, Mark Sumner, author
[Trump can’t figure out what to do about almost everything.]
They’re Hearing What It’s Really Like in Ukraine? Russian Army Desertion Rate Spikes
Olympics update:
https://x.com/Hromadske/status/1817930328562085997
Photos at the link.
NBC News:
Associated Press:
Arizona Mirror:
US, allies demand Maduro show his election receipts in Venezuela”
https://www.wonkette.com/p/live-president-biden-commemorates-32d
LIVE: President Biden Commemorates 60th Anniversary Of Civil Rights Act
video at the link
Re: Lynna 278
Musk and other bigots do like their vague looming threats.
I ran into the processing of looming threats via the visual looming threat and an auditory reward connection, but it’s an audio looming threat too. Meat computers…
“Corticostriatal control of defense behavior in mice induced by auditory looming cues”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7884702/
@ 285
“Vote Blue no matter who.”
Edit: That was a response to # 275
Maybe a useful way to think about this bigots mashing a “button” in irrational ways in here. Looming is an imminent thing.
“Threat and Reward Imminence Processing in the Human Brain”
https://www.jneurosci.org/content/43/16/2973
@StevoR
You apparently have questions about my voting preferences and you want answers in dead or off-topic threads.
Ask in less of a loaded way, and for fuck’s sake stay away from the Sye-Ten-Bruggencate-esque variations on “These are the only two answers I will accept.”, and I’ll be happy to answer.
@StevoR
No.
Who gives a shit? When Putin is on the ballot for a U.S. presidential election I’ll consider answering that.
Sye-Tenning it up already, I see.
They are indistinguishably bad on issues I care about, particularly on foreign policy.
AP Donald Trump says he ‘probably’ will debate Kamala Harris
Trump leaves it up in the air. This is after Harris has said she will hold the September debate even if Trump doesn’t show up, getting a bunch of free air time.
Trump likes the air time and likes bullying his opponent. He needs to setup a venue where he can control things though because he isn’t a good debater. He came off better the Biden at their debate but people generally thought they both did badly. I think Trump will look at his situation after the DNC and decide if he wants to show up. If he is falling behind he may think it’s his only chance but if things are looking up he won’t risk it.
Harris may be able to goad Trump into doing it by saying he is a coward for not showing up. Trump won’t like that but he hates looking like a fool worse. For once I think Trump is actually in the right here. He challenged Biden to a debate personally, now that Biden has dropped out his commitment is gone.
Behold the beholder:
That is very informative.
Straight out direct answer to #1, evasive bluster to #2.
(So transparent!)
How afraid is Trump of showing fear towards a feeeeeemalllleeeeee? Especially with a challenge by a more socially complicated feeeeeemmmmmaaaaalllleeeee.
Come on, I can behold too.
Just clarifying what you actually expressed.
You are a perfect example of the sort of idiot who imagines [well, claims to imagine, but bad either way] that the two are indistinguishable on foreign policy.
Either you are a dolt, or you are disingenuous.
(There is no excluded middle there)
I mean, not giving a shit about who supports Putin (the wanker who started the Ukraine war) is fine and all, but let’s not pretend that it’s in any way anything other than selfish stupidity.
(The world economy gives a big fucking sloppy stinky shit about it, did you but actually behold)
Feh.
Come on, you cowardly ‘beholder’, try to engage me.
I know you.
Bluster, shit on the carpet, run away.
Drive-by wanker.
(You coulda been a slimey, back in the day)
FWIW, StevoR comes across at least twice as smart as you, ‘beholder’, and about a thousand billion times more courageous.
Come on.
Engage me.
We’ll see just what sort of chew-toy you prove to be.
(Quick and crunchy, or delicate but delectable, or sweet and sour… Oh! so many possibilities)
—
Still. I know your type.
[I do know I shall enjoy myself immensely]
[sorry, everyone. I can come on a bit strong, sometimes. But these types…]
Youtube Combat Veteran Reacts
He explains that rebels in Mali are suddenly doing well against Wagner group mercenaries. He makes a very good case that the rebels are getting help from Ukraine.
This may seem like an odd use of troops for Ukraine. As he points out, not only is messing with Wagner anywhere somewhat useful but Mali gold is probably important to Russians buying goods on the black market.
I find that I really dislike living interesting times.
Come on, you cowardly ‘beholder’, try to engage me.
(crunchiness is)
chigau, heh.
(the joke is that all times are interesting times)
The Biden administration says its trade policy puts people over corporations. Documents on baby formula show otherwise.
JM@302,
According to the Guardian Ukrainian military intelligence have actually said they have been helping the rebels with information. But that would presumably require agents within Wagner, or the Malian armed forces or government. They may just be taking advantage of Wagner’s losses to mess with Russian heads.
beholder@292:
Then that’s not a basis for deciding between them (for you), leaving just their domestic policy; given that, which do you prefer?
(wriggle, squirm)
birgerjohansson@269:
Wait, what? Metazoans at 2.1Gya?!
So much for that being a “hard step”. And maybe “eukaryotes”, barely any earlier, isn’t either, instead depending on an oxygenation clock. If that’s the case the only hard step we know of after abiogenesis is language, with the evidence being that smart social metazoans have been around for hundreds of millions of years and lots of them have (and in some cases still are) bumped up against a seeming “glass ceiling” of being near chimp-smart, social, and often tool-using, without making the leap to building a civilization or otherwise having a further leap in complexity and capabilities like we did — say, by troops/tribes/flocks becoming bona fide metaorganisms with distinct feeding strategies, like different prehistoric human foraging cultures (a thing that seems to need language, to transmit the metaorganism’s “genes”, the behavioral and toolmaking instructions that give it a distinct phenotype adapted to a corresponding, distinct feeding strategy).
This could actually be bad news. Since abiogenesis either happened off-planet or was not a hard step, the only on-planet hard step may be the one that happened about 4/5 of the way through its habitability span, distinctly later than the peak of the probability distribution of single-hard-step worlds-that-produce-successful-spacefarers. That could mean we won’t make it … or it could just mean that we’re statistically a bit unusual.
This is an obvious lie. On Ukraine, on NATO, on the Paris Accord on climate change, on Iran, the differences are large and obvious. If you don’t care about any of these issues, it makes no sense to say you care about foreign policy.
Bekenstein Bound@308
Wait, what? How do you think you know they were metazoans? The fossils (which have been known for some time) are described in your link as “enigmatic”. That is, no-one knows what they are.
Why the scare-quotes around “eukaryotes”? And I again urge you to read Nick Lane’s “The Vital Question” if you haven’t. It explores in detail both abiogenesis and the origin of eukaryotes. What he says might not be correct, but unless you’ve engaged with it, you’re just spouting off in ignorance.
What evidence is there for any “chimp-smart” animals before the Cenozoic?
Possible bright aurora alert again :
https://www.space.com/aurora-alert-northern-lights-july-mid-latitudes-us-europe-cannibal-cme
Lynna, OM@279,
I hope Harris and the Democrats are ready for the inevitable “Harris stumbles” or “Trump comes roaring back” headlines when the media get bored playing with their new toy and decide breaking it would be more fun! The choice of a running mate seems a likely point for the former – whoever she chooses. Mehdi Hasan claims the choice has narrowed down to three: Josh Shapiro, Mark Kelly, and his own recommendation, Tim Walz. Shapiro I think would be disastrous: his absurd and offensive likening of pro-Palestinian demonstrators to the KKK would likely crash the wave of enthusiasm from young, progressive and minority voters immediately. Kelly seems to be trying to play both sides, criticising Israel’s conduct of the war*, but apparently clapped when war criminal Netanyahu described protestors as Iran’s “useful idiots”. At my first link Hasan gives his reasons for supporting Walz (about whom I previously knew nothing, although since he’s Governor of Minnesota presumably PZ has a view).
*If such a one-sided slaughter can be described as such.
John Morales@276,
Only if that intended effect is simply to annoy people – which I admit is plausible.
Only with that presumption is your position credible.
Bekenstein Bound@165,
I accept your more nuanced statement..
Well, I did give the joke away.
Nah. It’s my little linguistic joke, and though you noted it adds nothing substantive, neither does it detract in an equivalent manner.
What is anthropomorphism if not monkey-perspective? :)
Well, then.
You were hardly generous in your interpretation, were you?
Either you got that, or you did not.
If you did, you pretended not to get it, and thus your comment,
If you did not, well then.
(But hey, thanks for actually engaging, unlike the cowards!)
Latest on the Veepstakes for who will be on the ticket with Kamal a Harris – Roy Cooper and Gretchen Whitmer are out :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-30/kamala-harris-vice-president-race-narrows/104160154
John Morales@315,
I have no idea what you are trying to say.
@291-292 beholder
Those threads weren’t dead when I asked you about them – at what point do we call a thread “dead” exactly anyhow? Plus I was responding to your comments on them too. So the one going off at the initial tangent away from the topic was you. Oh and I did NOT specify your voting preferences although I asked who you supported in a more general sense.
Sye-Ten-Bruggencate? Huh, wiki turns up nothing but Google notes he’s a Canadian Christianist apologist. Never heard of him before so something new learnt and thanks for that I guess.
Happy to get a range of answers but sadly well aware that the US of A’s political system is a binary given third parties can only realistically act as spoilers. (Frex Nader vs Gore Vs Dubya Bush.) In Oz where I live I can – and, FWIW, do vote Greens first then preference the ALP to send a message & try to shift the Overton window to the left. If I was a voter in the States however, I’d feel compelled to vote Democratic because doing otherwise would be likely to result in a Repub victory which would hurt me and others. That’s a flaw in America’s political position which i think I’ve pointed out and argued for changing about umpteen gazillion times here. (Slight hyperbole only..)
I give a shit obvs or I wouldn’t have asked. I suspect others here are curious about your answer too.
FWIW. There are almost always some people who “give a shit” for any given question and topic. There are implications and consequences associated with answering that question given who Putin is and who he influences and what that means for the rest of us humans.
Why does Putin needs to be on your ballot before you answer that question? Kamala Harris isn’t on my ballot paper as an Aussie But I absolutely do support her because the alternative is catastrophic for our planet and would make the whole world a lot worse off. Also I like her as a person from what I’ve seen of her. Among other reasons.
Putin isn’t on my ballot either but I strongly oppose him because he is an evil man who has taken actions and decision that have made the world a vastly worse place such as choosing to invade Ukraine and build a brutal homophobic, Christianist Supremacist authoritarian state murdering his political opponents. I find it odd that you can’t seem to bring yourself to simply say that much and some of the things you’ve written make me suspect you are a tankie supporting Putin and Russia.
Of course, there’s also the role Putin has played in interfering with previous American elections supporting Trump and using him as a puppet. As already noted elsethread It is very clear that Putin (& Netanyahu too) would much prefer Trump to be POTUS rather than any Democrat. It is also obvious that Putin is a man Trump admires and wishes he could emulate more..
I was wondering how you’d answer a direct question about this and turns out,you’ve tried to dodge it and not actually answer which is telling in itself. Is it really hard to simply say no you don’t support someone who is currently engaging in an invasion and genocide, a sadistic man who is a malevolent fascist dictator? If you think that’s an unfair characterisation of Putin then, please, do say so and explain why. If you don’t a simple no will suffice. Or you could try and be coy with a ‘maybe’ or ‘perhaps’.. possibly?
No, pointing out the obvious binary nature of Amercian politics because that’s the fundamental reality as already noted. I’ve said I wish it wasn’t the case and the system needs to be changed but for now, it actually is what it actually is. On November 6th either Harris or Trump will become POTUS those being the two nominees with any real chance of winning. To claim otherwise is to be wildly unrealistic and invoking improbabilities that are exceedingly unlikely to occur.
Okay, there is the slight chance that either or both of them won’t make it to the election due to extraordinary factors such as we nearly saw with Trump’s attempted assassination. But I’m not counting on or advocating or expecting anything like that to intervene and its not a fair thing to really do so. If you want to go down the unlikely hypotheticals route, well, that’s something we could get into if you want, but really, we know it is almost certainly going to be a question of choosing either Harris or Trump. So, again, given those two options, pIck one.
Note : if you pick neither or vote third party the fact is you are – in reality – picking Trump. Because that’s how the horribly flawed, in need of major reforms, political system in the US “works” currently. (Do I need to cite the 2000 & 2016 elections yet again? Really diarrhoeally?)
Which is where you are -as I’ve already noted here :
https://proxy.freethought.online/pharyngula/2024/07/21/biden-out/#comment-2228601
Utterly wrong.
Can you really not distinguish between Biden then – & now Harris fro the future – objecting to some of what Israel is doing and calling for restraint and threateneing even carryting out some consequecnes against them even if we’d liekt hem to do alot more
Vs
Trump and the Repugs cheering on and whole-heartedly endorsing a genocide and even using the very word “Palestinian” as a slur?
You, beholder, can’t distinguish between a person saying “don’t do that please” to a bully (metaphorically here = Biden) versus one encouraging them to attack their victim harder? (Metaphorically here = Trump.)
Wow. To think you accuse me of ignoring complexities and nuances and being too binary here!
Guardian – “Global methane emissions rising at fastest rate in decades, scientists warn”:
The article understates the role of animal agriculture in methane emissions. As it alludes to, methane only lasts in the atmosphere for around 12 years. It’s vital that we get methane emissions under control as quickly as possible, and animal ag corporations and their shills are going all out to stop it.
Guardian (this was yesterday but for some reason it hasn’t received any attention) – “JD Vance calls Trump ‘morally reprehensible’ in resurfaced emails”:
Catching up…
Quoted in Lynna’s #151:
They’re beautiful. The Haitian uniforms are my personal favorite.
This whole tableau, with the headless Marie Antoinettes and the blood-red streamers, was so good.
Quoted in Lynna’s #168:
How is this not one of the biggest news stories in the country???
Quoted in Lynna’s #170:
LOL.
Quoted in Lynna’s #174:
Shocker.
Bull. Shit.
LykeX @ #175:
I think (and hope) so!
Quoted in Lynna’s #217:
Um…
lumipuna @ #226:
:D
#282, etc., re Venezuela – my longstanding policy has been (an continues to be) not to trust almost any English-language news source about Venezuela (or pretty much the entire region). But since a lot of the Spanish news now is like CNN in Spanish or the BBC in Spanish (incidentally, did you know there’s a BBC Pidgin?) and many of the anti-US-imperialist sources have become untrustworthy I’m having a hard time finding reliable news.
Akira MacKenzie @ #288:
I swear this is like the fourth or fifth time I’ve seen you use this phrase in an odd context or manner that suggests to me that you don’t really understand what it’s meant to convey.
Trump, going off the rails on Fox.
NYT
Maggie Astor / July 30, 2024
Bits and pieces of campaign news, as summarized by Steve Benen:
Speaker Mike Johnson chose seven House Republicans to investigate the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. He did not choose wisely.
Over the last five days, Vice President Kamala Harris has picked up two notable Republican supporters. Will others in the GOP soon follow?
An update on two of Trump’s pending court cases:
Link
Link
“Duckin’ Don” timeline so far:
Link
Link
Florida senator is raring to help Trump enact Project 2025, by Mark Sumner.
Maddow on the coming steal
Video at the link. The video snippet from The Maddow Show is 6:31 minutes long, and it is excellent in my opinion.
God Awful Movies!
GAM467 Pride and Prejudice A Latter Day Comedy
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=5f9dnTEuVzE
Enthusiasm: Cara Santa Maria sounds like she has been kidnapped and forced to review this awful film.
Cartoon: The authoritarian
An aside: why does Trump call them “my beautiful Christians”? Reminds me of “my generals.” It’s weird.
Rick Scott? If you look in the mirror and say “Rick Scott” three times, he will appear behind you.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/aoc-correct-again-trump-and-jd-vance
AOC Correct Again: Trump And JD Vance Are Running An Incel Campaign
https://www.wonkette.com/p/rachel-maddow-flashlight-under-chin
Sabine Hossenfelder:
Faster than Light Particles Could Exist After All, New Study Says
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=gxZ075Ogs74
“Trump Hosted A Party With Epstein And 28 Girls”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=hEjB5H-MVBw
FYI Project 2025 is ending its policy work, and the director, Paul Dans, is stepping down. Of course, it’s show stunt. The Heritage Foundation is still purring along. The Federalist Society is still gearing up to replace more judges. But just so you know…
Project 2025 to end policy work, as attacks on the right-wing group spurred backlash from Trump. Its director is also departing
Blue-on blue fighting in the senate.
“The Republican Party Is Collapsing, GOP Civil War Imminent?”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=sU1NoUdgpDc
robro @339, my bet is that they will just rebrand by changing the name of Project 2025 … and then they will continue on the same track.
The Washington Post article to which you referred makes the point that the Trump campaign was/is “furious” with the Heritage Foundation over media coverage of Project 2025. That does sound likely. The Trump campaign is fine with Project 2025, but with the fact that everyone knows about it.
Excerpts:
Ok, now I’m interested. But it’s still modification of acetate for terrestrial life (glycine polypeptide backbone: acetate + nitrogen. Purine biosynthesis: ribose phosphate + nitrogen=phosphoribosylamide + glycine)
“Generation of long-chain fatty acids by hydrogen-driven bicarbonate reduction in ancient alkaline hydrothermal vents”
https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-023-01196-4
Biology attached a 2C and a 3C (acetate, malonate) to extend chains. But this chemistry is about adding single carbons. And modern membranes could recreate things that were available.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer%E2%80%93Tropsch_process
Now this all ends up as hydrogen on carbon only, hydrocarbons (aside from the carboxy end) leaving me to wonder about the source of carbohydrates (carbon and water, hydroxals). Glycolysis looks interesting because from the perspective of the 3C the pathway can be about adding and moving around hydroxals.
To add to biology making membranes, the fatty acid is made by adding a 2C and a 3C, with the loss of a 1C, resulting in an extension of 2.
Tories Really Did Lie About the Finances
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=cNg6maFCoTs
The sad bit is, the tories will deny it despite the evidence, and the tory-supporting media will help in the cover-up. It is like Fox News.
Challenging “don’t thread on me”
http://youtube.com/post/Ugkxk0-7VC7NciNoYv_IIG3l88e7pBwPeVL7
Cats…they are Metal.
birger @337:
I think the technical term for this is ‘clickbait’. IMO, Hossenfelder has jumped her own personal shark. She always had good delivery, and made many interesting physics presentations. But now she just seems to go for what’s ‘sexy’. I read the paper she based this on, and as with all such highly speculative papers, the take-home is at the end, with the ‘much work remains to be done’ punchline.
Sci-fi fanbois and fangrls love it, of course. Someone might even pop in with one of [insert idiot sci-fi author]’s ‘laws’ which they think lends credence to the horseshit.
Furious Steven Crowder Throws MASSIVE TANTRUM Over Dems’ Switcheroo by The Majority Report w/ Sam Seder. (20 mins ong.) Schaudenfraudelicious.
Study suggests cloud-to-ground lightning strikes may have generated building blocks for life on Earth
https://phys.org/news/2024-07-cloud-ground-lightning-generated-blocks.html
I got the last one from Phys.org and they rarely have clickbait.
There was also news about yet another wasteful Russian attack getting repelled but that is like saying it rains in England.
birger @349: The papers themselves aren’t clickbait. The posts hyping the papers are.
Didn’t see it myself but seems some Aussies In Tassie and Victoria got another speccy aurora last night :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-31/aurora-australis-seen-in-tasmania-and-victoria/104162870
@robro #339, @Lynna #341:
Steve Shives reinacted that.
/A dressing-down shouting “What’s the first rule of Project 2025?!”
* reenacted
@318 StevoR
That you use the term “tankie” seriously means I shouldn’t take you seriously. Noted.
I don’t subscribe to the Russiagate conspiracy theory. You’ve apparently latched on and taken it so far as to claim Trump is “a puppet”, which is pure brainworms. Nothing about Trump’s actions towards Russia during his time as president even remotely suggests Russia was secretly controlling him and expecting a favorable outcome. What actually happened is rather the opposite.
The outcomes are identical. Biden has raised it to the level of genocide, which makes moral comparisons between genociders nonsensical.
You’re asking me to distinguish between a genocider selling the idea to his base, versus a presumptive genocider selling the idea to his base. Clearly you feel Biden has justified a genocide sufficiently for your moral system, which only tells me I shouldn’t touch your moral system with a ten-foot pole.
What a remarkably stupid claim.
You can’t know the outcome of a counterfactual administration’s actions.
(So idiotic!)
Ismail Haniyeh, main Hamas leader killed inTehran – likely to have pretty severe consequences incl ending any chance of ceasefire anytime soon & potential for major regional escalation :
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-31/hamas-leader-ismail-haniyeh-killed-in-iran/104164948
WaPo:
Trump suggests Harris would struggle with world leaders based on her appearance
KG@317:
Neither does he.
SC@319:
What’s with the two “[sic]”s? Neither occurrence of the word “livestock” is misspelled.
Lynna@329:
A perennial refrain from privileged dickheads with aggrieved entitlement. “No fair scoring a point against me! The game’s supposed to be rigged in my favor!”
Lynna@335:
They’re not — it’s only cribbing if you’re copying from somebody else.
Lynna@341:
Yet elsewhere he’s been bragging that the fix is in. Guy has no consistent position on anything, other than “Trump good, everything else bad”.
birgerjohansson@344:
And somebody was surprised?
beholder@354:
Oh really? I seem to recall allll the way back in like June or July of 2016 Don Jr. got together with a bunch of other Trump campaign people and three Russian agents in a hotel room and basically agreed on a deal where Russia would support Trump if Trump would repeal the Magnitsky sanctions. Subsequently, Russia hacked the Podesta emails and released them publicly, and as soon as Trump was installed in office he tried to repeal the Magnitsky sanctions (but was overruled by Congress, despite the GOP majority there).
Then there was his attempt to withhold military aid to Ukraine, his unheard-of act of sometimes meeting with Putin alone (no US translators or State Department people recording, no SS detail, nor their Russian counterparts, just the two of them).
Not to mention his ongoing opposition to Ukraine aid since the start of the overt war in 2022. Or his professed love for Putin. Or numerous pro-Russia and anti-Ukraine statements made both before and after the American people, on Nov. 3 2020, collectively told him “you’re fired!” …
StevoR@356:
So, we’re now at the part where Palpatine has Vader behead Dooku. If that’s the case, the end of democracy in Israel can’t be very far behind, and an Order 66 night of the long knives to purge moderates from Likud and wipe out dissident leaders …
Oh, and of course Iran has now been drawn into the war, and Iran has Russian backing. So now it’s a proxy war between Russia and the US — we have Vietnam all over again. Only this time the proxies are also armed with nuclear weapons.
What could possibly go wrong?
tomh@357:
Then what on Ear…oh, wait, you said “Trump campaign spokeswoman”. So these must be what are known in Trump campaign spokeswoman circles as “alternative facts”. Now it makes sense.
@346 Grigjanis
From your position of self-declared smartness, could you clarify which SF authors are “idiots”? We could all use a laugh, smartguy.
Silentbob, the set of candidates is rather limited.
“… one of [insert idiot sci-fi author]’s ‘laws’ …” indicates it has to be one with whom at least one ‘law’ is associated.
Me, I reckon it’s a reference to either Clarke or Asimov, each of whom has these laws.
(Pretty sure he was not referring to Sturgeon’s law, which I reckon is rather understated)
BTW, bob, nice to see you’re making an effort to try to not try to harass me.
(I do notice these things)
Just remember the first rule of an addict.
Macrolones? Take this with a grain of salt
“New Dual-Target Drug Could Make Antibiotic Resistance 100 Million Times Harder : ScienceAlert”
https://www.sciencealert.com/new-dual-target-drug-could-make-antibiotic-resistance-100-million-times-harder
@354. beholder : “That you use the term “tankie” seriously means I shouldn’t take you seriously. Noted.”
So is that your way of admitting you are, in fact, a tankie? You think pro-Putin people who support Russia’s genocide of Ukraine are okay and make valid points? Those being _____ ?
Your continued failure to give a direct answer to the question of whether or not you support Russia’s homophobic, murderous genocidaire dictator is again noted.
Trump’s links with Putin and his admiration of the man and appeasement and siding with him are hardly “Conspiracy” but rather established fact and common knowledge at this point. I guess you’re going to ignore all the well known evidence available here :
https://swalwell.house.gov/issues/russia-trump-his-administration-s-ties
Plus here :
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/cia-ica-report-author-trump-russia-1235067814/
Oh and of course The almost unbelievable even from Trump disgrace that was the Helsinki summit, 6 years ago as discussed by Colbert here – ten minutes long – that really should’ve been remembered for decades and had far stronger consequences. (Like immediate impeachment, removal and arrest for Trump. If only, sigh.)
Again, Beholder, you are totally wrong here. You are blaming Biden for what Netanyahu has done and is doing. Ignoring the indisputable fact that Trump would be far worse and show much less reluctance and restraint in his support for Israel against Gaza. Netanyahu is committing a plausible genocide – to use the words of the ICJ. Yes, Biden is supporting Israel and is somewhat complicit, sure but Biden and the Democratic party aren’t the ones doing it and are trying, however unsuccessfully, to stop it and get a ceasefire. Trump wants the genocide finished quicker and shows no ethical qualms whatsoever about it – or anything else. The Republiklans are openly in favour of wiping out the palestnians entirely and are fanatically islamophobic -recallteh muslim ban – and they view Biden and the Dems as far too sympathetic to and soft on the Palestinians. They want a brutal racist crackdown on the pro-Palestinian protesters just as they do against Black Lives Matter protesters.
There is some hope and growing hope of the Democratic party putting increasing pressure on Israel to stop and be reigned in and made at least somewhat accountable internationally. There is some hope of a Two state solution under a Harris presidency. There is NO hope whatsoever of a Trump regime doing that. These positions and prospects are very much NOT the same. Not remotely.
Again, to think you have the gall to accuse me of not seeing complexities and being binary here.
No, I don’t think Biden has justified a genocide. I disagree with Biden’s position here and wish he and the Dems would go much further in forcing a ceasefire although I’m also realistic enough to know that after October 7th any POTUS would’ve thrown their full support behind Israel – and Trump would’ve been far worse in this regard than Biden or Harris .
Do you support the genocide of Ukraine by Putin? Are you going to ignore the fact that with Putin’s puppet Trump in charge we’ll get two genocides not just one? What a hypocrite and binary thinker you are. You target and demonise only Biden and ignore the alternative and political realities and are just beyond contempt here really. Beholder the Putin supporter.
The last nine years have delivered much material for satire and for late-night TV hosts. But I look forward to USA getting far more boring, like after Dubya left. Or like Britain has been the last four weeks.
Washington Post: Trump suggests Harris would struggle with world leaders based on her appearance
It’s easy to see how this happened. One of his campaign advisors told him that it would be bad for him to directly say Harris would be a bad president because she is a woman. So Trump is being indirect and subtle.
Easily overlooked but light pollution is literally costing us the stars.
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2024-07-31/milky-way-light-pollution-australia-stars-astronomy/104087466
Asteroid Didymos is young – just a dozen million years old and its tiny moon Dimorphis is even younger at just 0.3 million years. The dinosaurs could not have seen either space rock – even if they had telescopes because they didn’t yet exist and the asteroid moonlet whose orbit our spacecraft changed the last year has existed for only about half as long as our species has.
See : https://www.space.com/dart-asteroid-mission-didymos-dimorphos-age-origins
Re: John Morales @ #360…
Sturgeon’s Law may be recursive.
The last week Keanu Reeves turned 63 while Wesley Snipes turned 62. My generation are all getting old…
Re: birgerjohansson @ #369…
Earlier this month, my son turned 50. What was that about getting old?
Steve Benen summarizes a New York Times article:
Other campaign news:
– When the Democratic National Committee holds its virtual roll call, Harris will be the only name on the ballot. No other candidates qualified.
The Harris campaign says she will take the stage, with her pick for vice president, in Philadelphia on Tuesday. So, I guess we will know then who her running mate is.
News summarized by Steve Benen from a Bloomberg article:
That’s a rapid change.
Followup to tomh @357 and JM at 365.
Link
Even Trump’s antisemitism is weird:
Link
Re: JM 365
““She’ll be like a play toy,” Trump — who has a history of using sexist attacks and stereotypes in campaigns against women — said in a Fox News interview with Laura Ingraham, a portion of which aired on Tuesday night. “They look at her and they say, ‘We can’t believe we got so lucky.’ They’re going to walk all over her.”
Trump then turned to look directly at the camera and added: “And I don’t want to say as to why. But a lot of people understand it.””
Trump is also susceptible to mockery and dismissal based on implied, unstated physical or behavioral characteristics. The only thing protecting him is the people he surrounds him with. The ones that would prevent such a challenge left open in terms of content by his implied words are all over the place.
I would performatively take up such mockery as an object example if I were allowed access and Trump would whine, showing his own weakness. Remember the reporter(s) who asked Trump where he got some information? He collapses into “how dare you” like my parents. Yes, I would temporarily abandon my disuse of such mockery and dismissal as a lesson.
NBC News:
Commentary:
Link
Attorney General Merrick Garland told NBC News he disagreed with U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s recent ruling that his appointment of special counsel Jack Smith was unconstitutional. “I picked this room for this interview. This is my favorite room in the Justice Department. It’s a law library. For more than 20 years, I was a federal judge,” Garland said. “Do I look like somebody who would make that basic mistake about the law? I don’t think so.”
Link
Whheydt @ 370
This week Kurt Russel turned 73 and The Arnold 77. So you are contemporary with the real hardasses! 🙂
Re: “weird”
Excellent! We’re acting like “dog whistles” aren’t just bad things, but part of human nature with good and bad uses.
A subset of group specific implied information.
Similar to gossip and politics itself. I can’t imagine how we deal with a general human behavior problem without accepting the general instincts to control them. You lock away your own instinct instead of controlling it as yours, and it doesn’t just disappear.
Or you end up like the people who unthinkingly do it as a matter of course while denying it and socially disparaging it as bad. I imagine that comes with lots of flaws.
0 days since…
http://youtube.com/post/UgkxR5gvUgDMUC6sPyN1HuvxM9MM6cfQ9pkU
.
Not related. Archaeologists just found a 5000 year old clay figurine in the Åland achipelago near Finland. Even if yersina pestis killed most of the early farmers, we still carry part of their heritage in our genes (along with the Yamnaya people who arrived later).
-Admittedly, the aborigines in parts of Australia have beaten us Europeans in terms of cultural continuity by an order of magnitude.
(I approve of this debunking. There are aspects of nuclear power that need debate, but this one is BS)
Sabine Hossenfelder :
“Small modular reactor fuel *could be used to build nuclear bomb, experts say”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=dwL0XX0qEAI
* Nope. Not very likely. In fact, this was debated in Sweden back in the 1960s.
‘One of the most disgusting meals I’ve ever eaten’: AI recipes tested
The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/food/article/2024/jul/31/one-of-the-most-disgusting-meals-ive-ever-eaten-ai-recipes-tested
Trump going way off the rails.
Trump says Harris ‘became a Black person’ as NABJ event turns hostile, chaotic
By Brianna Tucker and Hannah Knowles / Updated July 31, 2024
Trump unleashes his racism on Harris in front of Black journalists
Aaron Rupar:
Video at the link.
https://x.com/atrupar/status/1818721916066173146
‘Say it to my face’: Harris is having a blast taunting Trump
Cartoon: Weirdo welfare
Maddow points out frightening truth about Trump’s lack of concern about votes. 70 Republican election-deniers are already in place in swing states. Maddow doesn’t fully spell it out, but presumably the idea is to block certification of votes and hence deny the Democrats enough electoral college votes to win even if they take all the swing states. As I understand it, this would punt the choice of president to the House, where each state would get one vote, determined by the majority of representatives from that state. Putting Trump back in the White House even if he would have lost the electoral college if votes were certified as they should be.
@384 tomh & @385 Lynna, OM
It’s also important to note that this was supposed to be an hour long question and answer. Trump’s team shut it down half way through, realizing he was doing terribly and getting worse.
Trump’s team obviously that Trump would get some level of automatic respect and get softball questions. Otherwise why go to this event in front of a neutral at best crowd. From the start of the QA part he got pretty rough questions and couldn’t handle it.
This follows his pattern, he has had trouble even on Fox news when given softball questions. When in a more aggressive interview he has generally done poorly. Hit with actually aggressive questions he just came apart and didn’t know how to answer.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/flashback-remember-when-weirdo-creep
Heh.
“‘Say it to my face’: Harris is having a blast taunting Trump”
Did she say it to his face?
(The irony is obvious, no?)
Sigh. Once again Putin goes from really bad to even worse:
The “poison” is not so much an import as it a case of cross pollination of rightwing/authoritarian/patriarchal ideologies.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/putin-tells-russian-women-to-make
Gotta love the USA:
Random feel-good music
The B-52’s – Party Out of Bounds – Rock in Rio 1985
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=s2eRkB3FeJE
-Ricky Wilson would be dead just a few months after this performance.
Remember, Reagan (and the other Republicans) were indifferent to HIV until Rock Hudson died.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/trump-shuts-down-project-2025-for
“Weird” revisited
http://youtube.com/post/Ugkx-9vh_XzPzxWLCjzaKSBmykE4MjiG4zm9
New York Times: Iran’s Leader Orders Attack on Israel for Haniyeh Killing, Officials Say
Iran’s leaders probably feel the need to do something but don’t want to provoke Israel or US into greater action. The assassination itself has serious consequences. The death of Haniyeh will at least get in the way of negotiations and may make any cease fire impossible. Hamas has a command structure designed to resist collapse when a few leaders are arrested or killed but how well that will work now I have no idea.
SaveAFox:
‘Update on our Fasa Fasa Fox Mufasa Fox’
Dang. My excuse is, it is one in the morning local time.
Britain: “Brave patriot does his bit to heal grieving community by travelling to Southport to hurl bricks at policemen” – NewsThump
https://newsthump.com/2024/07/31/brave-patriot-does-his-bit-to-heal-grieving-community-by-travelling-to-southport-to-hurl-bricks-at-policemen/
UAW union endorses Vice President Kamala Harris
Summary of news related to Hamas, Iran, and Israel:
A WTF story from the New York Times:
So bad, so heartbreaking:
Source: New York Times.
CBS News:
Commentary:
Link
Followup to comments 384 and 385.
Trump Goes Full Racist In Front Of Black Journalists
Followup to comments 384, 385 and 405.
Trump campaign scrambles to blame Black journalists for Trump’s racism
CNN: Exclusive: How Samuel Alito got canceled from the Supreme Court social media majority
Twice in the last term of the court Alito was positioned to write a majority decision after the court had made an initial vote. In both he managed to split the conservative majority, leading to a more liberal decision. He seems to have been too activist, going beyond what the court was asked to decide to laying out something conservatives wanted as a general principle.
It’s also very interesting to ask who leaked this information. It’s unlikely that anybody outside the judges and their law clerks would have this information. It obviously makes Alito look bad but the liberal judges on the Supreme Court don’t seem the type to do this. It looks more like one of the conservative judges is trying to get Alito to act more carefully.
Desperate to take back the slimelight from running mate Vance, Trump attends a Black journalism press event and steps on all the rakes:
https://www.alternet.org/trump-black-journalist-convention/
May these two goad each other into losing ever more of the Midwestern moderate voters that handed Trump the Oval Office in 2016, then lose the election, and then get a room already.
Lynna@403:
That will be the tip of the iceberg. The real number is likely in the five or six figures. So maybe “humanity” (if I may use that term loosely) deserves what’s apparently about to happen to it, about which more anon.
Shorter summary of news related to Hamas, Iran, and Israel:
Welp. So much for the 2024 election mattering. If Iran’s centrifuge program managed to scrounge up the material to make so much as a satchel nuke, by November there might not be a habitable planet orbiting Sol to hold the election on.
Yes of course that’s Netanyahu’s intention. All this drivel about “hopes for a cease-fire deal” from MSM sources is absurd misinformation – if not disinformation. Netanyahu has absolutely no intention of allowing peace to break out – if it does, he’ll likely be out of power and on his way to jail for corruption – and Biden has simply enabled his genocidal slaughter and torture of Gazan civilians to continue unabated for approaching a year.
Haniyeh was the Dooku to Netanyahu’s Palpatine: they both needed each other to boost their own power, but in the end Dooku was demoted to “just idiot”.
I don’t know how to fix it now, short of fomenting a coup in Israel … though maybe withholding all US military aid would grind the genocidal “war” to a halt and buy time for a more permanent solution.
So weak!
A feeble reference to a pop cultural thing that failed back in the day.
Well, duh.
Use the force!
First movie was good, second was ok, third was passable.
(After that, there was only crap)
July 25: NPR interview with Dexter Filkins, a staff writer for The New Yorker. His new article is titled “Will Hezbollah And Israel Go To War?”
FFS.
They’ve been since before I was born.
Weird how Israel is facing an existential threat and since 1949 it’s everyone else who keeps ceasing to exist.
Huh. Almost like Britain dumped them in the midst of Arab muslim lands and then the French and Americans gave them nuclear weapons. Is it possible that wasn’t a great idea?
No.
She did not say it to his face, but demanded he ‘Say it to my face’.
Pure case of ‘do as I ask, not what I do’.
Hypocrisy.
Obvious to me, KG.
John Morales@418,
If you’re challenging someone to meet you face to face, that implies that they are refusing to do so, or at least have not agreed to do so. So how could you possibly issue the challenge face to face? Calling issuing the challenge in some other way “hypocrisy” or “irony” is just daft.
KG, there’s a quotation right there. It’s not a matter of opinion.
“Well, Donald,” she began, before pausing to smile as the crowd cheered. “I do hope you’ll reconsider to meet me on the debate stage. Because, as the saying goes, if you’ve got something to say, say it to my face!”
She had something to say to Donald, but she did not say it to his face.
The first part, the challenge, was indeed a challenge.
The first statement.
It is the second statement that’s cringey. To me, anyway.
That’s the actual challenge.
That was not part of the challenge; that was the bullshit hypocritical “do what I ask not what I do” moment.
(So bloody obvious!)
have you ever tried lightening up just a bit
The quotation is not a matter of opinion. But whether it is hypocritical or ironic is.
And to absolutely no-one else, I’d guess – except perhaps Trumpoids pretending to take the same view as you. Because everyone else will recognise that if she was going to issue the challenge, she could not issue it face-to-face; and that the “something to say” she was talking about was the racist and misogynistic insults he’s been aiming at her.
Say it to my face.
I’m not sure if it’s common to all English speaking people, but in America this phrase is generally understood as a call-out response to a person who has been talking crap about you behind your back.
I’m positive the orange coward saw and heard her challenge while he obsessively doom-scrolled through all the very bad news about his terrible speech in PA and the racist dumpster fire of the Black Journalists event.
The entire thing can be summed up as “Bigot says what?”.
Here’s a link to the Guardian liveblog about the major prisoner swap underway:
There are reportedly multiple countries involved.
DW also has a liveblog:
From the Guardian liveblog:
The Moscow Times has a liveblog, too:
From the DW liveblog:
MSNBC is reporting that Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich are free and in US custody.
Vladimir Kara-Murza and Alsu Kurmasheva as well.
Guardian liveblog:
Guardian liveblog:
@ #391 “‘Say it to my face’: Harris is having a blast taunting Trump”
Did she say it to his face?
(The irony is obvious, no?)”
Wow. That’s as far off the mark as it’s possible to get.
Text quoted by SC in comment 431:
I felt the same way when I saw that Evan Gershkovich had been released. That’s such good news.
I was also happy to see Paul Whelan included, especially since he was left out of the deal that freed Brittany Griner.
From what I’ve gathered so far from the various reports:
Freed from Russia/Belarus:
Paul Whelan [confirmed]
Evan Gershkovich [confirmed]
Alsu Kurmasheva [confirmed]
Vladimir Kara-Murza [confirmed]
Lilia Chanysheva
Ksenia Fadeeva
Ilya Yashin
Vadim Ostanin
Kevin Lik
Rico Krieger
Oleg Orlov
Going/Returning to Russia:
Vadim Krasikov [confirmed]
2 Russian deep-cover spies arrested in Norway and Slovenia
2 children of the deep-cover spy in Slovenia
So that leaves five more people on each side who were part of the exchange.
An Economist/YouGov poll conducted roughly two weeks ago found Trump leading President Joe Biden by two points. The new Economist/YouGov poll, however, found Harris leading Trump, 46% to 44%.
In other news: Gaffe points to Trump’s declining mental state, (as reported in summary form by Steve Benen):
Source: Washington Post.
A Jan. 6 criminal defendant says Fox News is partly to blame for his misconduct — and he’s not the first to lean on the “Foxmania” legal defense in court.
Link
Now confirmed freed from Russia:
Lilia Chanysheva
Oleg Orlov
Alexandra Skochilenko (she wasn’t on the list above – she’s the artist who was imprisoned for replacing supermarket price tags with anti-war messages!)
Cartoon: Tom the Dancing Bug on how the media handles a news story
One more name – Andrei Pivovarov.
From the MT liveblog:
Three more yet to be named…
I’m very happy to learn about Evan Gershkovich and all the other prisoners being released and returning home.
It’s a nice feather in Biden’s cap, with bonus points for dominating the news cycle. Meanwhile, the other side has nothing but impotent rage at women for being ‘weak’ Olympic athletes, ‘nasty’ journalists that ask questions, and running for President while being black, Asian, AND female. Oh the humanity!! Woe!!
Debunking JD Vance’s claim that Democrats are a “childless cabal”:
Link
Shaun Walker at the Guardian – “Who’s who among the prisoner exchange between Russia and the west?”:
Freed from Russia/Belarus:
Evan Gershkovich
Paul Whelan
Alsu Kurmasheva
Ilya Yashin
Oleg Orlov
Sasha Skochilenko
Vladimir Kara-Murza
Kevin Lik
Rico Krieger
Ksenia Fadeyeva
Liliya Chanysheva
Going/Returning to Russia:
Vadim Krasikov
Artem Dultsev and Anna Dultseva and their two children
Mikhail Mikushin
Vladislav Klyushin
Roman Seleznev
Vadim Konoshchenok
Pablo González/Pavel Rubtsov
He has information about each. This appears to be an exhaustive list of those going/returning to Russia, but is still missing several of those freed from Russia/Belarus.
Yulia Navalnaya tweeted a list of freed Russians with another name: German Moyzhes.
By my cobbled-together count, that leaves I think two as yet unnamed.
DW liveblog:
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian US politics liveblog. From there:
There’s a photo at the link and he looks like a dipshitty poser in a costumey Western shirt. The fetishizing of the southern border is another bit of weirdness.
LOL.
Guardian liveblog:
Oh FFS.
Vance: Prisoners coming home ‘a testament to Trump’s strength’
Well, that’s one way of putting it:
Link
Guardian liveblog:
Followup to comments 385 and 386.
For the second consecutive day, and to the chagrin of his party, Donald Trump is going after Vice President Kamala Harris on race. The question is why.
Oh FFS. Just looks like a new twist on birtherism, with added racism and ignorance. Truly disgusting.
JD Vance seems to hate women, but he loves tech billionaires
Re: Lynna 451
I think Trump just doesn’t have a concept of assumptions based on skin color, as well as no concept of multiracial identity. It’s white, black, indian only.
Or Trump is actively in denial about both things like many white people.
Thank you, AP, for providing a full, non-paywalled list of people released in the prisoner swap.
“Who’s in the massive prisoner swap between Russia and the West?”:
Guardian liveblog:
In the UK, a number of far-right riots, with rioters trying to attack mosques and injuring a number of police, have followed a horrible mass stabbing in which three children were killed and several others as well as two adults seriously hurt. The suspect arrested has now been named, and identified as a 17-year-old British citizen born in Cardiff (capital of Wales) of parents who immigrated from Rwanda, to counter online disinformation claiming he was an asylum seeker who had arrived by illegally crossing the Channel. Police say there is no evidence of a terrorist motive, enquiries are focused on his mental health. The riots have been sufficiently large and widespread to suggest a considerable degree of planning, and Nigel Farage has been “just asking questions”, suggesting that key information has been withheld.
Scathing Atheist 598 Dic-Tutorial Edition
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=0glCcyvFcac
Violence in Britain
“What Can Government Do About Far-Right Campaign?”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=0wUB6yRTeNI
This video is obviously from a pro-Ukraine source, but it occurs to me drones with a termite charge could be a humane way to disable armoured vehicles.
Drop a drone on top of the engine/oil system /fuel tank and the vehicle will be disabled, standing in the middle of the bsttlefield.
If the crew are smart, they will now run away. Even if the fire does not spread to the ammunition it will be a matter of minutes before artillery start shooting at the vehicle.
.
‘Ukraine Ups Drone Game, “Metal Burning” Thermite Drones To Take Down Putin’s “Cope cages”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=jvzqHL5TSQ0
Neil De Grasse Tyson
A Star Is About to Explode (And You’ll Be Able to See It)
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=5i6aEA-RkOQ
re birgerjohansson @460:
WOW! I knew that Russia was pulling heavily from old stocks of tanks, but tanks susceptible to a termite infestation must really be old!!. ;-P Thanks for the (inadvertent) laugh for the day!
Johnson Catman @ 462
I accidentally spelled it the Swedish way, OK.
Lewis Black Heats Up Over The Hottest Summer in History – Back in Black
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=azkTVOa0nTc
@457. KG : Owne Jones has this good 17 minute long discussion on that w Joe Mulhall here – apparently the suspect hasn’t actually been named at least officially due to his age.
On the remarkable discovery of a fossil larvae Youti yuanshi from the Cambrian here – tiny fossil huge significance :
https://www.livescience.com/animals/my-jaw-just-dropped-500-million-year-old-larva-fossil-found-with-brain-preserved
Signal boost here for this excellent post on what Putin is doing to Russia :
Source : https://proxy.freethought.online/daylight/2024/08/01/russia-devouring-future/
@465. I stand corrected – they have now named the suspect :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-01/southport-murder-suspect-named-after-children-killed/104172860
KG is correct after all. Didn’t know that till seeing the midday news personally.
Lynna@451:
Meanwhile, due to the combination of whiteness and maleness, Trump does get to check more than one box to get actual special breaks and benefits. The projection — it never ceases with him, does it?
And here I’d been hoping we’d heard the last from Laura Lo0ner … what’s next, a campaign team shuffle that brings back Sarah Palin?
As far as I’m concerned, he can have them. Preferably on board a Musk-designed-and-built “Ark B” …
… and launched on a course to return them to Vance’s home planet.
Further to my #457: bots and “generative AI” are being used to stir up and organize the fascist race riots following the Southport mass stabbing. And Farage, while “condemning” the violence, is also justifying it.
johnson catman@462,
No no, these are genetically modified Swedish termites, capable of chewing through steel!
Trump as omega. I love it! (Crossposted)
Stansipotenza: “Kamala Harris social media team” # shorts
.https://youtube.com/shorts/md9i1jMst3M
Institute of Art and Ideas
“Does beauty deceive physics?” | Michio Kaku, Sabine Hossenfelder, Max Tegmark, Juan Maldacena
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Zzj7GpKHZjE
The 5th Circuit, arguably the most right-wing federal appellate court in the country, has struck again.
Houston Public Media
U.S. 5th Circuit rules for Galveston County in voting rights case, striking down decades of precedent
Bits and pieces of campaign news:
Link
Republican Voters Against Trump also posted that campaign ad on X.
https://x.com/AccountableGOP/status/1819146093403471966
Simone Biles:
https://x.com/Simone_Biles/status/1819284274224173147
Link
Britain: far-right thugs plan attacks for the weekend.
Meanwhile: The tory PM who lasted a shorter time than a lettuce.
“Truss Manages to Out-Humiliate Lee Anderson
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=__ZG5Z3dF80
More Stanzi Potanza. The lady in the yellow jacket is married to a generic Magaist.
https://youtube.com/shorts/kG-0-YOzvtI
“Researchers highlight the genetic complexity of schizophrenia”
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-08-highlight-genetic-complexity-schizophrenia.html
The genetic correlate to mental disease was never going to be straightforward considering how complex the mind is.
-But maybe children that have multiple risk genes can get screened for symptoms every couple of years during adolescence and early adulthood when the disease usually manifests.
“Black job” ?
http://youtube.com/post/UgkxkkMJVuCY5bKjZjhfhcwKq1LxwHNql9Ow
Non-political fun link.
“Baby Goat discovers trampoline”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=L198jPLg_5o
Trump and Vance deny Biden credit for prisoner swap. Here are the facts, by Mark Sumner.
It is now official, sort of. Harris secures enough Democratic delegate votes to be party’s nominee
Kamala Harris played essential role in prisoner swap with Russia
Link
Was this on your bingo card? Latter-day Saints for Harris organizing Zoom call
Republicans will continue to habitually repeat the “open borders” line, but there’s fresh evidence of how demonstrably ridiculous the claim is.
Mormons for Harris? Hell just froze over.
.
In case you need to relax this weekend:
Happy furrsday!
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/GYZ5y9Hor4SUicQQ/
Eyeing another Trump term, Vance leaves ACA repeal on the table
Democrats want voters to realize that the future of the Affordable Care Act is on the ballot in 2024. It’s generous of JD Vance to admit they’re right.
Trump has repeatedly vowed to replace the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)— but he has never provided any details about how that would work. He just claims that his non-existent plan would be “better.” Trump is a liar who knows fuck all about how to govern or how to provide healthcare. But I don’t think that would stop him and his cohorts from repealing Obamacare.
See also: https://www.notus.org/announcements/welcome-to-notus
and: https://www.notus.org/trump-2024/jd-vance-interview-policy-obamacare-border-tax
What? Yet another Trump scandal we didn’t know about?
Trump DOJ Allegedly Stymied Probe Into Whether He Took Egyptian Cash, WaPo Reports
Link
Harnessing ‘invisible forests in plain view’ to reforest the world
* The embedded podcast doesn’t add much to the article.
Wikipedia – Agroforestry, Farmer-managed natural regeneration
US solar production soars by 25 percent in just one year
Having seen the film “Nope” the things seen in the sky take on a more sinister aspect.
ELO: “Mr. Blue Sky – But every lyric is an AI generated image”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=nyD6g47DHQk
During COVID I compulsively checked on online tables showing numbers if sick people in different regions.
This summer I have been compulsively checking US polls.
But after Kamala Harris started running I can take it at least slightly easier. Harris has got this.
Trees Reveal Climate Surprise: Bark Removes Methane from the Atmosphere
Former Project Veritas Spies Go To Michigan To Do Some Spyin’, Whoooops Get Hammered And Arrested Instead!
https://www.wonkette.com/p/former-project-veritas-spies-go-to
Cop: ‘For being undercover, they’re not very good at it.’
See also: They hatched a plan to ‘infiltrate’ pro-Palestinian groups. Then they started drinking. That’s the NBC News story.
New York Times:
NBC News: