This is VERY long-winded but at 1 hour 10 minutes Laura Loomer outs Lindsay Graham as gay as punishment for calling the debate a disaster.
BTW some years back Trump gave out Graham’s cell phone number to his followers at a speech where he was angry at Graham for not being subservient enough.
Graham is trash and I don’t feel sorry for him but this shows how utterly base Trump and his minions are.
GAM 281 The Laws of the Sun Happy Science Cult
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=JacN6r1dYhw
The delusions of this toxic cult leader are not worse than those of some current politicians. And they are more entertaining.
birgerjohanssonsays
Ig Nobel prize goes to team who found mammals can breathe through anuses | Ig Nobel prizes | The Guardian
[2nd video]: we can show you the man walking back and forth outside the hotel. It was around 8:15 [on 9/11 Wednesday night]. This is a very busy area. The Park Plaza hotel is across the street. So is the Israeli consulate. […] We don’t know why […] If he was trying to make some sort of political statement. Why he chose this location. We do know he was taken to the hospital with serious burns.
[1st video]: Because this is an ongoing investigation, police could not confirm whether the man set himself on fire.
/The text article’s buries “Israeli consulate” in a caption.
Other recent immolations:
– 2023-12-01 An unnamed woman in a Palestinian flag outside the Israeli consulate in Atlanta. Hospitalized without further update.
– 2024-02-25 Aaron Bushnell shouting “Free Palestine!” outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC. Died.
– 2024-04-19 Max Azzarello promoting his conspiracy theory website, outside the New York City courthouse during Trump’s hush money trial. Died.
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer interrupted coverage of Donald Trump’s rally in Arizona on Thursday shortly after the former president took a shot at the appearance of one of the moderators from his debate with Kamala Harris earlier this week.
Trump was complaining to supporters in Tucson about his Tuesday night showdown with the vice president, replaying grievances towards the ABC News moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis. “These two people were bad news,” Trump said.
ABC’s Linsey Davis Brutally Fact-Checks Trump During Debate
“They kept screaming at me,” Trump continued, apparently referring to the fact-checking they did of his statements during the debate, which at no point involved screaming. “I said: ‘Why are you screaming?’”
“I always liked him,” Trump said of Muir. “I’m not gonna watch him anymore. I’m not gonna watch him because he’s not legit, what he did. I’m not gonna watch him, and his hair’s not as good as it used to be, you know?” …
Take another look at the bolded line, and remember who is saying this.
Ahem. I remind readers of repeated statements by Trump throughout the 2016 campaign that “Hillary acid-washed her emails.” The truth behind this:
HIllary’s tech staff for her ill-advised server, with court permission, wiped a hard drive full of email messages. Anyone who know anything about computers knows that just deleting the files isn’t enough, you need to erase the entire surface of the disk. For this, the techs used open source software named BleachBit.
In Donald Trump’s addled 2016 mind, this morphed into actual chemical bleach. He started going around telling people that they had dunked the hard drive in bleach.
That wasn’t weird enough. Soon a few more synapses shorted out and Trump changed the story to “acid-wash.” Hillary had literally “acid-washed her emails.”
So, maybe his cognitive decline has worsened on the last 8 years, but there were certainly clear signs of it back then.
Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance was struggling long before last week, but an eight-day stretch helped capture why the Ohio senator wasn’t a great choice for the GOP’s national ticket.
On Wednesday, Sept. 4, he delivered a ridiculous and widely mocked answer about what can be done to address the cost of child care. A day later, he lamented that deadly mass shootings in schools are a “fact of life” — a comment that sparked fierce and immediate pushback.
On Monday, Vance threw his support behind a ridiculous and racist conspiracy theory about immigrants abducting and eating pets, and on Tuesday, he endorsed a brazenly illegal response to Donald Trump’s 2020 election defeat. That evening, the former president distanced himself from Vance’s rhetoric about abortion policy during a nationally televised debate.
Two days later, the senator sat down with CNBC hosts to discuss the economy, and he managed to top off a brutal eight-day stretch with an interview in which he didn’t appear to have any idea what he was talking about.
After badly flubbing the basics on the inflationary effects of tariffs, Vance tried to argue that immigration is bad for the economy:
‘Housing costs are unaffordable … people can’t afford to live a good life in this small Ohio town,’ he said. ‘If the path to prosperity was flooding your nation with low-wage immigrants, then Springfield, Ohio, would be … the most prosperous city in the world,’ Vance said. ‘America would be the most prosperous country in the world, because Kamala Harris has flooded the country with 25 million illegal aliens.’”
So, a few things.
First, the “25 million illegal aliens” figure is ridiculously wrong. Given Vance’s apparent interest in immigration policy, it’s weird to see him struggle with such a basic detail.
Second, the vice president is not chiefly responsible for federal immigration laws — though she did endorse a bipartisan solution that Vance’s running mate killed, despite the legislation’s merits, because he was afraid helping the country might hurt his 2024 candidacy.
Third, while it’s true that housing costs in Springfield, Ohio, have gone up, it’s because the local economy is improving — despite Trump’s insane claims that the community has been destroyed by pet-eating immigrants.
Fourth, the idea that Springfield has suffered economically as a result of immigration is the exact opposite of what has actually happened in reality. As Vance really ought to know — he ostensibly represents Ohio — we’re talking about a community on the rise, not decline.
But perhaps most notable of all was the hapless senator’s insistence that if immigration benefited the economy, the United States “would be the most prosperous country in the world.”
Whether Vance understands this or not, the United States is already the most prosperous country in the world. In fact, we’re the most prosperous country by a wide margin.
Such confusion is to be expected from Trump, who’s relationship with reality has long been fractured, but Vance is supposed to be the more knowledgeable one. It leads to an unavoidable question: Is the Republican senator really this confused about issues he claims to care about, or is the vice presidential hopeful assuming that voters are foolish enough to believe demonstrable nonsense?
“When I say ‘witchcraft’ I am talking about what happened tonight,” Lance Wallnau wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
“Occult empowered deception, manipulation and domination. That’s what ABC pulled off as moderators, and Kamala’s script handlers set up the kill box,” the pastor continued…
[…] Trump campaigned in Arizona, where he pushed the same false claims again, apparently indifferent to the damage he’s doing. At one point the GOP nominee went so far as to condemn “illegal Haitian migrants” who destroyed an Ohio community. “Nobody knows where they come from,” he added. [video at the link]
The truth, whether Trump cares or not, is that the Haitians entered the country legally; they’ve helped the local community; and everyone knows exactly where they came from. (Haitians come from Haiti. Even Trump should be able to understand this.)
But as this utterly insane story continues, I’m reminded of something Trump said several years ago while on the campaign trail.
Exactly eight years ago this week, Trump campaigned in Miami and spent some time at the Little Haiti Cultural Center, stressing the “common values” he shared with Haitian Americans.
“Whether you vote for me or not,” the then-candidate said at the time, “I really want to be your biggest champion.”
A year later, he scrapped temporary protected status for Haitians who were allowed entry to the U.S. following a devastating earthquake in 2010. A year after that, Trump hosted a White House meeting and referred to Haiti as a “s—hole” country.
And now, Trump is lying to the public about Haitian immigrants — the same people he told, “I really want to be your biggest champion” — betraying a community he vowed to look out for.
It’s hard to say how many people believed Trump’s rhetoric in 2016, but I have some bad news for those who trusted him.
Chris Hayes presented a segment that discusses how Trump has cozied up to the racist far-right. Some of the details were familiar to me, but others were new … and shocking. See photo of Nazi sympathizer, styled to look like Hitler, who was Trump’s guest at Bedminster … twice. There were also new details concerning Laura Loomer.
Trump said about Loomer: “A friend of all of ours. This woman is amazing. Laura Loomer. Where is she? […] A fantastic woman, a true patriot, Laura Loomer. […] You’ve been really very special. You work hard and you are a very opinionated lady in my opinion. I like that. […] You’ve been wonderful.”
Loomer replies: “Thank you very much. Thank you for allowing me to sit with you. I love you.”
Donald Trump’s catastrophic performance in Tuesday night’s presidential debate has Republican leaders sounding the alarm over the state of the former president’s campaign. Now Trump’s most high-profile allies and some opponents are placing blame on an unexpected source: MAGA clown and social media troll Laura Loomer.
The far-right conservative activist has been an increasingly visible presence on the campaign trail over the past month. Recent photos captured Loomer standing next to Trump on multiple occasions, a level of access that puts her even closer to Trump’s ear than new campaign chairman Corey Lewandowski. Loomer also played a key role in prepping Trump for his disastrous debate—including the viral moment when Trump falsely claimed Haitian immigrants are eating Ohioans’ pets.
Trump holds Loomer so close that he invited her to join him at this week’s Sept. 11 commemoration in New York City—despite the fact that Loomer is a strident 9/11 “truther” who falsely claims the attack was an inside job. Far from driving him to the political center, one month’s worth of terrible swing state polls has now pushed Trump to the outer fringes of his MAGA movement. That’s proving too much even for the GOP nominee’s friends.
That includes Loomer’s equally problematic former friend, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who proudly endorsed Loomer’s doomed congressional bid in 2022. In a post to X on Thursday, Greene called Loomer “extremely racist” in response to a stereotype-filled post Loomer made about Vice President Kamala Harris. [X post is available at the link]
“This is appalling and extremely racist,” Greene wrote about Loomer’s vile rant that the White House would “smell like curry” if Harris is elected president, among other racist tropes about people of Indian descent. “It does not represent who we are as Republicans or MAGA. This does not represent President Trump. This type of behavior should not be tolerated ever.”
In another post to X, Greene acknowledged their longtime friendship and her endorsement of Loomer’s congressional bid. But in a sign of just how quickly that friendship has collapsed, Greene also remarked that “outside of a bubble on this platform, most regular people don’t know who [Loomer] is,” while reiterating her claim that Loomer was “flat out racist.”
Greene’s sudden concern about racism in the Republican Party will come as a surprise to anyone who remembers her racist tirade against Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York in 2023, when Greene trotted out tired stereotypes about “aggressive” Black men. That’s because Greene’s newfound racial tolerance has nothing to do with actually caring about the corrosive damage of racism. Instead, she’s locked in a power struggle with Loomer over who gets to be Trump’s closest adviser—and right now, Greene is losing.
Loomer also seems well aware of what’s at stake. In a lengthy post replying to Greene, Loomer bashed the congresswoman as “extremely jealous and vindictive over the fact that she wasn’t successful in turning Donald Trump against me.” [X post available at the link]
Not to be outdone, Loomer also threw Greene’s accusations of racism right back at her.
“Speaking of racism,” Loomer wrote, “one of your former staffers told me you have a favorite word that starts with N.” She also called on Democrats and Republicans to unite in defeating Greene in November […]
Loomer’s rise to prominence in Trumpworld comes as Republicans are desperately trying to pivot away from Trump’s rough debate performance—and his bizarre obsession with the kinds of very-online conspiracy theories peddled by Loomer and other far-right influencers.
As Vox’s Eric Levitz argues, Trump lost Tuesday’s debate in large part because his talking points were incomprehensible to viewers who don’t spend their lives posting memes on Truth Social. Now Loomer is encouraging Trump to cater even more exclusively to his most die-hard online fans, while Republican leaders want the former president to focus on persuadable swing state independents.
Stalwart Trump ally and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham joined the chorus of concern Thursday, telling Huffington Post reporters that Loomer is “toxic” and he Trump should distance himself from her.
“I think that the president would serve himself well to make sure this doesn’t become a bigger story,” Graham warned.
Unsurprisingly, Trump would rather do what feels good, even if it costs him the election. And Loomer fueled the flames further with a combative and homophobic response to Graham’s comments.
On Thursday, Greene told CNN’s Manu Raju and other reporters on the Capitol steps that she was concerned about not just what Loomer was saying, but what voters are hearing from Trump running mate Sen. JD Vance.
[…] Trump’s erratic behavior has led a growing number of Republicans to abandon the party entirely. On Thursday, former Bush administration Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced he would support Harris because Trump’s out-there conspiracies and grievances pose a “threat to the rule of law.” That follows major defections from former Vice President Dick Cheney and over 200 aides to senior Republicans including Mitt Romney, George W. Bush, and John McCain.
With Trump now surrounded by MAGA extremists like Loomer, Lewandowski, and Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, Republican leaders are acknowledging that their candidate is completely out of control. Instead of pushing a coherent message that boosts struggling Republican candidates in downballot races, Trump is once again arguing that he actually won the 2020 election and including himself in the list of insurrectionists who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
[…] House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries made sure to point out Trump’s very questionable judgment during a Thursday press conference.
“The fact that on September 11th, this sacred day, he would bring a 9/11 conspiracy theorist to participate in events during this solemn commemoration should shock the conscience of all decent Americans,” Jeffries said. “And I believe that it does just that.” [X post, with video, is available at the link]
[…] As The Bulwark reported Friday, the NRSC has amplified eight of Loomer’s videos since July.
Those extreme voices have once again captured Trump’s attention, and the GOP establishment is now facing its own extinction-level event. The smarter Republicans have already fled the party to join Harris’ growing bipartisan coalition. Time is running out for the few that remain.
JMsays
@498 Bekenstein Bound:
Lynna@463:
Election officials warn widespread problems with USPS could disrupt voting
Remind me again why that fuckheaded political hack DeJoy wasn’t fired way back in 2021 and replaced with someone normal?
The head of the postal service is one of those jobs that is protected. The president can’t fire and replace the head of the postal service. The board of governors, which is a board of directors, has that job. The structure of the board makes it hard to remove the Postmaster and the president only gets to appoint directors as their term is up. It would take a fair bit of work for Biden to remove Dejoy and he hasn’t really tried.
Reginald @16, I wondered how long it would take Trump’s cult followers to come up with “witchcraft” to explain Trump’s failures and Kamala Harris’ successes.
President Joe Biden hosted nearly 1,000 survivors and women’s advocates at the White House Thursday to mark the 30th anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act. The legislation, originally written by Biden in 1990 when he was a member of the Senate and signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1994, “improved the criminal justice response to violence against women” and “ensured that victims and their families have access to the services they need to achieve safety and rebuild their lives,” […]
Introducing himself as “Jill Biden’s husband and Ashley Biden’s dad,” Biden talked about VAWA’s successes, saying it “broke the dam of congressional and cultural resistance, brought this hidden epidemic out of the shadows, and began to shift the legal and social burdens away from the survivors onto the perpetrators where they belonged.”
The Biden administration released its U.S. National Plan To End Gender-Based Violence in 2023 with the aim of providing an accessible federal plan that can be used by local municipalities as well as private entities.
“Today, I am proud to announce a new significant action,” Biden said. “A record of nearly $700 million in grants this year alone to more than 40 VAWA-funded programs in states and tribal communities across the country.”
[…] Thursday’s commemoration was also an opportunity for Biden to remind lawmakers and stakeholders that there’s still work to be done, and he trusts his vice president and current Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris to keep championing the law.
“Let me just say the first and best decision I made when I was a nominee in 2020 was selecting Kamala Harris as vice president,” Biden told a cheering audience. “That’s not a political statement, it’s a factual statement.”
VAWA expired in 2018. In 2022, Republicans threatened to sink a Democrat-driven effort to renew the legislation if it included language closing up the “boyfriend loophole” that allows unmarried abusers convicted of a misdemeanor to retain their right to purchase and own firearms.
VAWA was reauthorized in March 2022 without closing that loophole, but Biden was able to sign that restriction into gun control legislation in June 2022 in the wake of terrible mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York. The president spoke about how he and Harris worked to ensure that they found a way to close that loophole.
[…] “I’m so proud, so grateful for the heroes I’ve met along the way,” Biden said. “Women and men who run shelters and rape crisis centers, fighters and allies who stand up to industry titans to expose the truth. Survivors who speak up for themselves and empower those suffering in silence.
“You’ve changed the nation,” Biden continued. “You’ve turned your pain into purpose. And your bravery and spirit are unbreakable. Because of you, […] we are a better nation than we were 30 years ago.” [video at the link]
He was angry and fixated on the past, and he failed to define Harris or her policies.
Will this debate have an effect? Yes, though perhaps not as much as Team Harris hopes or as much as Team Trump might fear. But there’s no putting lipstick on this pig. Mr. Trump was crushed by a woman he previously dismissed as “dumb as a rock.” Which raises the question: What does that make him?
The fascistic Trump advisers and the crooked Trump advisers are united with the stupid, the cowardly, and the opportunistic Trump advisers in their horror that they have all collectively been displaced by a batshit-crazy Trump adviser [Laura Loomer].
@20 JM wrote: It would take a fair bit of work for Biden to remove Dejoy and he hasn’t really tried.
I reply: We have experienced, first-hand, the degradation and destruction dejoy has wreaked on the USPS. There is NO EXCUSE for not kicking his thug ass out. The USPS is older than the u.s. government and is virtually a ‘sacred trust’ with the american people. I am so angry at the absurd incompetence of the government when it comes to acting in the interest of the populace in this and so many other issues. The rtwingnuts are busy posturing and acting only in the interests of corrupt corporate aholes, the billionaires that own them and hateful, destructive project 2025 ideology.
LINCOLN — The Nebraska Supreme Court won’t stop the state’s voters from being the first nationally to weigh competing abortion-related initiatives on the same ballot since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022.
The court weighed constitutional questions this week raised by three lawsuits: two seeking to block an abortion-rights amendment and one arguing that both measures should appear on the ballot or neither should reach it.
Justices, in a unanimous 7-0 ruling, decided both initiatives met the Nebraska Constitutional requirement that ballot measures cover no more than a single connected legal subject.
[…]
The abortion-rights amendment by Protect Our Rights would codify a right to abortion until “fetal viability,” as defined by a treating health care provider. It sets no specific number of weeks.
The current scientific standard for viability is at about 22-24 weeks gestation. Nebraska’s current law on abortion timing, which the Legislature passed in 2023, prohibits abortions after 12 weeks gestational age.
The abortion-restrictions amendment by Protect Women and Children would outlaw most abortions after the first trimester of pregnancy. It sets no floor on how early the Legislature could ban abortions. It would let state senators pass an outright ban in the future….
The lawsuit against both amendments, filed defensively to have the court validate both measures for the ballot or neither, represented 29 doctors, including Omaha-area fertility specialist Dr. Elizabeth Constance.
That case was rejected 7-0 as well.
[…]
Akira MacKenziesays
@21
My question is how can the vancehole honestly complain about that when his nose is up the ass of a self-proclaimed “Billionaire Celebrity”?
As far as I can tell, to right-wing chuds, there are two types of billionaires: The “legitimate”ones like Vance, Trump (at least in reputation), and Musk who supposedly “earned” their obnoxious wealth and support ‘Murica, “free markets,” “sovereignty,” guns, and JEEEEEEZ-us.
The rest are the likes of Swift, Gates, and Soros who they claim got their obnoxious through immoral (or, depending on the chud’s level of religiosity, sometimes literally diabolical) means and supposedly hate ‘Murica due to their performative public “liberalism” and the few crumbs of “charity” (i.e. tax write offs) they toss to the proles.
A lawsuit pitting an electronic voting machine manufacturer that was targeted by allies of former President Donald Trump against a conservative news outlet that aired accusations of vote manipulation in the 2020 election appears headed to trial, following a Delaware judge’s ruling Thursday.
Florida-based Smartmatic is suing Newsmax, claiming the cable network’s hosts and guests made false and defamatory statements after the election implying that Smartmatic participated in rigging the results, and that its software was used to switch votes.
Newsmax, also based in Florida, argues that it was simply reporting on serious and newsworthy allegations being made by Trump and his supporters [sheesh], including former New York City Mayor Rudy Guiliani and conservative attorney Sidney Powell.
Attorneys for both sides asked Superior Court Judge Eric Davis to rule in their favor without holding a trial, which is scheduled to start Sept. 30. On Thursday, Davis granted partial summary judgment to each side but said a jury must decide several key issues.
“Statements regarding Smartmatic software or voting machines altering the results of the election are factually false,” wrote Davis, who noted that Smartmatic did not provide any election machines or software used in the 2020 election outside of Los Angeles.
However, the judge said that not every allegedly defamatory statement published by Newsmax, including statements about Smartmatic’s ties to Venezuela and its late president Hugo Chavez, has been shown to be materially false.
“Therefore, the court will allow Newsmax to contest falsity as to Smartmatic’s connections with Venezuela,” he wrote.
In court papers, Newsmax has described Smartmatic as “a struggling election technology company with a checkered history” that is using a legally baseless and unconstitutional theory of liability to try to obtain a massive windfall.
Last month, a federal grand jury in Florida indicted three current and former executives of Smartmatic in a scheme to pay more than $1 million in bribes to put its voting machines in the Philippines. Prosecutors allege that Smartmatic’s Venezuelan-born co-founder, Roger Piñate, colluded with others to funnel bribes to the chairman of the Philippines’ electoral commission using a slush fund created by overcharging for each voting machine it supplied authorities.
In a favorable ruling for Newsmax, Davis rejected Smartmatic’s claim that the news outlet acted with “express malice” under Florida law, meaning that its primary motivation was to injure Smartmatic.
“There is no evidence that Newsmax acted with evil intent towards Smartmatic,” the judge wrote. [questionable]
Davis previously ruled that Smartmatic is a “limited public figure” for purposes of defamation and must show that Newsmax acted with “actual malice” by knowingly and recklessly disregarding the truth. On Thursday, he said actual malice is an issue for a jury, and that a jury also must decide whether Smartmatic is entitled to damages.
In another blow to Smartmatic, Davis said Newsmax can argue that it is protected from liability under Florida’s “neutral reporting privilege,” which extends to “disinterested and neutral reporting” on matters of public concern. Newsmax argues that the privilege applies because many of the allegedly defamatory statements were made by third parties appearing as guests, or were rebroadcast after being made by third parties on non-Newsmax platforms.
[…] Davis also said Newsmax could assert a “fair reporting privilege” regarding reporting by White House correspondent Emerald Robinson about a whistleblower affidavit filed in a Georgia lawsuit challenging the election results. The affidavit involved claims by Powell that Smartmatic had colluded with the Venezuelan government in that country’s 2013 presidential election.
Newsmax argues that Florida’s fair reporting privilege applies to accurate reporting on judicial proceedings, including court records, and that Robinson was reporting on the contents of an affidavit filed in federal court. Smartmatic contends that the affidavit was not signed or sworn, and therefore not an official document. Davis said a jury must decide whether the fair reporting privilege applies to Robinson, who erroneously reported that the affidavit was sworn.
The Delaware lawsuit, which takes issue with 24 Newsmax reports over a five-week period in late 2020, is one of several stemming from reports by conservative news outlets following the election. [24 reports!] Smartmatic also is suing Fox News for defamation in New York and recently settled a lawsuit in the District of Columbia against the One America News Network, another conservative outlet. […]
“I think a lot of women across America were proud to be women when they watched Kamala Harris on the debate stage; it was her moment, she took it, she nailed it. It’s just funny to me to hear that it’s even an issue for some people. I know it may be: ‘Oh, Kamala Harris is a woman of color, she’s a woman. Are Americans ready?’ I immediately think, are they ready? What, are they ready for a psychopath? Are they ready for someone who wants to use the government to commit retribution against all of his opponents for no reason at all? Who wants to destroy our democracy? That’s not an exaggeration. That’s not rhetoric. That’s what he said. That’s what he has been doing”.
[…] “Are we ready for that? That’s the question. I don’t want to hear, ‘Are we ready for a woman?’ That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard! That’s what’s gotten us here!”
[…] “Are we ready for a woman? That’s not the question, I think, that should be asked.”
“It’s like, are we ready to have…someone who seems to have psychotic tendencies running our government, who has plans to do things that are very counter to our democracy, and has already hurt women terribly, monstrously; already, happening now in this country?”
• Quoting unidentified “people,” Trump argued via social media that it’s “very likely” that ABC News secretly provided Harris with the debate questions before the event. That’s utterly bonkers, of course, but it’s also an implicit acknowledgement of how well the vice president performed.
* The New York Times reported that a group with apparent GOP ties are running antisemitic ads in Michigan targeting Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff.
* The Democratic ticket picked up an endorsement this week from the National Association of Letter Carriers, the largest union for active and retired postal workers.
* Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are scheduled to hold separate fundraisers for Harris in Los Angeles next week. The Trump campaign doesn’t have anyone comparable who can headline similar events on his behalf.
* And while Jill Stein has run for president several times, the Green Party’s 2024 nominee was unable to say how many members are in the U.S. House of Representatives. “How many total are there? What is it, 600 some?” Stein said. (The House has 435 seats, not including non-voting delegates.)
KGsays
That’s proving too much even for the GOP nominee’s friends. – Lynna, OM@19, quoting Daily Kos
I must correct this inaccuracy: malignant narcissists don’t have friends. Trump has minions, cronies, sycophants, and those he in turn is sycophantic towards.
Republican Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance in an interview Wednesday said he would ‘consider’ plans to privatize parts of the Department of Veterans Affairs and push for more private-health care options for patients in the system if elected this fall. In an appearance on the Shawn Ryan Show podcast released Wednesday, the Ohio senator … also said he would fire or cut thousands of federal civilian jobs, including many within VA.”
Commentary:
[…] The Harris campaign released a statement from Sen. Tammy Duckworth — a decorated combat veteran who served in Iraq — who said, “When JD Vance floats the Trump-Vance Project 2025 agenda to privatize the VA, we should take him seriously. This isn’t just some misguided policy idea; it’s a slap in the face to the men and women who served this country. … Veterans deserve better than candidates who will turn their health care into a business opportunity the minute they get the chance.”
The Illinois Democrat’s written statement added, “The VA isn’t just another government agency — it’s a lifeline for Veterans, families, and caregivers who’ve sacrificed for our freedoms. They deserve a leader who will protect their health care, not sell them out. That’s Vice President Harris.” […]
It was one of the most shocking and disturbing lines in the modern history of presidential politics: During his debate against Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday night, former President Donald Trump made a wild assertion about a small city in Ohio that has recently seen an influx of migrants.
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in — they’re eating the cats,” Trump said. “They’re eating — they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”
The claim of migrants killing domestic animals had been thoroughly debunked before it hit Trump’s microphone. One of the debate moderators, David Muir, immediately responded to highlight reporting from his television network indicating Trump’s shocking comments had no basis in reality. But despite the fact checking, Trump’s incendiary statements trended on social media and led some right-wing allies to rush to his defense.
This fear campaign against Springfield’s Haitian immigrants contains echoes of some of the oldest xenophobic stereotypes. And, in this case, it has led to very real threats against the migrant community.
The path the inflammatory rumors took from the fever swamps to the debate stage to an on-the-ground, Trump-fueled furor in Springfield is a new spin through a story arc that has become familiar in the MAGA era: The most out-there right-wing extremists — including, in this case, notorious neo-Nazis — and GOP politicians reinforce each others’ narratives, with real-world ramifications for everyday people.
The trouble first began more than two months ago, when Republicans — including Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) — began zeroing in on the town. Vance began to speak about Springfield in early July, bringing up the immigrants at a Senate Banking Committee hearing featuring Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell.
[…] Vance ratcheted up his rhetoric at the National Conservatism conference. On stage at that event, Vance let loose a stream of inflammatory statements, accusing “illegals” of having “overwhelmed” the city.
[…] “The sad thing is none of this was stirred up until JD Vance started publicizing it,” Ruby [Carl Ruby, an immigrant advocate and senior pastor at Central Christian Church in Springfield] told TPM. “It was an internal thing that we were handling and handling well.”
Since Haitians began arriving in Springfield a few years ago, Ruby has made an effort to build ties with the burgeoning community. He ran a nonprofit that provided aid to the immigrants and has worked to advocate for them. According to Ruby, even after the death of a young boy named Aiden Clark last year in a crash for which a Haitian immigrant was found liable, tensions in the city remained manageable. However, the political attacks set off a summer of increasing misery. On Tuesday, the day after the debate, the young boy’s father, Nathan Clark, spoke up at a Springfield city commission meeting where he criticized Republican politicians for using the death of his son as a “political tool” and suggested their remarks had kicked off a torrent of abuse.
“I wish that my son, Aiden Clark, was killed by a 60-year old white man,” Clark said. “I bet you never thought anyone would ever say something so blunt. But if that guy killed my 11-year-old son, the incessant group of hate-spewing people would leave us alone.”
The outpouring of anger that has overwhelmed Clark and his city has included neo-Nazis and other white supremacists. On Aug. 10, about a dozen members of one such group, Blood Tribe, showed up in Springfield for one of their trademark events, which involve masked marches where participants wave swastika flags. At least two of the marchers who descended on Springfield’s downtown carried rifles.
[…] Pohlhaus has also been linked to a plan to establish a neo-Nazi compound in Maine that was seemingly aborted after it was exposed by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The neo-Nazi group’s march in Springfield was led by a top associate of Pohlhaus’, Drake Berentz. During the Springfield march, Berentz made remarks where he referenced the child killed in the car crash and suggested the city had been taken over by “degenerate third worlders.” Berentz, who uttered racial slurs and suggested Jews were behind the migrant influx, issued a call to action for people who “are tired of having to share space.” [Yikes!] [Snipped more Nazi remarks about “subhumans.”]
[…] Ruby, the pastor and immigrant advocate in Springfield, said the neo-Nazi march took the negative attention on the city to the next level.
[…] Blood Tribe and other extremists remained active in the city. On Aug. 27, just over two weeks after the march, Berentz showed up at a Springfield city commission meeting, where he got up to speak using an alias that contained a thinly veiled reference to a racial slur.
[…] Springfield Mayor Rob Rue cut Berentz off, said his comments sounded “threatening,” and asked police to escort him from the meeting. But Berentz wasn’t the only one from Blood Tribe who was in attendance. A user on the site formerly known as Twitter who identified themselves as a member of the group subsequently posted videos indicating they were also at the commission meeting. They also posted a series of threatening statements directed at a woman in town who had criticized the neo-Nazi group in a public forum. Those statements, which were later removed by the site, included attempts to pinpoint the woman’s address, members of her family, and details about a pet. [Yikes!]
[…] “We have every intention of continuing to uncover the corruption behind the Haitian invasion there, making sure they are all repatriated, and ensuring those who are responsible are held accountable for their actions against the citizens of Ohio,” [a Blood Tribe spokespersons said.]
Blood Tribe isn’t the only right-wing extremist group that has been active in Springfield. On Sept. 1, Patriot Front, a white supremacist group that is also known for masked marches, held what it described as a “protest to the mass influx of unassimilable Haitian migrants” in the city.
Meanwhile, on right-wing social media pages, activists have for weeks spread videos of the stories presented at Springfield’s city commission meetings. […]
Some Haitian immigrants in Springfield have stopped leaving their homes out of fear […] Others, he said, are keeping their children home from school. […] a local community college attended by many immigrants canceled an exam scheduled for Thursday because of the situation.
[…] many of the video compilations that have been spread online by conservative influencers featured one woman at the city commission meeting attended by the Blood Tribe leader who said she had seen migrants “stealing animals from farmers” and “making some barbaric stew out of the birds that live in our park.”
“I feel like we have been invaded by some sort of pest,” she declared. [Note the use of “pest” which also a Nazi tell.]
[…] Her testimony has drawn millions of views.
However, the clips from the meetings achieved their biggest impact by reaching one particular set of eyeballs: the former president’s.
When Trump raised the conspiracy theory on Tuesday, Muir explained that ABC News had been in touch with the Springfield city manager. “He told us there have been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community,” Muir said.
But Trump objected, pointing to things he said he had watched.
“I’ve seen people on television,” Trump said, adding, “The people on television say, ‘my dog was taken and used for food.’”
And so the debate became the culmination of a dark feedback loop between GOP politicians, extremists, and Trump himself. Online, Blood Tribe responded to the debate with a post on Telegram, surfaced by researcher Kate Ross where they boasted about their role in the process
[…] The chaos in Springfield escalated further in the days after the debate; City Hall reported a bomb threat. Two schools and a local branch of the state Bureau of Motor Vehicles also had to be evacuated. In interviews, Haitian immigrants described facing a wave of vandalism and threats after Trump’s remarks trended online and amplified the videos.
Trump, who spent Thursday posting memes about animals being eaten on his Truth Social platform, clearly has no intention of stopping the cycle. In response to a request for comment on this story, Trump campaign National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt suggested the former president is not dropping the issue. […]
[…] The same kind of racist rhetoric has also besieged Venezuelan immigrants in Colorado. Trump has repeatedly pushed bullshit crime numbers (which he did once again during the debate), targeting Venezuelan communities in the Centennial State as filled with “gangs,” and saying they were “taking over” Colorado cities.
Even after the story and the crime numbers have been debunked, people like Trump immigration adviser Stephen Miller continue unabashedly, with more vitriol than ever, to push racist lies. Those lies have consequences.
Aurora resident Carlos Ordosgoitti, whose building was the target of the fake gang story, told NBC News’ Denver affiliate KUSA, “Right now, I am scared because of what’s been created and all the xenophobia hate has increased towards us,” adding, “I’m really scared to be outside past 7 or 8 p.m. because you never know who can drive by or come around to try to harm us.”
The issue was compounded by local conservatives jumping on the racist bandwagon without any evidence to support their anti-immigrant position. Aurora City Council member Danielle Jurinsky went so far as to call the lack of evidence a “cover up,” before recently walking back her statements.
Trump has also parroted purveyor of intolerance and domestic terrorism Libs of TikTok, who had pushed another completely fabricated story that a Venezuelan gang had taken control of an entire building, this time in Chicago. That story was amplified by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who pushed it to his followers across his social media platform X (formerly Twitter). […]
A political committee behind the campaign to pass a constitutional right to abortion in Florida has filed a lawsuit against a state health care agency that it alleges is carrying out a taxpayer-funded “misinformation” campaign against the November ballot measure.
Critics say the state-backed messaging push is the latest “dirty trick” by Republican officials in Florida to thwart the citizen-led initiative to protect abortion in the country’s third-largest state. Nearly a million Floridians signed petitions to get the measure known as Amendment 4 on the ballot, surpassing the more than 891,500 signatures required by the state.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida and Southern Legal Counsel filed the lawsuit in a Leon County circuit court on Thursday on behalf of Floridians Protecting Freedom, Inc., the organization behind Amendment 4.
The lawsuit targets a website, television and radio ads created by Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration to give Floridians “the truth” about the proposed constitutional amendment. If approved by at least 60% of Florida voters, Amendment 4 would make abortions legal until the fetus is viable, as determined by the patient’s health care provider…
Police dispatchers in Delaware’s capital city are being lauded for helping direct rescuers to a boat foundering in the English Channel thousands of miles away.
Dispatchers for the city of Dover found themselves at the center of an international rescue effort last month after receiving a call from an Albanian man who thought he was calling emergency personnel in Dover, England.
The mix-up happened Aug. 27, when the man learned that his brother’s boat was sinking in the English Channel, according to Delaware authorities.
“The caller had conducted an internet search for the ‘Dover Police Department’ and the first search result on the screen proved to be the Dover, Delaware Police Department,” police officials said in a news release Thursday…
A major defamation case against Newsmax will proceed to trial later this month, a judge ruled Thursday, dealing a blow to the right-wing network and setting the stage for the 2020 election to be relitigated during the final stretch of the 2024 race.
Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis rejected Newsmax’s attempt to shut down the case, which was brought by the voting technology company Smartmatic, without even holding a trial. Instead, Davis concluded that key questions about Newsmax’s actions in 2020 would be weighed by a jury, barring a pre-trial settlement.
“Newsmax reported on allegations regarding the Election and Smartmatic, but there remains a dispute as to whether Newsmax recklessly disregarded the truth,” Davis wrote. “The jury must determine if Newsmax was doing what media organizations typically do — inform the public of newsworthy events—or did Newsmax purposely avoid the truth and defame Smartmatic.
The trial is scheduled to begin September 30. However, defamation cases like these are often resolved, even at the last minute, with an out-of-court settlement…
According to an NPR report, one of Donald Trump’s golf clubs recently featured speeches from a Jan. 6 rioter and Nazi sympathizer.
In the 44 months since the Jan. 6 attack, prosecutors have charged more than 1,500 people with crimes related to the Capitol assault. Most of them are relatively anonymous figures that most Americans couldn’t identify or pick out of a lineup.
There are, however, some exceptions.
For those who’ve followed the story, there are probably a handful of Jan. 6 criminals and defendants whose faces stand out in memorable ways. There was the guy with his feet on Nancy Pelosi’s desk, for example, and the guy wearing horns on his head. And, of course, who can forget the guy with the Hitler mustache?
When Timothy Hale-Cusanelli was indicted by the Justice Department, federal law enforcement described the Jan. 6 rioter as a “white supremacist and Nazi sympathizer,” who told his co-workers that “Hitler should have finished the job” and “babies born with any deformities or disabilities should be shot in the forehead.”
The year after the insurrectionist violence, Hale-Cusanelli went on trial for his role in the Jan. 6 riot, and as part of his defense, he tried to convince a jury that he didn’t know the Capitol building is where Congress meets. For some reason, that didn’t work, and the Nazi sympathizer was convicted on five counts, including one felony.
Two years later, Hale-Cusanelli’s name is back in the news for an unexpected reason. NPR reported:
Twice this past summer, Donald Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, N.J. has featured speeches from a rioter convicted of participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, who has a well-documented history of extreme antisemitic and racist rants. One of those events — a fundraiser for a controversial nonprofit group that supports Capitol riot defendants — was personally endorsed by Trump himself in a video message that was played for the room.
“All of the people there, you’re amazing patriots,” the former president said in the video. “Have a great time at Bedminster.”
[…] To be sure, the fact that Trump and his venues have hosted events for Jan. 6 criminals and defendants is not altogether new. NBC News reported in June 2023, for example, that the former president spoke at a Jan. 6 fundraiser, held at his private golf club in Bedminster. “I’m going to make a contribution,” Trump said at the time.
Two months later, NBC News ran a separate report, noting that Trump participated in a different Jan. 6 fundraiser, which was also held at his golf club in New Jersey.
Both events were organized by Patriot Freedom Project — the same group that hosted a Bedminster event three months ago where Hale-Cusanelli spoke.
The Trump campaign didn’t deny any of this, though it told NPR that the Republican candidate — the one who recorded an on-camera video statement celebrating attendees as “amazing patriots” — was not “made aware of the comments that [Hale-Cusanelli’s] made.”
I don’t imagine we’ve heard the last of this one, especially given the larger context.
Rachel Maddow looks at the resurrection of holocaust denialism adjacent to the Trump campaign as Election Day is grows closer and why this is especially worrying given other troubling facets of the Trump campaign, from advocating violence to admiring foreign dictators.
Are RFK Jr. And The State Supreme Court Stealing North Carolina For Trump? Well, They’re Sure Trying!
So much fuckery, so little time (for early voting).
After a “presidential” campaign that made him a national joke, what with the brain worm, the freakish dead bear story, and his chainsaw-wielding take on Herman Melville, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. got the fuck out of the 2024 presidential race so he could endorse a far bigger brain worm, and you might have thought that was that. But after dropping out, Kennedy tried to get himself removed from the ballot in several swing states where his presence might draw voters away from the Orange Whale.
He was able to get his name removed from ballots in a number of states, including swing states Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania, but he’s still on the ballot in Michigan and Wisconsin. And as we noted earlier this week, Kennedy also managed to get the North Carolina state supreme court to remove him, overruling a lower court’s ruling despite a state law requiring absentee ballots be mailed out by September 6. That means the state has to destroy and reprint ballots, which we noted would cost a million bucks and “might create chaos.”
Gentle Readers, in that piece we didn’t really look too closely at exactly what that chaos might look like, but Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern explained it in detail in a column yesterday, and good Crom, it’s so much worse than “might create chaos” is able to express.
As Stern explains, we aren’t just talking about an inconvenience here. The North Carolina Supremes’ 4-3 decision, he says,
will compel election administrators to destroy nearly 3 million already-printed ballots that featured Kennedy’s name and redesign 2,348 different ballot styles across the state to accommodate the eleventh-hour change. This complex process will significantly delay the distribution of new ballots—which will, in turn, unlawfully abridge early voting for everyone while jeopardizing the voting rights of service members overseas in clear contradiction of federal statute.
Kennedy had already been informed by North Carolina elections officials that the deadline for switching candidates around was August 22. He dropped out and endorsed Trump the next day, but then he didn’t actually file to have his name taken off the ballot until August 27, well past the deadline.
By that point, county election boards were already printing ballots. Under state law, the board of elections may refuse a “late” request to remove a candidate from the ballot when removal is no longer “practical.” Another state law compels election officials to mail ballots to service members and others living overseas by Sept. 6.
The state Supremes then tossed a great big stinkbomb into the election plans that were already running forward smoothly, because what the hell, wouldn’t want to miss an opportunity to tilt the election toward Trump; this is the same state supreme court that, almost immediately after gaining a Republican majority, arbitrarily brought back the very same racist gerrymander that the previous court determined violated the state constitution, simply because it could. Nothing about the law or the map had changed, but the balance on the court had, so goodbye fair voting.
Again, this is a completely lawless decision, running roughshod over not only the state law requiring overseas absentee ballots be mailed by September 6, but also illegally shortening the early voting period — when Democrats are more likely to vote than Republicans, not incidentally.
Worse, the decision now puts North Carolina on track to violate federal law, since states must send out overseas ballots no later than September 21. The state elections director testified that it could take 18 to 23 days to print new ballots, which makes meeting that federal requirement extremely unlikely.
Bizarrely, Republican Justice Trey Allen claimed in his opinion that by following state law and printing ballots, elections officials had illegally discriminated against Kennedy by making it harder from him to leave the ballot he had worked to get himself onto. Apparently the state should have anticipated he wouldn’t even ask to be removed until five days after the goddamned deadline. [Sheesh. Partisan much?]
[…] it could help Trump now that Kamala Harris is in danger of winning, so that’s worth it, in the new judicial logic where the law is anything that helps your friends and hurts your enemies. As Justice Allison Riggs wrote in her dissent, “The whims of one man have been elevated above the constitutional interests of tens of thousands of North Carolina voters.” […]
Thirty-two members of Congress have signed a “Unity Commitment” pledging to respect the results of the upcoming presidential election, certify the results, and attend the inauguration while calling for calm and opposing related political violence, according to a copy of the pledge obtained by Politico and released on Friday.
Historically, certifying election results has been a routine function of Congress, conducted without controversy or violence—until supporters of Donald Trump rioted at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Six of the 32 pledge’s signatories are Republicans, with most coming from swing districts. They are Reps. Don Bacon of Nebraska, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Lori Chavez-DeRemer of Oregon, and Mike Lawler, Nick LaLota, and Anthony D’Esposito, all from New York. The remaining 26 signatories are Democrats.
[…] In all likelihood, the Republicans who signed the Unity Commitment face constituents who are less likely to buy into the election denialism promoted by right-wing figures like Donald Trump.
By contrast, on the same day the pledge was released, Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin said on CNN that he would not commit to certifying the results. Mullin’s home state has strongly supported Trump’s campaigns, with Trump winning it by over 30 points in 2020.
“I’m not going to sit up here and tell you what I’m going to do and not going to do until I see the results,” he told CNN host Pamela Brown.
Mullin’s remarks follow Trump once again lying during Tuesday’s debate with Vice President Kamala Harris that he won the 2020 race.
Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, similarly said in a recent interview that he would have supported fake electors in 2020 that falsely claimed Trump had won, a process which would have invalidated millions of Biden-Harris votes.
Law enforcement officials recently announced enhanced security procedures meant to prevent another Jan. 6-style event. The Secret Service on Wednesday said it had designated the upcoming certification of the presidential election as a “National Special Security Event,” following a request from Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser.
Brand co-founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield partnered with political advocacy group MoveOn to create the limited edition flavor Kamala’s Coconut Jubilee. The decadent dessert is described as coconut-flavored ice cream layered with caramel and topped with red, white and blue star sprinkles, according to USA Today…
This is no conventional coffee: it is made without using a single coffee bean.
It comes from Atomo, one of a band of alt-coffee start-ups hoping to revolutionise the world of brewed coffee…
Atomo’s ingredients aren’t particularly high tech: date seeds, ramón seeds, sunflower seed extract, fructose, pea protein, millet, lemon, guava, fenugreek seeds, caffeine and baking soda.
Things begin with waste date seeds or pits. Rock hard, they are granulated then infused with a secret marinade of ingredients from the list above, before being roasted to create new flavours, aromas and compounds.
Further ingredients then finish things off. Atomo’s caffeine is sourced from green tea decaffeination, though synthetically-made caffeine is also used to provide beanless coffee’s kick…
Pope Francis on Friday slammed both U.S. presidential candidates for what he called anti-life policies on abortion and migration, and he advised American Catholics to choose who they think is the “lesser evil” in the upcoming U.S. elections.
“Both are against life, be it the one who kicks out migrants, or be it the one who kills babies,″ Francis said.
The Argentine Jesuit was asked to provide counsel to American Catholic voters during an airborne news conference while he flew back to Rome from his four-nation tour through Asia. Francis stressed that he is not an American and would not be voting…
A fetus is not a “baby.” If you can’t make your case without telling that lie, then you don’t have a very good case.
This world will have a ‘locked’ rotation, but with a 17-hour orbit, the coriolis forces in the core should maintain a healthy magnetic field.
But orbiting this close to a small red dwarf will subject the world to flares that would erode the atmosphere.
Maybe post-humans could set up a terraforming enclave on the dark side and vaporise enough volatiles to re-establish an atmosphere.
Earlier this year, we got a look at something unusual: the results of an internal investigation conducted by Harvard Business School that concluded one of its star faculty members had committed research misconduct. Normally, these reports are kept confidential, leaving questions regarding the methods and extent of data manipulations.
But in this case, the report became public because the researcher had filed a lawsuit that alleged defamation on the part of the team of data detectives that had first identified potential cases of fabricated data, as well as Harvard Business School itself. Now, the court has ruled on motions to dismiss the case. While the suit against Harvard will go on, the court has ruled that evidence-backed conclusions regarding fabricated data cannot constitute defamation—which is probably a very good thing for science.
This was a raging ego lawsuit, the researcher filed a lawsuit because people did analysis of her evidence and said it looked off. The court took the sensible position that if you have good evidence then pointing out possible errors can not be defamation, case dismissed.
It’s the inverse of the voter fraud allegations, where people have made allegations and then gone fishing for possible evidence. Which eventually got Fox News sued when they continued to repeat the allegations after it was clear that there was no evidence to support it.
Mobile phone location data has linked site visits by US securities watchdogs to the headquarters of companies with measurable drops in their share prices — even when no enforcement action is taken.
There is a connection between visits by SEC regulators and stock prices. If a bunch of SEC regulators visit a company there tends to be selling by insiders and the stock price tends to go down, even if it was a non-public visit and nothing was done after the visit. This drop suggests possible insider trading abuses but it isn’t clear from one analysis if this is the case.
I really just find it amusing that you can follow SEC officials by the cell phone data and expect that somebody is going to do that all the time if it wasn’t already happening.
The world’s largest hot desert, the Sahara, is being hit with unusually heavy rain. Scientists are unclear why, but it may be linked to a subdued Atlantic hurricane season.
One of our cohorts just read an article that mentioned that biden’s spokesperson jean-pierre is either Haitian or of Haitian descent. WOW, how many people can the rtwinnuts insult and threaten? (crossposted from main blog.)
In 2013, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling nullified California’s controversial Prop 8 — the voter approved state constitutional measure that officially defined marriage as between a man and a woman. But more than a decade later, the inert measure remains on the state’s constitution.
Now activists hoping to nullify Prop 8 once and for all are going to the November ballot with Prop 3, another constitutional measure that would officially scrub Prop 8 from the state books and declare same-sex marriage a fundamental right.
“What we’re trying to do is to just take that dirty stain off the California constitution,” said Shay Franco-Clausen, political director with Equality California.
The Supreme Court’s decision legalizing same-sex marriage across the nation seemed to quell the tumultuous ride of same-sex marriage in California, which began in 2004 when then-San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom instructed the city to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, which were voided six months later by the California Supreme Court.
About time this got to the ballot.
Reginald Selkirksays
Caitlin Clark has set the WNBA record for assists in a season at 318, with 2.5 games to finish. In her rookie season.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Re: Bekenstein Bound @ xxxii p7 #498:
I responded earlier regarding diversity and environmental contingency of ape societies, below your post prior to the chapter rollover. Now a bit more.
When one’s politics revolve around defending wealth hoarders from impoverished masses, truth becomes an inconvenience. Hence the lying and cheating and general descent into corruption and coercion.
No dodgy neuropolitics theory of everything necessary.
/My framing still works before the 18th century for defending kings and clergy. The quote below is just a convenient paper trail.
conservatism isn’t, at its core, about fiscal responsibility, limited government, or the rights of the individual, but is about maintaining social hierarchies, that it believes people are fundamentally unequal and likes the free market because it sorts people according to their worth, and even softly implies capitalism itself may be innately anti-democratic
[…]
Two of the architects of conservative thought were Edmund Burke and Joseph de Maistre, who formulated much of their political theory while writing about the French Revolution. They, in turn, were influenced by earlier writings from Thomas Hobbes on the English Civil War.
And what all three of these men were doing in writing about these wars was defending the monarchy. The sentiment that the masses should be powerless in the face of nobility was being challenged, and, while these men thought the revolutionaries themselves actually quite compelling, the democracy they were fighting for Hobbes, Burke, and de Maistre found repulsive. Come the end of the Revolution, when it seemed democracy might actually spread across Europe, Burke, especially, began to hypothesize ways that one’s position within the aristocracy might be preserved even should the monarchy fall. He turned his eye to the market.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Re: Bekenstein Bound @ xxxii p7 #498:
[Autistics] are also notably politically left-leaning as a bunch. […] and don’t “get” the things that get conservatives all outraged, or disgusted, or hostile, and as a result are less susceptible to conservatism in general.
I couldn’t verify this, and I caution against hyping a slight leaning in large statistics to build narratives. Setting aside norm obliviousness, being targeted VERY much tends to make one less receptive to threatening ideologies (either for identity itself or socioeconomic comorbidities of neurodivergence). Conservatives have provided many flavors of marginalization to drive people away, toward inclusive communities that promote further self-discovery and labelling. Extremism is rare at least.
Existing research has failed to consider the contextual factors that could influence these rare occurrences of engagement with extreme ideologies. […] Twelve individuals […] diagnosed or self-identified as autistic and have engaged with extreme ideologies participated in semistructured interviews.
[…]
Traumatic experiences, disenfranchisement, learned hatred from an insular upbringing, and systemic failings in health and social service systems contributed to participants’ decisions to engage with extreme ideologies. Hate groups, in turn, filled the voids by providing acceptance, purpose, structure, sense of community, and by accommodating participants’ neurodivergent needs. […] Autism alone did not explain participants’ engagement with extreme ideologies. Trauma and disenfranchisement related to being neurodivergent were common factors
[…]
Many aspects of autism represent strengths in the right context. Because of this, extremist groups have sought to recruit autistic individuals […] Robust data on rates of engagement [among] neurodivergent people are not available.
At the population level, neurodivergent individuals are no more likely to commit acts of violence compared with the general population and are often victims […] Autism is variable in terms of presentation, coping mechanisms, and perceptions. Readers should not link these participant experiences to the broad population of autistic people.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Lynna @17:
Trump campaigned in Arizona […] “Nobody knows where they come from,” […] (Haitians come from Haiti. Even Trump should be able to understand this.)
Trump said in California, “We will do large deportations from Springfield, Ohio—large deportations. We’re gonna get these people out. We’re bringing them back to Venezuela.”
Bekenstein Boundsays
Lynna@15:
Such confusion is to be expected from Trump, who’s relationship with reality has long been fractured,
Heh heh heh heh heh … “fractured”? That presupposes he ever had one.
Is the Republican senator really this confused about issues he claims to care about, or is the vice presidential hopeful assuming that voters are foolish enough to believe demonstrable nonsense?
Oh, he’s not assuming anything. He knows exactly how foolish Republican voters are.
Reginald Selkirk@16:
Pastor Claims ‘Witchcraft’ To Blame For Donald Trump’s Bad Debate
Interesting that he accuses Trump of witchcraft.
Meanwhile, this suggests an excellent opportunity for Harris to troll the troglodytes witch only involves paying a brief visit to a costume store on the way to her next public appearance. They should have plenty of what she needs in stock, this close to October …
Lynna@17:
At one point the GOP nominee went so far as to condemn “illegal Haitian migrants” who destroyed an Ohio community. “Nobody knows where they come from,” he added.
Hey, Trumphole! Just because you Americans make a point of being ignorant about geography beyond your own national borders doesn’t mean the rest of humanity has any difficulty locating Haiti on a map!
Lynna@18:
Loomer replies: “Thank you very much. Thank you for allowing me to sit with you. I love you.”
Should Melania be worried?
Or relieved?
Lynna@19:
“Speaking of racism,” Loomer wrote, “one of your former staffers told me you have a favorite word that starts with N.” She also called on Democrats and Republicans to unite in defeating Greene in November […]
Excellent, excellent. You two divide your whole party with your silly spat, while Harris laughs all the way to the Oval Office. Meanwhile, off I go to get some popcorn …
Trump is once again arguing that he actually won the 2020 election and including himself in the list of insurrectionists who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
(emphasis added)
I do hope the prosecutors, judges, and potential jurors in his federal criminal trials were paying attention to this self-incriminating statement …
As The Bulwark reported Friday, the NRSC has amplified eight of Loomer’s videos since July.
The … what? “NRSC”? Is that what the NSDAP is calling itself these days or something?
JM@20:
The head of the postal service is one of those jobs that is protected. The president can’t fire and replace the head of the postal service.
So, the civil service protections Trump’s Project 2025 would do away with are protecting one of Trump’s own partisan hacks?
How ironic.
It would take a fair bit of work for Biden to remove Dejoy
Then he should start immediately. We can’t afford that fuckhead screwing up the mail-in ballots. The fate of the world depends on Harris winning, and we’re running out of time.
shermanj@21:
My question is how can the vancehole honestly complain about that when his nose is up the ass of a self-proclaimed “Billionaire Celebrity”?
To which one were you referring, Trump or Thiel?
Lynna@23:
Mr. Trump was crushed by a woman he previously dismissed as “dumb as a rock.” Which raises the question: What does that make him?
Why, “dumb as a rock”, of course. With these goofballs, every accusation is a confession.
Lynna@34:
Vance ratcheted up his rhetoric at the National Conservatism conference.
Hmm. “National Conservatism”.
Well, I suppose that’s a somewhat more honest name for it than “National Socialism” was …
the neo-Nazi group in a public forum. Those statements, which were later removed by the site, included attempts to pinpoint the woman’s address, members of her family, and details about a pet. [Yikes!]
Oh, look who’s the real threat to pets in Springfield. As I noted previously, every accusation is a confession with these chucklefucks.
…a dark feedback loop between GOP politicians, extremists, and Trump himself. … Trump, who spent Thursday posting memes about animals being eaten on his Truth Social platform, clearly has no intention of stopping the cycle.
This is probably how the Tulsa so-called “race riots” (i.e., a white-on-black massacre) started. Some similar KKK/Nazi feedback loop. The Rwanda genocide, too, and Kristallnacht, etc. … Unfortunately, for a subset of (alleged) human beings, hate seems to be addictive and they eventually go on benders with the stuff.
Lynna@35:
Even after the story and the crime numbers have been debunked, people like Trump immigration adviser Stephen Miller continue unabashedly, with more vitriol than ever, to push racist lies. Those lies have consequences.
Until those lies have consequences for Stephen Miller, though, he won’t stop.
…
I think it’s likely Harris will win now, especially after the debate performance (and Lichtman’s “Keys” also indicate this likelihood).
I also think it’s likely there will be serious civil unrest after the election, perhaps on a larger scale than 2020’s and far more violent, with widespread revolt by the far right. This may be focused around one or another stage of the election certification, a la J6, but I doubt it will be either localized in space to the Capitol mall or localized in time the way the J6 violence was. Anything from widespread rioting to coordinated and major terror attacks.
I don’t see us getting out of this election, let alone this decade, without a significant bloodletting … I just hope the tree of liberty emerges watered, rather than burnt down, in the end.
Reginald Selkirk@44:
In places where bat populations crashed, farmers sprayed more insecticides, and baby mortality spiked
Mess with nature, and it tends to mess back. Hard. Ecosystems exemplify chaotic nonlinear dynamics.
Late Professor William T. Kelley taught Marketing at Wharton School of Business and Finance, University of Pennsylvania, for 31 years, ending with his retirement in 1982…
Professor Kelley told me 100 times over three decades that “Donald Trump was the dumbest goddam student I ever had.” I remember his emphasis and inflection — it went like this — “Donald Trump was the dumbest goddam student I ever had.” Dr. Kelley told me this after Trump had become a celebrity but long before he was considered a political figure. Dr. Kelley often referred to Trump’s arrogance when he told of this — that Trump came to Wharton thinking he already knew everything…
Lynda Carter, the original Wonder Woman actor, denounced her sister’s campaign for a competitive seat in the Arizona House, telling Mother Jones on Friday that she wouldn’t support her for any elected position.
The actor’s statement was included as part of Mother Jones’ exposé on her sister, Pamela Carter, the far-right Republican running to represent part of Maricopa County in the Arizona House of Representatives.
“On her website, Pam claims to have her ‘family’s full support,’” Lynda Carter told Mother Jones. “I have known Pam my entire life, which is why I sadly cannot endorse her for this or any public office.” …
… In an onstage interview with Joanna Coles, chief creative and content officer for the Daily Beast, at the 2024 Retail Influencer CEO Forum, (Martha) Stewart said she would absolutely be tuning in to the debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
“Oh, you bet,” she said, before revealing her choice of candidate.
“Kamala,” she stated, emphasizing the correct pronunciation.
Stewart explained that she supports the vice president because she wants a president “who doesn’t hate New York” and “doesn’t hate democracy.” …
Fox News appears to be doing its best to keep viewers ignorant of the growing controversy involving Donald Trump and his latest association with racist conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer.
According to TV Eyes, a database of television news captions, Fox News has not mentioned Loomer a single time in the past week. The only mention of Loomer across the Fox platform includes a single fleeting mention of the conservative pundit by Fox News contributor and former George W. Bush aide Karl Rove during an appearance on Fox Business. Loomer was among those who helped Trump prepare for Tuesday night’s presidential debate.
“Matt Gaetz, Tulsi Gabbard, Laura Loomer—why didn’t somebody in that room say, ‘Mr President, they’re gonna be fact-checking,” Rove said during a discussion of Trump’s poor showing against Vice President Kamala Harris.
In fact, the only recent mentions in the database of the name “Laura” on Fox News were references to Fox host Laura Ingraham.
The apparent blackout extends to Fox News’ website, where there are no articles mentioning Loomer within the past year.
The story has been everywhere else. Loomer flew with Trump to attend the Sept. 11 memorial ceremony in New York City, even though she has promoted 9/11 conspiracy theories. Loomer is a racist who describes herself as “pro-white nationalism.”
Most recently she has promoted the bigoted lie that Haitian immigrants in Ohio have been eating pets (a smear repeatedly echoed by Trump and his running mate JD Vance) and said the White House would “smell like curry” if Harris wins the election.
Stories about Loomer have appeared in The New York Times, CNN, The Associated Press, The Washington Post, and dozens of other outlets.
Fox News is a part of the White House press corps and has correspondents who attend the daily briefing with press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. It is unlikely that they would have missed the back-and-forth that occurred on Thursday when Jean-Pierre was asked about Loomer. Fox even streamed the briefing on its official YouTube channel.
Reporter: There is a woman named Laura Loomer who recently tweeted that if the vice president wins the election the White House will smell like curry, and White House speeches will be facilitated via a call center, among other things. She recently traveled with the former president, and I wonder if President Biden has read these remarks and his response.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre: Let me tell you our response from here. It is repugnant, these types of comments, it is un-American, to say these types of things—exactly the kind of hateful and divisive rhetoric that we should denounce, and should not—should not be a part of the fabric of this country.
Trump’s association with Loomer has been spotlighted and criticized by the Harris campaign and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and even close Trump allies including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham.
In fact, the story has crossed over into the world of entertainment. On Thursday’s edition of “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” the host referenced the issue in his monologue.
“Melania, you will be surprised to know, did not accompany her husband to the debate or to the 9/11 ceremony,” Kimmel said. “Instead, he was joined by another lovely lady, right-wing loony Laura Loomer, who is a 9/11 conspiracy theorist. She suggested it was an inside job.”
Even before she was joining Trump on his private plane, Fox News was aware of Loomer. They have reported on her stunts and antics several times, including her failed congressional run in 2020. Loomer even made a 2017 appearance on “Hannity.”
It is unclear why Fox appears to be downplaying Loomer, though they may be trying to assist Trump as he tries to appeal to voters outside of his conservative base. Affiliating Trump with an activist Greene described as “mentally unstable” before his campaign decided not to hire her —something Fox News reported on—could hurt his political fortunes.
The network may also be gun-shy about broaching the top of conspiracies. In 2023, Fox News reached a $787 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems over the decision to promote pro-Trump conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.
Fox News does not want to make Trump look bad, so they really have to pick and choose what news they report.
Elon Musk’s Secret Campaign Against Progressive Austin Prosecutor Melted Like One Of His Trucks In The Rain
He is bad at everything, even dark-money campaigns.
One of the more entertaining developments of the last couple of decades of American politics […] is conservatives deciding that investor and philanthropist George Soros is more evil than Josef Stalin, Sauron, Darth Vader, Ursula from The Little Mermaid, Pol Pot, all the dictators of those Central Asian countries spelled with almost all consonants, murder hornets, people who scam the elderly out of their life savings, and anything gay, combined.
All because Soros has chosen to put his vast fortune to work funding liberal philanthropy and causes. He started off giving the state of New York millions of dollars to help poor children, and if there’s anything conservatives hate, it is someone who keeps those filthy street urchins out of the factories where they belong […]
So, no surprise, Elon Musk has decided Soros is evil incarnate, comparing him to Magneto and saying the elderly investor “wants to erode the very fabric of civilization” and “fundamentally hates humanity.” How “I would like to put fewer people in prison and make sure children are provided for” squares with a hatred of humanity is beyond our understanding, probably because we’re not the super-genius who built a truck that melts in the rain.
One cause Soros has taken up in recent years has been criminal justice reform. Specifically, he has worked to get more progressive district attorneys elected in jurisdictions across America, presumably with the hope they will pursue policies that reduce the country’s ridiculous incarceration rate.
One candidate Soros helped in 2020 was José Garza in Travis County in Texas. Travis County contains Austin, probably the most left-leaning jurisdiction in Texas.
So when Garza was running for re-election this year, Musk, who has made Austin his home base the last few years, decided to step in. It seems that Musk is convinced crime is running rampant in Austin, or what he sees of Austin while he and his bodyguards zoom from his house to his office. Also, crime rates have been going down after a brief surge at the height of the pandemic, but why let reality get in the way of your idiocy?
Obviously, Musk does not have the brains that God gave a rutabaga, and any humanity in his soul is so tiny that it cannot be measured with any scientific equipment possessed by man. But he does have a crap-ton of money. So according to a new report in The Wall Street Journal, he secretly spent $650,000 in support of Jeremy Sylestine, a moderate Democrat and former prosecutor who was Garza’s opponent in the primary.
Musk funneled the money through a super PAC called Saving Austin, which then undertook efforts to get Garza out of office. Saving Austin was created by a law firm called The Gober Group, whose founder, Chris Gober, is also the chairman of Musk’s pro-Trump America PAC, which is spending lots and lots of money to put Donald Trump back in office.
One of Saving Austin’s early fliers really got everyone’s attention: [Image at the link]
One of the fliers sent to voters in February bore Garza’s photo above an image of a rumpled teddy bear, stained with what appeared to be blood.
“José Garza is filling Austin’s streets with pedophiles & killers,” the flier said. “The next victim could be your loved one.”
On the back of the flier was a photo of a man’s hand covering a child’s mouth.
[JFC!]
Subtle! Would you be surprised to learn that the PAC’s three directors all used to work for Ted Cruz? Of course you wouldn’t.
For what it’s worth, Sylestine unequivocally denounced the flier as out of bounds, while the Garza campaign
sent a cease-and-desist letter to Saving Austin, saying that the group should have registered with the Texas Ethics Commission and included a disclaimer on its materials that they constituted political advertising. The letter alleged that Saving Austin “appears to be a sham, dark-money organization created to shield the true identity of those spending money to influence Travis County elections.”
How well did Musk’s and Saving Austin’s efforts work out, you are probably wondering. Well, the Journal reports that some voters said on social media that they were so offended by the flier that it motivated them to go to the polls and vote for Garza. The DA won the primary with 67 percent of the vote and is heavily favored to win the general in November.
So, not well! Which was a fitting result for an election effort undertaken by an idiot and based on his insane hatred of the B-movie villain who exists only in his head and in wingnut mythology, not in reality.
Oh, one final irony: Soros did not fund Garza’s re-election campaign. So he beat Musk without actually spending a dime. [LOL]
Musk did not respond to the Journal when it asked for comment. We can only assume he was busy staring slack-jawed at Twitter while the static in his head at all times screeches and howls in the void.
Kyiv and Moscow have frequently exchanged prisoners since Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
Russia and Ukraine conducted a major exchange of prisoners on Saturday, 206 in all, in their second such swap in two days, following negotiations mediated by the United Arab Emirates, officials said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that all 103 Ukrainians returned were from the military — 82 soldiers and privates and 21 officers.
Russian Defense Ministry said that the 103 Russian soldiers exchanged had been taken prisoner in the border Kursk region where Ukrainian forces launched a surprise incursion in August.
“Our people are home,” Zelenskyy said on the Telegram messaging app. “We have successfully brought back another 103 warriors from Russian captivity to Ukraine.”
Zelenskyy posted pictures of servicemen wrapped in the national blue and yellow flag, hugging each other, talking on mobile phones and posing for group photographs at an undisclosed location.
The exchange was mediated by the UAE, Emirati state news agency WAM said. It was the country’s eighth such mediation since the start of 2024, it said.
Kyiv and Moscow have frequently exchanged prisoners since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, and Saturday’s swap was the third since Ukraine began a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region in early August.
Ukrainian officials have previously said its troops had captured at least 600 Russian soldiers during the incursion, and that this would help it secure the return of captured Ukrainians.
Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s ombudsman, said the majority of the freed Ukrainians had been in Russian captivity since the early days of the invasion.
He posted a short video on the Telegram messaging app showing the servicemen standing in front of a bus and shouting “Glory to Ukraine.”
Lubinets said that Kyiv had so far secured the return of 3,672 Ukrainians in 57 exchanges.
Frontline crews took advantage when record-breaking heat exited this week. They’re making progress on three large wildfires — the Airport, Bridge and Line — burning in four counties. [video at the link]
Crews battling three major California fires could get some relief from record heat and help from the weather as a cooldown preceded minor containment for the blazes.
The Airport, Bridge and Line fires have collectively burned over 114,000 acres of land in the state since they ignited this month, destroyed more than a dozen of structures and injured at least 15 people, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as CalFire.
None is fully contained.
A high pressure system that has baked the west for much of September moved eastward and opened the door to cloud cover, ocean breezes, and the possibility of showers. Hot, flame-fanning winds from the desert are dissipating, and the cooler temps may help firefighters give the blaze their best. […]
More details at the link. Cooler weather will prevail for only a short time. Hotter temperatures are expected to arrive the weekend of September 21. Some of the fires are still raging in areas where steep terrain complicates fire-fighting efforts. Some terrain is even at a higher elevation than the cooling marine layer of clouds reach.
[…] Laura Loomer is a far-right conspiracy theorist and bigot who has considerable access to Donald Trump and his campaign.
Loomer is a self-proclaimed “proud Islamophobe” who has called Muslims “savages f**king everything up for everyone” and warned “we are going to have an Islamic caliphate” if Trump is defeated. In 2019, Loomer called Islam “a cancer on humanity” and argued that “Muslims should not be allowed to seek positions of political office in this country.” [Right Wing Watch, 11/1/17; Rumble, Loomer Unleashed, 8/6/24; Media Matters, 4/11/19]
Loomer once described herself as “pro-white nationalism” and has repeatedly launched racist attacks against Black Democrats, calling them “ghetto” and suggesting “Ebonics will replace English” if Kamala Harris is elected. [Angry White Men, 3/7/21; Media Matters, 8/14/24; Twitter/X, 7/31/24]
In June, Loomer said Democrats like Biden “are guilty of treason” and noted, “If you are found guilty of treason, the punishment is death.” Loomer explained, “I know that you’re gonna clip what I said tonight, and you’re gonna say, ‘See, look. Laura Loomer did say she wants to execute Democrats.’ No. I said that we need to follow the Constitution, and the Constitution outlines that if you are found guilty of treason, the punishment is death. And there’s a lot of people, a lot of your friends, Joe Biden, a lot of your associates who would qualify for the death penalty.” [Rumble, Loomer Unleashed, 6/4/24]
In the week leading up to the September 10 debate, Loomer spread a conspiracy theory about the Apalachee school shooting, called Kamala Harris a “meritless DEI Shaniqua,” and hosted a guest who called cancerous tumors “a blessing.” Following the shooting, which left four children dead in Winder, Georgia, Loomer ranted on her Rumble show Loomer Unleashed: “I don’t think it’s a coincidence. I think it’s really bizarre how every single time there’s a major election there’s always a school shooting, and then the Democrats like clockwork are talking about taking away our guns.” [Rumble, Loomer Unleashed, 9/4/24, 9/5/24, 9/6/24; The Guardian, 9/4/24]
Loomer traveled with Trump to the September 10 debate against Harris, just days after she launched a disgustingly bigoted attack on the vice president’s Indian heritage. As reported by CNN, Loomer was spotted exiting a plane with Trump after suggesting two days before that “the White House will smell like curry & White House speeches will be facilitated via a call center” if Harris wins the election, an attack which caused MSNBC host Willie Geist to label her a “reprehensible racist” and even earned her a rebuke from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). [CNN, The Lead with Jake Tapper, 9/11/24; MSNBC, Morning Joe, 9/12/24; The Hill, 9/12/24]
Loomer, who last year shared a video claiming that “9/11 was an Inside Job!,” accompanied Trump to a 9/11 memorial ceremony at Ground Zero. Trump advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles were also present at the event. [Media Matters, 9/11/24; Associated Press, 9/11/24]
Trump reportedly attempted to hire Loomer for a role in his 2024 campaign, but after “a firestorm among some of Mr. Trump’s most vocal conservative supporters … a high-ranking campaign official said Ms. Loomer was no longer going to be hired.” After The New York Times’ report on the potential hiring appeared to sink the possibility, Loomer complained to the outlet that Trump was “surrounded by some people that run to a publication that is notorious for attacking him in order to try to cut me at the knees instead of being loyal to President Trump and respecting their confidentiality agreements.” [The New York Times, 4/7/23]
Though he didn’t officially hire her, Trump has publicly praised Loomer, invited her to high-profile events at his properties, repeatedly appeared in photos with her, and promoted her work on Truth Social. Loomer has appeared with Trump or in his crowds at multiple events during the 2024 campaign cycle. In an April address delivered from Mar-a-Lago, Trump called Loomer “a woman with courage” and warned that “you don’t want to be Loomered.” [NBC News, 1/14/24; Twitter/X, 8/13/23, 4/3/24, 6/14/24, 6/28/24]
The Trump campaign’s website has repeatedly promoted Loomer’s articles, including pieces featuring attacks on his political opponents or the judges overseeing his criminal cases. [DonaldJTrump.com, 4/29/23, 11/28/23, 4/5/24]
In January, Loomer claimed that “every time President Trump sees me, he always says, ‘You’re so smart. I love your site so much. You’re so intelligent. I love your articles. … I read your website every day.’” [Twitter/X, 1/12/24]
After Loomer attacked the daughter of the judge overseeing Trump’s hush money trial, the former president repeated her unverified claims on Truth Social. Loomer’s attacks, which centered on a social media account purportedly run by Judge Juan Merchan’s daughter, also quickly spread to right-wing media outlets including One America News and Newsmax. [Media Matters, 4/3/24]
Trump reposted Loomer’s false claim that Harris “is NOT black and has never been.” Loomer also attempted to fault Harris by arguing that she is “the descendent of slave owners.” The Washington Post had previously reported that Harris’ great-grandmother “is thought to be both a descendant of [enslaver Hamilton] Brown and enslaved Jamaicans.” [Twitter/X, 7/31/24; Truth Social, 8/1/24; The Washington Post, 1/17/21]
Trump seemingly echoed Loomer’s baseless accusations, originally posted to Twitter/X, that the Harris campaign used AI to “manipulate her campaign photos and videos.” According to Forbes, “Former President Donald Trump falsely claimed a crowd that gathered to see Vice President Kamala Harris arrive at a Michigan airport for a campaign rally was ‘fake,’ insisting her campaign used artificial intelligence to mask the fact that ‘there was nobody there’—a claim refuted by images, videos and accounts of the event.” [Twitter/X, 8/9/24, 8/10/24; Forbes, 8/11/24]
Trump’s team and allies have repeatedly praised Loomer and even occasionally appeared on her show. In a guest appearance on Loomer Unleashed, Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller praised Loomer and her show. He told Loomer, “Love what you’re doing with Rumble and with the entire — I mean, the show is good.” [Rumble, Loomer Unleashed, 10/26/23]
In 2023, Donald Trump Jr. said he would “love to see” Loomer appointed as his father’s press secretary in a second term “just to watch D.C. just explode.” On her Rumble show the next day, Loomer said she would “gladly accept,” adding that “nobody will fight for President Trump harder or defend him against the fake news media harder than I will.” [Media Matters, 11/10/23; Rumble, Loomer Unleashed, 11/10/23]
Trump campaign advisor Alex Bruesewitz has repeatedly posted praise of Loomer on Twitter/X. He posted, “Laura is a great journalist and a great American.” He also claimed, “Laura is a great MAGA ally and she works incredibly hard each and every day. We are lucky to have her on our side!” [Twitter/X, 12/30/23, 4/14/23]
Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump praised Loomer, saying she “does a lot of great work online on behalf of my father-in-law and on behalf of the country.” [YouTube, Prime Time with Alex Stein, 3/5/24]
Loomer described herself as a “dear friend” of Arizona Republican Senate nominee Kari Lake, who has held a fundraiser at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, and Lake praised Loomer as “an incredible investigative journalist.” In April, Lake told Loomer that Trump “loves you and appreciates you and so do I.” [Media Matters, 4/4/24]
Loomer helped Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) raise funds while he appeared on her show in February, saying that “I really want people to donate and support you and your reelection efforts.” Vance also follows Loomer on Twitter/X. [Media Matters, 7/29/24; The Independent, 7/20/24]
Longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone has described Loomer as “my protege and confidant,” and Loomer has called Stone “one of my best friends.” They have also appeared on each other’s shows and together in public appearances. [Twitter/X, 2/21/23, 9/8/23, 4/3/24, 7/23/24, 9/4/24]
This week’s episode of QAnon Anonymous goes over the origins of Trump/Vance’s (and Marianne Willams’) demonization of Haitian immigrants. Julian Field’s comments about the current American political landscape left me particularly depressed and black-pilled:
On Tuesday, Florida’s Twenty-first Congressional District—where President Donald Trump now legally resides, and where he recently voted via mail-in ballot—held a congressional primary election. The four-term incumbent, a seventy-two-year-old Democrat named Lois Frankel, won her primary easily. On the Republican side, however, there was an upset. The victor, by nearly twenty percentage points, was Laura Loomer, a twenty-seven-year-old whose campaign Web site describes her as a “Conservative investigative journalist” and “a loyal supporter of President Donald J Trump.”
[…] hundreds of Loomer’s supporters gathered […] Milo Yiannopoulos, a professional troll and washed-up Internet demi-celebrity, served as the m.c. Also in attendance was Roger Stone, the notorious political “dirty trickster” who was convicted of lying to investigators about connections between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia. Stone, whose forty-month prison sentence was recently commuted by the President, introduced Loomer as “someone who is fearless in her defense of America” and “the Joan of Arc of the conservative movement.” Then an E.D.M. anthem dropped (“You shoot me down, but I won’t fall / I am titanium”), and Loomer took the stage.
Laura Loomer is a conspiracist in the paranoid American style, an unreconstructed guerrilla from the Internet culture war, and a nightmare apparition of our present and future politics. She is a virulent, unrepentant Islamophobe, a characterization that she does not contest except to argue that “Islamophobia” is an oxymoron: a phobia, by definition, is an irrational fear or hatred, and she considers her antipathy toward all forms of Islam to be perfectly rational. I know this because, for much of 2017 and 2018, I reported on the loose affiliation of goons, bigots, and Web-savvy grifters known as the alt-right. During that time, I spent dozens of hours with Loomer—eating at Katz’s Deli, before attending a Yiannopoulos book party on the Bowery; riding shotgun in Loomer’s car from Washington, D.C., to New York while she ranted, almost without pause, about the treachery of the “deep state”; visiting her dreary apartment, in Westchester, to interview her as she convalesced after a nose job.
[…] Loomer doesn’t self-identify as alt-right, because many prominent alt-right figures are anti-Semites, if not outright neo-Nazis, and Loomer is Jewish. In many other respects, though, the description fits. She told me on various occasions that “Muslims are the ones with real privilege in this country,” that “Fox News has been completely taken over by liberals,” and that the Trump Administration was too weak to confront such impending threats as mass migration, socialist indoctrination, and the global spread of Sharia law.
[…] hard to imagine how Republicans could get any more cartoonish. The answer, unfortunately, is Laura Loomer. “Great going Laura,” Donald Trump tweeted on Tuesday. “You have a great chance against a Pelosi puppet!” Many of Trump’s opponents made the obvious critiques—that it was unseemly for a sitting President to praise a woman who has called Muslims “savages” and who spent months trying to prove that the mass shooting in Las Vegas was a false flag—but they had no effect.
On her campaign site, Loomer brags about being “banned on nearly every single social media platform, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Uber, Lyft, Uber Eats, PayPal, Venmo, GoFundMe, Medium, TeeSpring, and even Chase Bank.” She claims that these bans are acts of political retaliation “for being a voice of the silent majority, and mostly for being a loyal Trump supporter.”
This is false—each platform banned her for a specific post, […] One night in June, 2017, Loomer crashed a Shakespeare in the Park performance of “Julius Caesar” while live-streaming the disruption on Periscope. She was escorted out by police, who brought her to the station house, booked her, and let her go. Shortly afterward, I met her for a midnight burger, by which time she was already trending on Twitter. “Honestly, conservatives have no free speech in this country,” she told me. She then excused herself from the table to take a call from one of Sean Hannity’s producers, who was inviting her to appear on Fox News. Loomer had streamed her own act of civil disobedience, and had reaped the benefits of the stunt without even having to spend a night in jail. Even so, she was already branding herself as a victim. […]
Amid fallout from Donald J. Trump’s debunked claim about immigrants from Haiti stealing and eating people’s pets in a small Ohio city, the former president’s oldest son weighed in with his own aspersions on Haitians.
Donald Trump Jr. suggested on Thursday that Haitian immigrants were less intelligent than people from other countries, and claimed that there was demographic evidence to back this up. He provided none.
“You look at Haiti, you look at the demographic makeup, you look at the average I.Q. — if you import the third world into your country, you’re going to become the third world,” Mr. Trump said in an interview with Charlie Kirk on Real America’s Voice, a conservative broadcasting network. “That’s just basic. It’s not racist. It’s just fact.”
Claims inherently linking race, nationality and intelligence have long played a role in scientific racism, which uses pseudoscience to try to justify false claims of racial inferiority or superiority. And intelligence quotient testing, a commonly used measure of intelligence, has long been criticized as unreliable.
Both Trumps have recently advanced the debunked claim that Haitian migrants were stealing and eating their neighbors’ pets in Springfield, Ohio….
At the presidential debate on Tuesday, the former president repeated these claims to the tens of millions watching, giving them their widest platform yet…..
In the aftermath of the debate, there were a number of bomb threats in Springfield, closing its City Hall, schools and a motor vehicles office.
The National Haitian American Elected Officials Network, a nonpartisan group for Haitian American politicians, rejected Mr. Trump’s comments about Haitians and intelligence.
“That is so sad,” said Mary Estimé-Irvin, the group’s chairwoman. “The campaign is desperate.”
In a statement, the group added that many Haitian Americans will “vote overwhelmingly as one bloc to send a loud message to this racist-political nonsense.”
birgerjohanssonsays
Don Jr. is hardly a specimen proving the superiority of aryans. 😄
Bomb threats continued for a third straight day in Springfield, Ohio, closing medical buildings in the area on Saturday, according to the city manager, Bryan Heck. The city said the affected buildings had been investigated and deemed safe.
@74 Lynna, OM wrote about Loomer and tRUMP
I saw a couple of articles today asking ‘where is melania?’ At the risk of propagating salacious rumors, they hinted at tRUMP ignoring his wife and getting ‘cozy’ with loomer. The insanity continues to spread, eveywhere.
Laura Loomer has threatened legal action against comedian Bill Maher after he suggested that the MAGA provocateur was in an “arranged relationship with former president Donald Trump.
“I should sue Bill Maher @billmaher for Defamation. This is beyond the pale and it’s a complete and blatant lie,” she said on X. “I have never in my life seen such a coordinated attack by the mainstream Media, the White House and leftist personalities to target a private citizen and investigative journalist simply because I flew on a plane and I support Donald Trump.” …
Loomer’s legal threat came after Maher mocked her on his Friday show for her suggestion that Taylor Swift was in a arranged relationship with Travis Kelce in order to swap 2024 voters.
“I think maybe Laura Loomer’s in an arranged relationship to influence the election because she’s very close to Trump”, Maher said on his HBO Show Real Time with Bill Maher…
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) slammed Vice President Harris’s performance at the ABC News debate versus former President Trump, claiming she acted like a “spoiled teenager.”
Gingrich, in a Fox News op-ed published on Saturday, repeatedly slammed the debate moderators, David Muir and Linsey Davis, political “elites” and argued Harris “failed to achieve her objectives.”
“Harris further hurt herself by spending a large part of her listening time making faces and looking cute,” Gingrich wrote in the op-ed. “It was the behavior of a spoiled teenager, not a commander-in-chief.” …
1) Newt Gingrich is still alove
2) Someone is actually soliciting his opinion
3) Said opinion is clearly full of shit, as it always has been
A website at the heart of an international Russian disinformation operation has produced more than a dozen articles about Canadian politics in an apparent attempt to undermine support for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and boost his chief rival, Pierre Poilievre.
The website Reliable Recent News has been identified by officials in Europe and the U.S. as a repository for pro-Kremlin articles that are distributed through a network of affiliated sites disguised to appear as legitimate news outlets.
Earlier this month, U.S. authorities seized a domain that hosted Reliable Recent News (RRN), though it continues to operate on another domain. In an affidavit, authorities describe RRN as a tool to “further the malign influence campaign” waged by Russia in support of its invasion of Ukraine.
The RRN articles about Canadian politics focus on controversies involving the Liberal government, often supplying inaccurate descriptions of its policies and ridiculing Trudeau. He is referred to as the “incompetent prime minister” and, elsewhere, as being “better suited to a role in a political satire alongside Vladimir Zelensky,” the Ukrainian president.
Some articles also indicate a preference for Poilievre, who in a recent piece is referred to as “the savvy leader of the pro-business Conservatives.” …
The original Star Wars film, Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, has been translated into over 50 languages.
Norwegian, French, Icelandic, Navajo — and now Ojibway.
Dennis Daminos Chartrand, a member of Pine Creek First Nation who voices Darth Vader in the film and helped translate the original text, says he hopes having his language incorporated into the “iconic” film will promote it — not just within his community, but beyond…
Reginald Selkirksays
@86
Gingrich converted to Catholicism at some point, and so far as I know is still married to his third wife.
In 1993, while still married to Marianne, Gingrich began an affair with House of Representatives staffer Callista Bisek, more than two decades his junior.[278] Gingrich was having this affair even as he led the impeachment of Bill Clinton for perjury related to Clinton’s own extramarital affair.[279][128] Gingrich filed for divorce from Marianne in 1999, a few months after she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.[280] The marriage produced no children. On January 19, 2012, Marianne alleged in an interview on ABC’s Nightline that she had declined to accept Newt’s suggestion of an open marriage.[281] Newt disputed the account.[282]
In August 2000, Gingrich married Callista Bisek four months after his divorce from Marianne was finalized.[283] He and Callista live in McLean, Virginia.[284]
In a 2011 interview with David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network, Gingrich addressed his past infidelities by saying, “There’s no question at times in my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate.”[274][275] In December 2011, after the group Iowans for Christian Leaders in Government requested that he sign their so-called “Marriage Vow”, Gingrich sent a lengthy written response. It included his pledge to “uphold personal fidelity to my spouse”.[285]
A man who set himself on fire for Gaza near the Israeli consulate in Boston on September 11 has been identified as Matt Nelson in a video posted on YouTube.
“The protest I’m about to engage in is a call to our government to stop supplying Israel with the money and weapons it uses to imprison and murder innocent Palestinians, to pressure Israel to end the genocide in Gaza, and to support the ICC indictment of Benjamin Netanyahu and other members of the Israeli government.”
[New] regulations will force health insurance plans to collect and report more data on how they limit and deny mental health claims. ProPublica’s reporting has found that insurers regularly shortchange patients seeking treatment.
By Maya Miller and Annie Waldman, ProPublica
The Biden administration announced on Monday that it has finalized new regulations to strengthen protections for mental health care coverage and hold insurance companies accountable for unlawfully denying it.
The rules update the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, which was passed in 2008, requiring health insurance plans to provide the same access to mental health care as medical care. The new provisions will force health insurance plans to collect and report more robust data on how they limit and deny mental health claims. If disparities exist between mental and medical care, insurers will need to lay out how they are attempting to address these gaps.
[…] Although nearly all Americans have health insurance, millions still can’t access mental health care. ProPublica found that insurance companies have interfered with patient care, deployed aggressive audits and set reimbursement rates so low that providers felt they had no choice but to quit insurance networks. Our reporting also documented how consequences can be fatal when patients can’t find therapists or mental health treatment.
Federal regulators have struggled to police insurance companies. Nearly all of the recent reports that the Department of Labor has collected from insurers and health plans have lacked enough detail to determine companies’ compliance with the law, the department reported to Congress last year. Some states have passed laws to close those gaps in information, but we found mental health protections often depend on where one lives.
The new rules require insurers to collect and turn over outcomes data, like denial rates, to measure how often patients access care. The companies will have to disclose details on insurance networks, which may include how regularly patients go out of network for mental health treatment and how reimbursement rates are calculated for mental health providers.
The rules also clarify that patients have the right to access this data and require insurers and health plans to furnish records within 30 days of a request.
Republican U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, N.C., who chairs the Committee on Education and the Workforce, said the rules are too burdensome. “These rules do nothing to improve mental health care access and instead put paperwork over patients,” she said in an emailed statement.
But former U.S. Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, who sponsored the 2008 parity bill and co-founded the mental health advocacy nonprofit The Kennedy Forum, said the new rules will protect access for patients. “This is an opportunity for consumers to finally have a seat at the table,” he told ProPublica.
The law applies to 175 million people who have private health insurance. Under the new rules, these protections will also cover people with health insurance through state and local governments, about 120,000 additional Americans.
The finalized regulations came after a yearlong review process, in which three departments—Treasury, Health and Human Services, and Labor—collected thousands of public comments. The departments had initially published proposed rules in August 2023. Some of the provisions will go into effect on Jan. 1, said Lisa Gomez, the assistant secretary of employee benefits security at the Department of Labor.
“People living with mental health conditions and substance use disorders continue to face greater barriers,” she said. “That’s not fair, it’s not right and it’s against the law.”
You have to take a deep breath at the audacity of Trump’s derangement. If it isn’t enough evidence of his severe cognitive decline that he is continuing to tout the malicious and baseless claim that Haitian immigrants are eating pets in Ohio, he is now going international in his likely Alzheimer’s induced cauldron of mentally unsound conspiracy theories that live rent free inside his brain (or what’s left of it).
According to Politico, Trump is making the crazed claim that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is the son of Fidel Castro, making his Laura Loomer-style conspiracy theories go international. The […] assertion is made in a just-released coffee table book […] that Canadian officials are demanding be recalled until the defamatory claims are removed:
[Lloyd] Axworthy, a former foreign minister, acknowledges he can speak much more freely than anyone on Trudeau’s team right now…
He says he’s speaking out because Trump is breaking an “unwritten rule” of diplomacy that leaders refrain from publicly interfering in the affairs of a foreign country in an “underhanded” way.
“I have a sense that as he grows older, he’s losing any sense of restraint. We saw that in the debate the other night, where he’s repeating this thing about Haitian immigrants eating cats and dogs.”
Two former high-ranking Canadian government officials called the bonkers assertion “vile, vulgar, and deeply offensive.”
In the book, Trump cites as evidence for his demented charge:
Trump writes in his new coffee-table book that Trudeau’s mother, Margaret, was “somehow associated” with Castro and notes that “a lot of people say that Justin is his son.
The former president adds: “He swears that he isn’t but how the hell would he know! Castro had good hair, the ‘father’ didn’t, Justin has good hair, and has become a Communist just like Castro.”
The grifter by the way is charging $99.00 ($92.74 on Amazon) for the book, “Save America.” Amazon should be severely taken to task for posting abject hyperbolic Trump campaign propaganda about the book and Trump at the top and bottom of the “buy page.” It’s horrifyingly slavish and inexcusable bombast glorifying Trump and “his next four years in office.” Shameful.
Many thanks to our neighbors to the north, who abide by civility and good government, for calling out the mentally incapacitated deviant to their south.
Hey, Any Good Environmental News Lately? There IS?
Thanks Joe Biden.
The presidential election has turned into a contest between a capable, smart woman who emphasizes what Americans can achieve when they work together for the common good, and a sundowning old racist creep who would be pathetic if he weren’t so dangerously close to returning to power.
In case you’re wondering what the difference looks like, compare the hate and division the old racist creep is spreading with some recent announcements from President Joe Biden’s administration, nearly all of them about programs funded by one or another of Biden’s big legislative packages. Just a little reminder of why elections matter, and of the legacy that Kamala Harris is committed to building on. For, y’know, the people.
Postal Service’s First Electric Whaletrucks Hit The Road
After a lot of anticipation, the Postal Service is actually putting its new delivery vans into service [video at the link] — no more need to rely on computer renderings in articles about them! […] by the time they’re fully deployed later this decade, make a measurable dent in the federal government’s total greenhouse emissions. It’s not just that the USPS fleet is huge, it’s also because the existing mail trucks, most built in the late 1980s, are just horrible gas hogs, and postal carriers hate them because they’re cramped and have no air conditioning.
The NGDV [Next Generation Delivery Vehicles] comes in both gas-powered and electric versions; thanks to a funding boost from Congress in the Inflation Reduction Act, 75 percent of the new fleet will be electric, with the remaining trucks still powered by gas and deployed on routes where an EV’s range (with 2024 battery tech at least) might be a problem.
[…] Rural Broadband Rolling Out, Too
Hey, we missed this! When Joe Biden went to Wisconsin last week to announce a new tranche of funding to help rural electric co-ops adopt clean energy, he also called attention to his administration’s funding for rural high-speed internet service, which he noted had brought broadband to 72,000 Wisconsin homes and small businesses since the initiative was included in 2021’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. He compared both programs to the Rural Electrification program in the New Deal, noting that “affordable high-speed internet is just as essential today as electricity was a century ago.” He also argued that the IRA and BIL are contributing to “the great American comeback story” as rural communities become part of the energy transition that’s revitalizing American manufacturing. [PBS Wisconsin]
In a related development yesterday, the office of Colorado Gov. Jared Polis announced that with $826.5 million in funding from the federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, Colorado will be among the first states to offer grants to connect rural Coloradans to affordable broadband. […]
Nice Time Grab Bag!
For the sake of seeing what else the IRA and other Biden initiatives are getting up to, we did some intensive research that consisted of checking out the “newsroom” pages of the Department of Energy and the Department of the Interior, where we found a whole bunch of neat stuff to remind you that government can do some pretty terrific things.
Energy first: The Energy Department is doing neat stuff through its Loan Program Office, which predates the IRA but got a huge infusion of funding from the law. Friday, the LPO announced a $72.8 million loan guarantee to finance a solar microgrid with long-duration battery backup on tribal lands in California. When completed, the 15-megawatt solar system and 70-megawatt battery storage system will sell power to a range of commercial businesses on tribal lands.
The Energy Department also announced Thursday $40 million in new funding to advance the domestic solar photovoltaic supply chain, with some $19 million going to grants aimed at increasing solar cells’ lifespan and making the things more recyclable when they’re worn out. Another $21 million will go to winners of the seventh round of a competition called the American-Made Solar Prize, aimed at creating innovative solar stuff and getting more solar energy more equitably to more people, more or less. […]
Over at Interior, a whole bunch of neat investments in the environment, for which we will rapidly deploy some Axios Bullet Points.
– More than $157 million in new funding for conservation or restoration of wetland habitat for migratory birds in 17 states. […].
– $236 million from the the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for wildland fire resistance and recovery, bringing the total of BIL funding for wildfire prevention and management to $1.1 billion since the law passed in 2021
– $43.5 million in BIL funding for water storage in the West, where whiskey is for drinkin’ and water is for fightin’! (Despite the alleged Old West origins of that phrase, it appears to have been coined in the 1980s to sound old-fashioned-y.) BIL has so far funded $4.2 billion in rural water projects, and that’s separate from other funding for replacing old lead pipes across the nation.
– OK, not funding and only a litte Biden, but it’s an environmental win: Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced last week that the Apache Trout, Arizona’s state fish, has recovered well enough to be removed from the Endangered Species List. That’s after more than 50 years of recovery efforts — and yes, $5.1 billion from Biden’s Investing In America Agenda, too.
In conclusion, we are such nerds and we love it when government does good things!
Former first lady Melania Trump blasted the FBI’s 2022 raid of Mar-a-Lago in a video posted on social media Saturday morning, cautioning that the rights and freedoms of Americans have to be “respected.”
The video, promoting her forthcoming memoir, presents the words of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution set to music, and then features images of the Trumps’ Florida estate, while she slams the federal agency’s raid.
“I never imagined my privacy would be invaded by the government here in America,” she said in the video. “The FBI raided my home in Florida and searched through my personal belongings. This is not just my story, it serves as a warning to all Americans, a reminder that our freedom and rights must be respected.”
Melania Trump’s video ended with an image of her upcoming book, “Melania,” which comes out Oct. 1…
That was the raid in which the FBI – with a proper warrant – searched for, and found, multiple classified federal documents in Trump’s home. What is her message? That you too, if you choose to steal classified government property, could be subject to properly warranted search?
Republican vice-presidential candidate Senator JD Vance continues to stoke outrage against foreign-born members of his own constituency, sharing video footage with his 1.9 million social media followers that he claimed showed African migrants in Dayton, Ohio “eating cats” — but instead appears to show nothing more than poultry cooking on an outdoor grill…
NASA confirmed on Friday that it’s developing a new lunar time system for the Moon. The White House published a policy memo in April, directing NASA to create the new standard by 2026. Over five months later (government time, y’all), the space agency’s confirmation states it will work with “U.S. government stakeholders, partners, and international standards organizations” to establish a Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC)…
Portland State has canceled its Week 3 meeting with South Dakota because of an outbreak of whooping cough within the football program, the Vikings announced Saturday afternoon.
Portland State (0-2) was set to host South Dakota (1-1) on Saturday following losses to Washington State and Weber State to open the 2024 season. A statement released by the program noted that no players within the program are seriously ill at this time…
Arizona’s Civil War-era ban on nearly all abortions officially is being repealed Saturday.
The western swing state has been whipsawed over recent months, starting with the Arizona Supreme Court deciding in April to let the state enforce the long-dormant 1864 law that criminalized all abortions except when a woman’s life was jeopardized. Then state lawmakers voted on a bill to repeal that law once and for all.
Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs signed the bill in May, declaring it was just the beginning of a fight to protect reproductive health care in Arizona…
Akira MacKenziesays
@ 99
Gee…I those kids were born just as anti-vaccine bullshit started to become fashionable. You don’t think there’s some sort of connection, do you?
Bekenstein Boundsays
Reginald Selkirk@84:
1) Newt Gingrich is still alove
Look for a portrait of him somewhere. You know, like Dorian Gray’s, except uglier.
Gingrich filed for divorce from Marianne in 1999, a few months after she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
So much for “in sickness and in health”. What a cad!
I just do not understand why women ever so much as date conservative men when, in modern times, they have much better choices. Lots of men are liberal. Some are even feminist!
birgerjohanssonsays
ScienceAlert
Scientists Discover a Brain Network Twice The Size in Depression Patients
Seventeen former staff members of the late Republican President Ronald Reagan are endorsing the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris.
In a joint statement first obtained by CBS News, the staff members wrote that Reagan, if alive, would have supported Harris.
…
Over 230 former officials for Republican presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush have also backed Harris, in addition to campaign staffers for Republican presidential nominees John McCain and Mitt Romney. Biden received a similar amount of GOP support in his 2020 run against Trump.
Former Reagan staff backing Harris includes Ken Adelman, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and U.S. arms control director under Reagan, as well as B. Jay Cooper, the special assistant and deputy press secretary to Reagan. Adelman had endorsed former President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, as well as President Biden’s 2020 run. He backed Republican Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign, but was against Trump’s 2016 run.
The list also includes Pete Souza, the chief White House photographer for both Reagan and Obama…
[…] Mark Cuban, the outspoken billionaire entrepreneur, captured the essence of this power play: “It’s not so much a support thing, it’s more like a takeover thing. [They’re] trying to put themselves in a position to have as much control as possible,” he told Jon Stewart on “The Daily Show” on Aug. 12. “They want Trump to be the CEO of America, and they want to be the board of directors that makes him listen to them.” […]
Nevada and North Dakota expanded access, while courts in Missouri and Nebraska ensured voters a chance to weigh in.
More than two years since the overturn of Roe v Wade, legal battles over abortion laws are as chaotic as ever. But occasionally, the challenges playing out state by state result in a string of good news for abortion rights. That was the case this week, with a cluster of court decisions that will expand abortion access in Nevada and North Dakota, and allow Missouri and Nebraska voters to weigh in on the issue in November.
On Thursday, District Court Judge Bruce Romanick in Bismarck, North Dakota, issued a powerful opinion siding with abortion providers who challenged a state law that had deemed their practice a felony.
In his order, which takes effect in two weeks, Rominick ruled that the North Dakota constitution’s protections for life, liberty, and the right to pursue happiness include the right to choose abortion. “A woman’s choice of whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term shapes the very nature and future course of her life, on nearly every possible level,” he wrote. “The Court finds that such a choice, at least pre-viability, must belong to the individual woman and not to the government.” He also struck down the ban for its vagueness, concluding that, at present, North Dakota doctors could be prosecuted if other physicians second-guessed their decision to provide an emergency abortion.
Virtually all abortions have been illegal in North Dakota since April 2023, when Republican Gov. Doug Burgum signed a ban with exceptions only to save the life of the pregnant person, or for rape and incest survivors within the first six weeks of pregnancy. North Dakota’s only abortion clinic moved across the state line to Minnesota in 2022, soon after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, meaning most people seeking to end a pregnancy will have to leave the state.
But Romnick’s decision should make it easier for doctors to provide emergency abortions to patients with severe pregnancy complications—care that that is often withheld in abortion-ban states, with dire consequences. “It is now much safer to be pregnant in North Dakota,” Center for Reproductive Rights lawyer Meetra Mehdizadeh said in a statement on Friday.
Also on Thursday, a Nevada court order requiring the state Medicaid program to cover abortion became final after the state government declined to appeal an earlier ruling. Nevada will become the 18th state to allow Medicaid funds to cover abortion, the Associated Press reported.
That ruling is the result of a challenge brought under Nevada’s Equal Rights Amendment, which added language banning sex discrimination, along with many other types of discrimination, to the state constitution. Voters there supported the ERA by a nearly 18-point margin in 2022.
[…] In November, voters in New York will decide whether to enshrine an ERA of their own—one of 10 states with abortion-related initiatives slated for the 2024 ballot. Yet initiatives in two of those states were in jeopardy until courts came to their rescue this week. On Tuesday, the Missouri Supreme Court threw out a last-minute claim arguing that the text of an abortion-rights initiative petition had omitted details required by state law; it ordered the anti-abortion secretary of state to certify the initiative for the ballot.
On Friday, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that dueling initiatives can appear on the ballot in that state, where current law bans abortion after 12 weeks. One of the initiatives, titled “Protect the Right to Abortion,” would create a state constitutional right for Nebraskans to get an abortion prior to “viability” (the hard-to-pinpoint moment in pregnancy when a fetus is able to survive outside the uterus). The other, titled “Protect Women and Children” would enshrine the current 12-week abortion ban in the state constitution.
If both pass, the one with the most votes prevails. But anti-abortion advocates had tried to kill the pro-abortion rights measure altogether by arguing that by regulating abortion before and after viability differently, it dealt with more than one subject, according to the Nebraska Examiner. Friday’s state Supreme Court ruling tossed that challenge, and ensures the vote on both questions will proceed.
Now, with 52 days left before voters will decide whether to add abortion protections to their state constitutions, the opinion from North Dakota’s Judge Rominick could offer some guidance.
“If we can learn anything from examining the history and prior traditions surrounding women’s rights, women’s health, and abortion in North Dakota, the Court hopes that we would learn this: that there was a time when we got it wrong and when women did not have a voice,” Rominick wrote. “This does not need to continue for all time, and the sentiments of the past, alone, need not rule the present for all time.”
Jordan Peterson Launches New Grift, Steps On New Rake With Kamala Harris Diss
A fool and his rubles are soon parted.
[…] Canadian psychologist and frequently furious culture warrior Jordan Peterson is now offering an anti-woke “online university” offering instructional videos available on demand for the low, low price of just $499.99 per year. Including access to its social media channel and optional testing! Operators are standing by! No free steak knives are included, which may come as a disappointment to potential pupils who’ve unwisely adopted his all-beef diet.
The new eponymous Peterson Academy offers 18 slickly produced videos on topics ranging from neuroscience to nutrition from a variety of mostly male experts with the promise of three more added each month. The flagship show comes from the great man himself with an eight-hour deep dive into the mind of 19th Century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Presumably without dwelling long on the chapter where his mind melted at age 44 from the syphilis that the lifelong bachelor likely caught in a brothel. Both men have a history of opioid addiction and open bitterness that their towering intellects were under-appreciated in their lifetime so it’s not surprising Peterson found his niche with Nietzsche.
The concept of a plan was first announced nearly a year ago on his daughter Mikhaila’s podcast, where he asked: “What if we could make getting a degree 95 percent less expensive? Because that’s a pretty funny target. It’s like, we’re going to undercut you by 95 percent and offer a better quality experience along the way.”
Math 101 isn’t one of the classes currently taught at Peterson Academy but the average tuition at the University of Toronto — where he resigned from a teaching post in protest over DEI policies and repeated requests to stop being such a jerk — is roughly between five to nine thousand bucks for undergraduates. So the target of 95 percent cheaper obviously wasn’t met — although to be fair the UoT charges several times more for gullible international students. But at least they’ll come out with, you know, an actual degree at the end of it.
Not that his fellow citizens are necessarily the target audience for this for-profit answer to the free Khan Academy. The new school’s mailing address is the same as a small law firm in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where the partners all happen to be women. Wait’ll the manly manosphere hears about THAT! So far they haven’t responded to an email asking about the connection.
The business venture is clearly meant as a fuck you to his former employer, and he admits as much at the end of a promo video, saying: “I think it’s funny because I got canceled at the university so I can try to return the favor.” [video at the link]
Peterson isn’t named as one of the recipients of Russian rubles for undermining western democracy in a scheme recently exposed by the Department of Justice, and is too smart to convincingly play dumb about being paid ungodly sums of money via Tenet Media for cranking out cranky content like professional hatemongers Dave Rubin, Tim Pool, Benny Johnson, and fellow Canadian Lauren Southern even if he had. But then again all you need to become a patron at his new grift is a working credit card number.
He could probably use the extra cash too. Peterson may no longer be a tenured professor but he’s still a licensed therapist. At least for now. The 62-year-old has been a registered clinical psychologist since 1999 but hasn’t practiced in seven years and has been embroiled in a long legal battle with his profession’s governing body, the College of Psychologists of Ontario (CPO), after they called for mandatory social media training due to a string of complaints about awful comments from Err Jordan, including attacking trans actor Elliot Page, declaring a plus-sized Sports Illustrated swimsuit model unfuckable, trashing a former patient on Joe Rogan’s podcast, and seeming to suggest one of his critics should commit suicide. That’s kind of a big no-no for therapists. The Supreme Court of Canada — which doesn’t currently include any known traitors, sex pests, or religious fanatics unlike a certain other Supreme Court I could name — dismissed his last shot to get out of it last month and left him on the hook for the college’s legal fees.
But wait, there’s more
And now he’s facing several new complaints to the CPO over a tweet he made more than a year ago about Vice President Kamala Harris, which he broke the news about in a recent column in the rightwing rag the National Post:
Have you ever listened to Harris? If not, I would recommend doing so, painful as it might be, just so you know. For reasons unknown, she talks down to her audiences in a manner that anyone over four with any sense and anyone under with any self-respect would find, to say the least, grating — not to mention demeaning, presumptuous, disrespectful, haughty, and Machiavellian.
Here is the damning tweet in question: [X post available at the link]
Said he:
Apparently, I can’t say “[word that starts with R and that refers to people with a learning disability]” and do not even know what to say otherwise any more when talking about children who are slow to learn, which is of course what “r[word that starts with R and that refers to people with a learning disability]” means, because the language police have made everything all eggshells in such situations and purposefully so. I knew perfectly well when I wrote that tweet that I would rub up the wrong way against exactly the sort of people who would threaten my livelihood and the equally power-mad invisible cowardly bureaucrats who enable them — as the members of the college have, yet again.
No, Dr. Peterson, you actually can’t casually throw around the R-word anymore for slow learners and it’s even worse when a supposed joke involves kids. “Children with learning disabilities” is sitting right there! This shouldn’t be late news. (Sorry not sorry to my bilingues homies.) You can’t use the ugly shorthand “t*rd” anymore either as a noun or suffix with the notable exception of bastard.
If anyone knows this lesson first-hand, it’s this here mommyblog, which nearly got cancel cultured to death back in the ye olde Before Rebecca Even Bought Wonkette Times after a writer named Jack Stuef made the mistake of using the word in a post about Bristol Sarah Palin’s baby son Trig, who has Down syndrome. (The kid is 16 and on Instagram now, they grow up so fast!) It was a ginormous shit storm at the time, and major advertisers departed in understandable droves for not wanting to be associated with an outlet that punched down on a mentally disabled toddler. I’m guessing nobody even thought to try Elon Musk’s bold strategy of telling them to go fuck themselves when he found himself in a similar situation.
There was also some chef’s kiss comedic timing to Peterson’s post as it was published only hours before Harris took the stage for the first — and likely last because yellow is the new orange — presidential debate, where the “devouring mother” whose speaking style he finds so off-putting made a meal out of her cognitively challenged opponent in front of the entire world.
So far Peterson has yet to tweet his verdict on her performance but no doubt thinks someone with a schlong would’ve done a better job.
Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), Donald Trump’s running mate, acknowledged Sunday that he “created” the baseless claims that Haitian immigrants are eating their neighbors’ pets in Springfield, Ohio, “to draw attention to the Biden-Harris immigration policies.” The false claims about immigrants have put Springfield under siege with threats and harassment. Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris readies to barnstorm through several swing states this week.
The topic gained momentum early this week because high-profile accounts, including tech billionaire Elon Musk’s, shared cartoonish images made with artificial intelligence.
The rumor mill about immigrants attacking household pets got its start in thinly sourced anecdotes shared at government meetings and on social media. But it really got going when AI-generated images and video that memeified the stories went viral.
Early this week, even before […] Trump shocked debate viewers Tuesday night with talk of immigrants “eating the pets,” the topic gained momentum because high-profile accounts, including tech billionaire Elon Musk’s, shared the cartoonish images made with artificial intelligence.
Using various AI apps including Musk’s Grok service and a Chinese-owned app, people made cutesy and sometimes racist images and videos in seconds in order to push the idea that Trump would protect animals while Vice President Kamala Harris would not.
And once those images and videos were shared and reshared, some of them piled up tens of millions of views and made their way to Trump’s own social media accounts. [X post with image available at the link]
Some of the images shared by social media users were openly prejudiced, showing Black people chasing after cats. In one often-shared example, an AI-generated Trump is seen running through a field with a cat under each arm while two shirtless Black men run after him.
This year, many AI experts worried that realistic deepfakes would be a major threat to public discourse because of the ability to create believable audio or video of presidential candidates, but for the most part, the election has being shaped by obviously fake, AI-made joke images, pumped out quickly to accompany various lines of attack, real or not. […]
[…] AI was particularly useful because Trump is famously not a fan of pets, so there are relatively few real photographs of him with animals. Unlike all other recent presidents, he didn’t have a pet in the White House.
The claims about Haitian immigrants abducting and eating household pets are baseless, but they’ve had real-world consequences including in Springfield, Ohio, the epicenter of the rumor mill. Local schools and government offices have been targeted by bomb threats, and some Haitian immigrants have said they’re scared for their safety.
[…] “Encoding the demonization of immigrants into cute cat content causes people who aren’t necessarily open to demonizing immigrants to get in on the game,” […]
The memes of AI-generated pets were notable for their variety. There were cats holding military-style rifles to defend themselves, cats holding up political signs, cats and ducks sitting side-by-side, AI-generated humans holding cat-related signs and cats and ducks being cuddled by Trump. [X post from “Cute Animals for Trump” is available at the link.]
[…] Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, an anti-hate nonprofit organization, said the memes revealed who likes to have fun at the expense of racial minorities.
“The reactions from racists is delight. The reaction from most normal people is confusion or outright anger and opposition, depending on how immersed they are in arcane internet culture,” Ahmed said.
[…] Late last Sunday on X, far-right activist Jack Posobiec posted an AI image of Trump running with a cat and a duck in his arms chased by a group of Black men. That post had 1.3 million views as of Friday. He also posted a six-second video of Trump carrying a cat with a group of zombies after him, which got 3.5 million views. […]
On Monday morning, several accounts on X posted yet another AI image of Trump being chased by Black men, this time holding two kittens. The image made its way to the account @LibsofTikTok on Tuesday in a post that received 4.8 million views. That image also eventually made it onto late-night host Jimmy Kimmel’s show, after the presidential debate.
[…] Trump himself ended up posting several of the AI images to his feed on his social media app Truth Social on Tuesday and Thursday.
[…] At least two of the widely viewed AI videos of Trump and animals were made using the software of Chinese AI startup MiniMax, according to watermarks on the videos.
One of them, posted on X on Sunday afternoon, was a video of Trump kissing and nuzzling a duck on the back of the head with the caption, “I love you. I would never let the Haitians eat you.” It had 2.4 million views as of Friday. […]
The military said there was a “high probability” three people who were found in a tunnel in December were killed “as a byproduct of an IDF airstrike.”
Three Israeli hostages, whose bodies were found last year in underground tunnels in Gaza, were likely killed in a military airstrike aimed at a Hamas commander, an investigation into their deaths concluded.
An investigation into the deaths of Nik Beizer, 19, Ron Sherman, 19, Elia Toledano, 28, found there was a “high probability” that the hostages were killed “as a result of a byproduct of an IDF airstrike” targeting Hamas Northern Brigade commander Ahmed Ghandour, the Israel Defense Forces said on Sunday. The three hostages were being held in a tunnel where Ghandour was operating when the military struck on Nov. 10, according to the IDF. Their bodies were found in a Hamas tunnel complex on Dec. 14 and the investigation into their deaths concluded in recent days.
“At the time of the strike, the IDF did not have information about the presence of hostages in the targeted compound,” the military said.
The IDF said this was a “high probability” assessment but that it was “not possible to definitively determine” the cause of the three hostages’ deaths. Its assessment is based on a number of factors, including intelligence reports, the location of where their bodies were found, an analysis of the strike and conclusions from the Forensic Medicine Institute.
“The IDF shares in the grief of the families over the devastating loss and will continue to accompany them,” the IDF added.
Both Beizer and Sherman were members of the Israeli military.
[…] The investigative findings deliver another blow to Israel’s government, which is facing intense domestic protests calling for a cease-fire deal.
Earlier this month, the IDF said it found the bodies of six hostages killed by Hamas and returned them to Israel.
Their deaths sparked tens of thousands of Israeli citizens to take to the streets, directing their anger at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Some family members of hostages who remain captive in Gaza were also outspoken against Netanyahu and accused him of prioritizing his own political agenda over the lives of their loved ones.
An estimated 250 people were abducted to remain hostage in the Gaza strip. More than 100 were released during a short-lived cease-fire agreement at the end of November last year before the deal to pause hostilities fell apart.
In the months since, some hostages were either rescued or found dead by the military. The IDF estimated that 101 hostages remain in Gaza.
China’s coast guard ships have swarmed and collided with Philippine boats. They have doused Philippine vessels with powerful water cannons. Chinese crew members have slashed inflatable crafts, blared sirens and flashed high-powered lasers at Filipino troops.
As China pushes to dominate the South China Sea, it is increasingly willing to use force to drive out the Philippines, a treaty ally of the United States. In recent months, China’s tactics have damaged Philippine boats and injured personnel, and raised fears of a superpower showdown in the strategic waterway. [video at the link]
For months, the latest target of China’s power play was a Philippine coast guard ship, the Teresa Magbanua. The video above was taken by the crew of that ship, as a Chinese coast guard vessel collided into it late last month.
The episode was one of four confrontations between the two countries’ vessels, in just two weeks. The encounters were not only becoming more frequent, but they were also taking place in a new location — Sabina Shoal, a resource-rich atoll close to the Philippine mainland.
The two countries had in earlier months been facing off near another atoll in the disputed Spratly Islands, the Second Thomas Shoal, where Chinese ships regularly harass Philippine boats trying to resupply sailors stationed on a beached warship. Now, their feud has expanded. [map at the link]
The Philippines wants to control Sabina Shoal, an unoccupied atoll inside its exclusive economic zone. Sabina Shoal, which lies just 86 miles west of the Philippine province of Palawan and over 600 miles from China, is near an area rich in oil deposits, and on routes Manila considers crucial for trade and security.
[…] Manila anchored the Teresa Magbanua, one of its largest coast guard ships, at the Sabina Shoal in April to try to stop China from what the Philippines sees as efforts to try to build an island there.
The Philippine Coast Guard has pointed to piles of crushed and dead corals apparently dumped on the shoal as signs of Chinese land reclamation under way. China has denied the accusation. But the building and fortifying of artificial islands is a key part of how China has asserted its claims over contested waters hundreds of miles from its coast.
[…] Beijing has rejected a ruling by an international tribunal in 2016 that China’s sweeping claim to the waters had no legal basis.
[…] China has not resorted to guns. Rather, it is using what military theorists call gray zone tactics, aggressive moves that fall short of inciting all-out war. That includes imposing blockades, blasting water cannons and sailing dangerously close.
But the moves can still cause damage: The recent collision between Chinese and Philippine boats, for instance, left a three-foot hole on the Teresa Magbanua, as well as another Philippine vessel. [image at the link]
[…] On Sunday, after months of pressure from China, the Philippines said that the Teresa Magbanua had returned to port in Palawan. The Philippine statement sought to cast the move as following the accomplishment of the boat’s mission. […]
The Philippines said the vessel had suffered structural damage from being rammed by the Chinese coast guard, but indicated that the boat would return after undergoing repairs.
President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. of the Philippines has taken on a more muscular approach against China than his predecessor did. He has beefed up the country’s alliance with the United States and invited journalists to join resupply missions at sea to highlight China’s actions.
China has called the United States “the biggest troublemaker stirring up unrest in the South China Sea.” […]
In one confrontation in June, China’s coast guard used axes, tear gas and knives to harass Philippine troops on a resupply mission to the Second Thomas Shoal. Chinese sailors punctured Philippine military boats and seized their equipment, including guns.
Eight Filipino soldiers were hurt, including one who lost a finger. The Philippine military called it the “most aggressive” Chinese action in recent history. [video at the link]
[…] Since October, the Chinese coast guard has used water cannons against Philippine ships more regularly than it likely ever has in the long-running dispute. Collisions have also become more common. [videos at the link]
[…] Some of the Chinese ships shadow the Philippine boats. Others cut across their paths. The ships swarm around the Philippine vessels to form a tight blockade. [illustrations at the link]
[…] China, which boasts the world’s largest navy in terms of the number of vessels, has been deploying more boats to these disputed waters over the past year than it did previously. The Philippines sends on average a few ships on its resupply missions, which has mostly remained unchanged.
Mr. Hu, the Chinese expert, said that China’s show of strength in numbers is meant to deter the Philippines without resorting to lethal force. “If China sends only a small number of boats to stop the Philippines, they might have to use guns,” he said. [Graph at the link]
[…] On Thursday, though, Lieutenant General He Lei, a former vice president of the People’s Liberation Army’s Academy of Military Sciences, struck a more hawkish note.
“If the United States insists on being a plotter that pushes others to stand on the front line to confront China, or if it has no other choice but to challenge us by itself,” he told reporters at a security forum in Beijing, “the Chinese people and the People’s Liberation Army will never waver.”
That reminds me a lot of Russian blustering and saber rattling.
Rivers overflowed from Poland to Romania, where four people were found dead on Saturday, after days of torrential rain in a low-pressure system named Boris.
One person drowned in southwest Poland and thousands were evacuated across the border in the Czech Republic after heavy rain continued to batter central Europe on Sunday, causing flooding in several parts of the region.
A firefighter tackling flooding in Lower Austria was also killed, Austrian Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler said on Sunday on social platform X as authorities declared the province which surrounds Vienna a disaster area.
A bridge collapsed in the historic Polish town of Glucholazy near the Czech border. Local media reported a house was swept away and a bridge collapsed in the mountain town of Stronie Slaskie, where a local dam burst, according to the Polish weather institute.
Rivers overflowed from Poland to Romania, where four people were found dead on Saturday […]
Some parts of the Czech Republic and Poland faced the worst flooding in almost three decades as towns evacuated thousands. A quarter of a million Czech homes were without power.
[…] The fire service in the region said it had evacuated 1,900 people as of Sunday morning, while many roads were impassable.
In the worst hit areas, more than 100 mm of rain fell overnight and around 450 mm since Wednesday evening, the Czech weather institute said.
More rain is expected Monday.
[…] “According to forecasts, one of the biggest floods of the past years is approaching Budapest but we are prepared to tackle it,” Budapest’s mayor Gergely Karacsony said.[…]
KGsays
Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), Donald Trump’s running mate, acknowledged Sunday that he “created” the baseless claims that Haitian immigrants are eating their neighbors’ pets in Springfield, Ohio, “to draw attention to the Biden-Harris immigration policies.” – Lynna, OM@110 quoting Washington Post
If this is correct, and Vance is in effect admitting he lied, that’s remarkable. But that the strategic point of the racist lie was to foreground immigration, an issue where Trump has a big poll lead over Harris, was obvious to me from the start.
Reginald Selkirksays
@110 because Trump is famously not a fan of pets, so there are relatively few real photographs of him with animals.
@110: Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), Donald Trump’s running mate, acknowledged Sunday that he “created” the baseless claims that Haitian immigrants are eating their neighbors’ pets in Springfield, Ohio, “to draw attention to the Biden-Harris immigration policies.”
That could be very interesting from a legal perspective. I could see a class action lawsuit by people and institutions who have suffered harm due to these lies, which Vance is now apparently taking credit for. There have been school and hospital shutdowns, for example.
Republican Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio on Sunday rebuked the false conspiracy theories that have been amplified by former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, about Haitian immigrants stealing and eating people’s pets in Springfield, Ohio.
“This is a piece of garbage that is simply not true. There’s no evidence of this at all,” DeWine said on ABC’s “This Week.” “Discussion about Haitians eating dogs is just not helpful. And, again, these people are here legally. They’re here legally, and they want to work, and they are, in fact, working.” …
Donald Trump told his supporters how he really feels about Kamala Harris’ most-famous booster in a Sunday morning flurry of angry posts to his Truth Social platform.
“I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT,” the former president wrote, as one part of a tirade against rich supporters of Harris’ candidacy.
“All rich, job creating people, that support Comrade Kamala Harris, you are STUPID,” he wrote. “She is seeking an UNREALIZED TAX ON CAPITAL GAINS. If this tax actually gets enacted, it guarantees that we will have a 1929 style Depression. Perhaps even the thought of it would lead to calamity – But at least appraisers and accountants would do well!” …
Aside from the stupid mention of Swift, the notion that rich people should vote strictly for their financial interests is pretty dim.
That could be very interesting from a legal perspective. I could see a class action lawsuit by people and institutions who have suffered harm due to these lies
Donald Trump was safe after gunshots were reported in his vicinity Sunday afternoon in Florida, his campaign and the Secret Service said.
It was not immediately clear whether the reported shots were targeted at the Republican presidential nominee.
The U.S. Secret Service said it was investigating and that the incident occurred shortly before 2 p.m. “The former president is safe,” according to the Secret Service.
Roughly two months ago, Trump was shot during an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania, and a bullet grazed his ear.
Trump had returned to Florida this weekend from a West Coast swing that included a Friday night rally in Las Vegas and a Utah fundraiser.
The campaign did not immediately provide any additional details.
A law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation said officials were trying to determine whether the shots were fired near Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course or on the grounds. The official was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Trump often spends the morning playing golf, before having lunch Trump International Golf Club West Palm Beach, which is one of three he owns in the state.
Trump has had a stepped-up security footprint since the assassination attempt in July. When he has been at Trump Tower in New York, a lineup of dump trucks have parked in a wall outside the building. And at outdoor rallies, he now speaks from behind an enclosure of bulletproof glass. […]
JD Vance acknowledges the cat and dog stories are urban legends and then rationalizes it (via CNN): “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.”
Posted by readers of articles about JD Vance admitting he lied about Haitian immigrants:
He should be arrested and charged with terroristic threats. Putting people’s lives at risk is not funny. He’s guilty of getting his racist goons to dehumanize and demonize hardworking, honorable people. This is evil.
———————
Trump is terrible. But arguably, he doesn’t have the psychological capacity to be anything else. (Which, of course, is a good reason he never should have been President in the first place.) Vance was once a regular person, with above average intelligence and the ability to care about people, and sold it all out to get in with the broligarchs.
————————-
He had friends in college. He loved some of his family. He probably loved his wife before he started seeing her as an incubator.
————————–
Not all that “concerned” about his constituents in Springfield, apparently: Vance admitted that he has never actually been there.
———————
Vance was on Face The Nation this morning saying that his constituents in Cincinnati reported what was going on in Springfield. Vance couldn’t be bothered to listen to Springfield’s mayor or city manager, police chief, or even the Governor DeWine to get the truth.
———————-
Basically he did the same thing with his book that he’s doing now. He wrote a book depicting the Appalachian people with all the stereotypes that people have used to demean them for generations. Anything to elevate himself. He thinks he can get away with that because most of his family is dead. He doesn’t have friends, he has people he uses. He’a a twisted being.
————————
The sane-washing will be that what he actually meant is that if he has to get the media to pay attention to a real story yada yada. He was trying to do that on CNN when he realized what he had just said.
What I can’t understand is why he kept insisting that the national media was not reporting on a goose being stolen in a city of 60,000, as if that kind of story was of national importance.
What I see is that JD Vance is both doubling down on the lie, and at the same time he is trying to create some wiggle-room kind of phony excuse that blames the media (or softens his intent).
Walz is likely to hit this issue hard at the debate between Vice Presidential candidates.
A suspect has been detained and is being questioned regarding the reports that shots were fired near Trump’s golf course, three senior law enforcement officials told NBC News.
The former president hasn’t nailed down a date for his visit, but his campaign is actively planning a trip there.
Trump is planning to visit Springfield, Ohio, “soon,” a source familiar with the planning told NBC News.
The town has become the epicenter of a national political fight on immigration, with Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, spreading baseless conspiracy theories that Haitian immigrants in Springfield are eating dogs and other pets.
Though the unfounded claims have circulated online in right-wing circles for weeks, the rumors went mainstream last week when Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris met for a debate in Philadelphia.
“In Springfield, [Ohio], they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating — they’re eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what’s happening in our country. And it’s a shame,” Trump said on the debate stage.
The news of Trump’s visit comes as his ally Vivek Ramaswamy also announced on X that he will be visiting the town on Thursday.
Officials in Springfield and in Ohio have resoundingly condemned all allegations that immigrants in the city have been eating pets.
In a statement to NBC News on Monday, ahead of the debate, the Springfield Police Division said that “there have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.”
On Sunday, Ohio GOP Gov. Mike DeWine told ABC News, that there is no evidence that immigrants in Springfield have been eating pets and that the conspiracy theories were “garbage.”
“The Haitians who are in Springfield are legal. They came to Springfield to work. Ohio is on the move and Springfield has really made a great resurgence,” DeWine added.
Since the debate, municipal buildings in the city have been the target of bomb threats and immigrants in Springfield have reported feeling unsafe.
“We’re in pain right now,” Springfield Mayor Rob Rue told NBC News’ “Meet the Press NOW” on Friday, adding that if Trump decided to come visit Springfield, “that could be difficult, a very difficult visit.”
Asked what he’d say to Trump if he had the opportunity, Rue said, “We need help and not hate. And we need calm voices.” [More video of JD Vance doubling down is available at the link.]
On Sunday, Vance disputed that his claims about the Haitian immigrants were unfounded, telling NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” “I hear you saying that they’re baseless, but I’m not repeating them because I invented them out of thin air.”
“I’m repeating them because my constituents are saying these things are happening,” he said. “Clearly, these rumors are out there because constituents are seeing it with their own eyes.”
Later, in an interview with CNN, Vance echoed his remarks from earlier in the morning and blasted the “American media” for not paying attention to what he alleged was happening in Springfield.
“If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people then that’s what I’m going to do,” Vance said.
Questioned about what he meant by “creat[ing] stories,” Vance said “I say that we’re creating a story, meaning we’re creating the American media focusing on it.” [Forked tongue. Liar.]
Asked whether she accepts that Trump and Vance’s claims are untrue, Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump, who is also Trump’s daughter-in-law, told Fox News, “It is not up to me to decide that. This information came directly from the people of Springfield. No one at our campaign — Donald Trump did not make this up himself.”
Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) took a dig at former President Trump, calling him “the smallest man who ever lived,” in reference to a Taylor Swift song after he lashed out at the global superstar.
Trump wrote Sunday “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!” on Truth Social, days after the “Love Story” singer endorsed political rival Vice President Harris in the 2024 race.
Cheney, a longtime critic of Trump, reposted a screenshot of the former president’s remarks on the social platform X and wrote, “Says the smallest man who ever lived.”
This is likely a nod to Swift’s track “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived,” which is featured on her latest studio album, “The Tortured Poets Department.”
[…] “I think she [Harris] is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos,” Swift wrote to her more than 280 million Instagram followers. Harris’s campaign quickly seized on the support, using the celebrity endorsement in their fundraising emails. […]
Right-wing websites are celebrating Republican vice presidential nominee and Ohio Sen. JD Vance for spreading a longstanding xenophobic trope in a CNN interview that “communicable diseases like HIV and TB have skyrocketed” in Springfield, Ohio, because of Haitian immigrants in the city. This falsehood follows his debunked smear that Haitian residents of the city were eating people’s pets, a lie reportedly linked to recent bomb threats. […]
An AR-style rifle was found outside the fence line of Trump’s golf course and authorities believe it belongs to the person that has been detained, four senior law enforcement officials told NBC News.
According to the sources, the Secret Service spotted someone they believe may have been aiming and agents fired gunshots in response.
It’s unclear where the person may have been aiming and it is unclear whether the person ever fired the weapon, the source said.
Vice President Kamala Harris confirmed she’s been briefed on the security incident regarding Trump at his Palm Beach golf course, writing in a post on X that she is glad he is safe.
Reginald Selkirksays
Caitlin Clark has secured the WNBA record for total points in a rookie season.
She achieved this in the third quarter of the Fever’s game agains the Dallas Wings. The Fever have one more game to fill out their season, Sep. 19 against Washington.
This reporting is remarkable, not only for its substance but for the fact that so much inside information has been leaked. (This is the biggest leak since the leak of the draft Dobbs abortion decision, although this of course is coming after the opinions have been issued).
…The Chief Justice led a charge in the Trump immunity case in an attempt to totally kill the case; he resisted efforts from Justice Sotomayor toward compromise. The only compromise was to hear the case before the election, which is hardly anything.
Far too much to quote, this is a deep dive into the three cases that saved Trump and doomed the American people.
This account draws on details from the justices’ private memos, documentation of the proceedings and interviews with court insiders, both conservative and liberal, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because deliberations are supposed to be kept secret.
Just one game after she set the WNBA single-season assist record with 316 (and counting), Clark’s 20th point of the seasongame* set the rookie scoring record. It was an 18-year-old record, set by former No. 1 pick Seimone Augustus in 2006…
Clark scored a career-high 35 points on 10-of-22 shooting, including a 6-of-14 mark from 3-point range. She added on eight assists and three rebounds…
As of now, Clark has 120 3-point goals for the season. The WNBA record is 128. Their next (and last) game is September 19 against the Washington Mystics.
In a post to Truth Social on Friday, the former president complained about shares of Trump Media & Technology Group, which uses the ticker DJT, being halted by Nasdaq, writing that it had occurred twice during the day.
The stock was given 2 5 minute halts, most likely due to volatility. Trump promised not to sell when he became eligible later this month. This caused the stock to shoot up.
Trump threatened to move the stock to the NYSE. Unless Trump wins this is unlikely but possible. DJTs ridiculous valuation means it is big enough on paper but the NYSE doesn’t like small unstable companies in volatile industries or ones with questionable paperwork. It would be a lot of work for petty revenge but that part I don’t put past Trump.
The Ukrainian government has to lead the way regarding how the war in Ukraine will end, U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told a conference in the country’s capital on Saturday.
Several peace plans have surfaced recently, some written while consulting with the Russian government but not Ukraine’s government. This is obviously designed to shut down that sort of talk. The US and EU are not going to force a peace plan on Ukraine, at least not right now and not one so bad for Ukraine.
Despite what Sullivan says I expect that position could change if a plan better for Ukraine surfaced. If somebody had a plan that returned most of what Russia occupied in this attack, was otherwise OK and Russia accepted there would be a lot of pressure on Ukraine to accept.
The article also points out that if Trump wins the election the situation changes entirely. Anybody who saw the debate knows that, Trump wouldn’t answer if he wanted Ukraine to win let alone what he would do in office. That such a radical change is possible means that nothing will happen until November. Russia isn’t going to back down while a chance at winning is only a few weeks away. If Trump loses I expect some real negotiations will happen over the winter but I’m not sure if a way for Putin to back out while saving enough face will happen.
But even black holes have edge cases—and those cases have their own insights to give. Black holes rotate in space. As matter falls into them, they start to spin faster; if that matter has charge, they also become electrically charged. In principle, a black hole can reach a point where it has as much charge or spin as it possibly can, given its mass. Such a black hole is called “extremal”—the extreme of the extremes.
Such a black hole would have properties so weird they are hard to describe, such as zero effective gravity at the event horizon. It still isn’t known if any exist or are likely to exist because it would require a very precise sequence of events. If you simply drop charged matter into the black hole time dilation will prevent an extremal black hole from forming.
…
The man suspected of pointing a rifle at former President Donald Trump’s golf club is Ryan Wesley Routh, the Associated Press reports, citing law enforcement sources.
(various details of his 2002 arrest)…
Routh was 36 years old at the time of the 2002 arrest, which would make him approximately 58 years old now…
Routh’s reason for attempting to shoot and kill the former president remains unknown as authorities attempt to determine his motive.
The gunman “was not displaying a lot of emotions” as he was taken into custody, Martin County Sheriff William D. Snyder told local media. The person being detained was also unarmed when apprehended.
The apparent gunman was spotted near the Trump International Golf Club West Palm Beach’s property line, according to the Secret Service. They saw him as the Secret Service scouted one hole ahead of where the president was playing…
Near the bushes where the gunman was spotted, an AK-47-style rifle with a targeting scope was retrieved, along with a GoPro camera and a backpack.
(This is Florida. There are probably plenty of stray weapons laying around*. Hopefully they can get fingerprints to tie the weapon to the suspect.)
The GoPro camera was likely planned to be used by the shooter to film his actions as he shot Trump.**
Routh fled in a vehicle but was ultimately taken into custody by law enforcement, approximately 45 minutes north of the golf course.
A witness had spotted the apparent gunman exiting the bushes. That witness shared a photo of the suspect’s black Nissan SUV, which he used to flee the scene, with law enforcement.
Routh was caught driving northbound on Interstate 95 after he crossed from Palm Beach County into Martin County.
It wasn’t initially clear if Routh was able to fire a shoot at Secret Service agents before they opened fire on him. (sic)
…
* I am joking. Sort of.
** Clearly this bit is speculation.
Practitioners of different religious traditions marched down Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Copacabana Beach on Sunday to support religious freedom in Brazil, where cases of intolerance have doubled over the past six years.
Hundreds of men, women and children from more than a dozen faiths participated in the event, known as the March for the Defense of Religious Freedom. Many of the participants were practitioners of Afro-Brazilian religions that have recently faced attacks from members of Christian groups. Brazil’s recently appointed Minister for Human Rights Macaé Evaristo also joined the march, which was held for the 17th consecutive year…
Life during prehistory was believed to be, as Thomas Hobbes described: “nasty, brutish and short.” However, this new study shows these teens were actually quite healthy. Most individuals in the study sample entered puberty by 13.5, reaching full adulthood between 17 and 22 years old. This indicates these Ice Age adolescents started puberty at a similar time to teens in modern, wealthy countries.
The standard explanation is that gold precipitates from hot, water-rich fluids as they flow through cracks in the Earth’s crust […] and becomes trapped in quartz veins,” […] The research team tested a new concept, piezoelectricity.
Quartz […] generates an electric charge when subjected to stress. […] to replicate the conditions quartz might experience during an earthquake. They submerged quartz crystals in a gold-rich fluid and applied stress using a motor to simulate the shaking of an earthquake.
[…]
“The stressed quartz not only electrochemically deposited gold onto its surface, but […] Remarkably, the gold had a tendency to deposit on existing gold grains rather than forming new ones.” This is because, while quartz is an electrical insulator, gold is a conductor. Once some gold is deposited, it becomes a focal point for further growth, effectively “plating” the gold grains with more gold.
JMsays
Youtube: Ukrainians CAUGHT HUGE RUSSIAN REDEPLOYMENT ON THE MOVE
Large scale movement in areas without dug in defenses and multiple mine fields have resulted in something more like open field combat. This favors the Ukrainians who have better intelligence, command coordination and transports.
The Russians have something like 3000 Russian soldiers now trapped by a river and Ukrainian forces on the other 3 sides. Destruction of bridges and capture of the only highway left them with no reliable route for supplies or to get in and out. The Russians recaptured the supply highway but trying to use it while it’s within easy access of the Ukrainian forces is resulting in heavy losses of supplies and men. Combat continues along the highway area while Ukrainian forces move to capture territory and soldiers in the area.
Bekenstein Boundsays
Lynna@109:
Jordan Peterson is now offering an anti-woke “online university” offering instructional videos available on demand for the low, low price of just $499.99 per year.
I can’t imagine this “university” offering any diplomas that would get you into any professional jobs engineering bridges, say, or managing nuclear reactors. Which makes this just a glorified streaming video service. And an online video streaming service charging five hundred bucks a year (roughly $42/mo), about 4x the going rate elsewhere, with a mere few micro-Netflixes of selection at most, would get a hard pass from me even if it weren’t chock full of far right wing kookery.
Lynna@113:
Rivers overflowed from Poland to Romania, where four people were found dead on Saturday, after days of torrential rain in a low-pressure system named Boris.
Wait, what? How in the hell do you get a named storm in Romania? It’s nowhere near the Atlantic basin, and even farther from the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Tropical storms need large areas of sea with warm surface waters to form. Did it come off the Mediterranean? That’s common enough for them to have a name list for Mediterranean tropical storms?
KG@114:
immigration, an issue where Trump has a big poll lead over Harris
And why is that? What’s caused Americans to become more bigoted, against the trend of the past several decades? And how can this be corrected?
Lynna@119:
Secret Service: Trump safe after shots reported in his vicinity in Florida
God fucking damn it, is the orange bastard actually being protected by the Devil or something? This is sorely testing my atheistic faith here. These fuckers never miss when they aim at a JFK or a Lincoln, but they can’t seem to hit the biggest, stupidest, Day-Glo orange fat-ass sitting-duck target in the history of big, stupid, Day-Glo orange fat-ass sitting-duck targets? Pah!
Sky Captain@139:
Gold that electroplates itself. Cool.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Re: Bekenstein Bound @141:
How in the hell do you get a named storm in Romania? […] Did it come off the Mediterranean?
There is no […] universally accepted system of naming storms. […] likelihood of impact and the potential severity of the system are considered
[…]
the Free University of Berlin (FUB) names all high and low pressure systems that affect Europe, though they do not assign names to any actual storms. A windstorm that is associated with one of these pressure systems will at times be recognized by the name assigned to the associated pressure system by the FUB. […] public awareness and preparedness are often cited as the main purpose of the naming schemes
[…]
Storm Boris was named […] by the Italian Servizio Meteorologico. It was also named Anett on the same day by Free University of Berlin.
* Italy’s criteria (translated), because it was hit first. Uses colors from the MeteoAlarm interactive map. Normally reserved for orange-red wind levels, but yellow is accepted if precipitation is heavy.
The storm formed as a lobe of Arctic air swept southward through western and central Europe and then clashed with warm, moist air to the east and south.
The storm has since become cut off from the steering currents of the jet stream, which means it will linger over Europe for days. As it does so, it will keep drawing moisture-filled air from the historically warm Mediterranean Sea into the region.
Brazil withdrew $3.3 million from the bank accounts of Elon Musk’s X and Starlink to pay for fines imposed by the Supreme Court […] the accounts have since been unfrozen
[…]
X remains banned in Brazil as it has yet to comply with orders from Moraes to block certain user accounts and to appoint a legal representative in the country.
Recap: Internet providers were ordered to enforce the block of X in Brazil. X’s other failure to turn over documents accrued fines beyond its worth, which led the court to freeze both X and Starlink’s accounts (both being part of an ‘economic group’). Starlink, as an internet provider, refused to enforce the website ban until its own accounts were unfrozen. Now X’s document fines are paid. And Starlink lost its excuse for defiantly maintaining X access in Brazil.
birgerjohanssonsays
Ryan Wesley Routh: What we know about Trump shooting suspect
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=2LelG_IAb4g
He has previously supported GOP candidates Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley.
immigration, an issue where Trump has a big poll lead over Harris
And why is that? What’s caused Americans to become more bigoted, against the trend of the past several decades? And how can this be corrected? – Bekenstein Bound@141
In the UK, decades of lies in the right-wing press have led to most people having completely false ideas about immigration – e.g. thinking that most migrants enter illegally whereas in fact those who do are a tiny minority, greatly exaggerating the Muslim proportion of the population, thinking asylum seekers live in luxury… I’d guess the same is true in the USA. In the UK, fortunately, this does not seem to have produced quite the same upsurge in bigotry as in the USA (of course, we still have an ample supply of bigots, please don’t send us any more!), and my guess (again) is that this is because there are legal limits on how far the media can promote racial hatred – that is, yes, limits on freeze peach.
Routh’s reason for attempting to shoot and kill the former president remains unknown as authorities attempt to determine his motive. – Reginald Selkirk@136 quoting Yahoo
My first thought, given the venue, was that the would-be assassin was someone who Trump had cheated at golf.
Trump has bought a spell from Nyarlahotep that makes assassins aim like shit. The latest one fired four shots, judging by the sounds reported. The cops found an AK with an optic sight.
Myself @ 153
He is apparently delusional and has been called out several times over false claims about his connections to Ukraine. As the MAGA social media will lap up the lies it is important we spread the truth before the lies become the accepted truth.
birgerjohanssonsays
Tito Jackson, Jackson 5 member and brother to Michael, dies aged 70 | Pop and rock | The Guardian
Elon Musk, the billionaire king of bad takes, came up with a new one to cement his reign on Sunday night.
Responding to a second potential assassination attempt on Donald Trump’s life, the X owner questioned why no one was trying to kill the Democratic president and vice president.
“And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala,” he posted, adding a thinking-face emoji.
A near-instantaneous firestorm of criticism predictably followed, with several people telling him to “delete your account” and others tagging the U.S. Secret Service’s X account…
After attracting 2 million users in its first year of operation, Bluesky has grown another 400 percent with some recent help from Brazil and Elon Musk. Are these monthly or daily users, or just account holders? Nobody knows! But it still has a way to go to match X’s estimated 250 million daily users and Threads’ 175 million monthly users.
Las Vegas forward A’ja Wilson became the first player in WNBA history to hit the 1,000-point mark for a season Sunday in the Aces’ 84-71 victory over Connecticut.
Wilson hit 1,000 on the dot with a fadeaway jump shot with 1 minute, 57 seconds left. Her teammates and the crowd at Michelob Ultra Arena celebrated with Wilson, who is the overwhelming favorite for the 2024 WNBA MVP award…
The Aces are now 25-13 and in fourth place in the WNBA standings with two games remaining in the regular season…
The next-highest scoring season was 939 by Jewel Lloyd in 2023, so Wilson’s year-end tally will probably stand out by at least 10%.
birger @150: “Trump has bought a spell from Nyarlahotep that makes assassins aim like shit. The latest one fired four shots, judging by the sounds reported. The cops found an AK with an optic sight.”
It was the Secret Service that fired those four shots, not the would-be assassin.
God fucking damn it, is the orange bastard actually being protected by the Devil or something? This is sorely testing my atheistic faith here. These fuckers never miss when they aim at a JFK or a Lincoln, but they can’t seem to hit the biggest, stupidest, Day-Glo orange fat-ass sitting-duck target in the history of big, stupid, Day-Glo orange fat-ass sitting-duck targets? Pah!
On this thread we do not fantasize about killing anyone by shooting them.
On this thread we do not bemoan the fact that other humans were not assassinated.
…
For the past year, a group called the Run Patriots Project has recruited Trump supporters to run as independent candidates in swing districts where they could siphon votes from Republicans. In addition to two races in Iowa, the group recruited candidates in Nebraska, Montana, Virginia and Minnesota. All six recruits described themselves as retired, disabled—or both.
The group’s operation provides few clues about its management, financing or motivation. But interviews, text messages, emails, business filings and other documents reviewed by The Associated Press show that a significant sum has been spent—and some of it traces back to Democrats…
Wiederien withdrew his candidacy last month after he says it became clear he’d been manipulated into running. As with other recruits, his story begins with Facebook, where the Patriots Run Project operated a series of pro-Trump pages and ran ads that used apocalyptic rhetoric to attack establishment politicians in both parties while urging conservatives to run in November.
Once recruited, they communicated with a handful of operatives through text messages, emails and phone calls. In-person contact was limited. Run Patriots Project advised them about what forms to fill out and how to file required paperwork.
In at least three races, petition signatures to qualify for the ballot were circulated by a Nevada company that works closely with the Democratic consulting firm Sole Strategies, according to documents, including text messages and a draft contract, as well as the firm’s co-founder. In Iowa, a different Democratic firm conducted a poll testing attacks on Nunn, while presenting Wiederien as the true conservative…
Despite the ties to Democratic firms, there is a scant paper trail to determine who is overseeing the effort.
Patriots Run Project is not a registered business in the U.S., nor is it listed as a nonprofit with the IRS. And it has not filed paperwork to form a political committee with the Federal Election Commission. The only concrete identifying detail listed on the group’s website is a P.O. box inside a UPS store in Washington, D.C…
Marine fossils dating back to as early as 8.7m years ago have been uncovered beneath a south Los Angeles high school.
On Friday, the Los Angeles Times reported that researchers had discovered two sites on the campus of San Pedro high school under which fossils including those of a saber-toothed salmon and a megalodon, the gigantic prehistoric shark, were buried.
According to the outlet, the two sites where the fossils were found include an 8.7m-year-old bone bed from the Miocene era and a 120,000-year-old shell bed from the Pleistocene era…
“Saber-toothed salmon” would be a great mascot for the school’s sportsball teams.
Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D-Va.) defended Democrats’ opposition to the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, calling it a “modern poll tax” in an interview on NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday.”
“The devil in that bill is in the details, and the SAVE Act puts barriers on American citizens voting, and actually is a modern poll tax,” she told host Chris Stirewalt on Sunday…
McClellan noted that the only methods to prove citizenship under the SAVE Act “just happen to be the ones that cost money.”
“You won’t be able to use your state driver’s license,” she said, adding that the easiest option “you could use is a passport. It costs money. A lot of Americans don’t have passports.”
McClellan further noted that it can be difficult for some people to obtain their birth certificates, which can be necessary to prove citizenship, and those who have changed their names — for marriage or other reasons — often struggle to “reconcile that in order to prove their citizenship.” …
I still think the would-be assassins -if I may generalize from two samples – seem like a sorry lot. If you have watched the original “Jackal” film you would envision months of preparations relying on expert criminals to get the best hardware, artful disguises, lots of effort in finding multiple getaway routes, et cetera. Instead, they just show up and hope no one will notice the big gun they are aiming. If it wasn’t so goddamn serious it might be the subject for a black comedy.
[…] Who is Ryan Wesley Routh?
Unlike the man who attempted to assassinate Trump in July, Routh has a colorful public history. Routh previously lived in North Carolina, but had moved to Hawaii in recent years and said he was building affordable housing there. He was interviewed by the New York Times in 2023 for an article about Americans acting as freelance fighters for the war in Ukraine, despite little or no qualifications to do so. Routh, who had no prior military experience, spoke with a Times reporter about his plans to recruit soldiers who had fled the Taliban in Afghanistan and transport them to Ukraine to join the war efforts.
“By the time I got off the phone with Mr. Routh some minutes later it was clear he was in way over his head,” the reporter, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, wrote. “He talked of buying off corrupt officials, forging passports and doing whatever it takes to get his Afghan cadre to Ukraine, but he had no real way to accomplish his goals.” In 2023, Routh also spoke to Semafor about his efforts.
Routh also appears to have a criminal history. In 2002, he was arrested in Greensboro, North Carolina, following a three-hour standoff with police in which he barricaded himself inside a roofing business. He was charged with possessing an illegal, fully-automatic machine gun. According to the News & Observer, a newspaper based in Raleigh, North Carolina, Routh also had other convictions, including a hit and run and possession of stolen goods.
Routh’s son spoke positively of his father in an interview with the Guardian this weekend and expressed surprise at the idea he had resorted to violence. Little else is known at this time about his other potential familial relationships.
[…] on an X account that has since been deactivated, a user with Routh’s name said that he had supported Donald Trump in 2016 but had been disappointed by his presidency. In another post from the same account, the author tried to encourage Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy, both Republicans, to run for president and vice president together.
The same account posted that “democracy is on the ballot” in this election, along with other, sometimes incoherent posts about various subjects, including Ukraine and China, suggesting that the author’s politics are not easily characterized by a single worldview.
[…] The AK-47 Routh had on him, like the AR-15 used by Crooks, is one of the preferred weapons of mass shooters in recent years. Both are assault-style weapons — a phrase that has many possible meanings but generally refers to guns that are meant for rapid-fire use with large magazines of ammunition. An AK-47 style weapon was used at a 2019 shooting in El Paso, Texas, where 23 people were killed and 22 were injured.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who said in a statement that she was “deeply disturbed” by the reports of a second attempted attack on Trump, has called for banning assault weapons. The United States had a federal assault weapons ban in place from 1994 to 2004, and research suggests that assault weapons bans meaningfully reduce mass shooting deaths.
[…] Though a second assassination attempt in such a short period of time seems shocking, it is in some ways not surprising. Current and former law enforcement officials I’ve spoken to in recent weeks have emphasized just how difficult the task of protecting elected officials in public has become. Following the expiration of the federal assault weapons ban, and after more than a decade of marketing of assault-style rifles, more of these weapons are circulating in the US than ever before. The number of deadly long-range guns held by the public makes it considerably more difficult to maintain a zone of safety around politicians. […]
On MSNBC it was noted by Frank Figliuzzi that the would-be assassin may have been seeking infamy, and that no motive that makes sense to other people may be revealed.
Trump is complaining about rhetoric that he says encourages people to shoot at him. Sheesh. That’s rich coming from him. Trump is the champion of rhetoric that encourages violence.
“He believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris, and he acted on it,” Trump told Fox News Digital. “Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country — both from the inside and out.”
“They do it with a combination of rhetoric and lawsuits they wrap me up in,” Trump added. “These are the things that dangerous fools, like the shooter, listen to. That is the rhetoric they listen to, and the same with the first one.”
Sunday’s incident took place about two months after a gunman opened fire on Trump during a rally in Pennsylvania, striking the ex-president in the ear and killing one man in the audience.
The former president sought to turn the criticism around on Biden and Harris on Monday, claiming they “want to destroy our country.”
“It is called the enemy from within. They are the real threat,” Trump said. […]
North and South Carolina are bracing for heavy wind, rain, potential floods and tornadoes as a Potential Tropical Storm Eight arrives on Monday.
As of Monday morning, the “low-pressure system” did not yet classify as a tropical storm, the National Hurricane Center said, but it picked up some strength on its path northwest toward South Carolina’s coast and its speed increased to 5 mph. At around 100 miles east of Charleston, it carried maximum sustained winds of 50 mph.
The storm is expected to make landfall in South Carolina on Monday afternoon and travel across both states overnight through Wednesday, the hurricane center said in an advisory on Monday morning.
If it becomes a tropical storm, it will be named Helene – the next name on the list…
Marjorie Taylor Greene Admits Imaginary ‘ABC Whistleblower’ Did Not Die In An Imaginary Car Accident
With all of the completely batshit conspiracy theories going around right now on the Right, we haven’t paid much attention to the “ABC Whistleblower” — a supposed former ABC employee who claims that Kamala Harris was given the debate questions ahead of time and also received other accommodations that helped her and hurt poor Donald Trump.
However, that story got a little spicier this weekend when Marjorie Taylor Greene announced that said anonymous whistleblower had tragically died.
“The ABC whistleblower who claimed Kamala Harris was given debate questions ahead of the debate has died in a car crash according to news reports,” Greene tweeted on Sunday. [Oh FFS, FFS, FFS … and JFC as well.]
The “news report” came from County Local News, a very legit looking site, which cited Joseph Okechukwu, a pro-Trump Nollywood (Nigerian Hollywood) actor, conspiracy theorist and anti-masturbation activist, as its source. [video at the link]
Okechukwu also cited the existence of supposed “news reports” reporting this incident, but did not specify which ones. Granted, it would be pretty hard for anyone to nail down any solid information on the death of an anonymous whistleblower who probably doesn’t even exist in a car accident.
The accusation was so baseless that, as excited as she was at the thought of torturing another person’s grieving family the way she tortured Seth Rich’s grieving family, even Marge had to admit it wasn’t true.
“This story appears to be false and I’m glad to hear it,” she tweeted. “We need a serious investigation into the whistleblower’s report that Kamala Harris was given debate questions ahead of time from ABC!”
The supposed ABC whistleblower’s supposed affidavit has been released online by the social media account Black Insurrectionist–I FOLLOW BACK TRUE PATRIOTS, who claims to know the identity of said whistleblower — and boy, does that all seem like a thing that is true.
According to the “affidavit,” Harris was given “sample questions” ahead of time that were very similar to the incredibly predictable and obvious questions asked by the ABC moderators. The best part, though, is that she supposedly got a smaller podium than did Trump, due to the fact that she is nearly a foot shorter than his self-reported height of 6’3”:
The Harris campaign received particular accommodations, including, but not limited to, the providing of a podium significantly smaller than that used by Donald Trump, and assurances regarding split-screen television views that would favorably impact Kamala Harris’s appearance relative to Donald Trump.
This doesn’t appear to have been the case, but I also don’t think it would be weird if her podium were smaller than his was. However, one of Trump’s big fears ahead of the election was that Harris would have been given something to stand on during the debate that would make her look taller than she is. Apparently, he thinks being taller than a 5’4” woman is one of his big selling points as a candidate. [Yep. That sounds like Trump.]
To be fair, it’s not as if he much else going for him.
While we must give Greene credit for admitting that the bombshell news item she got from a random Nigerian actor may not have been 100 percent true, she’s still very sure that the ABC whistleblower, whose identity is known only by this one anonymous internet account is a real person and is excited to get to the bottom of their definitely-not-imaginary accusations. […]
Vance tripled down: “Are we not allowed to talk about these problems because some psychopaths are threatening violence?” he insisted. “We can condemn the violence on the one hand, but also talk about the terrible consequences of Kamala Harris’s open border on the other hand.”
Today is not just some isolated incident,” Vance posted on X about two hours after the incident. “The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”
(July 13, after the first assassination attempt)
Well, which is it? Vance wants to have it both ways. He wants standards applied to his opponents, but not to himself. One difference is that the problems Vance is talking about, such as immigrants eating pets, are completely fictional.
The say Vance is intelligent. They point out that Vance graduated from Yale Law School. But he doesn’t seem to be capable of generating consistent logic. He is a tangled bundle of special pleading.
regarding @166 Lynna, OM
I say, Thank you. It is important that we observe at least some self-control and civil limitations. The Precepts we follow admonish us: ‘Do you control your emotions? Or, do your emotions control you?’
Also @141 BB uses a phrase I perceive as self-contradictory: ‘my atheistic faith’. I see atheism as rational not requiring anything as vaporous as faith.
In July, after Donald Trump was targeted in an assassination attempt, he did not immediately lash out at his perceived political foes. The former president’s restraint did not last long, however, and the GOP nominee ultimately started blaming his critics for the shooting — without any evidence, of course — and amplifying conspiracy theories.
As recently as a few weeks ago, Trump was blaming the Biden administration for the attempt on his life — officials “weren’t too interested in my health and safety,” he told television personality Phil McGraw — and after another conservative media ally questioned whether the shooting might’ve been an “inside job,” the former president responded, “You do have to wonder.”
In the wake of another apparent assassination attempt, the Republican candidate is already on the offensive and pointing fingers without regard for evidence or propriety. Less than 24 hours after the alleged would-be shooter was taken into custody, Trump told Fox News Digital that the suspected gunman “acted” on “highly inflammatory language” of Democrats.
“He believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris, and he acted on it,” Trump said of the gunman in an interview with Fox News Digital. “Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at.” … Trump pointed to Biden and Harris’ past comments casting Trump as a “threat to democracy,” while telling Americans they are “unity” leaders.
In case that was too subtle, the former president also published a statement to his social media platform condemning Vice President Kamala Harris’ debate rhetoric, adding, “Because of this Communist Left Rhetoric, the bullets are flying, and it will only get worse!” [JFC!]
So, a few things.
First, the investigation into the alleged would-be shooter is just beginning. The idea that the former president [speaks about] Ryan Wesley Routh’s motivations, in detail, is difficult to take seriously. Given the preliminary evidence suggesting Routh was a former Trump supporter, and expressed support for some of Trump’s GOP primary rivals as recently as this year, it seems like a stretch to characterize him as some kind of Democratic partisan.
Second, Trump clearly sees accusations that he’s a “threat to democracy” as beyond the pale, but, in reality, the Republican candidate really has endorsed an authoritarian-style vision that would undermine democracy. This assessment is based almost entirely on Trump’s own rhetoric and public statements. When the former president’s critics, in Democratic politics and elsewhere, accuse him of being a threat to democracy, their case is rooted in fact.
Third, these assessments aren’t just coming from the left. Trump’s own former Defense secretary, Mark Esper, has described the former president as a “threat to democracy.” The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward, who remained neutral in every presidential race throughout his lengthy career, made an exception for Trump, calling him a “threat to democracy.” Retired federal Judge J. Michael Luttig, a giant of conservative jurisprudence, directly accused Trump and his allies of waging a “war on democracy,” adding that the former president is a “clear and present danger” to American democracy.>/b>
Fourth, if Trump genuinely believes that accusations about “threats to democracy” are beyond the pale, he should probably take a moment to explain why he keeps accusing those he dislikes of being “threats to democracy.” At last week’s presidential debate, for example, he pointed at his Democratic rival and declared, “They talk about democracy. ‘I’m a threat to democracy.’ They’re the threat to democracy.”
In fact, literally just a few hours before this latest apparent assassination attempt, the GOP nominee published an item to his social media platform that read in its entirety, “THE FAILING NEW YORK TIMES IS A TRUE THREAT TO DEMOCRACY!” By Trump’s reasoning, if someone were to target Biden, Harris, or the nation’s most widely read newspaper, would he be responsible for the violence?
Fifth, the hypocrisy surrounding the former president’s latest rant was staggering. In the same interview with Fox News Digital in which he accused Democrats of creating security threats by using caustic rhetoric, Trump said Democrats “want to destroy our country” and are currently “destroying the country.” He added — again, in the interview in which he was arguing that Democrats ought to dial down their comments — that Democrats are “the enemy from within” and “the real threat.”
“They use highly inflammatory language,” Trump went on say, referencing his partisan detractors. “I can use it too — far better than they can — but I don’t.” Evidently, in his reality, Trump is unaware of his own choice of words.
To be sure, I’m mindful of the circumstances. Trump doesn’t want to be criticized, and he would love nothing more than to bully Democrats into pulling their punches in the campaign’s final 50 days, even as he condemns them in increasingly hysterical terms. […]
Bits and pieces of news, as summarized by Steve Benen:
* After an alleged would-be assassin was taken into custody on Sunday, Donald Trump’s political operation immediately got to work sending out fundraising appeals. [source: NBC News]
* The latest ABC News/Ipsos poll, conducted after last week’s debate, found Vice President Kamala Harris leading the former president among likely voters, 52% to 46%. The margin is unchanged from before the debate. […] [source: ABC News]
* While Iowa is generally seen as a safe “red” state for Republicans this year, the latest Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll found Trump with a surprisingly modest advantage over Harris, 47% to 43%, among likely Iowa voters. […] [source: Des Moines Register]
* The Nevada Green Party is still fighting to get Jill Stein on the state’s 2024 ballot. The party has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene, and it’s reportedly being represented by Jay Sekulow — best known for his longtime role as one of Trump’s personal attorneys. [source: CNN]
* America PAC, a super PAC that Elon Musk helped create, has reportedly ramped up spending in recent weeks, investing millions of dollars in swing states in the hopes of elevating Trump. [source: Washington Post]
* On a related note, the conspiratorial billionaire published an online message suggesting it was odd that nobody had tried to kill President Joe Biden or Harris. Musk ultimately deleted his tweet and said his message was intended to be funny. [source: New York Times]
* The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled late last week that mail-in ballots that are improperly dated won’t be counted. As NBC News’ report noted, the decision reverses a lower court ruling from last month that found it was unconstitutional to reject mail ballots that had a missing or incorrect date. [source: NBC News]
* According to a report in Rolling Stone, crypto companies are spending roughly $800,000 per day, every day, on ads intended to smear Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown. The incumbent Ohioan is considered a top Republican target in this year’s elections. [Sheesh]
* And in California’s U.S. Senate race, Trump appears to be withholding support from his party’s nominee, Steve Garvey. At a press conference on Friday, the former president said the retired baseball player “hasn’t reached out to MAGA,” adding, “He’s got to call me.” [source: Washington Post]
In her final hours, Amber Nicole Thurman suffered from a grave infection that her suburban Atlanta hospital was well-equipped to treat.
She’d taken abortion pills and encountered a rare complication; she had not expelled all of the fetal tissue from her body. She showed up at Piedmont Henry Hospital in need of a routine procedure to clear it from her uterus, called a dilation and curettage, or D&C.
But just that summer, her state had made performing the procedure a felony, with few exceptions. Any doctor who violated the new Georgia law could be prosecuted and face up to a decade in prison.
Thurman waited in pain in a hospital bed, worried about what would happen to her 6-year-old son, as doctors monitored her infection spreading, her blood pressure sinking and her organs beginning to fail.
It took 20 hours for doctors to finally operate. By then, it was too late.
The otherwise healthy 28-year-old medical assistant, who had her sights set on nursing school, should not have died, an official state committee recently concluded.
Tasked with examining pregnancy-related deaths to improve maternal health, the experts, including 10 doctors, deemed hers “preventable” and said the hospital’s delay in performing the critical procedure had a “large” impact on her fatal outcome.
Their reviews of individual patient cases are not made public. But ProPublica obtained reports that confirm that at least two women have already died after they couldn’t access legal abortions and timely medical care in their state.
There are almost certainly others.
Committees like the one in Georgia, set up in each state, often operate with a two-year lag behind the cases they examine, meaning that experts are only now beginning to delve into deaths that took place after the Supreme Court overturned the federal right to abortion.
[…] since abortion was banned or restricted in 22 states over the past two years, women in serious danger have been turned away from emergency rooms and told that they needed to be in more peril before doctors could help. Some have been forced to continue high-risk pregnancies that threatened their lives. Those whose pregnancies weren’t even viable have been told they could return when they were “crashing.”
[…] Republican legislators have rejected small efforts to expand and clarify health exceptions — even in Georgia, which has one of the nation’s highest rates of maternal mortality and where Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women.
[…] Thurman, who carried the full load of a single parent, loved being a mother. Every chance she got, she took her son to petting zoos, to pop-up museums and on planned trips, like one to a Florida beach. “The talks I have with my son are everything,” she posted on social media.
But when she learned she was pregnant with twins in the summer of 2022, she quickly decided she needed to preserve her newfound stability, her best friend, Ricaria Baker, told ProPublica. Thurman and her son had recently moved out of her family’s home and into a gated apartment complex with a pool, and she was planning to enroll in nursing school.
The timing could not have been worse. On July 20, the day Georgia’s law banning abortion at six weeks went into effect, her pregnancy had just passed that mark, according to records her family shared with ProPublica.
Thurman wanted a surgical abortion close to home and held out hope as advocates tried to get the ban paused in court, Baker said. But as her pregnancy progressed to its ninth week, she couldn’t wait any longer. She scheduled a D&C in North Carolina, where abortion at that stage was still legal, and on Aug. 13 woke up at 4 a.m. to make the journey with her best friend.
On their drive, they hit standstill traffic, Baker said. The clinic couldn’t hold Thurman’s spot longer than 15 minutes — it was inundated with women from other states where bans had taken effect. Instead, a clinic employee offered Thurman a two-pill abortion regimen approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, mifepristone and misoprostol. Her pregnancy was well within the standard of care for that treatment.
Getting to the clinic had required scheduling a day off from work, finding a babysitter, making up an excuse to borrow a relative’s car and walking through a crowd of anti-abortion protesters. Thurman didn’t want to reschedule, Baker said.
At the clinic, Thurman sat through a counseling session in which she was told how to safely take the pills and instructed to go to the emergency room if complications developed. She signed a release saying she understood. She took the first pill there and insisted on driving home before any symptoms started, Baker said. She took the second pill the next day, as directed.
Deaths due to complications from abortion pills are extremely rare. Out of nearly 6 million women who’ve taken mifepristone in the U.S. since 2000, 32 deaths were reported to the FDA through 2022, regardless of whether the drug played a role. Of those, 11 patients developed sepsis. Most of the remaining cases involved intentional and accidental drug overdoses, suicide, homicide and ruptured ectopic pregnancies.
Baker and Thurman spoke every day that week. At first, there was only cramping, which Thurman expected. But days after she took the second pill, the pain increased and blood was soaking through more than one pad per hour. If she had lived nearby, the clinic in North Carolina would have performed a D&C for free as soon as she followed up, the executive director told ProPublica. But Thurman was four hours away.
On the evening of Aug. 18, Thurman vomited blood and passed out at home, according to 911 call logs. Her boyfriend called for an ambulance. Thurman arrived at Piedmont Henry Hospital in Stockbridge at 6:51 p.m.
[…] Within Thurman’s first hours at the hospital, which says it is staffed at all hours with an OB who specializes in hospital care, it should have been clear that she was in danger […]
Her lower abdomen was tender, according to the summary. Her white blood cell count was critically high and her blood pressure perilously low — at one point, as Thurman got up to go to the bathroom, she fainted again and hit her head. Doctors noted a foul odor during a pelvic exam, and an ultrasound showed possible tissue in her uterus.
The standard treatment of sepsis is to start antibiotics and immediately seek and remove the source of the infection. For a septic abortion, that would include removing any remaining tissue from the uterus. One of the hospital network’s own practices describes a D&C as a “fairly common, minor surgical procedure” to be used after a miscarriage to remove fetal tissue.
After assessing her at 9:38 p.m., doctors started Thurman on antibiotics and an IV drip, the summary said. The OB-GYN noted the possibility of doing a D&C the next day.
But that didn’t happen the following morning, even when an OB diagnosed “acute severe sepsis.” By 5:14 a.m., Thurman was breathing rapidly and at risk of bleeding out, according to her vital signs. Even five liters of IV fluid had not moved her blood pressure out of the danger zone. Doctors escalated the antibiotics.
Instead of performing the newly criminalized procedure, they continued to gather information and dispense medicine, the summary shows.
[…] At 6:45 a.m., Thurman’s blood pressure continued to dip, and she was taken to the intensive care unit.
At 7:14 a.m., doctors discussed initiating a D&C. But it still didn’t happen. Two hours later, lab work indicated her organs were failing, according to experts who read her vital signs.
At 12:05 p.m., more than 17 hours after Thurman had arrived, a doctor who specializes in intensive care notified the OB-GYN that her condition was deteriorating.
Thurman was finally taken to an operating room at 2 p.m.
By then, the situation was so dire that doctors started with open abdominal surgery. They found that her bowel needed to be removed, but it was too risky to operate because not enough blood was flowing to the area — a possible complication from the blood pressure medication, an expert explained to ProPublica. The OB performed the D&C but immediately continued with a hysterectomy.
During surgery, Thurman’s heart stopped.
[…] There is a “good chance” providing a D&C earlier could have prevented Amber Thurman’s death, the maternal mortality review committee concluded.
[…] After reviewing Thurman’s case, the committee highlighted Piedmont’s “lack of policies/procedures in place to evacuate uterus immediately” and recommended all hospitals implement policies “to treat a septic abortion on an ongoing basis.”
[…] Piedmont did not have a policy to guide doctors on how to interpret the state abortion ban when Thurman arrived for care, […]
In interviews with more than three dozen OB-GYNs in states that outlawed abortion, ProPublica learned how difficult it is to interpret the vague and conflicting language in bans’ medical exceptions — especially, the doctors said, when their judgment could be called into question under the threat of prison time.
[…] There is also an exception, included in most bans, to allow abortions “necessary in order to prevent the death of the pregnant woman or the substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function.” There is no standard protocol for how providers should interpret such language, doctors said. How can they be sure a jury with no medical experience would agree that intervening was “necessary”?
[…] Republican officials across the country have largely rejected calls to provide guidance.
When legislators have tried, anti-abortion groups have blocked them.
[…] The state’s main anti-abortion lobbyist, Will Brewer, vigorously opposed the change. Some pregnancy complications “work themselves out,” he told a panel of lawmakers. Doctors should be required to “pause and wait this out and see how it goes.”
[…] When they do try to provide care, it can be a challenge to find other medical staff to participate. A D&C requires an anesthesiologist, nurses, attending physicians and others. Doctors said peers have refused to participate because of their personal views or their fear of being exposed to criminal charges. Georgia law allows medical staff to refuse to participate in abortions.
Thurman’s family members may never learn the exact variables that went into doctors’ calculations. The hospital has not fulfilled their request for her full medical record. There was no autopsy.
For years, all Thurman’s family had was a death certificate that said she died of “septic shock” and “retained products of conception” […] The family learned Thurman’s case had been reviewed and deemed preventable from ProPublica’s reporting.
The sting of Thurman’s death remains extremely raw to her loved ones, who feel her absence most deeply as they watch her son grow taller and lose teeth and start school years without her.
They focus on surrounding him with love but know nothing can replace his mother.
Re: CompulsoryAccount7746 139
That’s timely. I was considering trying for something in washes around Tucson. Near the Tucson mountains where the magma from the old caldera surfaced. Maybe I should check around quartz if I see any.
In an amazing display of racism and ignorance, Portage County, Ohio Sheriff Bruce D. Zuchowski, on his Facebook page, instructed county residents to write down the address of anyone displaying a Harris yard sign so they know who to target if she wins.
Here is what the local paper The Portager quoted him as saying (complete with a picture of the facebook page in question):
When people ask me…What’s gonna happen if the Flip – Flopping, Laughing Hyena Wins?? I say…write down all the addresses of the people who had her signs in their yards! Sooo…when the Illegal human “Locust” (which she supports!) Need places to live…We’ll already have the addresses of the their New families…who supported their arrival!
Correct me if I am wrong, but isn’t this precisely the type of voter intimidation that the so-called KKK Law was designed to prosecute? And can’t residents file a Civil lawsuit for violation of their civil rights?
The Democratic Party just hired a stable of the finest election law lawyers in the country. Shouldn’t we make an example of this guy — just like Republicans do with their Eye of Sauron search for sources of imagined grievance, only here we are talking about actual civil rights violations?
Trump’s game is to make The Commons safe again for racists and white supremacists, which is what is happening here. Making a national case out of these types of civil rights violations, by the head of law enforcement in a county nonetheless, seems to me to be essential if we are to push these people back under their rock instead of feeling empowered to be openly terrorizing voters.
First, DT says he does not care about Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Harris. Then he writes “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT”. Both statements cannot be true. I think there is an english word for a deliberately non-true statement.
whheydtsays
Re: birgerjohansson @ #189…
Actually…both statements can be true. There are forms of popular entertainment that I dislike enough to say that I hate them. At the same time, I am completely indifferent to who the practitioners may or may not endorse for political office.
Of course, it’s also possible that I’m more nuanced in my opinions than Trump is.
People have started catching a new Covid variant that could soon take off and become the dominant type, according to scientists.
Identified in Germany, in June, cases of the XEC variant have since emerged in the UK, US, Denmark and several other countries, say users on X, formerly known as Twitter.
It has some new mutations that might help it spread this autumn, although vaccines should still help prevent severe cases, experts say…
birgerjohanssonsays
whheydt @ 190
“Of course, it’s also possible that I’m more nuanced in my opinions than Trump is.”
A+ 🙂
A very timid black leopard. A typical cat reaction to unknown people turning up.
“The reaction of the panther Luna 😅😁”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=zWcCrHE-
Routh ‘did not fire’ at Trump or Secret Service
published at 21:37 British Summer Time 21:37 BST
We’re now hearing from acting Secret Service director Ron Rowe, who says the incident occurred while Trump was playing golf during an off-the-record movement.
Trump was moving “across the course and out of sight of the sixth green”, at which point an agent who was “visually sweeping the area… saw the subject armed with what he perceived to be a rifle, and immediately discharged his firearm”, Rowe says.
“The subject who did not have line of sight to the former president, fled the scene. He did not fire or get off any shots at our agent with reports of gunfire.”
…
birgerjohanssonsays
Jon Stewart condemns Trump for loving Laura Loomer and hating Taylor Swift
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=hizIYmezyuM
We have found a person more reprehensible and revolting than Donald (which is perfect for diverting attention from him).
What would you think if an author told you they would have written a book, but they wouldn’t bother because it would be available to be borrowed for free from a library? You’d probably think they were delusional. Yet that argument has now carried the day in putting a knife into the back of the extremely useful Open Library from the Internet Archive.
The Second Circuit has upheld the lower court ruling and found that the Internet Archive’s Open Library is not fair use and therefore infringes on the copyright of publishers (we had filed an amicus brief in support of the Archive asking them to remember the fundamental purpose of copyright law and the First Amendment, which the Court ignored)…
A Kentucky lawmaker was critically injured when the lawn mower he was riding plunged into an empty swimming pool at his home, authorities said Monday.
State Sen. Johnnie Turner, a Republican from Harlan, was in critical but stable condition at the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville, said Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers.
Turner was injured when he drove his mower into the deep end of the pool, Kentucky State Police said. Authorities received the 911 call shortly before 8 p.m. Sunday. State police had no details about what caused the accident…
The Dow Jones Industrial Average set a record after a quiet Monday of trading, as Wall Street geared up for the most anticipated meeting of the Federal Reserve in years.
The Dow rose 228 points, or 0.6%, to surpass its prior all-time high set a few weeks ago. The S&P 500 index, which is much more comprehensive and widely followed on Wall Street, ticked up by 0.1% to climb within 0.6% of its own record set in July.
The Nasdaq composite slipped 0.5% as big technology stocks and other market superstars gave back a bit of their big gains from recent years…
On Sunday, before the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire celebrated the prospect of political violence against Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Anyone who murders Kamala Harris would be an American hero,” the party wrote on X, before receiving swift backlash and deleting the post. Later that day, the party published a follow-up, announcing that it “deleted a tweet because we don’t want to break the terms of this website we agreed to” and claiming that libertarians are “the most oppressed minority.”
On Tuesday, the account released a lengthier additional follow-up, insisting that the original tweet did not call for Harris’s assassination but “merely acknowledg[ed] how some members would react to one.”
But the newest post somehow made things worse, referring to historical instances of violence that were supposedly “necessary to advance or protect freedom,” including the assassination of “past tyrants like Abraham Lincoln.” Further, it stated that “it’s good when authoritarians” (that is, “progressives, socialists, and democrats”) are made to “feel unsafe or uncomfortable,” which the account’s provocative posts “are frequently explicitly intended” to do.
On Sunday, Libertarian Party presidential candidate Chase Oliver condemned the post as “abhorrent.” The Libertarian Party of New Hampshire replied by calling him a homophobic slur.
On X, New York Times opinion writer and libertarian Jane Coaston criticized the provocative state party as repellent and noxious to its purported cause: “Like if the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire were a CIA plot to destroy the Libertarian Party writ large what would they be doing differently.”
Ohio’s Republican attorney general was called out Monday by CNN for his handling of the false and racist rumor that Haitian immigrants are capturing and eating cats, dogs, ducks, and geese. And he didn’t handle it well.
CNN’s Brianna Keilar asked Dave Yost about his role in repeating and advancing the false story, noting that the mayor of Springfield, the town at the center of the rumors, debunked the story last week.
“Do you think the mayor is lying?” Keilar asked.
Yost didn’t address the question, instead defending his own social media posts and saying they’ve been about “real impacts” on Springfield, insisting that “my tweet was about the media’s disregard for citizen reports, citizen interaction with their government.”
Keilar pushed the Ohio attorney general about those reports, which Yost said were about “several videotaped comments that were made by citizens regarding a variety of things going on in Springfield.” While Yost admitted that these comments were not enough “to make a case,” he then tried to say that too many of Springfield’s children in schools didn’t speak English…
[…] On Sunday, Trump took to his Truth Social platform to issue an all caps declaration: “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!”
However, all the way back in the Before Times of 2015 — when Swift was just a regular pop star rather than a billion dollar enterprise and Trump was just beginning his first presidential campaign — things were very different. In November of that year, your humble TPM correspondent was working for Yahoo News and I landed a lengthy interview with Trump at his Manhattan campaign headquarters. At that time, Trump was willing and eager to hold forth on pretty much anything and, I closed the conversation with something of a game where I had Trump do word association with various political figures and celebrities.
His one word for Taylor Swift? “Terrific.”
So, what sent Trump from admiration of Swift to the Tortured Poster’s Department? In an email to TPM on Monday, the Trump campaign Senior Communications Director Steven Cheung offered a simple explanation for Trump’s change of heart when it comes to Swift.
“Because she’s now endorsing a candidate in Kamala Harris who is hell-bent on destroying this country and weaponizing the justice system to go after her political opponent, President Trump,” Cheung said.
Swift, who backed President Joe Biden over Trump in the 2020 election, announced her endorsement of Trump’s rival in the current race, Vice President Kamala Harris, following the pair’s debate earlier this month. In the Instagram post where she revealed her decision, Swift, who has supported a variety of liberal causes, cited Harris’ support for abortion and LGBT rights.
[…] when it comes to Taylor Swift, it seems safe to say that she and Trump are never, ever, ever getting back together.
For over a month, the former president and his family have been pumping up a secretive family crypto project, promising that it will do many things at once.
More than two hours into […] Trump’s “state of crypto” event on X Monday night, the team behind the Trump family’s new crypto project finally unveiled a key detail: Who can buy the forthcoming tokens it plans to release, and how shares of the project will be allotted.
For over a month, the former president and his family have been pumping up a project called World Liberty Financial, promising that it will do many things at once.
Lofty descriptions from those involved Monday night suggest that “World Liberty Financial” will be a sort of crypto banking platform, where the general public would be encouraged to borrow, lend and invest in crypto.
There will also be an accompanying token called WLFI, founders said Monday.
According to founder Zak Folkman, the equity structure for these tokens will be: 20% of the project’s tokens allotted to the founding team, which includes the Trumps, 17% of tokens set aside for user rewards, and the remaining 63% of the coins to be made available for the public to purchase.
There will be no pre-sales or early buy-ins, Folkman said.
An earlier leaked draft of an internal project outline had the founders’ share at 70%, sparking concerns that the project would be little more than a get-rich-quick scheme.
The token will be a Reg D token offering, which follows the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Regulation D — a provision that makes it possible for a company to raise capital without first registering their securities with the commission so long as certain conditions are met.
These were themes Trump covered in a conversation early in the more than two-hour call, talking about the perceived hostility of the Securities and Exchange Commission towards the digital currency industry.
[…] Over the course of Trump’s 40-minute fireside chat, he talked about how he “wasn’t overly interested” in crypto initially. But that changed, he said, when sales of his Trump trademarked nonfungible token collections were paid for with crypto. “I think my children opened my eyes more than anything else.”
[…]Steve Witkoff is a longtime friend of Trump’s. He’s also part of the small group of World Liberty Financial founders, according to an internal report on the project obtained by CoinDesk.
Witkoff was seated to Trump’s right during Monday night’s spaces, and described how he brought the Trump family together two crypto entrepreneurs.
“My son introduced me to two partners, Chase Herro and Zak Folkman, who are exceptionally bright people …These guys are as smart as any currency traders I’ve ever met. And they began talking to me about decentralized finance, which means frictionless finance, and why it made sense for people and about the forgotten, who can’t get credit out there,” he said.
“As I began to understand that, I said, ‘Who would understand this better than this than the Trump family?’ And we had a meeting initially with Eric, Don Jr, and the president and his counsel. And we said, Let’s go pursue it. We’ve been on it for close to nine months,” said Witkoff.
Along with Trump, Witkoff is one of at least a half dozen members of the project’s “leadership team.”
[…] Alongside Trump and Witkoff, founders include Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and Barron Trump, as well as Witkoff’s son, Zach Witkoff, according to a person briefed by a member of the group’s founding team.
A copy of an early internal report, known as a white paper and obtained by CoinDesk, listed Barron as “Chief DeFi Visionary,” Eric and Donald Jr. as “Web3 Ambassadors,” and Trump Sr. as “Chief Crypto Advocate.”
But while the Trumps will receive compensation from the project, Bloomberg reports that the platform itself is “not owned, managed, operated or sold” by members of the Trump family.
Witkoff, a real estate investor, and Eric Trump, executive vice president of the Trump Organization, are the two people calling the shots at World Liberty Financial, according to a person familiar with the project. Both are new to the crypto industry.
[…] Anyone who wanted material details of the platform, including the white paper, was being asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement, according to a person familiar with the project
Some visible members of the crypto industry newly cozied up to Trump in 2024, lending their cash and endorsement to the Republican presidential nominee, as he adopted increasingly bullish talking points on the campaign trail, which culminated in Trump delivering a keynote address at the biggest bitcoin event of the year in Nashville in July.
Some of those supporters however, say they are concerned that this foray into crypto could jeopardize Trump’s rapport with the sector more broadly if the launch doesn’t go as planned.
A person familiar with the project says that Donald Trump, Sr. isn’t that involved in the platform thus far.
[…] Trump appeared Monday night in an X Spaces conversation, which was advertised as a “state of crypto address” for the project’s launch.
The conversation featured crypto investor Farokh Sarmad, who interviewed Trump, his sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr., and other business allies on the new business and the broader crypto industry at the former president’s Palm Beach resort Mar-a-Lago.
“If we don’t do it, China is going to do it,” Trump said of crypto development in the United States. “China’s going to do it anyway. But if we don’t do it, we’re not going to be the biggest, and we have to be the biggest and the best.”
“We want to have a great country; we want to stay at the top. We’re making things now, we’re starting and it started under my administration that there was no chance of ever even getting involved in for a long time, we’re leading the pack in so many ways,” Trump added, touting his administration’s creation of the Space Force
.
Describing crypto as a “fledging business,” Trump said it is also a “massive business” and “has the chance to really be something special.”
Trump did not offer many specific details about the project and did not address crypto until 16 minutes into Monday night’s conversation when he discussed his three sons – Eric, Barron and Donald Trump Jr. – and their experience in the industry.
“Barron knows so much about this,” Trump said of his 18-year-old son. “He talks about his wallet. He’s got four wallets or something, but he knows this stuff.”
[…] After once dismissing crypto as a “scam,” Trump is now vowing to make the United States the “crypto capital of the planet” if reelected in November. He made the pledge during a Bitcoin conference in July when he announced a series of crypto proposals.
When asked why he believes America is not already the capital of crypto, Trump took aim at what he described as a “very hostile” Securities and Exchange Commission and the Biden-Harris administration.
“They’ve been very hostile toward crypto, toward all of it, and extremely hostile like nobody can believe,” Trump said Monday. “Nobody even understands why. My attitude is different.”
The crypto industry has expressed increasing frustration with the approach the Biden administration and SEC Chair Gary Gensler have taken towards crypto enforcement.
The Biden administration has taken a cautious approach to cryptocurrency during a period in which the sector has largely been defined by high-profile scandals that have hurt investors. […]
I’m sure Trump still thinks that crypto is a scam but now that he can be in on it, i.e. be the scammer and not the scammed one, it is the best thing ever.
Chase Herro has sold a lot of things in his career. Weed. Weight-loss “colon cleanses.” A $149-a-month get-rich-quick class. Now he’s adding another line to his resume: the Trump family’s crypto guru.
Herro is the dealmaker behind World Liberty Financial, the crypto project that Donald Trump and his two older sons have been promoting on social media in recent weeks, according to two people involved with the project. Herro’s long-time business partner Zachary Folkman is also playing a key role. […]
Herro, a fast-talking 39-year-old who shows off his fancy cars and private-jet rides on social media, is an unknown in the crypto world. More than a dozen prominent digital-asset investors said in interviews they had never heard of him. The only crypto project with which he was publicly affiliated attracted only a few million dollars and suffered a devastating hack. A token he promoted on influencer Logan Paul’s podcast dropped 96% afterward. In one speech in 2018, he called himself “the dirtbag of the internet” and said that regulators should “kick s—heads like me out.”
“You can literally sell s— in a can, wrapped in piss, covered in human skin, for a billion dollars if the story’s right, because people will buy it,” Herro said about crypto in a 2018 YouTube video recorded as he drove in a Rolls-Royce. “I’m not going to question the right and wrong of all that.”
Bloomberg News sent detailed questions to a World Liberty email address. “We all see the picture you’re trying to paint here and consider it at best grossly inaccurate,” a man named Jim Redner replied. “We’re confident that our results will speak for themselves.” Redner said he was not a spokesperson for the company and was “just answering emails.” Herro, Folkman and the Trump presidential campaign didn’t respond to messages seeking comment.
Herro was introduced to the Trumps by Steve Witkoff, a real-estate developer and longtime supporter of the former president, after first meeting one of Witkoff’s sons, according to one of the people involved with the project.
[…] At the same time, Trump’s sons were getting curious about the industry. At the Nashville conference, Donald Trump Jr. appeared at an event sponsored by a little-known token called “Make America Great Again, Again,” though he said he had no affiliation with the project. And in June, Martin Shkreli, the former hedge-fund manager who served years in prison for securities fraud, said that he’d been talking with Barron Trump about starting another Trump cryptocurrency. Shkreli declined to comment.
[…] The two people involved with World Liberty insisted that Herro is a billionaire with a track record of crypto success. But Dough Finance only attracted $3.2 million in total activity, a tiny amount for the crypto industry, according to data provider DefiLlama. In July, it was hacked for about $2 million and it appears to be inactive now. An email to Dough Finance seeking comment was not returned.
[…] While the World Liberty plan might sound innovative to someone unfamiliar with crypto, startups like this are common, and few succeed. Many of them are only created in order to sell tokens and make money, said Tarun Chitra, general partner at Robot Ventures, which in August raised a $75 million fund to invest in new crypto projects.
“This just feels like a fly-by-night, trying to make a quick buck, kind of thing,” Chitra said of World Liberty. “It really doesn’t seem earnest to me.”
Herro’s involvement isn’t the only red flag when it comes to World Liberty. The white paper lists 18-year-old Barron Trump – a college freshman with no known crypto expertise — as “chief DeFi visionary.” A JPMorgan Chase banker listed as an adviser to the project, Brian Baker, refused to say whether that description was accurate.
Herro is described in the white paper as the person responsible for “data & strategies.” His friend Folkman is listed as “operations lead.” Folkman used to run a service called Date Hotter Girls where he taught seminars about how to pick up women. “OK, how many guys came here to learn how to take girls home and bang them?” Folkman said in a speech in 2014. The trademark for World Liberty is registered to a company using the same address in Puerto Rico as another company run by Herro and Folkman.
Herro likes to tell the story of how he spent time in prison for dealing marijuana when he was a young man before getting rich through internet marketing in the early days of social media. He was involved in what’s known as “affiliate marketing,” in which middlemen buy ad space on social networks and use it to sell products for other companies, which pay a bounty.
[…] Herro said in his videos that the online advertising business became more challenging once competition emerged. In recent years, he and Folkman have pivoted to crypto, running a membership group called the Watchers that claimed to teach people the secrets of crypto trading and making money online. The group had more than 250 members who paid at least $149 a month, according to two people formerly involved with the group. Some paid tens of thousands of dollars for personalized coaching. Herro also appeared at other paid seminars with Jordan Belfort, whose penny-stock scams inspired the movie The Wolf of Wall Street.
“If you do this right, who f—ing cares if it goes to zero?” Herro said in a YouTube video promoting the Watchers. “You’ll make so much money trading these f—ing coins in and out.”
[…] When Trump considers an endorsement deal, his main consideration is not whether the product is useful, but whether he’ll receive cash up front, according to Michael Cohen, who served as the former president’s personal lawyer for years before testifying against him at his fraud trial.
“Is there upfront money attached?” Cohen said in an interview. “If the economics of the deal are to his benefit, with zero risk, he’s all in.”
There’s more to this story, I’m sure. All of the sordid details about how the grift works, and how Trump is making money from it, will eventually come out. I wonder how long it will be before tales of failure and financial woe follow.
birgerjohanssonsays
Jimmy Kimmel:
Trump’s Taylor Swift Tantrum, UNFAIR Emmys RIGGED Against Jimmy & Guillermo Drinks With Emmy Winners
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=iVGeVgeMxhA
Yes Kimmel totally won, the Democrats rigged the Emmys!
birgerjohanssonsays
“Megyn Kelly’s Guest DROPS N-WORD While Defending Trump”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=lOHJl8tZ_YI
Is this even news? I mean, this is what I expect from Trump apologists.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
The first Haitian-American immigrant ever to become U.S. attorney has taken charge of the prosecution of Trump’s alleged assassin.
Little Girl Has Up-Close Encounter With Cheetah In Zoo
.https://youtube.com/shorts/J3AIIlMjLpY
Cheetahs can purr, but in a zoo setting they are probably only doing it when resting, without being distracted by an audience.
A probate court in Nevada is set to begin reviewing evidence behind closed doors in a case that could determine who will control Rupert Murdoch’s media empire after his death.
Rupert Murdoch created an irrevocable family trust that will pass control of his media empire to his 4 children after his death. The trust was likely setup for tax avoidance. Now he wants to amend the terms of the trust to give control to his eldest son. The other children oppose this and the trust can be altered only under specific conditions if they don’t agree. He will have to argue in court that control should be given exclusively to his eldest son so that the company can maintain it’s conservative point of view, that this has to be done to maintain the value of the company and he only has the financial interests of his kids in mind. The first and second points may be true and at least can be argued. The third should get him laughed out of court but he has very expensive lawyers and can maintain a straight face while lying.
There’s going to be a news doco – Dateline SBS on this broadcast in SouthOz in about half an hours time approx. (9.30 pm, SA time, SBS, c3) Riding ‘the beast’: Migrants board Mexico freight train to reach US To think some utter fools think Trump’s hateful failure of a wall will stop these people?
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
– Emma lazarus The New Colossus famously attached to the bottom of the statute named Liberty Enlightening the World a.k.a. Statute of Liberty.
The ideals of the USA, the dream, the desperation, the cost to so many, the journey, the reality..
Now imagine when Global Overheating starts really kicking in..
Bekenstein Boundsays
whheydt@190:
Of course, it’s also possible that I’m more nuanced in my opinions than Trump is.
A rock is more nuanced in its opinions than Trump is.
Reginald Selkirk@200:
On Sunday, before the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire celebrated the prospect of political violence against Vice President Kamala Harris. … But the newest post somehow made things worse, referring to historical instances of violence that were supposedly “necessary to advance or protect freedom,” including the assassination of “past tyrants like Abraham Lincoln.”
Up is down, black is white, and the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire is pro-slavery.
Welcome to 2024.
Lynna@206:
Herro’s involvement isn’t the only red flag when it comes to World Liberty.
Clearly not. One other red flag, for instance, is “it involves cryptocurrency”. Under ordinary circumstances, that would be an enormous one, but in this particular instance there is an even bigger one: “it is a Trump business venture”.
Bekenstein Boundsays
How Community Feedback Shapes User Behavior
Justin Cheng∗, Cristian Danescu-Niculescu-Mizil†, Jure Leskovec∗
∗Stanford University, †Max Planck Institute SWS
The fact that both types of evaluations encourage users to post more frequently suggests that providing negative feedback to “bad” users might not be a good strategy for combating undesired behavior in a community. Given that users who receive no feedback post less frequently, a potentially effective strategy could be to ignore undesired behavior and provide no feedback at all.
So, all of that research just to end up reinventing the age-old advice: “Do not feed the trolls.”
Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff during the Trump administration, has lost his bid to move his 2020 election subversion case from Arizona to federal court due to a missed deadline, a judge ruled Monday.
U.S. District Judge John Tuchi said Meadows “failed to show good cause that might permit the court to excuse the untimeliness” after he missed the deadline to file his request…
(seems to be back, but rather intermittent and far from the original, and still-promised, frequency of “daily”)
Politics requires coalitions, and coalitions are brittle. Good politics is often a matter of fracturing an opposing coalition – and, better yet, breaking off parts of a rival coalition and adding them to your own.
…
Coalitional reconfigurations may seem obscure and esoteric, but if you care about how the world works, they’re the key to making change.
It seems there’s some potentially large such reconfigurations brewing in American politics now.
For starters, since the 70s the Republican coalition has been glued together from two disparate groups, with largely divergent interests: the superrich, who want low taxes and lax regulation of their business enterprises, and the far right, who want theocracy and/or ethnic cleansing of nonwhite people. They have little in the way of common interests — what made it possible to weld them together into a coalition was that they shared a common enemy, as Democrats post-Nixon have tended historically to champion both socially liberal positions (thus making them an enemy of the far right) and economically leftish ones (thus making them an enemy of the superrich).
That coalition is very clearly fracturing now, as the far right, having metastasized into the MAGA movement, has usurped the superrich as the party’s string-pullers and put people in charge who have misguided, but populist economic policy prescriptions that turn banksters white as a sheet (tariffs!) as well as threatening the rule of law (businessmen, by and large, prefer a predictable set of rules to the ever-shifting whims of successive generations of kings, unless they get to be the king of course).
But I think there’s a deeper insight to be taken here that is prompted by a paragraph from the article’s main topic of focus:
Time and again, “we’re stamping out cheating” has proven itself to be a reliable way to recruit gamers to fight against their own interests.
I think we can generalize this. A lot.
Time and again, “we’re stamping out cheating” has proven itself to be the only reliable way to recruit proletarians to fight against their own interests.
Think about it. What are the usual Republican appeals to the white working class?
“You work so hard every day for a pittance while that guy over there just sits on his lazy butt collecting welfare checks.”
“Where did all the quality jobs go? Mexicans crossed the border and stole them from you.”
“Your hard work won’t get you that promotion. Not when there are 20 African-Americans waiting to use affirmative action to jump the queue.”
And so on, and so forth. Lies, all of it, of course, the job woes are down to the mostly-white superrich and their greed and the “welfare bum” is probably disabled or between jobs rather than a work refusenik. But unfortunately effective lies, and moreover, all of them amount to pointing at some group or another and saying “cheater!” … so the Republican appeal to the white working class amounts to “we’re stamping out cheating”, by promising to make it harder to get welfare, by repealing affirmative action, by claiming to be tougher on immigration and, especially, on illegal immigration.
“We’re stamping out cheating!” should be recognized in all of its many guises and taken as a red flag: this is someone who is trying to pick your pocket in some way, while pointing at someone else and yelling “squirrel!”; and moreover, that someone is not above throwing whole groups of other people into the bus and facilitating the rise of fascism itself just to get their hand into your wallet. Show them the door.
GOP Rep. Byron Donalds tried to claim Monday that Democrats’ messaging against Project 2025, the controversial blueprint for a second Trump term penned by a consortium of conservative organizations, is somehow to blame for a pair of recent assassination attempts on the former president.
On Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle, the Florida congressman framed the issue as Democrats inciting violence by merely campaigning against Trump’s right-wing agenda—a narrative that others have taken up since Sunday…
Conservative commentator Scott Jennings faced sharp criticism for his arguments during a heated CNN panel discussion about the role of political rhetoric in the assassination attempts on Donald Trump.
Jennings, a CNN contributor, has been arguing that intense rhetoric from Democrats, not those on both sides of the political divide, is to blame for the attempts on Trump’s life. He has slammed Democrats for portraying the former president as a threat to democracy. (Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election and has laid groundwork to also claim this year’s vote is rigged if he loses.)
On Monday, Jennings argued that messaging underpins Vice President Kamala Harris’ entire campaign.
“I mean, she repeats it herself. ‘Trump will be a dictator on Day 1,’” said Jennings, a former adviser to President George W. Bush. “I mean, this country fights dictators!”
“Didn’t he say that, though?” interrupted a fellow panelist, historian Tim Naftali.
“Those were his words!” noted Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen.
Jennings went on to suggest that Harris had said things like “he’ll be a dictator” and “there’ll be a bloodbath.”
Trump said in December that he planned to act like a dictator on “Day 1” of a potential second administration. Harris has told people about that claim during public appearances…
So, he thinks that using Trump’s actual words is unfair.
Meanwhile, Trump continues to use overblown rhetoric on a daily basis, including calling Harris aa communist.
The Ohio Supreme Court let stand late Monday ballot language that will describe this fall’s Issue 1 as requiring gerrymandering, when the proposal is intended to do the opposite.
In a 4-3 ruling, the high court ordered two of eight disputed sections of the ballot description rewritten, while upholding the other six the issue’s backers had contested. The court’s three Democratic justices dissented. The ballot language was approved by the Republican-controlled Ohio Ballot Board.
Citizens Not Politicians, the group behind the Nov. 5 amendment, brought the lawsuit last month, asserting the language “may be the most biased, inaccurate, deceptive, and unconstitutional” the state has ever seen.
The bipartisan coalition’s proposal calls for replacing Ohio’s troubled political map-making system with a 15-member, citizen-led commission of Republicans, Democrats and independents. The proposal emerged after seven different versions of congressional and legislative maps created after the 2020 Census were declared unconstitutionally gerrymandered to favor Republicans…
For most people, an extinct species is an abstraction, a set of bones they might have seen on display in a museum. For Gennady Boeskorov, they are things he has interacted with directly, studying their fur, their skin, their internal organs—experiencing these animals much as they existed thousands of years ago. Some of the well-preserved Pleistocene animals he has worked with include the mummified remains of woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius), an extinct form of rabbit (Lepus tanaiticus), and cave lion cubs (Panthera spelaea).
His latest paper also makes it clear that woolly rhinoceroses belong on this list. Boeskorov is a senior researcher at the Diamond and Precious Metals Geology Institute, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as a professor at the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk. This July, he and his colleagues described the relatively recent discovery of three woolly rhinoceros mummies, one of which is new to science, in a paper published in the journal Doklady Earth Sciences…
On Sunday, there was an apparent attempt on Donald Trump’s life. On Monday, as NBC News noted, the Republican’s political operation thought it’d be a good idea to tell the public that Vice President Kamala Harris and Democrats are a “party of violence.”
The [social media] posts are similar to ones made from the same account after the first attempted assassination in July, although those were posted days after that incident. One post today said, “Kamala Harris has consistently called President Trump a ‘dictator’ and ‘a threat to democracy.’ Make no mistake: it’s Kamala and the Democrats who are the party of violence.”
The obvious problem with such an argument is that the Democratic nominee has never endorsed political violence. Yes, Harris has referenced Trump’s “dictator” rhetoric, but she was only quoting him, which I’m pretty sure is still allowed. And yes, Harris has also pointed to the GOP nominee as a threat to democracy, but that’s only because he keeps taking overt steps to threaten democracy.
But the less obvious problem matters, too — because if the folks on Team Trump really want to have a debate over which party deserves to be seen as the “party of violence,” they might be disappointed by where this conversation ends up.
Let’s take a stroll down memory lane.
In Trump’s first year in office, Sarah Huckabee Sanders insisted that he had never “promoted or encouraged violence.” Even at the time, it was a difficult line to take seriously.
A Washington Post analysis noted soon after that the claim was “laughable,” adding: “Even if you don’t believe Trump has technically incited violence (which he has been sued for), he clearly nodded toward violence at his campaign rallies. Sometimes it was veiled; other times it was unmistakable. Sometimes he was talking about self-defense, but it was clear he was advocating for a ‘form of violence.’”
Even Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas explained in 2016 that Trump had “a consistent pattern of inciting violence.”
But after Trump’s 2020 defeat, the problem took a turn for the worse. Indeed, after summoning his followers on Jan. 6, the outgoing president didn’t just lie to his supporters about the election results, he also told his mob, “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” An insurrectionist riot soon followed.
As the former president’s legal troubles intensified last year, so too did his rhetoric about potential violence. In February 2023, for example, the Republican promoted an online message from a supporter who threatened to “physically fight” for Trump. The same missive concluded with a “locked and loaded” warning.
A month later, Trump publicly derided calls for “peace,” while suggesting that his indictment would raise the prospect of “death [and] destruction” that “could be catastrophic for our Country.”
The same week, an NBC News reporter asked the former president whether he believed political violence would be “justifiable.” Trump responded, “Well, I will say this. No, I don’t like violence, and I’m not for violence at all. But a lot of people are upset, and you know, they rigged an election, they stole an election, they spied on my campaign. They did many bad things.”
As a rule, when someone says, “I’m not for violence at all, but…” there’s a rather obvious problem. As part of an analysis of his incendiary rhetoric, a Washington Post report added, “There is now no denying that such language, even if you somehow regard Trump’s intentions as innocent, can lead to a very dark place.”
This year has offered more of the same. In April, for example, Trump said in an interview with Time magazine that he doesn’t think there will be political violence around the 2024 election because he believes he’ll win — but that it “always depends on the fairness of an election.”
Asked specifically about the possibility of post-election violence, the Republican told Time, “[I]f we don’t win, you know, it depends. It always depends on the fairness of an election.”
Or put another way, if Trump, driven by his ridiculous and evidence-free assumptions, decides that he doesn’t believe the election was “fair,” he’s not prepared to rule out the possibility of political violence.
More recently, the GOP candidate decided to make jokes about a violent attack against Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi’s husband.
It’s against this backdrop that the Trump campaign seriously expects people to believe that Democrats are the “party of violence,” which is among the most ridiculous claims Team Trump has ever made.
Ohio state police will help protect schools in a city at the center of a political furor over Haitian migrants, the governor announced Monday, while local officials canceled an annual celebration of cultural diversity in the fallout over […] Trump’s false claims about pet-eating.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, has denounced the debunked rumors that spread online before Trump amplified them at last week’s presidential debate, saying there is no evidence of it. He said at a news conference in Springfield on Monday that dozens of members of the Ohio State Highway Patrol will be stationed in city schools starting Tuesday following a series of threats across the city, sweeping each building every morning before the arrival of faculty or students. Security cameras have also been stationed at strategic spots in the city, and a bomb-sniffing dog will be in the city and available round-the-clock.
[…] Springfield City Hall, several schools, and state motor vehicle offices in Springfield were forced to evacuate last week after receiving bomb threats. At least 33 separate bomb threats were made in recent days, all of them hoaxes, DeWine said. He said some of the threats came from overseas, but declined to name the country.
“The people who are doing this are doing this to sow discord in our community,” said Andy Wilson, director of the Ohio Department of Public Safety. “We just can’t let them do that. We can’t let them do that. We have to keep providing the services that the citizens of Springfield and Clark County expect.”
Springfield has been the focus of intense attention in recent days after Trump, his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, and the Republican presidential campaign repeated false claims about Haitian immigrants eating domestic pets and waterfowl.
President Joe Biden, appearing in Philadelphia at the National HBCU Week Conference on Monday, addressed the situation in Springfield, condemning what he called the “lies and hate.”
“It’s wrong. It’s simply wrong. And it must stop,” he said.
Springfield canceled its annual celebration of diversity, arts, and culture in response to the threats. […] “We deeply regret having to cancel CultureFest, as we know it is a beloved event for our community,” City Manager Bryan Heck said in a statement. “However, the safety of our residents and visitors must come first.”
Two colleges in Springfield held classes virtually on Monday. Wittenberg University said it received two threats over the weekend, “both of which were targeted toward members of the Haitian Community.” Clark State College said it would operate virtually through Friday “due to recent events in Springfield.”
[…] Thousands of Haitian immigrants have settled in recent years in the predominantly white, blue-collar city of about 60,000, about 45 miles (70 kilometers) from the state capital of Columbus, where they have found work in factories and warehouses that had been struggling to fill job openings. The sudden influx has strained schools, health care facilities, and city services and driven up the cost of housing.
DeWine acknowledged that Springfield has challenges but said that it’s a “city that frankly, is on the move. […]
He declined to criticize Trump, saying the Biden administration’s record on immigration is a legitimate topic for debate. But he pointed out that the Haitians in Springfield are there legally under a federal program that allows them to remain in the country temporarily because conditions in Haiti are considered unsafe for them to return.
“The companies hire them because they needed the help and they needed the support,” DeWine said. “These are people who care about their families. These are people who value education. They are hard workers. And I think we should we should respect that.”
He added: “These … people who are spreading the hate need to move on. They need to go away. They need to stop it.”
How Trump is benefiting from the limits of our memory.
One of the most oft-quoted sentences ever penned by a philosopher is George Santayana’s observation that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” In 2024, this aphorism is practically a campaign slogan. Donald Trump, seeking to become the first former president since Grover Cleveland to return to the White House after being voted out of the job, has waged war on remembrance. In fact, he’s depending on tens of millions of voters forgetting the recent past. This election is an experiment in how powerful a memory hole can be.
In March, Trump posted this all-caps question: “ARE YOU BETTER OFF THAN YOU WERE FOUR YEARS AGO?” A realistic answer for most would be, hell yeah. Four years prior, the Covid pandemic was raging, the economy was cratering, deaths were mounting, and anxiety was at a fever pitch. Trump responded erratically, downplaying the threat, pushing conspiracy theories, and undermining scientific officials and public health recommendations. (Bleach!) In the final year of his presidency, more than 450,000 Americans died of Covid; a Lancet study concluded that 40 percent of those deaths could have been averted had Trump handled the crisis responsibly.
Yet his question—a rip-off of a line used by Ronald Reagan in 1980—assumed many voters would not recall the horror of 2020; he was encouraging them to focus on the sentiments (and high prices) of now, not the mortal dread of then. And to regain the White House, Trump needs to cover not just the pandemic but a lot else with the mists of time, including his attempt to overturn an election and his incitement of January 6’s insurrectionist attack, a trade war with China that cost the US hundreds of thousands of jobs and hundreds of billions of dollars in GDP, his love affairs with dictators like Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin, his broken vows to boost infrastructure and to replace the Affordable Care Act with a better and cheaper program, his two impeachments, and nine years of chaos, scandals, and mean-spirited, racist, and ignorant remarks.
That’s a lot of forgetting to rely upon, and the fact that Trump still has a good shot at victory is a sign that he can successfully stuff much of this history into the mental recesses of the electorate. Fortunately for him, the nature of human memory plays to Trump’s favor—even, perhaps especially, when it comes to a pandemic.
Historians have long observed how quickly the so-called Spanish flu of 1918, which killed 50 million worldwide and nearly 700,000 in the United States, vanished from public conversation. As George Dehner, an environmental historian at Wichita State University, observed in his book Influenza: A Century of Science and Public Health Response, “the most notable historical aspect of Spanish flu is how little it was discussed,” resulting in “a curious, public silence.”
[…] In August, Weill Cornell Medical College psychiatrists George Makari and Richard Friedman argued in the New England Journal of Medicine that a “collective inability among many people in the United States to remember and mourn what was endured during the pandemic” could help explain why, in early 2024, half of Americans told pollsters they were no better off than they had been “at the height of the deadliest epidemic in the country’s history.” They likened the finding to classic studies by German social psychiatrists that explored how many post–World War II Germans “had seemingly lost the ability to acknowledge the atrocities.” Makari points out that chronic trauma and stress can inhibit memory […] “psychologically this loss of memory is compounded by defenses against helplessness. […]
[…] “You might think that normally if you don’t mention something, it slowly fades,” he says. “It’s much more dynamic than that.” Talking about other parts of the story actively leads people to forget what is not discussed. So when Trump brags about how wonderful his presidency was and, of course, doesn’t mention the horrors of Covid or the violence at the Capitol, memories of these events become suppressed—but only, Hirst adds, for “in-group members” who see Trump as a legitimate conveyor of information.
[…] When Trump falsely says no one was killed during the January 6 riot—which he doesn’t call a riot—and calls the marauders victims and patriots, this shapes the memories of his supporters […] “the negative part—the breaking-in, the broken windows, the violence—becomes less accessible. And once you suppress the memory image of people breaking in, it’s easier to impose the false memory of protesters having been invited in. […]
“Nearly everything about the Covid-19 pandemic is contested: its origins, what could have been done to stop its spread, how politics affected various outcomes, the performance of public health sentries, vaccine science, and the appropriate balance between personal liberties and public health demands. Debates about these issues are often marked by misinformation, tribal allegiances, and rage.” […]
Trump is in a unique position for a non-incumbent presidential candidate. He has a record as the nation’s chief executive. And to win, he needs to shape how millions of voters remember that time. […]
Dehner wonders if accurate memories might end up prevailing in this election, […] As an academic, I’m curious about how this all will turn out; as a citizen, I’m quite disturbed.”
A new study argues the long-run benefits outweigh the costs nearly 10 to 1.
In 2021, the US cut child poverty by as much as 40 percent using one of the most effective anti-poverty tools the country had ever devised: the expanded child tax credit (CTC).
By sending unconditional monthly checks of up to $300 per child to the nation’s poorest families — including those with little to no income who had typically been excluded from such programs — the “child allowance” lifted 2.1 million children out of poverty who would’ve otherwise been left behind.
Arguments against such programs that give unconditional cash usually assert that it’ll drive low-income people to quit their jobs, ultimately harming the economy. But research found little to no drop in employment rates as a result of the expanded CTC. Yet despite a flurry of support from prominent economists and recipients alike, politicians failed to reach an agreement to make the temporary expansion permanent, and Congress let it expire at the end of 2021. […]
[The} promise of a 10 to 1 return is, frankly, massive. For every $100 or so billion the child allowance would cost the government each year, society would reap additional long-term benefits of about $929 billion. Those dollars represent benefits like improved child and parent health and longevity, higher future earnings for children, and reduced crime and health care costs. There would be an effect from the small dip in employment that their calculations predict, and a resulting decrease in tax revenue — but it would amount to just $2.4 billion. That’s a drop in a bucket overflowing with almost a trillion dollars in benefits.
[…] Notably, though, it’s not a one-time deal. According to Ananat and Garfinkel, every year that the child allowance is in place will reap another $929 billion in long-term benefits. So if you take the Tax Foundation’s estimate that Harris’s child allowance would cost $1.6 trillion over 10 years, Ananat and Garfinkel’s work suggests over that same time period, it would accrue something like $9.3 trillion in long-term benefits.
[…] The child allowance is fully refundable, meaning the full value goes to the poorest families, without a work requirement. (The current CTC is only partially refundable, which means that parents must first earn income before qualifying for the benefit.) But Ananat and Garfinkel also crunched a second set of cost-benefit calculations on a partially refundable CTC, matching recent CTC compromises that boost the payment amount while keeping a work requirement of some sort.
They find that doing so would reduce the annual cost to $31 billion, while also reducing the total annual social benefit to $131 billion. That means that adding work requirements shrinks the program from a nearly 10 to 1 return on investment, to just over a 4 to 1 return. And those benefits would exclude children who are in the deepest poverty — the very ones who need such help the most.
[…] every year we don’t implement a child allowance is an absolutely massive missed opportunity. We’d experience as much as a 40 percent drop in child poverty immediately, and begin layering on trillions of dollars in long-run benefits.
[…] There is, of course, no perfect way to predict the future. Otherwise I’d have cashed out of the stock market with millions by now. But that’s where critics of a permanently expanded, fully refundable child tax credit are now situating their case. Advocates can either follow them into the future, arguing that long-run benefits will outweigh long-run costs. Or, they could instead focus on building the political momentum necessary to pass a policy that will always have its detractors, while unambiguously helping millions of kids in the present.
[…] Canada’s had a child allowance for years, and it doesn’t look to be hastening a grim and jobless future. A guaranteed huge drop in child poverty in the short term, plus the potential accrual of trillions of dollars in additional benefits, sounds like a worthwhile bet to me. […]
A dozen Democrats are urging the Biden administration to quickly approve new projects that can ship natural gas to Ukraine and other countries in Eastern Europe.
In a new letter sent Friday but announced late Monday afternoon, the lawmakers called for the Energy Department to “prioritize and expedite review of projects” that will supply Eastern Europe with gas.
“We believe that prioritizing and expediting review of LNG projects that will supply Ukraine and Eastern Europe will support geopolitical stability and advance the national security interests of the United States,” wrote the lawmakers.
The letter comes after a court ordered the Biden administration to resume approvals for new gas export projects.
The administration had previously paused this process in order to evaluate whether it adequately considers impacts, including climate, when it permits companies to ship gas abroad.
After the court order, the administration has approved some new gas exports.
But the letter highlights a split in the way that Democrats are thinking about gas exports. The 12 lawmakers who signed it appear to approve of gas exports, while climate hawks have raised environmental concerns about such shipments.
Prior to its invasion of Ukraine, Russia was a major source of gas used in Europe. After the invasion, Russia cut off much of that supply, and opponents of the invasion imposed sanctions on the fuel.
The letter was led by Rep. Marcy Kaptur (Ohio) and was also signed by Reps. Lou Correa (Calif.), Jim Costa (Calif.), Don Davis (N.C.), Chris Deluzio (Pa.), Sylvia Garcia (Texas), Vicente Gonzalez (Texas), Chrissy Houlahan (Pa.), Mary Peltola (Alaska), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Wash.), Marc Veasey (Texas) and Susan Wild (Pa.).
As WNBA Wraps Up Its Season, Women Won, And Bigots Lost
Damn, what a great summer.
The WNBA’s last weekend is over, and no team has more than two games left to play. Seven of eight playoff teams are fixed, as are five of the eight seeds. The Seattle Storm and the two-time defending champion Las Vegas Aces are battling to see who will have home court in their inevitable 4/5 matchup while three teams — including Angel Reese’s Chicago Sky — are still in contention for the final seed with 13 wins each. But the biggest winner is literally everybody as viewership is up, attendance is up, and the quality of play has been fantastic, with records of all kinds falling here, there and everywhere, and only the bigots losing. So let’s take a moment to look back on what has made this season so special for the WNBA and for women everywhere.
Barriers fell, attention skyrocketed
[…] there has been great speculation for many years that maybe, just maybe, women’s sports have been ready for prime time for years now, and that if the media coverage was there, the money would naturally follow.
The first hints came five years ago when the US went wild for the Women’s World Cup soccer tournament. Four years ago basketball got a spark when Sabrina Ionescu began to post accomplishments that no man had ever touched in what basketball calls “triple doubles.” This is where a single player in a single game gets 10 each of three different stats, usually points, rebounds, and assists. It got another boost in 2021 when the internet raged at the NCAA for the blatant sexism in the difference between how it treated its women basketball finalists and its men. The Sports Bra, a Portland sports bar featuring only women’s games on the telly, opened in 2022 and began franchising in 2024.
But while all those smaller things were necessary for the later explosion, none of them can compare with the impact of Caitlin Clark, and, to a lesser extent, Reese. When the two met in the 2023 championship game, viewership spiked 87 percent over the year before. When the pair met again in the semi-final this year, 12.3 million viewers tuned in, an increase of 120 percent over the championship two years before, but this time for a non-championship game. The final game of this year’s college season grabbed 18.9 million viewers watching Clark battle against — and lose to — juggernaut South Carolina and their storied coach Dawn Staley. The men’s championship game got a respectable 14.8 million viewers, edging the Clark/Reese semis, but not close to the women’s championship.
Clark and Reese, whom Yr Wonkette has discussed before, were a genuine phenomenon. Both noted trash talkers, they sparked a necessary conversation about racism after their 2023 championship encounter when hidden prejudice became visible as the Black Reese was criticized for behavior that netted praise for the white Clark. Reese has a ring and a strong inside game, Clark has a distance shot rightly compared to the best in the NBA today paired with court vision not seen since Magic Johnson, Diana Taurasi, and Larry and Sue Bird (no relation). Together these women were so compelling that even the televised WNBA draft saw a huge spike in viewers as fans waited to hear which teams would take their favorite players.
Since the WNBA snapped up them and 34 other great athletes, the impact has been immediate and striking. From the beginning of the season the number of arena sellout games was at 2.5 times last year’s numbers with seats at 94 percent average capacity, and TV viewers of your average regular season matchups nearly tripled. The league’s sales of its streaming subscriptions more than quadrupled and merchandise sold at 8.5 times the rate of 2023. The growth has been nothing short of shocking to the people who have long belittled the women’s game, and nothing short of vindication to longtime fans who have been trying to tell broadcasters that if they wanted to provide coverage, women’s basketball has plenty of compelling storylines.
The players were fantastic
And this year’s storylines did not disappoint. Reese and Clark set numerous rookie records this year, but they didn’t limit themselves to “good for your first year.” The single season records for each of the big three basketball stats — rebounds, assists, and points — were shattered by Reese, Clark, and experienced WNBA star and defending champion A’ja Wilson. Angel Reese was up first, with a new season record for rebounds. Earlier this month she grabbed the record rebound then added a few more to finish with 446 before going out for the season with a wrist injury. Last week Clark grabbed the record for most assists in a year while Wilson broke the old scoring record of 939. But both of them have kept right on piling up accomplishments. Clark extended her lead in the assist category while also breaking the rookie points record and nabbing a personal best 35 points in a single game on Sunday. Wilson, meanwhile, continued to tear up the net, becoming the first woman ever to score 1,000 points in a season. She also is within 12 rebounds of taking Reese’s new record away. Given that she averages 12 rebounds per game and has two games left, the odds she’ll set both records in the same season are good. If she does (and maybe even if she doesn’t), the MVP award is a lock.
[…] The big losers
There were losers this year, though, and the biggest ones are the biggest bigots. All year long racists have been claiming that Clark wasn’t getting the attention she was due, and that Reese was overhyped, due to Black women “owning” the WNBA and praise for white players being “cancelled.” Terrible things have been said on Twitter, but surprisingly (just kidding) the worst might actually be found somewhere else: YouTube comments.
The hatred aimed at Reese (and, at times, any Black woman who got attention that some racist thought was due Clark) was so intense that it became the subject of an apology letter from the WNBA’s president sent to every single player. The incident sparking the letter was itself a step forward of sorts, in that league president Cathy Engelbert was being interviewed on CNBC about the economics and growth of the league, something not often of interest to the business network before. While on air, Engelbert was also asked about the “dark side” of social media trash talk.
Engelbert was asked on CNBC’s “Power Lunch” on Monday about the “more menacing” tone taken by some fan bases on social media, especially when race or sexuality is brought up. Engelbert focused instead on high-profile rookies Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever and Angel Reese of the Chicago Sky and how rivalries build fan interest.
Engelbert threw up a brick there, utterly failing to note that this is about more than rivalries or fan excitement: Reese has had to deal with stalking, death threats, AI pornography, and more — in addition to her racist, sexist former governor. But after the Player’s Association sent Engelbert a nastygram, she attempted to make good:
“I was asked a question about WNBA rivalries and the dark side of social media and race, and simply put, my answer missed the mark and I’m sorry,” Engelbert wrote to the players in a letter obtained by ESPN. “I regret that I didn’t express, in a clear and definitive way, condemnation of the hateful speech that is all too often directed at WNBA players on social media.”
[Good apology.]
This, of course, led to more testeria about women ballers being “woke,” […]
Only hours after Engelbert’s letter became public on Friday, Clark was asked at a postgame press conference about liking Taylor Swift’s open letter to her fans encouraging them to register and to vote, and endorsing Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Clark said that pushing people to vote was one of the most important things she could do with her public platform and that she encouraged everyone to “continue to educate yourself with the candidates that we have, the policies that they’re supporting.”
Racist bawling was immediate and loud. Shut up and dribble was a common sentiment. One instagram commenter insisted that they’d just thrown away their very real Caitlin Clark jersey. Many protested that they’d stuck up for her against the anti-white powers that be and felt betrayed.
Which, when you think about it, isn’t that different from how the racists felt when the young, white Taylor Swift that they’d imagined was on their side turned out to be woke herself.
While we still have some exciting playoff games left to come, it couldn’t be more clear that in this year’s WNBA season all the right people won, and all the right people lost. If this is what women’s pro sports brings us, all yr Wonkette can say is, “More, please!”
Scores injured in Lebanon as electronic pagers explode, officials say [video at the link]
Health officials reported chaotic scenes at hospitals across the country, including in the capital, Beirut. Washington Post link
Lebanese officials said Tuesday that a “large number of people” were injured in various parts of the country after pagers they were carrying exploded, including members of the militant group Hezbollah, who carry the devices.
[…] Lebanon’s state-run news agency said that “a number of injuries” were reported in towns in southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel; in northern Lebanon; and the coastal city of Tyre. Lebanon’s Ministry of Health said “large numbers” of people were arriving at hospitals, related to the explosions of the devices.
Hospitals were being placed on “maximum alert,” a statement said, adding that the ministry “requests all citizens who own wireless communication devices stay away from them.” Health workers were directed to go to work to provide “emergency treatment,” and appeals were being made for blood donations, another statement said.
[…] The Israel Defense Forces declined to comment Tuesday on whether it was responsible for the pager explosions.
[…] Equinix, which owns 264 data centers in 33 countries, offered The Washington Post a tour of one of its facilities in Northern Virginia — home to the largest concentration of data centers in the world — for a rare glimpse inside how the tech industry’s backbone works.
[…]
Different types of data centers meet different demands. Many are connected to one another via a labyrinth of underground fiber-optic cables that make up the public internet network, or to private cables that are accessible only to specific customers. All are geared to minimize latency, or the time it takes for data to get from its source to you, the end user. There are four main types of data centers:
• An “enterprise” data center serves the needs of the company that owns it. Think of a corporation that stores in-house information on its own computers.
• Larger “hyperscale” data centers, owned by companies such as Amazon or Meta, have computer servers that cater solely to the company’s customers.
• “Edge” data centers are smaller buildings in or near major population centers, where digital connectivity becomes almost instantaneous for, say, a passing driverless car.
• Equinix is among the world’s largest owners of “colocation” data centers. Those facilities lease space to other businesses that hook up their servers to cables that belong to the data center company.
Inside DC12 and an adjoining DC15 building — both named after the D.C. region they cater to — are rows of server “cages” that cover almost the entire floor.
Each one houses the servers of individual companies, whose technicians sometimes visit to check on the equipment, many wearing backpacks stuffed with laptops and tools.
Netflix is a customer. So are Zoom, Hertz, Red Bull, Nasdaq and several banks and health care companies.
[illustrations, videos and maps at the link]
Companies come to colocation data centers “because they’re trying to communicate with others,” said Chris Kimm, Equinix’s senior vice president of Global Customer Care and Experience.
For example, a company with a retail clothing website would want its servers to connect to those of a bank that offers financing for those purchases and to advertisers who want to use the company’s website to pitch customers on a different product.
The connections are made by fiber-optic cables that run above the cages, all of them tied to larger below-ground cables that connect to the internet or to other data centers on private lines. The links between companies can happen inside the same building, through underground cables that connect to different buildings on the same property, to buildings in other parts of the country or via undersea cables to buildings in a different country.
But all that computing power from the servers and routers inside a data center comes with a major drawback: massive amounts of heat.
Data center companies deal with that problem by using fans, water or both. Each has its own benefit and downside. Cooling systems that depend on air are more energy intensive. They release the building’s heat into the outside air and are a source of complaint from neighbors who can hear those fans.
Systems that use water are more efficient and less expensive. But they can become a problem in places where water is scarce by using too much of it.
Data center companies often factor in the surrounding climate when choosing a cooling system. Buildings in arid areas, such as Arizona, are likely to use air-based systems. In places such as Virginia, where droughts are not as common, a water-based cooling system might be more appealing.
Equinix typically uses a mixture of air and a closed-loop, non-evaporative water system for its cooling that, inside DC15, uses 85,000 gallons of water, with no refills. Here’s how that works: [Annotated illustrations are available at the link]
All that activity — the servers processing data and the elaborate systems built to keep them cool — requires massive amounts of energy that has prompted concerns about the industry’s growing effect on the nation’s already struggling electric grid.
DC12 alone is equipped to ramp up to 18 megawatts of energy usage, enough to power 14,400 homes, with most of that energy used by the servers. DC15 has a capacity of 28.8 megawatts. Data centers owned by other companies use as much as 100 megawatts, while data center campuses use as much as 1 gigawatt, enough to power most of San Francisco.
The industry has been working to offset the environmental effects of that usage by investing in renewable energy projects.
Some companies also use the released heat for other purposes, such as rooftop greenhouses or to warm surrounding homes.
As part of a program Equinix operates in several European countries and Canada, the expelled heat from a data center in Paris was used to keep the pool water warm at the Olympic Aquatic Centre during the summer games.
The Caitlin Clark situation is somewhat complicated. Clark has exceptional, generational talent. Some established figures in the game who ought to know better (noticeably analyst Sheryl Swoopes, veteran guard Diane Taurasi, the Olympic selection committee) have failed to respect her talent, and there is a real story there. And Clark has been subjected to abuse on the court, being on the receiving end of many flagrant fouls this season. Mostly this is resentment towards the new person on the block who is getting all the attention even before she has any actual accomplishments. This ought to be dying soon, because after only one season, she does have some pretty impressive accomplishments.
Where it goes wrong is trying to turn it into a racial “white grievance” story. It is unfortunate that some media outlets on YouTube and elsewhere have tried to play the race card, which Clark herself has never done.
The last regular season game for Clark and the Indian Fever is Thursday. I will post a summary of her records after that. There is one more record which she is edging toward, but may or may not reach (3 point goals made per season)..
Over the weekend, Rep. John Duarte (R-Calif.) told CNN that both he and Donald Trump are “pro-choice” because they support abortion being decided by the states…
John McEntee, who served in the Trump administration and helped write Project 2025, said in a viral TikTok that women aren’t “bleeding out” from abortion bans. Women like Idaho’s Carmen Broesder shared their stories in response…
… the conclusion that our planet once had a ring system was reached by a trio of Earth scientists from Australia’s Monash University. In a new study, published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, they analyzed almost 500-million-year-old meteorite impact craters from around the world. They concluded that it was incredibly unlikely the alien bodies originated from an asteroid belt. Instead, they believe Earth once had a ring around it, chunks of which eventually rained down through the atmosphere—a discovery that could fundamentally alter how we think about the evolution of Earth’s climate…
The impacts the scientists examined occurred during what’s known as the Ordovician, a geologic period that began 485 million years ago and lasted for almost 42 million years. During that time, Earth experienced an unusual number of meteorite strikes, 21 of which were examined for the study. The researchers looked at both the chemical composition of the craters, which showed a disproportionate amount of material that is often found in L chondrite meteorites. It’s a sign that the material came from meteorites resulting from a single asteroid breaking up.
They also looked at the locations of the craters. Meteorites tend to fall randomly, but the majority of the impacts were centralized within 30 degrees of the equator. That’s pretty tough to explain as happenstance, given that 70% of the Earth’s crust lies outside this area. They determined the chances of the impacts being random were minuscule, at just 1 in 25 million…
A top science magazine has waded into the political sphere after making a presidential endorsement, only the second in its 179-year history.
“Vote for Kamala Harris to Support Science, Health and the Environment,” read the headline in Scientific American on Monday, announcing the publication’s official support for the Democratic presidential candidate.
Harris is Scientific American’s second presidential endorsement in its history, after the magazine backed President Joe Biden during the 2020 election.
“The US faces two futures,” the editors wrote, pushing one candidate who “offers the country better prospects, relying on science, solid evidence and the willingness to learn from experience.”
They continued: “In the other future, the new president endangers public health and safety and rejects evidence, preferring instead nonsensical conspiracy fantasies.” …
A Brazilian mayoral candidate smashed a chair into his opponent during a live debate on Sunday.
José Luiz Datena, 67, swung the chair at his rival Pablo Marçal, 37, during an intense exchange that was broadcast by TV Cultura and shared by multiple outlets, including CNN, NBC, and The Washington Post.
Datena, a news anchor, and Marçal, a far-right influencer, were among six candidates campaigning to become the next mayor of São Paulo, one of the world’s largest cities…
What to know about Combs’ arrest
– Music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs was arrested yesterday at the Park Hyatt hotel on West 57th Street, a representative said.
– In a federal indictment unsealed today, Combs was charged with racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. The charges are tied to “freak offs,” coerced sex acts that Combs allegedly orchestrated and recorded.
– An attorney for Combs said today he plans to plead not guilty and “will fight this with all of his energy.”
Combs has faced a wave of lawsuits — one as recent as last week — accusing him of sexual assault and misconduct in the past year. He has denied any wrongdoing.
[…] Federal prosecutors argued that Combs can’t be set free ahead of trial because he allegedly has a long history of tampering with witnesses.
Shortly after a sex abuse lawsuit was filed against him in November 2023, Combs “made multiple calls to another victim of his sexual abuse and recorded certain of those calls” while asking for that victim’s “support and ‘friendship,’” prosecutors said in their letter asking to deny Combs bail.
Combs, in that call, “attempted to convince the victim that she had willingly engaged in acts constituting sexual abuse,” prosecutors continued.
“Even more concerning, since learning about the criminal investigation, including following the execution of the search warrants at his residences, Combs contacted other witnesses on multiple occasions, including other witnesses who had received grand jury subpoenas.” […]
Money was no object when it came to Combs’ desires in highly orchestrated sex acts known as “freak offs,” the government said.
“The defendant arranged Freak Offs with the assistance of members and associates of the Enterprise, including employees of his business, and the hotel rooms where they were staged often sustained significant damages,” according to a prosecution memo seeking to deny Combs bail.
In one such 2012 incident, held inside a Manhattan hotel, Combs had to pay more than “$46,000 to cover damages to a penthouse room following a Freak Off,” the prosecution said. […]
In addition to a long list of alleged sex crimes, prosecutors accused Sean “Diddy” Combs of arson in the racketeering conspiracy charge against him.
While U.S. Attorney Damian Williams declined to elaborate on specifics of the the alleged arson, the act might be detailed in the prosecution’s request for Combs to be held without bail.
Combs and a co-conspirator kidnapped a victim on Dec. 22, 2011, from the home of someone only identified as “Individual-1,” according to a prosecution memo.
“Approximately two weeks later, the defendant’s co-conspirators set fire to Individual-1’s vehicle by slicing open the car’s convertible top and dropping a Molotov cocktail inside the interior,” prosecutors said. “Police and fire department reports extensively document the arson and conclude that the fire was intentionally set. Multiple witnesses would also testify to the defendant bragging about his role in destroying Individual-1’s car.” […]
On Sunday, Donald Trump was targeted in an apparent assassination attempt. Less than 24 hours after the alleged would-be shooter was taken into custody, the Republican told Fox News Digital why the suspect targeted him: Ryan Wesley Routh “believed” Democratic rhetoric, Trump argued, about the former president posing a “threat to democracy.”
There were all kinds of problems with the claim, including the disconnect between the message and the messenger: Trump routinely accuses people and entities of being “threats to democracy” — the same phrase he now considers too incendiary to be repeated. The GOP nominee, just over the last few months, has told the public that President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and even The New York Times should all be seen as a “threat to democracy.”
The former president didn’t literally say that “people should stop using the phrase that I use all of the time,” but that seemed to be the gist of his position.
Hours later, his running mate confronted a similar problem. HuffPost reported:
Speaking after another apparent attempt on Trump’s life, [Ohio Sen. JD] Vance called for a “reduction in the ridiculous and inflammatory political rhetoric.” … “We cannot tell the American people that one candidate is a fascist, and if he’s elected, it is gonna be the end of American democracy,” he insisted.
[…] “We cannot tell the American people that one candidate is a fascist”? OK, but Trump tells the American people that one candidate is a fascist with surprising regularity.
As recently as July, 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 that the United States would likely cease to exist if he loses.
The incumbent president, of course, is no longer seeking a second term, but after Biden passed the torch, Trump decided that Harris is a “fascist,” too. In fact, just 11 days before Vance declared, “We cannot tell the American people that one candidate is a fascist,” his running mate told voters that the vice president has embraced “fascism.”
A few days later, Trump went on to insist that Harris is a “radical left Marxist communist fascist.” That was kind of hilarious — that combination of ideologies is literally not possible — and this was a timely reminder that the former president uses words without knowing what they mean, but it was also fresh evidence that Trump loves to throw around the “fascist” label.
In case that weren’t quite enough, a day earlier, the former president wrote on his social media platform that he considers his critics to be “Fascists.” (He continues to capitalize words he finds interesting without regard for grammatical rules.)
Evidently, the Trump campaign believes it’s simply a bridge too far to tell voters that one candidate is a fascist — except when Trump does it, at which point it’s fine.
Suspicious packages were sent to election officials in at least six states on Monday, but there were no reports that any of the packages contained hazardous material.
Powder-containing packages were sent to secretaries of state and state election offices in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Tennessee, Wyoming and Oklahoma, officials in those states confirmed. The FBI and U.S. Postal Service were investigating. It marked the second time in the past year that suspicious packages were mailed to election officials in multiple state offices.
The latest scare comes as early voting has begun in several states less than two months ahead of the high-stakes elections for president, Senate, Congress and key statehouse offices around the nation, causing disruption in what is already a tense voting season.
Several of the states reported a white powder substance found in envelopes sent to election officials. In most cases, the material was found to be harmless. Oklahoma officials said the material sent to the election office there contained flour. Wyoming officials have not yet said if the material sent there was hazardous.
The packages forced an evacuation in Iowa. Hazmat crews in several states quickly determined the material was harmless. […]
A proposal by Donald Trump for California to use Canadian water sources like a “very large faucet” is being mocked by experts on engineering and politics in Canada.
On Friday, at a press conference in Los Angeles, Trump was asked what he plans to do to assist Californians facing danger from wildfires.
Trump blamed water shortages in southern California on environmental protections to save the delta smelt fish, but this is a claim he has made for years that is not supported by scientific data. He then proceeded to offer a questionable solution. [video at the link]
Trump: So you have millions of gallons of water pouring down from the north, with the snow caps and Canada, and—all pouring down, and they have a—essentially—a very large faucet, and you turn the faucet and it takes one day to turn it, it’s massive. It’s as big as the wall of that building right there behind you. And you turn that, and all of that water goes into the—aimlessly into the Pacific. And if they turned it back, all of that water would come right down here, and right into Los Angeles.
Tricia Stadnyk, an environmental engineering professor at the University of Calgary, was skeptical of Trump’s idea in an interview with Canadian news outlet CTV. [video at the link]
“To me, it’s an uninformed opinion,” Stadnyk said. “It’s somebody that doesn’t fully understand how water works and doesn’t understand the intricacies of allocating water not only between two countries but also for the environment.”
She explained to CTV that Trump was referencing the Columbia River, which traces its source to the Columbia Lake in Canada. […]
Stadnyk said that the U.S could not dictate how much water went to each country and doing so would have catastrophic outcomes for the environment: “We can’t just be taking water and diverting it and sending it somewhere else.”
CTV also spoke to University of Calgary professor of political science Lisa Young about Trump’s speech.
“We’ve certainly seen President Trump on a variety of issues, telling audiences things that they want to hear and presenting them with a great degree of certainty that isn’t necessarily grounded in facts, and this clip certainly looked like another instance of that,” she said.
[…] The faucet commentary echoes other off-kilter remarks Trump has made during the presidential campaign, like praising fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter, discussing sharks while speaking about electric batteries, and talking about wind turbines killing birds.
Trump’s opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, has called for drought resistance measures to assist California. Touting the infrastructure bill signed into law by President Joe Biden, Harris said in a 2023 visit to her home state that the administration would invest in projects to capture and store water to build up resilience and adaptation.
Harris was endorsed in July by the environmental group Food & Water Action, who cited her “track record of concern and action for clean water and environmental justice.”
“A President Harris—someone who has taken action on environmental issues and has shown herself to be responsive to community concerns—provides an avenue for future progress, while a President Trump will send us 180 degrees in the wrong direction,” the group said in its statement.
Step Right Up, Suckers, Trump’s Got A Crypto-Something!
Sounds very legit!
From the family who brought you Trump steaks, Trump University, Trump Media & Technology, and some bankrupt casinos, here comes a new grift, it is crypto something! You’ve heard of venture capital, but this is adventure capital, as in your money is going to go on an adventure, and who knows if it’ll ever come back? [Good description.]
The “venture” is called World Liberty Financial, and it’s maybe a platform, maybe an app? Maybe a borrowing and lending platform? Trump isn’t sure, but there are digital “voting” shares of it called $WLFI. Sounds a little conflict-of-interest-y for a guy who hopes to be president and appoint commissioners to the Securities and Exchange Commission, but never mind that part. How dodgy is it? Dodgier than Dogecoin, let us count the ways!
First of all, the platform is similar to a blockchain app built by Trump’s new business partners, called Dough Finance. This July, that app was hacked, and $2.1 million got extracted. Did the partners fix the vulnerabilities before they slapped a Trump brand on it? Place your bet and see!
Then there’s the business partners, hoo boy! One of them is Barron Trump, age 18, experience zero, who is listed as the project’s “DeFi visionary,” which is short for “Decentralized Finance,” which is short for “nobody can track down your money if you lose it.” Barron was supposed to show up for the launch of this enterprise last night, for his first major speaking role, but he had the vision to simply not show up.
The other partners are [also Trump’s] sons, who are listed in the company’s white paper as “Web3 Ambassadors,” and two guys, Zachary Folkman and Chase Herro, who are listed as World Liberty Financial’s head of operations and its data and strategies lead, respectively. They were introduced to Trump by Steve Witkoff, a real estate investor pal of his who happened to be golfing with Trump on Sunday when that crazy guy was crouching in the bushes with a gun.
Zachary Folkman’s experience includes having registered a company called Date Hotter Girls LLC, which posted seminars on YouTube on how to pick up women, “Date Hotter Girls: Better, Faster & Easier.”
Chase Herro (which he spells “Hero” on his video channel), calls himself “the dirtbag of the Internet,” and has spent time in prison for dealing weed. He’s called Bitcoin a scam and said that regulators should “kick shitheads like me out,” and appeared at paid seminars with Jordan Belfort, that penny-stock scammer who was played by Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street. Hero/Herro has a YouTube channel where he drives around and screams stuff like “You can literally sell shit in a can, wrapped in piss, covered in human skin, for a billion dollars if the story’s right, because people will buy it!” […]
Twenty percent of the tokens will be allotted to the founding team, while 17 percent of the tokens will be set aside for “user rewards” and the remaining 63 percent of the coins will be sold to the general public. What do you get for that, general public? The tokens are non-transferable and will not earn any yield, which seems to be the entire point of crypto, other than trying to hide your money from the government. But what do we know? You get “voting shares,” and what are you voting on? Who knows! Also the tokens will be offered under the SEC’s Regulation D, which is apparently short for “dirty.” Under Regulation D the security doesn’t have to be registered with the SEC.
From the SEC’s page explaining Regulation D investments: “Red flags. Fraudsters may use unregistered offerings to conduct investment scams. […] It may be difficult or impossible to recover the money you invest in an offering that turns out to be fraudulent.”
Regulation D investments are only supposed to be sold to accredited investors with certain investment credentials and enough net worth to lose several hundred thousand shirts. So not the general public. Yet the venture is being plugged as a way to help the poors. Reported the Verge:
Donald Trump Jr. and real estate developer and landlord Steve Witkoff, both of whom are also involved in World Liberty Financial, framed the project as a way of helping underserved and unbanked communities.
“If you want to borrow money today, you have to be almost anointed. You have to be a member of the privileged class,” said Witkoff, who in 2017 purchased the Fontainebleau Las Vegas for $600 million.
The SEC is so mean, how dare they try to keep poor people from getting ripped off?! And how does this work, it’s okay to sell these tokens on an exchange because it’s a “voting share” but not an “investment,” or something? Our economics degree is garbage and we want a refund.
When asked for details of this venture on Monday, Trump couldn’t explain them either. He just immediately changed the subject: “It’s crypto, it’s AI, it’s some of the other things, you know, AI, speaking of an interesting future, it needs tremendous energy capability, beyond anything I’ve ever heard…” Crypto and AI are two different things, hopefully needless to say. [Clear as mud, as is usual with Trump.]
[…] A disclaimer in the company’s white paper says that World Liberty is “not owned, managed, operated or sold” by the Trumps. It does note, however, that they may receive compensation. Oh, no shit?
A wildly flimsy internet rumor launched by a random pro-Trump X poster about an “ABC whistleblower” who purportedly claims that the network rigged the September 10 presidential debate went viral in MAGA spaces over the last several days, with Donald Trump and his allies floating congressional investigations and potential regulatory retribution against ABC News in response.
The right-wing pundits and Republican politicians pushing the story don’t actually know who the “ABC whistleblower” is, if their claims are credible, or even if the person actually exists — but the purported document supposedly supports their preferred narrative that ABC News’ moderators were biased, so they’re running with it.
The saga, while laughable, shows the right’s ongoing tendency to embrace and elevate anything that confirms their worldview. […]
In the instance of the absurd “whistleblower” claim, Trump’s allies trotted it out as they tried to cover for his flailing September 10 debate performance. Right-wing media figures lashed out at ABC News and its moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis with deranged invective and absurd conspiracy theories. And Trump himself said in an interview the following morning that “they ought to take away their license,” reiterating his support for government retribution against news outlets that displease him.
Then on September 12, a “verified” but obscure X poster with the handle “Black Insurrectionist–I FOLLOW BACK TRUE PATRIOTS” claimed they would release “an affidavit from an ABC whistleblower” by the end of the weekend. “The affidavit states how the Harris campaign was given sample question which were essentially the same questions that were given during the debate and separate assurances of fact checking Donald Trump and that she would NOT be fact checked,” the poster wrote. [screengrab at the link]
Right-wing pundits had no reason to take claims from “Black Insurrectionist” at face value — other than the fact that the story confirmed their preexisting biases.
A casual review of recent activity from the “Black Insurrectionist” account — which has posted to X more than 32,700 times over the 10 months since its November 2023 launch — reveals a strong tendency for unhinged, conspiracy-minded, and violent pro-Trump rants.
[…] Other posts detail the need for “70 million people to do mass civil disobedience that will halt this country” to prevent Harris from winning, perhaps via a mass withdrawal of cash from banks aimed at damaging the economy unless “the government just does what we want.”
It beggars belief that this is the person a credible “whistleblower” would entrust with an exclusive story of this magnitude […]
The previewed “whistleblower” claim nonetheless went viral in MAGA spaces — and got all the way to Trump himself in less than seven hours. The former president claimed on Truth Social that evening that “people are saying that Comrade Kamala Harris had the questions from Fake News ABC” and that “ABC’s license should be TERMINATED” if that is the case, before reposting an account claiming that an “ABC whistleblower allegedly will release an affidavit” showing that “the Harris campaign was given sample questions.” [screengrab at the link]
ABC News denied the allegations, with a spokesperson telling The Daily Beast, “Absolutely not. Harris was not given any questions before the debate.”
On Sunday morning, hours before the affidavit was to be released, a new wrinkle emerged as MAGA figures began suggesting the “whistleblower” had (conveniently for ABC) died.
“The ABC whistleblower who claimed Kamala Harris was given debate questions ahead of the debate has died in a car crash according to news reports,” wrote Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) on X, echoing random accounts.
Please note that this makes absolutely no sense: How could reports detail the death of a person who had never been identified?
NBC News’ Brandy Zadrozny ultimately tracked down the source of the story, an article headlined “ABC News Whistleblower in Kamala Harris Debate Question Scandal Dies in Maryland Crash” posted on a “junk AI-written website.” A few hours later, Greene acknowledged that “this story appears to be false and I’m glad to hear it” but added, “We need a serious investigation into the whistleblower’s report that Kamala Harris was given debate questions ahead of time from ABC!”
The totally implausible idea that news reports had revealed the mysterious death of a “whistleblower” who had never been publicly named served to drive more attention to the “affidavit,” as Greene demonstrated.
“Black Insurrectionist” then released what they claimed was the “affidavit” that afternoon. It appears to be a Microsoft Word document whose text features internal inconsistencies and grammatical errors. All identifying information about its author and any evidence it had been notarized or submitted to a court is redacted.
[…] “Black Insurrectionist” explained that the report could be trusted due to the poster’s record, which included apparently having prior knowledge of the July attempt on Trump’s life: “A couple days before Trump attempted assassination, I made a post (which I had never done before) was something big was about to go off.”
And indeed, that was enough for the likes of MAGA figures like Benny Johnson (2.7 million X followers) and Eric Trump (4.6 million) and Bill Ackman (1.4 million).
By Monday morning, Rep. Dan Meuser (R-PA) was telling Fox host Maria Bartiromo that Congress would investigate claims from the ABC “whistleblower.” [video at the link]
“Fortunately we now have a whistleblower, and I’m going to tell you something, Maria, we’re going to do what we can to bring ABC in and have them answer some questions and as well as have this whistleblower and see what’s going on as they’re trying to tear down the First Amendment,” Meuser told Bartiromo on Fox Business’ Mornings with Maria.
“I’m glad you mentioned this because Fox News is reaching out to ABC for response to that affidavit,” she replied. “We’ve reached out to ABC to verify the affidavit and for a statement on these accusations, congressman, but this affidavit and this whistleblower story is gaining traction.”
“Yes, absolutely, and as it should,” Meuser replied. “We actually don’t need a hearing to know what we saw. But we’re going to look to do it so as we can provide some evidence as to how manipulative they are.”
In the past, Bartiromo’s willingness to run with extraordinary but evidence-free claims that happened to bolster her preexisting views helped secure a massive defamation settlement from her employer.
Apparently that wasn’t enough to change her approach. But her behavior, while deplorable, is not anomalous — this total rejection of evidentiary standards in order to “create stories” is a hallmark of the conspiratorial right, from lies about election fraud to Haitians eating pets.
For the fourth time this year, Senate Republicans rejected legislation to protect in vitro fertilization — even as party leaders claim to support IVF.
It was nearly a month ago when Donald Trump, apropos of nothing, published a one-sentence missive to his social media platform. “The Republican Party is charging forward on many fronts,” the former president wrote, “and I am very proud that we are a LEADER on I.V.F.”
No one was altogether sure what he was talking about — especially given how many of his allies on the right are routinely opposed to IVF — though the GOP candidate added some clarity six days later. In an interview with NBC News, Trump said he’d have either the government or private insurance companies cover the cost of IVF treatments for American women who need it.
It was a strange announcement for a variety of reasons, and for reproductive rights advocates, the unexpected vow was difficult to take seriously. But the White House candidate’s declaration — Trump not only supports IVF, he claims it should be free — also gave Senate Democrats an idea.
If the Republican Party’s dominant leader is going to tell voters that the GOP is helping lead the way of IVF, then maybe Senate Republicans might reconsider their opposition to the Right to IVF Act, which Trump effectively endorsed online?
GOP senators rejected this same bill in June, but the former president inspired Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to give his opponents on the other side of the aisle a second try. To the surprise of no one, Republicans — the ones voters are apparently supposed to see as “LEADERS” on IVF — rejected the legislation again. NBC News reported:
For the second time in four months, Senate Democrats forced a vote on the Right To IVF Act, only to be blocked by Republicans who called it unnecessary and politically motivated as Vice President Kamala Harris seeks to make access to in vitro fertilization a 2024 campaign issue.
The legislation was written by three Senate Democrats — Washington’s Patty Murray, Illinois’ Tammy Duckworth, and New Jersey’s Cory Booker — and it would prohibit states from imposing restrictions on the treatments, while also making IVF more affordable.
Two Republican senators — Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski and Maine’s Susan Collins — voted with the Democratic majority in the latest procedural vote, but every other GOP member balked. The final tally was 51 to 44, with some senators missing the vote.
To advance, proponents needed 60 votes, and they obviously didn’t come especially close.
If these circumstances sound at all familiar, it’s not your imagination. In late February, Duckworth sought unanimous consent — a procedural move designed to help quickly advance uncontroversial measures — on the “Access to Family Building Act,” which would create legal protections for IVF at the national level. It also failed in response to Republican opposition.
Two weeks later, Murray tried to pass a bill to expand access to in vitro fertilization for military service members and veterans. It, too, was derailed by Republican opposition.
In June, GOP senators rejected the Right to IVF Act, and now those same Republicans have derailed the same bill again.
[…] The New York Democrat [Chuck Schumer] added, “Republicans can’t just talk their way past an issue as personal as IVF; what ultimately matters is how they vote on the issue.”
The reference to Republican “talk” was of particular interest, because in June, every member of the Senate Republican conference — literally, all 49 members — signed onto a joint statement, expressing their collective support for IVF access. “We strongly support continued nationwide access to IVF, which has allowed millions of aspiring parents to start and grow their families,” the GOP senators said.
Paleontologists have uncovered dozens of fossils in northern B.C., only one of which came from a dinosaur that was previously known to that area.
Victoria Arbour, curator of paleontology at the Royal B.C. Museum, said it was her team’s third time to the Spatsizi Plateau Wilderness Provincial Park, southeast of Dease Lake. The area is rough terrain, so the team has to be flown in by helicopter.
Usually, well-preserved dinosaur bones are found in deserts, where rocks are exposed, but Arbour said that on this particular mountain, her team hit the “mother lode of fossils.”
“We came back with over 90 dinosaur fossil bones, which we’re super excited about because this is a relatively unexplored place for fossils,” she told Daybreak North host Carolina De Ryk.
It’s unclear exactly what species the fossils belong to, but officials say that either way, a discovery like this one helps scientists better understand the history of this land…
She said finding dinosaur fossils at a high elevation — in this case, 2,000 metres above sea level — is unusual because it means they would have been living there.
Mountains would have stood on both sides of the Splatsizi Plateau area, Arbour said, and dinosaurs would have lived in mountain valleys.
“It probably didn’t look a lot different than it does today, except the mountains would have been even taller,” she said. ..
Florida District Court Judge Aileen Cannon failed to disclose her attendance at several right-wing judicial seminars — including one that took place after she began overseeing former President Donald Trump’s classified documents case, which she ultimately threw out — in apparent violation of federal court rules.
According to a Tuesday report from ProPublica, in May of 2023, Cannon attended a swanky banquet hosted by George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School — one of the leading conservative law schools in the nation. The school was renamed in honor of the late Supreme Court justice after a $20 million donation brokered by Supreme Court architect Leonard Leo, who controls a billion-dollar dark money fund and serves as co-chair chairman of of the Federalist Society, the powerful conservative lawyers network.
Cannon, a longtime member of the Federalist Society, attended a lecture and dinner alongside members of the society, Scalia’s family members, and prominent federal judges, according to materials obtained by ProPublica. Cannon submitted several reimbursement requests to the law school related to her travel expenses.
Federal judiciary rules require judges to report travel reimbursements for such events within 30 days. Cannon made no such disclosure within the designated time limit, and it’s not the first time…
The House is scheduled to vote Wednesday on a stopgap funding bill to prevent a government shutdown on Sept. 30. This bill is apparently identical to the one that House Speaker Mike Johnson pulled from the floor one week ago after it was obvious he lacked the Republican votes to get it passed.
On orders from the always noxious Donald Trump, Johnson tied the continuing resolution to the toxic SAVE Act. That legislation, which is based on a racist conspiracy theory that undocumented people are casting fraudulent ballots, is designed to make it more difficult for people to vote by demanding proof of citizenship from anyone registering. Republicans are counting on this difficulty to filter out voters more likely to support Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. The presence of the SAVE Act language in the continuing resolution means that Johnson can expect next to zero Democratic support.
However, Johnson’s problem up to this point has been inside his own party. Splinter factions of the GOP have declared this version of the SAVE Act not strong enough, claimed that the stopgap bill doesn’t provide enough defense funding, or announced that they oppose short-term funding bills on principle. It’s not clear that Johnson has made any deals that will get the bill through this time when it failed before.
There still seems to be plenty of grumbling in the House from some of the same players that doomed the bill’s passage one week ago. And with only four Republican votes to spare (assuming all GOP House members are present, rather than off campaigning), each dissident becomes a big deal. [X post from MTG is available at the link.]
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has made it clear that he’s fed up with Johnson’s inability to manage the narrow Republican House majority. With a shutdown looming in less than two weeks, Schumer needs at least one of those weeks to walk the spending bill through the Senate. And since the SAVE Act language will not survive a Senate vote, more time is going to be required to work out a deal between the two chambers … if a deal can be reached.
With Trump pushing his minions to reject a bill that doesn’t include the racist language about noncitizen voting, it’s far from a sure thing that Republicans won’t just let the government shut down and then try to blame Democrats. But for that to look even partially plausible, Johnson needs to at least get the bill out of the House.
Schumer isn’t the only senator who is running out of patience. Several Senate Republicans are also tired of Johnson’s ineffectiveness. Those Republicans include some of Trump’s biggest supporters on that end of the Capitol who recognize that a shutdown one month before the election won’t necessarily be seen as a great thing, no matter how the GOP tries to spin it.
[…] House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has made it clear that Democrats are willing to support legislation to avert a shutdown, but not so long as that spending bill includes efforts to suppress voters.
If Johnson can get the bill passed on Wednesday, then it will go to the Senate with toxic language that dooms it to failure in that chamber. If Johnson can’t get it passed, the speaker may find that his only choice is to strip out the SAVE Act and turn to Democrats for their votes.
Meanwhile, the countdown to a shutdown keeps ticking away.
You can’t tell it from the latest polls, but Putin dinner guest Jill Stein is running for president again, and she’s out there doing interviews like LOOK ME AT ME I’M JILL STEIN and everybody’s like “I didn’t ask your name?” and then she accuses Kamala Harris of being an oligarch or something, we dunno, it’s a whole thing.
There was this amazing interview on The Breakfast Club with Angela Rye, who explained all the times Jill Stein has lost, no matter what she’s ever run for — president, governor of Massachusetts, state rep in Massachusetts, secretary of the commonwealth, all of it. Rye asked, “I want to know what the pathway to victory is for you in 2024?” […] [video at the link]
STEIN: This is the framing of the empire, the oligarchy, white supremacy, and colonialism that want you to feel that resistance is futile. This is about voter blaming and voter …
Angela Rye on The Breakfast Club was not particularly cool with being accused of doing the framing of the empire, the oligarchy, white supremacy, or colonialism. [LOL]
RYE: No. What you’re not going to say is that I’m ever parroting anything at the hands of white supremacy. This is something very different. This is me asking you again. It’s a binary choice in an election.
STEIN: These are the same talking points that the DNC uses.
Fuckin’ DNC with their “You have to get votes” talking points.
RYE: This is not DNC talking points. This is my research, and sadly for you, the research says you have never won an election.
Damn.
A moment later, Jill Stein was being a piece of shit about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez being a bought-and-paid-for puppet or something, and Angela Rye said:
RYE: It is amazing to hear you talk about women of color as parroting talking points instead of us looking at basic math. The one thing AOC has done that you haven’t, is win some elections.
Damn.
So that’s how that went.
And now there’s this new interview with Mehdi Hasan, who’s now out on his own after being unceremoniously canceled at MSNBC.
In these clips, Hasan had such simple questions for Stein, which she refused to answer.
Regardless of how one feels about Israel’s war in Gaza — literally everybody seems to hate Benjamin Netanyahu at this point, we’ll say that much! But this blog post isn’t about that — Hasan wanted to press Stein on her statement that a vote for Kamala Harris is an “affirmation of genocide.” He asked her to “Lay out for me the steps whereby I go into a voting booth, vote Green, and the genocide stops. I don’t see that happening.” Jill Stein did not lay out those steps. Aw fuck! Didn’t mean to spoiler you there.
You can watch that and more in this preview right here.
This clip is even more damning, though, because it’s just … well, we did lead off by calling her a Putin dinner guest, didn’t we? [video at the link]
“Vladimir Putin is a war criminal in your view? And Bashar Assad is a war criminal?” asked Hasan. Jill Stein replied, “Uhhhhhhh, yes. In so many words.” Hasan asked, “What does that mean, ‘in so many words’?”
And that began two solid minutes of … HEEEEENGGGGGHHHHH?
Stein explained that Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was bad. “And he’s a war criminal who should be on trial?” asked Hasan. “Well! By implication! Blah blah blah!” replied Stein.
“Why is Benjamin Netanyahu a war criminal and not Vladimir Putin?” asked Hasan.
“If you want to be an effective world leader,” said Jill Stein, like that is anywhere on God’s vision board for her, “you don’t start by name-calling and hurling epithets.”
“So how will President Stein negotiate with Israel if you’ve called Netanyahu a war criminal?” asked Hasan.
“Well because he very clearly is a war criminal!” said Jill Stein.
“So Putin clearly isn’t a war criminal?” confirmed Hasan.
“Well, we don’t have a decision, put it this way, by the International Criminal Court,” said Stein.
Yes, we fucking do, explained Mehdi Hasan. Actually there is an arrest warrant for Putin, but not one yet for Netanyahu, explained Mehdi Hasan. [True!]
Y’all, it just went on like that. Remember during the debate, when Donald Trump wouldn’t say out loud whether he wanted Ukraine to win the war against Russia? Just thought of that for some reason.
Hasan explained that he believes both men are war criminals […]
At that point, Stein switched tactics and tried yelling at Mehdi Hasan that America is sponsoring Israel’s war. That made Mehdi Hasan laugh, because while he agreed, it had zilch nada fucking NYET to do with his question.
One more time!
HASAN: Is Vladimir Putin a war criminal or not?
STEIN: In so many words, yes he is.
Stein concluded that if you are a world leader — again LOL — you “don’t begin your conversation by calling someone a war criminal.” Then why does she call Biden and Netanyahu war criminals? […]
There’s a full hourlong interview behind Hasan’s paywall if you have time in your life for a full hour of Jill Stein […]
US industrial production rebounded in August from a Hurricane Beryl-related slide a month earlier, reflecting a pickup in manufacturing and mining output.
Associated Press:
Americans spent a bit more at retailers last month, providing a small boost to the economy just seven weeks before Election Day as the Federal Reserve considers how much to cut its key interest rate. Retail sales ticked up 0.1% from July to August, after jumping the most in a year and a half the previous month, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.
A federal judge in Texas just handed a court victory to an employer who’s arguing that a key labor rights agency is unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman of the Northern District of Texas granted a temporary injunction Monday preventing the agency, the National Labor Relations Board, from moving forward with union-busting charges against the employer, Texas-based Findhelp.
Georgia prosecutors on Tuesday dropped all 15 counts of money laundering that were levied against three Atlanta organizers accused of misusing a bail fund to aid violent protests against the city’s proposed police and fire training center.
Atlanta Solidarity Fund leaders Marlon Kautz, Adele MacLean and Savannah Patterson still face racketeering charges, along with 58 others who were indicted last year following a yearslong investigation into the “Stop Cop City” movement. Prosecutors have portrayed the decentralized movement as being led by “militant anarchists” hell-bent on radicalizing supporters and halting the construction of the facility by any means necessary, including arson.
At the center of the case is the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, which has provided bail money and helped find attorneys for arrested protesters. Prosecutors said the three defendants funneled money that was supposed to be for charitable causes and instead used it to reimburse protesters who spent months camping in the South River Forest, near the site of the facility in DeKalb County, just outside Atlanta.
Transactions that prompted the 15 counts of money laundering included $93.04 for “camping supplies” and $12.52 for “forest kitchen materials,” according to the indictment…
In a blog post from 2012, J.D. Vance, then a law student at Yale, criticized the Republican Party for being “openly hostile to non-whites” and alienating “Blacks, Latinos, [and] the youth.”
Four years later, he asked his former college professor to take down the post, titled “A Blueprint for the GOP.”
Brad Nelson, who taught Vance when he was an undergraduate at Ohio State University, had asked his former student to contribute to the blog he ran for the Center for World Conflict and Peace. During the 2016 presidential primary, Vance asked Nelson to delete the post so he could work in Republican politics, which Nelson did, according to CNN.
The article, which is accessible on the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, attacks the GOP’s immigration policies, saying from a conservative point of view, expecting the government to deport 12 million people is nonsensical…
For anyone who marks their calendars timed to food celebrations, Taco Bell has a new date for you to highlight in October that aligns perfectly with a delicious day of the week — Taco Tuesday.
The California-based fast food chain announced Tuesday that this year, National Taco Day will fall on Oct. 1, three days earlier than in previous years, to ensure the food festivity aligns with the beloved weekly tradition of Taco Tuesday.
The permanent date change to the first Tuesday of October was set in motion by the fast food chain with the help of the National Day Calendar, the authoritative entity that curates national days, weeks, months and other tentpole events…
Chicago Sky rookie Angel Reese and Reese’s Puffs are working together to create “Angel Reese’s Puffs,” a limited edition edition of the cereal that will feature her on four different boxes…
small blasts erupted across Lebanon on Tuesday, killing at least 11 people and injuring more than 4,000 after the wireless pagers of Hezbollah members began exploding […] CCTV and phone footage […] appears to show […] explosions happening around waist height
[…]
The perpetrator of the attack is widely believed to be Israel […] Israel Defense Forces told WIRED it has “no comment.”
[…]
such an operation would likely involve operatives on both the tech distribution side and the Hezbollah procurement side. “You compromise the supply chain, but you don’t want thousands of explosive pagers running around Lebanon […] The mole gets them to exactly the right people.” […] Hezbollah recently expanded its use of pagers in an attempt to secure communications after other channels had been infiltrated by Israeli intelligence. […] “It’s unlikely that hacking was involved, as it’s likely that explosive material had to be inside the pagers to cause such an effect,” […] if the attack is supply-chain-based, then it could have taken years to prepare and involved infiltrating a supplier and placing explosives inside new pagers.
[…]
the incident could be a “prelude to a broader offensive” and possibly meant to disrupt Hezbollah’s communications networks. […] “This is a high-value operation that you wouldn’t use just to cause injuries,”
[…]
Even if the blasts were not caused by a cyber-physical attack that induced the pager batteries to explode, it’s still possible that explosives planted in the pagers were detonated using a remote command, possibly even a specially crafted pager message.
Republicans: “How dare they call us fascists and bigots! That sort of rhetoric will only lead to violence!”
Also Republicans: “Democrats are communists who hate Jesus and ‘Murica who want to make you a slave to Big Socialist Government and molest and mutilate your children!”
Combs, who pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution, was denied bail.
[…] The indictment centers around Combs’ alleged orchestration of elaborate sex parties that he called “freak offs” and that included the distribution of drugs, the transportation of sex workers across state and international lines, and the use of force and threats against women who were forced to participate.
He appeared somber during his arraignment hearing Tuesday in Manhattan, where he pleaded not guilty and was denied bail in front of his three adult sons and other supporters. Two of the charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Prosecutors had asked that he remain jailed until trial.
In a memo supporting that request, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said Combs’ “disposition to violence cannot be reasonably prevented through bail conditions” and called the rapper-turned-mogul a flight risk who “poses a significant danger to the community.”
[…] Combs’ attorneys had proposed he be released on a $50 million bond, which they say is secured by equity in his $48 million home in Miami. In a letter to Judge Robyn Tarnofsky, they said Combs was not a flight risk and that his legal counsel was in possession of his passport, as well as those of his mother and his four daughters. But Tarnofsky denied their request, citing, among other things, Combs’ substance abuse and anger issues.
The indictment demands that Combs forfeit any property and money used to commit the crimes he is accused of, though it doesn’t specify any particular assets or amount.
Williams reflected on Combs’ fall from grace Tuesday.
“A year ago Sean Combs stood in Times Square and was handed a key to New York City,” he said. “Today he’s been indicted and will face justice in the Southern District of New York.”
Outside the courthouse Tuesday morning, Marc Agnifilo, one of Combs’ attorneys said, Combs is innocent and would plead not guilty.
“He’s going to fight this with all of his energy and all of his might, and the full confidence of his lawyers,” Agnifilo told reporters. “And I expect a long battle with a good result for Mr. Combs.”
[…] At the news conference Tuesday, Williams, the U.S. attorney, said Combs had not acted alone and indicated it was possible others may still face charges. He said he could not specify how many people are believed to have been victimized by Combs but stressed that the investigation is active, and encouraged “anyone with information about this case to come forward and to do it quickly.”
“Combs has been charged with RICO conspiracy to use his business and employees of that business and other close associates to get his way,” Williams said. […]
Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana also repeatedly suggested the witness, a leading Arab American activist, supports Hamas even as she repeatedly denied it.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., repeatedly suggested a leading Arab American activist is a Hamas supporter when she testified Tuesday at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on hate crimes, and he told her she should hide her “head in a bag.”
The activist, Maya Berry, said repeatedly that she did not support Hamas and was “disappointed” by the minuteslong exchange toward the end of a hearing called “A Threat to Justice Everywhere: Stemming the Tide of Hate Crimes in America.”
“You are the executive director of the Arab American Institute, are you not?” Kennedy said at the beginning of the exchange. She said she was and agreed with Kennedy that she is a Democratic activist.
“You support Hamas, do you not?” Kennedy asked, referring to the militant group behind the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel. The question prompted gasps and surprised laughs from the audience.
“Senator, oddly enough, I’m going to say thank you for that question, because it demonstrates the purpose of our hearing today in a very effective way,” Berry responded. Kennedy then cut her off and insisted he needed a yes-or-no answer. [video at the link]
“Hamas is a foreign terrorist organization that I do not support, but you asking the executive director of the Arab American Institute that question very much puts the focus on the issue of hate in our country,” Berry responded.
“I got your answer and I appreciate it. You support Hezbollah, too, don’t you?” Kennedy continued, referring to the Iran-backed militant group.
“I find this line of questioning extraordinarily disappointing,” she responded, before Kennedy said, “Is that a no?”
“I don’t support violence, whether it’s Hezbollah or Hamas or any other entity that invokes it, so no, sir,” she said.
“You just can’t bring yourself to say no, can you? Kennedy said. “You just can’t do it.”
He then asked her whether she supported Iran and “their hatred of Jews,” and she again said no.
He then noted her previous criticism of Congress for cutting funding to a United Nations agency known as UNWRA that is doing relief work for Palestinian refugees amid allegations a dozen of its 30,000 workers were involved in the Oct. 7 attack. The workers were fired.
Berry said she stands by her comments and supports UNRWA’s relief work.
“Let me ask one more time, you support Hamas, don’t you?” Kennedy pressed.
“I think it’s exceptionally disappointing you’re looking at an Arab American witness before you and saying you support Hamas. I do not support Hamas,” she said.
“You know what’s disappointing to me? You can’t bring yourself to say don’t support UNWRA, you don’t support Hamas, you don’t support Hezbollah and you don’t support Iran. You should hide your head in a bag,” he concluded, to gasps and yells from the audience.
In her opening statement, Berry said hate crimes in the country typically follow anti-immigrant rhetoric and noted that there was a surge of hate crimes against Arab, Muslim and Jewish Americans since the Oct. 7 attack.
Asked by Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin, D-Ill., whether she had anything she wanted to say after the Kennedy exchange, Berry said, “It’s regrettable that I, as I sit here, have experienced the very issue that we’re attempting to deal with today.
[…] Judiciary Democrats chastised Kennedy for his remarks later Tuesday on social media.
“Political leaders must not fan the flames of hatred and division,” Durbin said on X. “Jewish, Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian Americans *all* deserve to be safe.”
Kennedy’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Four people—one police officer, two civilians and the suspect—were hospitalized […] The suspect […] has more than 20 prior arrests and a significant history of mental illness, was shot multiple times. A 49-year-old man was also struck in the head and was listed in critical condition […] and a 26-year-old woman was grazed
[…]
two officers […] saw a man walk into the station and go through the gate without paying his fare. The officers then followed the suspect up three flights to the platform and asked him to stop, but he refused.
[…]
“[…] mutters the words ‘I’m going to kill you if you don’t stop following me,’ […] The officers are asking him to take his hands out of his pockets. They become aware that he has a knife in his pocket. […] ‘No, you’re going to have to shoot me.'”
[…]
“[…] One officer deploys his Taser. The Taser was ineffective. The second officer deploys his Taser. The Taser is ineffective. […] he draws his weapon, and both officers at this point fire.”
Police actually hadn’t called [the man’s mom] to tell her […] that her son was shot by police. She’d just gotten home […] to find an NYPD business card at her door.
[…]
policing the subways and policing fare evasion has been a huge focus for New York City mayor Eric Adams and the police department. They’ve spent over 150 million more dollars on officer overtime. They’ve flooded the transit system with over a thousand more cops every day. Police are issuing tens of thousands more criminal summons than they used to for people who don’t pay their subway fare under our mayor and are making more arrests.
birgerjohanssonsays
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
“A Note To Gun Owners | Trump Attacks David Muir | Why J.D. Vance Lied About Springfield, OH”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=VuBKGZxgf8Q
Trump WON’T STOP Pushing Pet Eating Lies, Oprah Surprises Audience
and Clooney and Pitt help Jimmy
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=_RTiD4dqZDs
The first minute is confusing.
Donald Trump Jr. and real estate developer and landlord Steve Witkoff, both of whom are also involved in World Liberty Financial, framed the project as a way of helping underserved and unbanked communities.
If the US really wants to help underbanked communities I’d suggest a) restoring postal banking and b) getting rid of DeJoy so he can’t fuck it up.
Underbanked communities need crypto snake-oil like they need a hole in the head.
Trump couldn’t explain them either. He just immediately changed the subject: “It’s crypto, it’s AI, it’s some of the other things, you know, AI, speaking of an interesting future, it needs tremendous energy capability, beyond anything I’ve ever heard…” Crypto and AI are two different things, hopefully needless to say. [Clear as mud, as is usual with Trump.]
A bit of a stopped-clock moment for Trump there, though, as both crypto and AI are real gas-guzzlers.
Reginald Selkirk@260
Trump makes pitch to NY voters: ‘What the hell do you have to lose?’
Democracy, the rule of law, the make-up of the courts for a generation, health care, personal rights, economic stability, …
Not to mention the Lower East Side.
How much sea level rise gets locked in again, if the party of drill, baby, drill regains the WH?
With seven rebounds in Tuesday’s 85-72 win over the Seattle Storm, A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces surpassed injured Chicago Sky rookie Angel Reese for the WNBA’s single-season rebounding record.
Last week, Wilson broke the WNBA’s single-season scoring record, and on Sunday she became the first player in league history to reach 1,000 points in a single season…
Which means she also set (extended?) the record for total points in a season last night as well.
As it stands:
WNBA record for total points in a season: 1021
WNBA record for rebounds in a season: 451
But those numbers won’t stand for long, because the Aces play again Thursday night.
Ukrainian drones struck a large military depot in a town deep inside Russia overnight, causing a huge blaze and prompting the evacuation of some local residents, a Ukrainian official and Russian news reports said Wednesday.,,
Ukraine claimed the strike destroyed Russian military warehouses in Toropets, a town in Russia’s Tver region about 380 kilometers (240 miles) northwest of Moscow and about 500 kilometers (300 miles) from the border with Ukraine…
birgerjohanssonsays
The Tonight Show
Trump Threatens Lawsuit to Challenge Mail-in Ballots, 8-Year-Old Girl Drives herself to Target
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=n5Jo90PYoCM
Jeez, Merica has too many evening shows for me to keep track of them! I thought this was Jimmy Kimmel but this is J. Fallon.
It currently looks like the Riot & Corruption party will get 51 senators and be able to sabotage the senate, but Ted Cruz and Rick Scott do not quite have the margins they would like.
Amber Ruffin and Roy Wood Jr in the American version of ‘Have I Got News for You’. 🙂
“Who Has George R.R. Martin Offended?” | Have I Got News for You US
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=f4bt8imTe4o
I also recommend you check out the Brit version, even if not all the participants are known to you.
BB @278: “If the US really wants to help underbanked communities I’d suggest a) restoring postal banking and b) getting rid of DeJoy so he can’t fuck it up.”
I agree. Postal banking is a good idea, and it would serve a lot of rural communities really well, not to mention banking deserts in some inner city locations.
Those looking for evidence of Russia targeting U.S. elections, hoping to return Donald Trump to power, don’t have to look very hard. NBC News reported:
Russian disinformation peddlers are producing videos targeting the Harris-Walz campaign with false and disparaging claims, Microsoft said Tuesday. At least three Russian disinformation actors have been working to denigrate the Harris-Walz campaign, Microsoft said. One is a “marketing” firm that the Justice Department indicted this month, while Microsoft identified the other two only by pseudonyms.
If it seems like this is the latest installment in a series, it’s not your imagination. Microsoft’s findings about Russian disinformation peddlers trying to help the Trump campaign came five days after Matthew Olsen, the head of the Justice Department’s national security division, warned that foreign interference in the 2024 election posed a “clear and present danger” — and he singled out Russian efforts to help the Republican Party’s national ticket.
Six days earlier, a senior official with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence conducted a briefing on Vladimir Putin’s government and the Kremlin’s covert efforts to put Trump back in the White House. The day before that, the Justice Department indicted a contributor to a Russian state-run TV channel, charging him with violating U.S. sanctions and money laundering. The defendant, Dmitri Simes, also worked as an advisor to Trump’s 2016 campaign.
That same week, the public learned that federal prosecutors also accused employees of the Russia-backed media network RT of funding and directing a scheme that sent millions of dollars to prominent right-wing commentators through Tenet Media, a leading platform for pro-Trump commentary. (The commentators have denied any wrongdoing and characterized themselves as “victims.”)
There’s no shortage of relevant angles to developments such as these, but on Capitol Hill, some Democrats are asking a good question: Does House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan care about any of this? One House Democrat in particular issued a press release along these lines last week.
[Monday, Sept. 9], Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett (D-VI), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, wrote to Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) demanding an investigation into the Department of Justice’s recent announcement that it has indicted Russian actors attempting to interfere in the United States Presidential elections.
In her written appeal, Plaskett told Jordan, “I understand that it may be difficult for you and Committee Republicans to resist looking the other way when it comes to Russian efforts to bolster Donald Trump’s candidacy. While this approach may be politically expedient for your party in the short-term, it will lead to severe consequences to the future of our democracy.
“We should all agree that any foreign interference, regardless of which political party benefits, is reprehensible and cannot be tolerated. I hope that you honor the solemn oath you took to defend the United States Constitution, from all enemies, foreign and domestic, and that you will join me showing Russia, Iran, China and all other world countries that we are united in our resolve that Americans, not foreign actors, will determine the next leader of our great country.”
As best as I can tell, the letter did not spur Jordan into action. On the contrary, the day after Plaskett made her case, Jordan sat down with media personality Benny Johnson — one of the commentators who allegedly benefited from the Russian payment scheme exposed by the Justice Department.
The thing to remember about Donald Trump’s tax plans: They’re not actual tax plans. They’re desperate grunts, blurted out without forethought or vetting.
Two weeks before the 2018 midterm elections, Donald Trump seemed to realize that his party was poised to suffer significant losses. The then-president, however, thought he could stem the tide with a new idea: He and congressional Republicans, Trump said two weeks before Election Day, were working “around the clock” on a new, “very major” tax cut, which would exclusively benefit the middle class.
The whole package would be ready, the then-president said, no later than Nov. 1 — five days before the midterms.
There was one rather dramatic flaw with Trump’s plan: It didn’t exist. He’d simply made it up. In fact, the whole story was utterly bizarre: Lawmakers weren’t on Capitol Hill; literally no one was working on the issue; and even White House officials were “mystified” by Trump’s absurd declarations.
But the then-president seemed to be working from the assumption that voters would hear the words “tax cuts,” swoon reflexively and immediately reward GOP candidates with support. If that meant touting a plan that existed only in Trump’s imagination and lying brazenly to the nation, so be it.
All of this came to mind anew, nearly six years later, as the former president embraces similar tactics again. NBC News reported:
Donald Trump called for rolling back part of his signature tax law Tuesday, suggesting he would seek to reinstate the state and local tax deduction, commonly known as SALT, that he controversially capped in the 2017 legislation. In a Truth Social post ahead of his trip to New York’s Long Island, the former president wrote that he would “get SALT back” and “lower your Taxes” if he returns to the White House in January.
It’s worth emphasizing for context that many congressional Republicans have spent years trying to defend the policy that Trump signed into law. The former president just cut them off at the knees, announcing — with fewer than 50 days until Election Day 2024 — that he’s prepared to undo part of his own ineffective and unpopular tax law.
The NBC News report added that the GOP candidate, in his online message, “didn’t elaborate or get specific” […]
This week, Trump unveiled a new promise related to state and local tax deductions. It came on the heels of similar promises related to cutting taxes on overtime pay. Which came on the heels of similar promises related to cutting taxes on tips. Which came on the heels of similar promises related to cutting taxes on Social Security benefits. Which came on the heels of similar promises related to extending the tax breaks for the wealthy that he signed into law seven years ago.
How would these policies work? Trump doesn’t know. How much would these tax policies cost? Trump doesn’t know. Who’d benefit from the measures? Trump doesn’t know. Why didn’t he pursue any of this during his four-year term in the White House? Trump doesn’t know.
The former president doesn’t have answers to any of these questions because — and this is the important part — they’re not actual tax policies.
[…] The Republican nominee is just throwing random tax-cut ideas at a wall, hoping they’ll make him more popular. What voters are witnessing are the desperate ploys of a candidate who (a) has no strategy to repair his campaign; (b) assumes voters will hear the phrase “tax cut” and respond in some kind of Pavlovian way; and (c) can’t even pretend to know or care about governing.
As for the price tags, a recent New York Times report noted that Trump is “seeking to extend tax cuts he signed into law in 2017, a move that could cost roughly $4 trillion over a decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Ending taxes on Social Security benefits could cost roughly $1.6 trillion over a decade, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, and plans to cut the corporate tax rate and end taxes on tips would cost hundreds of billions more.”
Meanwhile, scrapping taxes on overtime pay would, by some estimates, cost roughly $1.1 trillion over 10 years, and the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget projected that eliminating the SALT cap would raise the cost of extending the 2017 tax law by $1.2 trillion.
Trump is simultaneously assuring voters that he’ll be able to shrink the budget deficit because, sure, why not.
That was Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein’s answer when asked how many House members are in Congress. It’s 435.
But you know what legislature has around 600 members? Russia’s. Her answer is a fitting response since she continues to do Russia’s dirty work by eating into Democrats’ margins on the left and bolstering yet another Donald Trump candidacy.
There are myriad reasons 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton lost to Trump, and Stein is likely one of them. Clinton lost Pennsylvania by around 44,000 votes, while Stein garnered about 50,000. Clinton lost Wisconsin by roughly 23,000 votes, Stein got just over 31,000. Clinton lost Michigan by less than 11,000, Stein got more than 51,000.
Of course, nothing suggests a Stein vote would have otherwise been a lock for Clinton, and Trump lost more votes to the Libertarian candidate, but Stein was certainly a contributing factor to Clinton’s loss. She vociferously argued that Clinton would be far more dangerous than Trump, saying, “Donald Trump, I think, will have a lot of trouble moving things through Congress. Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, won’t. … Hillary has the potential to do a whole lot more damage, get us into more wars faster, to pass her fracking disastrous climate program, much more easily than Donald Trump could do his.”
Turns out, Trump didn’t need to move much through Congress to have a disastrous effect on the country. His unserious handling of the COVID-19 pandemic almost certainly cost thousands of Americans their lives. Yet, despite all that happened after Trump’s win, Stein remained unapologetic.
That makes sense, however, given that getting Trump elected may very well have been the point of her presidential run. We all know just how secretive and protective Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is, so the picture below is noteworthy. [Photo at the link]
The photo was taken in December 2015, when Stein joined Putin at dinner celebrating the 10th anniversary of Russian propaganda outlet RT. Joining them at their table were retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who would go on to become a Trump national security adviser and, even later, to plead guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with a Russian diplomat. Flynn was paid $45,000 by the Russians to speak at the event depicted in the photo. Stein also spoke.
Seated to Stein’s left in the photo was Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, and the table also included Putin’s chief of staff and deputy chief of staff. It was an all-star table, with Stein smiling and apparently happy to bask in the presence of the murderous madman, fresh off his deadly seizure of Crimea and the Donbas in Ukraine. It was true to form for Stein, who is also an apologist for Syria’s mass-murdering dictator Bashar al-Assad.
To this very day, Stein is still unable or unwilling to criticize Putin. [video at the link]
Watch the clip and marvel at Stein’s unraveling as she claims that criticizing a foreign leader was somehow unseemly as a presidential candidate despite her comfort about calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a war criminal. Host Mehdi Hasan didn’t let her get away with it, making it clear that either she could criticize both as war criminals, or neither if it was somehow against the rules to criticize foreign leaders (a ridiculous assertion in its own right).
The bottom line here is that she went to embarrassing pains to ensure the words “Putin is a war criminal” never passed her lips despite that Putin has quite literally been indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
What’s lost in all of this is what the Green Party is supposed to be doing: building power and credibility. […] Stein’s Green Party isn’t even pretending, though. It seems to prefer to remain a vehicle for Stein’s kamikaze presidential runs, all in service to Putin and the Republican Party.
[snipped details of AOC posting criticism of Stein]
The Green Party isn’t growing under Stein. At the end of 2022, 234,120 people were registered as Green Party members, or 0.19% of all Americans. (Remember that when Stein and her lackeys cry about their lack of media attention or access to the debates.) But in 2004, there were 298,701 Greens, meaning that Stein’s party is moving backward despite population growth and the rise of alternative media outlets.
The DNC is also clapped back at Stein as well. “Jill Stein is a useful idiot for Russia. After parroting Kremlin talking points and being propped up by bad actors in 2016 she’s at it again,” DNC spokesman Matt Corridoni told The Bulwark. “Jill Stein won’t become president, but her spoiler candidacy—that both the GOP and Putin have previously shown interest in—can help decide who wins. A vote for Stein is a vote for Trump.”
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, with his impeccable progressive credentials, has been equally harsh on Stein, tweeting, “She shows up every 4 years making lavish promises but has no record of producing anything except Republican victories.” […]
YouTube link to Pete Buttigieg breaking down Donald Trump and JD Vance’s ugly campaign.
Commentary from Walter Einenkel:
Donald Trump and running mate JD Vance’s insistence on pushing a racist lie about Haitian immigrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, has succeeded in centering the Republican campaign in the news media.
The Bulwark’s Jonathan Last described the tactic as a way of reinserting Trump as the “main character” in the election cycle, pulling media attention away from the enthusiasm and successes of Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg described a similar idea on NBC’s “Meet the Press” this past Sunday, calling the right’s racist fabrications “part of the strategy from a campaign that wants to talk about anything but their actual record and their actual agenda.”
“Obviously, [Trump and Vance] don’t want to be talking about the particulars of the Trump-Vance health care plan, because they don’t have one. They have this so-called ‘concept of a plan’ that they keep saying is around the corner,” Buttigieg said. “He’s been saying that, I think, for nine years. So they need to get us talking about something else. The crazier the better. And they go for something that is so outrageous that you actually can’t ignore it.” […]
Israel’s Mossad spy agency planted a small amount of explosives inside 5,000 Taiwan-made pagers ordered by Lebanese group Hezbollah months before Tuesday’s detonations, a senior Lebanese security source and another source told Reuters. […]
The senior Lebanese security source said the group had ordered 5,000 beepers made by Taiwan-based Gold Apollo, which several sources say were brought into the country earlier this year.
The senior Lebanese security source identified a photograph of the model of the pager, an AP924, which like other pagers wirelessly receive and display text messages but cannot make telephone calls.
Hezbollah fighters have been using pagers as a low-tech means of communication in an attempt to evade Israeli location-tracking, two sources familiar with the group’s operations told Reuters this year.
But the senior Lebanese source said the devices had been modified by Israel’s spy service “at the production level.”
“The Mossad injected a board inside of the device that has explosive material that receives a code. It’s very hard to detect it through any means. Even with any device or scanner,” the source said.
The source said 3,000 of the pagers exploded when a coded message was sent to them, simultaneously activating the explosives.
Another security source told Reuters that up to three grams of explosives were hidden in the new pagers and had gone “undetected” by Hezbollah for months.
The pagers were made by a Hungarian company which licensed the Taiwanese company’s brand.
———————–
According to The Guardian the Hungarian firm claims to be an intermediary so it still isn’t clear where the pagers were manufactured.
———————–
The pager thing smacks of escalation. The exact thing the U.S. has been warning Israel about since last October.
———————–
Bibi Netanyahu is the worst thing to happen to Israel in decades politically
————————
pager drama isn’t going to sink an Asian tiger. That’s through the roof ignorant. Taiwan is one of the most potent import / export economies on planet Earth.
birgerjohanssonsays
Another horrible film dissected by God Awful Movies
“GAM 474 God’s Not Dead 5: In God We Trust”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=XA2NV-qest4
Davd E. R. Wright keeps ageing. And this film arrived two days after the Trump-Harris debate. And the third act consists of a debate…
[…] Trump spoke with Sanders, who has emerged as a popular surrogate for the former president, for an event in Flint [Michigan] in the heart of a key battleground state.
[…] It marked the second time since July that Trump has been targeted by a gunman, following an assassination attempt in Butler, Pa.
“Only consequential presidents get shot at,” Trump said Tuesday.
[…] “If I don’t win, you will have no auto industry within two to three years. It will all be gone,” Trump claimed.
He later called Michigan “an afterthought in cars.”
“If a tragedy happens and we don’t win, there will be zero car jobs, manufacturing jobs. It will all be out of here,” he added.
[… Data from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics shows that roughly 8,800 auto and parts manufacturing jobs were lost under Trump’s first term, while that sector added about 128,000 jobs during the Biden administration.
The United Auto Workers leadership has endorsed Vice President Harris in November’s election.
[…] “The fake news likes to say, ‘Oh he was rambling.’ No, no — that’s not rambling. That’s genius,” Trump said of his own comments. “When you can connect the dots. Now, Sarah, if you couldn’t connect the dots, you got a problem. But every dot was connected. And many stories were told in that little paragraph.”
[…] Trump was adamant that the biggest threat to the public was not climate change, something Democrats have described as an existential issue, but nuclear warfare that could wipe out civilization.
“Not that the ocean is going to rise in 400 years an eighth of an inch, and you’ll have more seafront property if that happens,” Trump said. “I said, ‘Is that good or bad?’ I said, ‘Isn’t that a good thing if I have a little property on the ocean?’ I have a little bit more property. I have a little bit more ocean.”
Trump needled the idea that experts and lawmakers refer to it as “climate change” after it was previously called “global warming.”
“These people. I don’t know if they’re for real,” Trump said. “But if they’re not, they’re covered by the words climate change. If it gets hotter that’s good, if it gets hotter that’s good. Global warming wasn’t working so well.”
[…] The Arkansas governor introduced Trump by speaking about her kids and how they keep her “humble.”
“Unfortunately, Kamala Harris doesn’t have anything keeping her humble,” Sanders said. “You would think after four years of straight failure, she would know a little humility. Unfortunately she doesn’t.”
Sanders later described being a mom as “maybe the only job harder than being president of the United States.” And she vowed the women of the country “are going to make sure we do our part” to put Trump back in the White House. […]
Trump Has Good Answer About Food Prices, It Is Farmers With Tears In Their Eyes Saying ‘Sir!’ And Windmills
Sanewash this, New York Times. LOL, you probably already did.
We don’t often do this, just copy down a Donald Trump answer and call it a post. But remember a couple weeks ago when Trump answered a question about “child care” and the New York Times and others said Trump had given an answer about “child care,” when in reality had he said “Person Woman Man Grief Bacon” for two solid minutes […]
After that, an extended conversation on the media “sanewashing Trump” ensued.
Last night, Trump did a town hall with Sarah Huckabee Sanders, in Flint, Michigan, we guess because that’s an important gubernatorial duty for Sanders, the governor of Arkansas.
NBC News’s Sahil Kapur tweeted the transcript to Trump’s answer to a question about “bring down grocery and food prices.” [Screengrab available at the link]
Let’s take a closer look:
QUESTION: How are you going to bring down the cost of food and groceries?
TRUMP: So we have to start always with energy. Always. I don’t want to be boring about it but there’s no bigger subject. It covers everything. If you make donuts, if you make cars, whatever you make, energy’s a big deal. And we’re gonna get that it’s my ambition to get your energy bill within 12 months down 50 percent. If I can do that we’ve done a hell of a job. 5-0. Not 15, 50. Interest rates are going to follow. And actually they’re going to follow for another reason. The economy is now not good. And interest rates — you’ll see, they’ll do the rate cut and all the political stuff tomorrow. Will he do half a point, will he do a quarter of a point. But the reason is because the economy’s not good. Otherwise you wouldn’t be able to do it. But we’re gonna get interest rates down. And we gotta work with our farmers. Our farmers are being decimated right now. They’re being absolutely, absolutely decimated. And one of the reasons is we allow a lot of farm product into our country. We’re gonna have to be a little bit like other countries. We’re not gonna allow so much come we’re gonna let our farmers go to work. And I don’t know if you remember. I love the farmers. Because I had many meetings as president. I had this gorgeous room with this beautiful table that seats about 35 people. And I was with the farmers. Usually everybody wants something. They all want subsidy. But I was with the farmers. And I think you might’ve been there actually Sarah. I said look, we’re gonna get you such a beautiful subsidy, meaning I’m gonna do things. And one of the people raised his hand, ‘Sir, honestly, we don’t want a subsidy.’ That’s the first time that’s ever happened to me! Everyone wants — they want money, they want to build windmills, we want money for these windmills, ay-yai-yai. Anyway. But you know what? It was amazing. He said, almost tears in his eyes, they were getting decimated. ‘We don’t want a subsidy. We just want a fair level playing field.’ And I said nobody’s ever said that. And I have many industries, they do all different things. It’s probably the most dramatic I’ve ever seen. He didn’t want anything. All he wanted was to be able to compete fairly. And the problem we have is other countries, they treat us very badly in that way, also. They really are. And sometimes the worst countries are our so-called allies. I say so-called because in many ways they’re not allies at all. They take advantage of us. They really take advantage. But we’re gonna do with the farmers, we’re gonna do what we have to do with the farmers, we’re gonna put our farmers and do you remember the expression? When I was negotiating with China, China said well we’re not gonna deal with this. Because they never had anybody to negotiate. They did whatever they want. They just took us, like, for a bunch of suckers. But I told the farmers it’s gonna be very good negotiators, you’re gonna suffer for six months and then they’re gonna fold. And that’s exactly what happened… So interest rates, energy and common sense.
The question, again, was “how to get grocery and food prices down.” Instead we got an extended sir story with farmers, replete with tears in their eyes, and Trump complaining […] The rest is just babbling.
We’d say something like “Sanewash that, New York Times,” but we are sure their political journalism department is already busy turning it into an Emily Dickinson poem and deciding which reporter is assigned to marvel at it.
Hey, at least Grandpa Treason knows farmers are where the food comes from!
Since Trump’s answer about food and groceries was so laser-focused on energy prices, here is Trump bragging at the same event about how “we have Bagram in Alaska.” You know, for drilling. “They say it might be bigger than all of Saudi Arabia, I got it approved, nobody could get it done, Ronald Reagan couldn’t get it done, in their first week, they terminated it.”
They terminated Bagram, in Alaska, he said.
Bagram is an Air Force Base in Afghanistan. It is not as big as Saudi Arabia.
Trump is probably talking about ANWR, which sounds nothing like “Bagram.”
It is not as big as Saudi Arabia.
They don’t say it might be bigger than Saudi Arabia, because it isn’t.
In another answer, Trump babbled about how he’s going to put a 200 percent tariff on cars made in Chinese factories in Mexico. […] there are no Chinese auto plants in Mexico [embedded link to a good source is available at the main link in comment 302].
So not only does Dementia McGillicuddy not understand how tariffs work, he’s hallucinating imaginary Chinese car factories. The Trump campaign even tweeted that clip, like it wasn’t absolutely humiliating.
Sure, MAGA. Keep telling the American people they can’t see Trump’s age-related senility racing at him like an 18-wheeler. Tell them their eyes are lying to them.
You betcha.
Posted by a reader of the article:
Am I reading that right? The Fed will lower rates now because the economy is so bad, and/but when Trump is president, they’ll lower rates a whole lot more, you’re welcome.
Mortgage rates came down again last week, and with the expectation that they could fall further, mortgage demand suddenly jumped, especially for refinancing.
The Federal Reserve is expected to make its first interest rate cut in four years on Wednesday, and while mortgage rates don’t follow the Fed exactly, they are influenced by policy. It is likely they will move on Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s remarks following the decision.
“The most important takeaway is that lower mortgage rates are not only not remotely guaranteed by [the] Fed rate cut. They’re actually already baked in,” wrote Matthew Graham, chief operating officer at Mortgage News Daily. “The directionality depends on the dot plot and Powell’s comments in the press conference. Things could go either way and the volatility could be significant.”
Total mortgage application volume rose 14.2% last week compared with the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index. Last week’s results included an adjustment for the Labor Day holiday.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances of $766,550 or less decreased to 6.15% from 6.29%, with points increasing to 0.56 from 0.55, including the origination fee, for loans with a 20% down payment. That is the lowest rate since September 2022 and is 116 basis points lower than it was the same week one year ago. […]
According to the city manager in Springfield, Ohio, JD Vance knew the truth about Haitian immigrants.
It was early last week when Sen. JD Vance turned to social media to tout a conspiracy theory that was ugly, false, and racist in equal measure. The Republican senator specifically argued online that there were “reports” that “showed” Haitian immigrants abducting and eating household pets in Springfield, Ohio.
We now know, of course, that these offensive claims were ridiculously untrue, but new reporting from The Wall Street Journal appears to shed new light on how Vance amplified the lie.
City Manager Bryan Heck fielded an unusual question at City Hall on the morning of Sept. 9, from a staff member of Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance. The staffer called to ask if there was any truth to bizarre rumors about Haitian immigrants and pets in Springfield. “He asked point-blank, ‘Are the rumors true of pets being taken and eaten?’” recalled Heck. “I told him no. There was no verifiable evidence or reports to show this was true. I told them these claims were baseless.”
Before we proceed, let’s pause to acknowledge an important problem: Vance and his team didn’t pursue matters in the proper order. The GOP senator lent his support to the racist conspiracy theory, then a member of his team set out to determine whether Vance was telling the truth.
Ordinarily, responsible officials — especially those seeking national office — try to learn facts first, not second.
Nevertheless, the local city manager told Team Vance the truth, at which point the senator, Donald Trump, and their 2024 operation decided to repeat the lie anyway, even during a nationally televised presidential debate.
On CNN’s “State of the Union” this past weekend, Vance defended himself by claiming, “[A]ll that I have done is surface the complaints of my constituents.” Except, the Wall Street Journal reporting puts this in a new light: The Republican vice presidential nominee amplified falsehoods, set out to learn the truth, discovered that the claims were baseless, and then continued to echo the lie.
Wait, it gets worse.
Vance could’ve helped put out the fire he helped start. He also could’ve shifted his attention elsewhere and allowed the fire to burn out. But as recently as this week, a spokesperson for the senator provided the Wall Street Journal with a police report in which a Springfield resident had claimed her pet might have been taken by Haitian neighbors. The WSJ’s article added:
But when a reporter went to Anna Kilgore’s house Tuesday evening, she said her cat Miss Sassy, which went missing in late August, had actually returned a few days later — found safe in her own basement. Kilgore, wearing a Trump shirt and hat, said she apologized to her Haitian neighbors with the help of her daughter and a mobile-phone translation app.
This struck me as amazing for a few reasons, including the fact that eight days after Vance’s initial tweet, in the midst of the senator’s own scandal, his office is still, even now, actively trying to pretend that his lie had merit.
What’s more, this anecdote pointed to a local woman who made a false claim, realized she’s made a mistake, and then apologized to her neighbors. Or put another way, she showed the kind of decency and maturity that Vance and Trump have so far refused to even consider.
Hadley Duvall, a 22-year-old woman who was raped and impregnated by her stepfather when she was 12, shares her horrific experiences in a new ad from the Harris campaign. (Note, the music in the background comes by way of pop star Billie Eilish, who endorsed the vice president this week.)
* Democrats reclaimed their narrow majority in the Pennsylvania state House this week with two special election victories in the Philadelphia area.
* Two failed Republican presidential candidates announced new jobs in media this week. Vivek Ramaswamy will anchor a program on the Fox Nation streaming service, while Nikki Haley will host a weekly podcast that will air on SiriusXM through Inauguration Day.
Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana attacked a witness at a hearing on hate crimes using a line of racist questioning so vile that it could serve as a handbook for why hate crime legislation is necessary. In a string of sneering statements, Kennedy accused Maya Berry—the executive director of the Arab American Institute—of supporting terrorists, then refused to allow her to respond, then ignored what she said as he continued the attack.
The hearing was meant to look at the rise in hate speech and reported hate crimes across the nation, including those directed at both Jewish and Muslim communities amid the latest war between Israel and Hamas. And Kennedy turned it into a live demonstration of how to increase the hate.
In a series of questions, the senator asked Berry if she supported Hamas. When she said she did not support Hamas and made it clear the question was offensive, Kennedy talked over her and went on as if she hadn’t provided a response. He then repeated this act with the militant group Hezbollah. And then Iran. Then with a United Nations program that Kennedy unfairly painted as supporting terrorists. [video at the link]
Kennedy began his time pointing out that Berry was a long-time Democratic Party activist and a member of the Democratic National Committee in 2016, which he seemed to think was a crime all on its own. Then he moved directly into the attack in a way that clearly shocked Berry.
Kennedy: You support Hamas, do you not?
Berry: I— Senator, oddly enough I’m going to say thank you for that question because it demonstrates the purpose for our hearing today. It—
Kennedy: Let’s start first with a yes or no.
Berry: Hamas is a foreign terrorist organization that I do not support. But you asking the executive director of the Arab American Institute that question very much puts the focus on the issue of hate in our country.
Kennedy: I got your answer, and I appreciate it. What is the, uh— You support Hezbollah too, don’t you?
While Berry responded to Kennedy’s disgusting remarks with the kind of steely grace that so many civil rights leaders have been forced to display over the decades, her treatment in the Senate chamber was shocking. That was especially true in Kennedy’s final moments.
Kennedy: Let me ask you one more time. You support Hamas, don’t you? You support UNRWA and Hamas, don’t you?
Berry: Sir, I think it’s exceptionally disappointing that you’re looking at an Arab American witness before you and saying, “You support Hamas.”
Kennedy: You know what’s disappointing to me—
Berry: I do not support Hamas. I do not support Hamas or any—
Kennedy: You can’t bring yourself to say you don’t support UNRWA, you don’t support support Hamas, you don’t support Hezbollah—
Berry: I was very clear in my support for UNRWA. I—
Kennedy: —and you don’t support Iran. You should hide your head in a bag.
UNRWA is the United Nations’ relief agency for Palestinian refugees. It’s in the middle of a vaccine drive after polio has made a reappearance among displaced Palestinians, and it has the primary responsibility for health care and food distribution in refugee camps. Berry has made clear she supports the efforts of UNRWA. Kennedy targeted the organization because Israel’s U.N. ambassador has claimed that UNRWA has ties to Hamas, which is widely disputed.
[…] Even though the purpose of the hearing, which Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin opened by giving examples of how hate crimes of all kinds were on the rise, several Republicans showed disdain for the hearing—and specifically for the idea that it should include concerns over hate speech against Arab Americans or Muslims. That included Sen. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina complaining that the hearing should be about only antisemitism and not “lumping” that problem in with any other.
But while others demonstrated the flippancy and contempt Republicans have repeatedly shown when discussing hate crimes, Kennedy’s performance went above and beyond in its shocking treatment of a witness and its reinforcement of exactly why hate is on the rise.
Despite appearances, Kennedy is not an idiot. His accent is heavily exaggerated. His cornpone manner is an act. His whole dumber-than-a-box-of-rocks schtick is the creation of an Oxford-educated multimillionaire who reinvented himself as an aw-shucks man of the people. He acts this way not because he’s a fool but because that’s what he thinks of his constituents.
Kennedy knew exactly what he was doing in that hearing. Which makes it infinitely worse.
Kennedy’s statement that Berry should “hide [her] head in a bag” came the same week that the Taliban began enforcing new draconian laws in Afghanistan requiring women to cover their faces in public. It sounds as if Kennedy would fit in much better there than in the United States Senate.
Emails reveal Georgia Election Integrity Coalition, a group of officials and election deniers, coordinating in swing state
Emails obtained by the Guardian reveal a behind-the-scenes network of county election officials throughout Georgia coordinating on policy and messaging to both call the results of November’s election into question before a single vote is cast, and push rules and procedures favored by the election denial movement.
The emails were obtained by the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (Crew) as a result of a public records request sent to David Hancock, an election denier and member of the Gwinnett county board of elections. Crew shared the emails with the Guardian.
Spanning a period beginning in January, the communications expose the inner workings of a group that includes some of the most ardent supporters of the former president Donald Trump’s election lies as well as ongoing efforts to portray the coming election as beset with fraud. […]
The communications include correspondence from a who’s who of Georgia election denialists, including officials with ties to prominent national groups such as the Tea Party Patriots and the Election Integrity Network, a group run by Cleta Mitchell, a former attorney who acted as an informal adviser to the Trump White House during its attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
The group – which includes elections officials from at least five counties – calls itself the Georgia Election Integrity Coalition.
[…] Receiving the email [claiming that Democrats were trying to intimidate election officials!] were a handful of county election officials who have expressed belief in Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen election in 2020, and have continued to implement policies and push for rules based on the belief that widespread election fraud threatens to result in a Trump loss in Georgia in November. They include Michael Heekin, a Republican member of the Fulton county board of elections who refused to certify results this year; his colleague Julie Adams, who has twice refused to certify results this year and works for the prominent national election denier groups Tea Party Patriots and the Election Integrity Network; and Debbie Fisher of Cobb county, Nancy Jester of DeKalb county and Roy McClain of Spalding county – all of whom refused to certify results last November and who received the letter Hancock took issue with.
[…] Democrats and election experts have cited Georgia court cases dating back to 1899 dictating certification as a “ministerial”, not discretionary, duty of county election officials. At a Monday gathering of state-level election officials from several swing states, Gabe Sterling, a deputy to the Georgia secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, warned county election officials that they could be taken to court for refusing to certify results in November.
The communications also show members of the group coordinating on messaging regarding their false claims of widespread voter fraud. […]
The group has heard from speakers at their meetings that include the state election board member Dr Janice Johnston, an election denier who smiled and waved to the crowd at Trump’s 3 August rally in Atlanta in which he praised her and two other Republicans on the board as “pit bulls” “fighting for victory”. [snipped details of others involved]
Another meeting speaker was Salleigh Grubbs, the chair of the Cobb county Republican party, who successfully petitioned the state election board to adopt a rule that gives county election officials more power to refuse to certify election results. [snipped details of others involved]
The emails back up previously released emails showing Hancock coordinating with Johnston on two rules passed by the state election board that give county election officials more power to refuse to certify results, as well as ongoing voter purges that Democrats have said are a violation of the National Voter Registration Act. […]
Another open letter from Republicans endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris‘ presidential bid just dropped.
This one, first reported by the New York Times, is signed by 111 former national security and foreign policy officials who worked under former presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush—and, yes, Trump himself.
The blistering letter characterizes Trump as “unfit to serve,” alleging that he “cannot be trusted” to uphold the Constitution. The signatories include onetime Republican stalwarts such as Charles Boustany, the Louisiana congressman who gave the party’s rebuttal to former President Obama’s speech to Congress about healthcare reform; William Cohen, Secretary of Defense in the Clinton administration and former Senator from Maine; General Michael Hayden, CIA and National Security Agency director under Obama and George W. Bush; and Miles Taylor, former chief of staff in the Department of Homeland Security under Trump.
The group writes that they “firmly oppose” Trump’s reelection, alleging that “as President, he promoted daily chaos in government, praised our enemies and undermined our allies, politicized the military and disparaged our veterans, prioritized his personal interest above American interests, and betrayed our values, democracy, and this country’s founding documents.” The letter also states that “by inciting the violent attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021 and defending those who committed it, he has violated his oath of office and brought danger to our country.”
Like Harris mentioned in last week’s debate, the supporters also write that Trump is susceptible “to flattery and manipulation by Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping,” and that that, along with his “contempt for the norms of decent, ethical and lawful behavior” and “chaotic national security decision-making,” are “dangerous qualities.”
By contrast, they write, “Vice President Harris has demonstrated a commitment to upholding the ideals that define our nation freedom, democracy, and rule of law,” citing her experience as Vice President, Attorney General of California, and serving on the Senate Intelligence Committee. […]
The group acknowledges that while they have concerns “about some of the positions advocated by the left wing of the Democratic party…any potential concerns pale in comparison to Donald Trump’s demonstrated chaotic and unethical behavior and disregard for our Republic’s time-tested principles of constitutional governance.” […]
hundreds of other high-ranking onetime Republican officials—including ex-Reagan, Bush, Romney, and McCain staffers—have also publicly endorsed Harris over Trump, and urged other Republicans to follow their lead when they cast their votes. The Harris campaign has also been actively courting Republicans in what it calls “a campaign within a campaign.” This concerted effort to reach across the aisle is likely part of why a slate of new polls out today bring good news for Harris, showing her leading in the swing states of Pennsylvania and Michigan and gaining a six-point lead over Trump since the debate. […]
The Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 50 basis points Wednesday, the central bank’s first rate reduction following a two-and-a-half year crusade against inflation that raged in the wake of the pandemic.
The new federal funds rate is 4.75 percent to 5 percent, a jumbo rate cut that signals the Fed’s confidence that its war against inflation is coming to an end. […]
Republican Springfield Mayor Invites Trump And Vance to Stay TF Out Of His Town
Rob Rue, the mayor of Springfield, Ohio, who at least seems like a nice man who cares about the people of his town, said yesterday afternoon as delicately as possible that Donald Trump is welcome to keep his racist ass out of his city, which is dealing with the consequences of Trump and JD Vance’s Nazi blood libel campaign to hurt the Haitian community of Springfield and, by extension, all non-white immigrants and non-white non-immigrants everywhere. (Wonkette did not paraphrase it delicately.)
“It would be an extreme strain on our resources. So it’d be fine with me if they decided not to make that visit,” Mayor Rob Rue said at a news conference at City Hall.
It would be fine with him.
We guess he didn’t word it that delicately, on second thought.
NBC News had reportedly previously that Trump was planning to bring his anti-immigrant […] dog-and-pony traveling roadshow to Springfield “soon.” Maybe the Trump campaign is worried the town hasn’t fully been overrun by Nazi riots yet.
Republican Ohio Governor Mike DeWine also would love to see Donald Trump, really, but you know how resources are these days:
DeWine said a campaign visit from a presidential candidate is “generally very, very welcomed,” but he acknowledged that it would pose challenges.
“I have to state the reality, though, that resources are really, really stretched here,” he said.
Reached for comment, one of Trump’s white spokespeople blabbed some racist anti-immigrant bullshit about the “very real problems plaguing the residents of Springfield, OH.” (That’s not an accidental verb.) JD Vance says he’s not planning to go to Springfield, but he knows Trump wants to.
Vivek Ramaswamy is going to have a town hall in Springfield on Thursday for some reason, though. Bless that guy’s heart, always thinking somebody wants him somewhere.
In related news, the Wall Street Journal is out with a long piece today on how Donald and JD Vance were clearly informed that right-wing Nazi rumors about migrants stealing and eating pets weren’t true, how they had adequate time to change their messaging, or delete their earlier tweets, or not yell “THEY’RE EATING THE CATS” during presidential debates, but they just didn’t fucking care. [See comment 305]
[…] WSJ has its own quote from that Republican Springfield mayor:
“We have told those at the national level that they are speaking these things that are untrue,” added Springfield Mayor Rob Rue, a registered Republican. But he said claims have been “repeated and doubled down on.”
[…] Of course, Vance is currently right this second gleefully still lying about it, just like the little Nazi he is. Here is a long block quote of Vance’s latest claims, followed by facts, from Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper:
A Vance spokesperson on Tuesday provided The Wall Street Journal with a police report in which a resident had claimed her pet might have been taken by Haitian neighbors. But when a reporter went to Anna Kilgore’s house Tuesday evening, she said her cat Miss Sassy, which went missing in late August, had actually returned a few days later—found safe in her own basement.
Kilgore, wearing a Trump shirt and hat, said she apologized to her Haitian neighbors with the help of her daughter and a mobile-phone translation app.
Vance has also added to his claims about Haitians, saying on social media that communicable diseases have been on the rise in Springfield because of the Haitian migration.
Information from the county health department, however, shows a decrease in infectious disease cases countywide, with 1,370 reported in 2023—the lowest since 2015. The tuberculosis case numbers in the county are so low (four in 2023, three in 2022, one in 2021) that any little movement can bring a big percentage jump. HIV cases did increase to 31 in 2023, from 17 in 2022 and 12 in 2021. Overall, sexually transmitted infection cases decreased to 965 in 2023, the lowest since 2015.
Like JD Vance said: He’s willing to make up whatever stories he needs to make up to keep people focused on hating immigrants as much as he and his boss Stupid Hitler hate immigrants.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory has decommissioned its Alpine storage system, a 250-petabyte storage system that held data for the Summit supercomputer and its other support systems. The Summit supercomputer, currently the world’s ninth-fastest supercomputer, will be retired on November 1st, but its aging Alpine storage didn’t survive that long…
The Alpine storage system held 250 petabytes of capacity inside 32,494 10TB NL-SAS drives. Made up of 77 IBM Elastic Storage Server (ESS) nodes, the system could have 2.2 TB/s random read and write speeds at its peak…
When the time came to dismantle Alpine, the ORNL team could fully dismantle the data servers in under two months, thanks to an industrial disk drive shredder. An outside vendor brought a mobile shredder, a four-foot-wide, three-horsepower unit that can eat one hard drive every 10 seconds. ORNL gives an estimated 12,000 clients access to Summit’s computing power, so data security was seen as essential…
Wireless communication devices have exploded again today across Lebanon in a second attack even deadlier than yesterday’s explosion of thousands of Hezbollah pagers. According to Lebanon’s Ministry of Health, the new attack has killed at least 14 more people and injured more than 450.
Today’s attack targeted two-way radios (“walkie-talkies”) issued to Hezbollah members. The radios exploded in the middle of the day, with at least one going off during a funeral for people killed in yesterday’s pager attacks…
Some X users in Brazil have said they can once again access the social media website, the BBC has learned.
This comes after the platform, formerly known as Twitter, was banned in the country on 31 August.
The change was made possible after the company, which is owned by tech billionaire Elon Musk, moved their service to servers hosted by Cloudflare, according to ABRINT, the country’s leading trade group for Internet Service Providers (ISP)…
It says the X app was updated overnight and the new software started using IP address linked through Cloudfare, which “makes app blocking much more complicated”.
“Unlike the previous system, which used specific, blockable IPs, the new system uses dynamic IPs that change constantly,” the news release states. “Many of these IPs are shared with other legitimate services, such as banks and large internet platforms, making it impossible to block an IP without affecting other services.”
In other words, he found a technical loophole, not a legal loophole. I expect this will result in more fines.
Re: Reginald Selkirk @ #316…
About the antibody that beats ALL COVID-19 variants… Note the end of the article…they’re going to patent the antibody. This raises two questions–for me, at least–first is, how can you patent a naturally occurring substance? Second, shouldn’t the person whose sample was used to find and isolate the antibody be able to insist on getting royalties…or even ownership of the patent?
I know some about the biology involved, but I know very little about intellectual property, so I won’t bother to fudge an answer. You probably know that those questions have come up before, most famously in the case of Henrietta Lacks.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Re: Bekenstein Bound @xxxii p7 #498:
Remind me again why that fuckheaded political hack DeJoy wasn’t fired way back in 2021
We answered, in brief, that the USPS is a quasi-private company, and so the Democrats don’t exactly have the power to can DeJoy at will. We also speculated that maybe the USPS Board of Governors believes DeJoy is not the problem. That prompted [a reader] to send us this piece from Time, which gives a fuller story.
According to Time, the fact that DeJoy is a Trump supporter and a target of, in particular, progressive ire, gives him a certain credibility with many Republican members of Congress. At the same time, he’s actually more interested in the task at hand than he is in advancing his own personal agenda. And so, in something that will come as a surprise to many readers, he’s become close working partners with… Chuck Schumer.
[…]
First, DeJoy lobbied aggressively for the Postal Service Reform Act, which got the votes of all Democrats, as well as 120 Republicans in the House and 29 in the Senate. […] DeJoy personally oversaw the logistics of delivering 500 million government-supplied COVID tests during the pandemic. And third, […] a plan by which the USPS’ entire fleet will be converted to electric in 4 years.
The article also has a lengthy discussion of what happened in 2020, arguing that it was the result of inexperience, not partisanship. […] it’s not so hard to understand why the Democrats are not at all eager to show DeJoy the door. They certainly aren’t going to find someone else who is willing to work with the blue team, but still has the ears of much of the red team.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
a federal antitrust lawsuit against six commercial publishers of academic journals, including Elsevier, Springer Nature, Taylor and Francis, Sage, Wiley, and Wolters Kluwer […] alleging that these publishers conspired to unlawfully appropriate billions of dollars that would otherwise have funded scientific research.
[…]
As the complaint notes, the three major elements of defendants’ scheme are each individually per se unlawful under Section 1 of the Sherman Act. NewScientist described aspects of the Scheme as “indefensible,” and the “most profitable business in the world,” explaining that the “reason it is so lucrative is because most of the costs of its content is picked up by taxpayers. Publicly funded researchers do the work, write it up and judge its merits. And yet the resulting intellectual property ends up in the hands of the publishers. To rub salt into the wound they then sell it via exorbitant subscriptions and paywalls, often paid for by taxpayers too.”
A spokesperson for X told the BBC that the restoration of the platform in Brazil was “inadvertent” and came after it changed its server provider.
“While we expect the platform to be inaccessible again in Brazil soon, we continue efforts to work with the Brazilian government to return very soon for the people of Brazil,” the X spokesperson added…
Law enforcement officials at a Virginia military base are still actively investigating an August incident at Arlington National Cemetery involving what has been described as a confrontation between former President Donald Trump’s campaign and a cemetery worker, even as the Army says it considers the matter closed, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
As part of the probe led by the Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall Police Department, an investigator with the base’s police department has sought in recent days to contact Trump campaign officials about the incident, the sources said…
birgerjohanssonsays
NB: Colbert explains how the myth of Haitians taking cats got started:
The cat Miss Sassy hid for a couple of days and the owners thought their Haitian neighbors had taken her, calling the police.
“Wall Street Cheers Fed Rate Cut | Youth Vote Tilts Towards Harris | Celebrating Melania’s nudes”
Incredible footage has captured the heart-stopping moment a sheriff’s deputy jumped into a moving vehicle to help a driver experiencing a medical episode in Mount Clemens, Michigan, on September 12…
birgerjohanssonsays
The brutal truth behind Italy’s migrant reduction: beatings and rape by EU-funded forces in Tunisia | Global development | The Guardian
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed three artificial intelligence bills into law on Tuesday in an attempt to require social media companies to moderate the spread of disinfo and deepfakes — deceptive images, videos or audio clips resembling actual people — during elections.
[snipped Elon Musk’s stupid reply about “parody,” and I snipped some details concerning AI images of Taylor Swift and of Kamala Harris]
[…] The California bills are “game changers,” said Oren Etzioni, the founder and CEO of TrueMedia.org — a non-profit dedicated to fighting political deepfakes — and the founding director of the Allen Institute for AI. If successfully enacted, the laws will force social media companies to react by building restrictions into their platforms, he told TPM.
The first bill signed by Newsom, which takes effect immediately and aims to limit the circulation of deepfakes, prohibits people or groups “from knowingly distributing an advertisement or other election material containing deceptive AI-generated or manipulated content” within 120 days of a California election.
The second, set to go into effect in January, requires AI generated audio, video or images in political advertisements to be labeled.
And the third one, also set to go into effect in the new year, requires social media platforms and other websites with more than one million users in California to label or remove AI generated deepfakes within 72 hours following a complaint. The bill also empowers “candidates, elected officials, elections officials, the Attorney General, and a district attorney or city attorney to seek injunctive relief against a large online platform for noncompliance with the act.”
“Safeguarding the integrity of elections is essential to democracy, and it’s critical that we ensure AI is not deployed to undermine the public’s trust through disinformation — especially in today’s fraught political climate,” Newsom said in a Tuesday statement detailing the three bills.
The laws will almost certainly face extensive challenges in court from social media companies and First Amendment rights groups. The creator of the video Musk tweeted filed a suit in federal court on Wednesday.
[…] Newsom signed the bills the same week that a bipartisan group of lawmakers, including California’s U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Adam Schiff (D), introduced a House bill that would federally prohibit political campaigns and other political groups from using AI to create deepfakes to misrepresent their rivals or their views. That bill would also give the Federal Election Commission the power to regulate the use of AI in elections.
WASHINGTON, Sept 19 (Reuters) – Donald Trump and his Republican allies are ratcheting up baseless claims that the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election could be skewed by widespread voting by non-citizens in a series of lawsuits that democracy advocates say are meant to sow distrust.
At least eight lawsuits have been filed challenging voter registration procedures in four of the seven swing states expected to decide the election contest between Trump and his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump and his allies say the legal campaign, which includes a wide-ranging challenge to the citizenship status of voters in Arizona, is a defense of election integrity.
But their court filings offer little evidence of the phenomenon that independent studies show to be too rare to affect election results, legal experts said.
“The former president is trying to do what he’s done the last three times he’s run, and set up this ‘If I win the election is valid and if I lose the election was rigged’ narrative,” said New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, a Democrat. Apart from his more recent presidential bids, Trump briefly ran in 2000 for the Reform Party.
The Trump campaign referred a request for comment to a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, who said, “We believe our lawsuits will stop non-citizen voting, which threatens American votes.”
It is a felony offense for a non-citizen to vote in a federal election and independent studies, opens new tab have shown it rarely happens.
[…] A study of Trump’s false claims of widespread non-citizen voting in the 2016 presidential election showed only 30 incidents among 23.5 million ballots cast, accounting for 0.0001% of the vote, opens new tab, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University said.
[…] Federal law prohibits large-scale changes to voter rolls within 90 days of an election as well as purges that target particular class of voters, such as recently naturalized citizens, which the U.S. Justice Department reminded states of in an advisory last week.
That fact, democracy advocates say, show that Trump and his allies’ strategy in pursuing these suits is not to secure major changes in the electorate, but to lay the groundwork for contesting individual state results if he loses, both in the courts and by trying to persuade elected officials to take action.
“Lawsuits over non-citizens on voter registration rolls are meritless. But they’re part of a weaponized public relations campaign to erode confidence in elections,” said Dax Goldstein, senior counsel for the nonpartisan States United Democracy Center, which promotes election security and fairness.
While national opinion polls, including the Reuters/Ipsos poll, show Harris with a slight lead over Trump, the race is close in the seven most competitive states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
If a Harris win were to hang on just one or two states, a successful Trump challenge to a defeat in those states could be enough to reverse the election’s outcome. […]
Each time he steps on a stage, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump seems to flip-flop on tax policy. Most recently, Trump declared that he would “get SALT back,” referencing a once-unlimited deduction on state and local taxes that was capped at $10,000 by … Donald Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Republicans like to pretend to care about fiscal responsibility, but that pretense is getting hard to maintain in the age of Trump. The tax cuts he signed only a few months into his term in 2017 blew a much larger hole in the budget than had been predicted. Extending that cut would create an explosive deficit over the next decade.
Now the top Republican and tax writer on the Senate Finance Committee has a new plan for how to deal with the havoc Trump is creating with his ongoing gifts to billionaires and nonstop campaign promises: Just ignore it.
When originally passed, the Congressional Budget Office predicted that Trump’s tax cuts, which were aimed at corporations and the wealthy, would add $1.4 trillion to the national debt during the next 10 years. But Republicans scoffed at that number, with many claiming that the cuts would pay for themselves because they would create so much economic growth.
It turns out that Republicans were right to scorn the CBO’s projections—because they were much too optimistic. The tax cuts have badly underperformed predictions about how they would stimulate the economy, raising the cost of the legislation every year. The cost of that original bill is now expected to be $4 trillion. It’s set to expire in 2025, and estimates on what it would cost to extend the bill call for another $4 to $5 trillion.
According to rules they created, Republicans are supposed to identify cuts they would make in government services to offset these costs. But Roll Call reports that Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho has a better idea: Let’s not do that.
“If you look at history, extending current tax law has never been offset by Congress,” Crapo said. “If it’s literally not changing tax policy, I’m just telling you what the precedent that Congress has set is.”
Except it’s not. Because when that original bill was passed, it had an expiration date. Renewing that expiration date is changing tax policy, no matter how much hand-waving Crapo does.
But why shouldn’t Republicans just make up tax policy as they go along? That’s what their leader does.
[…] Trump’s flip-flop on SALT isn’t quite as random as it looks. The whole reason the tax deduction got capped in the 2017 bill was because Trump and Republicans wanted to punish people who live in high-tax states. That means states where the government invests in education, health care, and other costly programs that Republicans hate. In other words: blue states.
Using the tax bill to punish those living in a blue state probably generated high-fives all around the GOP. But there’s a catch: It turns out that the SALT cap primarily hurt wealthy people, because 91% of the deduction’s benefit used to go to households with incomes over $100,000, according to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation.
That means petty Republicans actually worked out a way to reach into blue states and slap the people most likely to be Republicans. Which really is kind of sweet.
However, now that Trump is being heavily funded by a cadre of tech bros, many of whom are reluctant to give up their West Coast mansions for the welcoming arms of Texas or Florida, it makes sense that Trump wants to restore a massive tax break tailored just for them. […] [videos at the link]
Arizona Found Some ‘Illegal Voters’! Whoops, They’re Mostly Republicans
Arizona is one of the swingiest swing states of all […] As of this minute, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are polling neck-and-wattle at 47.2 percent (Trump) to 47.1 (Harris). Harris’s previous one-point lead seems to have eroded there ever since old Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his brain worm slithered away.
So naturally, Arizona’s Republicans have been dialing their voter-suppression efforts up to 11. They’ve been furiously combing voter rolls looking for those ILLEGALS, even though there hasn’t been a single case of a noncitizen voting in Arizona since the Heritage Foundation itself started tracking “election fraud” cases back to 1979.
But guess what, now they found some! Kind of. As it turns out, 97,688 Arizona voters who never proved their citizenship have been getting ballots that they shouldn’t, and most of them are Republicans.
The backstory is, Republicans have been battling the federal “motor voter” law for 20 years, claiming without evidence that it might allow noncitizens to vote. To comply with the letter of the law while taking a dump on its spirit, since 2004 Arizona has had two kinds of voters: those who have proven citizenship with a driver’s license or birth certificate and get full federal and state ballots, and those who haven’t, and get ballots that let them vote in federal elections only.
But as it turns out, some voters who have had driver’s licenses since before October of 1996, then had their licenses replaced, never got flagged as not having shown their papers, but have been getting full ballots anyway. Sure, they swore they were citizens, and have been voting for decades, and if they were noncitizens, the many other security safeguards would have found them out a long time ago. But no papers, no vote!
And as it turns out, this particular bunch of accidental older scofflaws prefers the GOP by a 10 percent margin. Oops!
Lower courts have been rejecting Arizona’s doofy system for years, and last month, the Republican National Committee ran to the Supreme Court, squealing EEK EMERGENCY EMERGENCY, you must please yoink ALL the federal-only voters off of the rolls!
SCOTUS said no to that, thanks to Amy Comey Barrett, of all people. But it let Arizona’s doofy two-level voting system stand.
Now, the (Republican) Maricopa county recorder has run to the (all Republican) Arizona Supreme Court, squealing EEK EMERGENCY EMERGENCY, you must kick these voters off the full-ballot rolls, never mind it’s three days before military and overseas ballots are supposed to be sent out, and less than three weeks before early voting begins! Emergency! And if the Arizona Supreme Court decides that those voters must now get federal-only ballots instead of full ballots, it means those older mostly-Republican voters won’t get to vote on measures like the one to put abortion rights into the state Constitution.
Mightn’t those voters be ever be so surprised when they show up! Let’s see what the Arizona Supreme Court does with this one!
birgerjohanssonsays
Near-Collision With Other Star Jumbled Up Our Solar System, Physicists Says
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=WB2LgS6U4Cg
Since our solar system was born from a huge nebula that would have created thousands of other stars, in the first few million years there would have been plenty of nearby stellar neighbors. If such neighbors form a compact group, you get a star cluster, like the Pleiades. If they are not held together by gravity, they slowly drift apart but for some tens of million years they form an “association”. Most of the bright stars in the Big Dipper are part of such an association.
Iranian malicious cyber actors in late June and early July sent unsolicited emails to individuals then associated with President Biden’s campaign that contained an excerpt taken from stolen, non-public material from former President Trump’s campaign as text in the emails. There is currently no information indicating those recipients replied.
Fed Cuts Interest Rates, MAGA Absolutely Enraged By Good News
Naturally, a MAGA rally crowd booed lower inflation.
The Federal Reserve cut its basic interest rate by half a percentage point yesterday, which should be the first step in steadily reducing the higher interest rates the Fed imposed in 2022 to keep inflation under control. The Associated Press explains what that’s all about:
The central bank is acting because, after imposing 11 rate hikes dating back to March 2022, it feels confident that inflation is finally mild enough that it can begin to ease the cost of borrowing. At the same time, the Fed has grown more concerned about the health of the job market. Lower rates would help support the pace of hiring and keep unemployment down.
“Recent indicators suggest that economic activity has continued to expand at a solid pace,” the Fed said in a statement. “Job gains have slowed, and the unemployment rate has moved up but remains low. Inflation has made further progress.”
The Fed is likely to keep easing interest rates in coming months, doing that prudent cautious thing where the cuts could be smaller or steeper, depending on what’s happening with job growth and inflation. In either case, economists will be happy to have something new to talk about, especially if they can be dour and cautiously optimistic at the same time.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell alluded to criticism that the rate cut was long overdue, saying, “We don’t think we’re behind — we think this is timely. But I think you can take this as a sign of our commitment not to get behind.”
Powell also took his version of a victory lap […] “Our patient approach over the past year has paid dividends,” Powell semi-exulted, downplaying the frenzied exuberance by adding, “We’re certainly not saying ‘mission accomplished’ or anything like that.”
Also, while to normal people the rate cut indicates that inflation is under control, to Donald Trump and his weird cult of MAGA Chuds, it was a panicked move to save the floundering campaign of Kamala Harris, whose enthusiastic support in polls is also the result of a deep state conspiracy.
Trump, who appointed Powell to chair the Fed but hates him as much as anyone else he ever hired, groused during a visit to a “bitcoin pub” in New York City, “I guess it shows the economy is very bad to cut it by that much, assuming they’re not just playing politics. […] The economy would be very bad or they’re playing politics, one or the other.”
Trump, of course, constantly badgered the Fed to keep interest rates low before elections, and his toadies who wrote Project 2025 have long insisted the Fed should not have any independence from the whims of the executive branch. Unless the president is a Democrat, of course.
Then Trump held a rally in New York, where he promised to impose a 10 percent interest rate cap on all credit card debt, which would be communist if Joe Biden tried it, but it sure had the Trumpies on Twitter lapping it up. Never mind that presidents can’t just willy-nilly set the interest rates on credit cards, or that a in May, a Trump-appointed federal judge blocked a far more modest Biden administration rule that capped credit card late fees at $8 dollars. […]
At a rally yesterday in Raleigh, North Carolina, a reporter asked MAGA veep nominee and robotic replicant JD Vance what he thought about the rate cut, and the Chuds in the audience began booing even as the positronic relays in Vance’s central processor
[…] began formulating a reply.
REPORTER (OFF-CAMERA): Really quickly, just on the Fed cutting, it’s a very Wall Street Journally question, but the Fed cut the interest rate today by a half a percentage point, going to alleviate inflation for a lot of people. And so if you have any reaction to that?
CROWD: Boo! Boo! We hate reporters! We hate the rate cut! We hate the Fed! We just hate everything! But especially reporters! And inflation will never come down ever until Trump raises our taxes! (This may not be a verbatim transcript; more of a translation from the boo-ish.)
Vance replied, eventually, that the rate cut was too timid: “My, my, my reaction is, a half a point is nothing compared to what American families have been dealing with for the last three years.”
And the crowd cheered, because like Vance, they have no fucking idea how anything works and think that somebody should be able to simply press a reset button and instantly return prices and interest rates to where they were in the good old days when we had a pandemic recession, massive unemployment (but maybe not them!), and gas was cheaper.
Also, where the stock market went bonkers (in a positive direction) last December when the Fed simply hinted that interest rate cuts would come in 2024, the actual arrival of the rate cut was met on Wall Street with an initial surge, but then a decline as traders worried that the cut signaled trouble ahead, or they were simply frightened by a plastic bag blowing along the ground. The Dow shot up right after the announcement, but then lost ground, closing .25 percent lower than the day before, which no, is not a crash.
CNBC explains the illogic:
Traders in the week leading up to the decision increasingly hoped the central bank would cut by a half point rather than its traditional quarter-point move. They got what they hoped for, but stocks failed to hold their gains.
Then again, stocks were already rallying prior to the rate cut, so yesterday’s slight downward closing may simply reflect the market having a post-orgasmic cigarette. Either way, things look great and we are doomed.
birgerjohanssonsays
Myself @ 346
Summary: For the young sun, it would have been much more likely to make a close passage of a “sibling” star.
BTW the objects we are talking about are mostly very distant icy objects in the Kuiper belt. But some of the disturbed objects may have entered the inner solar system and possibly ended up as small moons of the gas giants.
Putin wants Russia’s youth to become ultranationalist patriots. Many are all in. Washington Post link
At age 25, Maryana Naumova is one of the freshest faces of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s wartime propaganda machine.
She has a show on the flagship Kremlin-controlled television network Channel One, 85,000 subscribers on Telegram, the messaging app that is now the main news platform for Russian speakers worldwide, and is a regular speaker at youth forums, universities and talk shows across the country.
Formerly a child-prodigy powerlifter with little experience in journalism, Naumova has reported from most of the major battles of the war in Ukraine — including, most recently, Kyiv’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, as well as from Mariupol and Bakhmut, two Ukrainian cities that Russian forces nearly demolished and then seized. Her dispatches have focused not on Russia’s military as an invading force but as liberators of Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine.
“We showed everything as it was,” Naumova said in an interview with The Washington Post about her coverage of Russia’s siege of Mariupol, in which she claimed without evidence that Ukrainian forces attacked civilians. “It was very strange that the state of Ukraine shelled its own citizens,” she said. “I felt such dissonance. It was incomprehensible to me. … I mean … they call them their people.”
Naumova is one of thousands of young Russians who have inserted themselves into their country’s new wartime system, adopting Kremlin spin as their own beliefs and ensuring that Putin’s core ideology, of ultranationalist patriotism and Orthodox Christian values, will be carried forward by a new generation. This includes the idea that the United States wants to destroy Russia and that Russia is a peace-seeking victim rather than an aggressor. Like Naumova, they see themselves as patriotic truth-tellers, not instruments of spin.
About 7 in 10 Russians between ages 18 and 24 — 69 percent — support Russia’s war in Ukraine, according to an August poll conducted by the Levada Center, an independent polling group; at the same time, nearly as many — 67 percent — say they are not following the war closely or at all. But 66 percent of young Russians also support moving toward peace talks, according to the poll — a higher proportion than the overall population, of whom only 50 percent support moving toward such talks.
Since Putin ordered tanks with the letter Z scrawled across them into Ukraine in February 2022, the Kremlin has drastically expanded its focus on youth — introducing militaristic programs in schools and unleashing a barrage of hyper-patriotic messaging. While thousands of young people have left Russia, those who remain are part of a new generation that is redefining what it means to be Russian and will shape the nation’s outlook for decades. As much as any seizure of Ukrainian territory, experts say, this will be a tangible legacy of Russia’s war.
[charts, graphs and more details at the link]
“This new generation is being raised on the idea that the West hates us,” said a former senior Kremlin official who still operates in government circles and who, like some other Russians interviewed by The Post, spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak about sensitive matters. “Now everyone, including young people, must be for the war, for traditional values and religion — you must be performatively patriotic.”
Sergei Guriev, a Russian economist who once led Russia’s premier economics university but fled the country and is now dean of the London Business School, described Putin’s efforts to indoctrinate Russian schoolchildren as “dangerous.”
“As borders are increasingly closed to young Russians and Putin introduces this ideological education, we may end up with a generation which is raised in this Putin way,” Guriev said in an interview in the spring, when he was dean of Sciences Po university in France. “Somehow it will have to be undone, and it’s not going to be easy or quick.”
Young Russians are self-dividing into castes. Some are conformists, many of whom have calculated that this is the only way to rise and thrive within this remastered society. Many avoid politics or engaging with Russia’s institutions altogether. The rest are outcasts. [snipped details on how the reporting for this article was done]
Those who join Russian youth organizations and who visibly adhere to the government line and traditional values are quickly rewarded. Those who show even a flicker of dissent can end up being denounced to the authorities by their peers, and they or their parents can be prosecuted. And those who openly rebel are punished, exiled or imprisoned.
[…] “Children are now given lessons about not just the family, traditional values and Russian heroes, but crucially, heroes who sacrifice themselves,” Garner said. […]
Much more at the link.
birgerjohanssonsays
New Technologies 2024: W-Piston Toyota | Free piston – efficiency of 50%. ; powerful new engines
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=5lwxbwjcnzc
A possible hybrid technology for cars.
StevoRsays
ARAN MYLVAGANAM: Since we started our encampment, we have been attracting far-right influencers on social media who have been blaming refugees for the housing crisis.
WILL MURRAY: The group, which has been calling for permanent visas for long-term refugees, say they’ve been coming under violent attack – mostly by young men in small groups.
Four weeks ago, Aran says he was pushed to the ground during one of these confrontations and dislocated his shoulder.
ARAN MYLVAGANAM: The far-right attacks actually started with a far-right influencer posting videos about our encampment on social media.
The videos that I watched are quite shocking.
WILL MURRAY: Recently, members of neo-Nazi group the National Socialist Network confronted them with racist signs and chants.
A similar confrontation between the groups occurred in Adelaide.
Former President Donald Trump appeared on a taped segment of Fox News’ “Gutfeld!” Wednesday, complaining once again that the ABC News debate moderators bothered to fact-check him while falsely claiming that the debate audience “went crazy” for his performance. Host Greg Gutfeld chose not to fact-check Trump over the fact that there was no debate audience whatsoever, per the rules set by ABC News and agreed to by both campaigns.
“They didn’t correct her once,” Trump complained, referring to Vice President Kamala Harris. “And they corrected me, everything I said, practically. I think nine times or 11 times. And the audience was absolutely — they went crazy.” …
A Pennsylvania state senator and former GOP gubernatorial candidate whose support for Donald Trump drew him to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 has sued a Canadian university and nearly two dozen academics over criticism of him and his research into World War I hero Sgt. Alvin York.
Sen. Doug Mastriano’s defamation, racketeering and antitrust lawsuit, filed in western Oklahoma federal court, seeks at least $10 million in damages from defendants including history professors and the University of New Brunswick.
A motion seeking to have the case thrown out, filed Thursday by one of the defendants, argued that the case violates an Oklahoma law against lawsuits designed to stifle public debate, that it makes a defamation claim that isn’t legally viable, and that Mastriano is trying to stretch antitrust and racketeering laws “beyond recognition to silence critics of his scholarship.”
Backlash against his research claims by experts in World War I history and on York — and from a faculty member at the Canadian university about how his degree was awarded — was the subject of a March 2021 story by The Associated Press. Mastriano, with former President Trump’s backing, lost the Pennsylvania governor’s race the following year to Democrat Josh Shapiro by nearly 15 percentage points…
Mastriano, the university defendants said, “does not assert precisely what he contends were false and defamatory about the statements” they are purported to have made. They called the lawsuit “vague, conclusory and utterly incomprehensible.”..
The University of New Brunswick has been reviewing events around its decision to grant Mastriano a doctorate in 2013 for his York research, setting up an investigative committee whose work has been done out of the public eye. Mastriano sued three people he said constitute that committee, and they have also argued in a court filing the case should be dismissed…
It sounds like he did some very bad historical research, which didn’t go over well, so he is suing everybody.
re Reginald Selkirk @355: Those 12 are just the “greatest hits”. Practically everything that comes from his mouth is a lie. That is, everything that isn’t complete gibberish. I don’t understand how anyone could listen to him and think he has provided any kind of answer to a question raised.
Akira MacKenziesays
@ 354
I got a feeling his only likely source was the 1941 jingoistic hagiography Sergeant York starring Gary Cooper.
Bekenstein Boundsays
a federal antitrust lawsuit against six commercial publishers of academic journals, including Elsevier
ABOUT FUCKING TIME!!!
Lynna@342:
It is a felony offense for a non-citizen to vote in a federal election and independent studies, opens new tab have shown it rarely happens.
[…] A study of Trump’s false claims of widespread non-citizen voting in the 2016 presidential election showed only 30 incidents among 23.5 million ballots cast, accounting for 0.0001% of the vote, opens new tab, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University said.
Reuters seems to have developed a rather peculiar verbal tic here. What’s with the interjections of “opens new tab” here and there?
In early August, Donald Trump’s campaign made a provocative announcement: An Iranian group successfully hacked the Republicans’ 2024 operation in June. While the former president and his team have earned a reputation for breathtaking dishonesty, these claims were actually true.
In fact, the FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a joint statement in mid-August on Iranian efforts to hack both parties’ presidential campaigns.
While Iranian officials have denied the allegations, new information about the scheme continues to come to light. NBC News reported:
Iranians sent “unsolicited emails” that included stolen material that was not publicly available from former President Donald Trump’s campaign to people associated with his Democratic political rival, the FBI and two other government agencies said Wednesday. The FBI and officials from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said there was “currently no information” indicating that recipients associated with President Joe Biden’s campaign had responded to the emails.
The basic details of the story, at least at this point, appear rather straightforward: If the allegations are accurate, Iran successfully breached the Trump campaign and obtained private information. Iran then offered stolen materials to Democrats; and Democrats ignored the outreach.
In fact, a Harris campaign spokesperson said in a statement, “We’re not aware of any material being sent directly to the campaign; a few individuals were targeted on their personal emails with what looked like a spam or phishing attempt.”
NBC News’ report added, “Three federal law enforcement sources confirmed the accuracy of the Harris campaign’s statement to NBC News, saying law enforcement agencies tracked the stolen information from the Trump campaign and determined that several people linked to Biden’s campaign received emails containing the information. The recipients never responded to the emails and may not have even opened them because they appeared to be phishing attempts, the sources added.”
The Republican nominee responded to the news in a decidedly Trumpian way.
“WOW, JUST OUT!” the former president wrote in a hysterical screed, published to his social media platform. “THE FBI CAUGHT IRAN SPYING ON MY CAMPAIGN, AND GIVING ALL OF THE INFORMATION TO THE KAMALA HARRIS CAMPAIGN. THEREFORE SHE AND HER CAMPAIGN WERE ILLEGALLY SPYING ON ME. TO BE KNOWN AS THE IRAN, IRAN, IRAN CASE! WILL KAMALA RESIGN IN DISGRACE FROM POLITICS? WILL THE COMMUNIST LEFT PICK A NEW CANDIDATE TO REPLACE HER?” [Oh FFS.]
In case this weren’t quite enough, Trump published a follow-up item soon after, insisting that the vice president is “getting illegal campaign help from Iran.”
Evidently, the GOP nominee is under the impression that this story makes him look better and Harris look worse. That’s precisely backwards, and it’s worth understanding why.
First, Iran targeted both parties’ presidential campaigns. While Russia continues to target American elections in the hopes of putting Trump back in power, Tehran was an equal-opportunity hacker.
Second, the former president believes Iran gave information to Team Harris, but that’s not what happened. Iran operatives apparently tried to give unsolicited information to Democrats, but they failed.
Third, Trump sees this as an example of the Harris campaign “illegally spying on” him, which is so utterly bonkers that it’s hard not to wonder whether the Republican understands what “spying” means in English.
Fourth, Trump apparently sees all of this as some kind of parallel to his Russia scandal, but the comparison quickly falls apart: Team Trump welcomed, received, benefited from, and lied about Russian assistance. Team Harris didn’t welcome, receive, benefit from, or lie about Iranian offers of assistance, so the idea that the two are similar is absurd.
Finally, let’s not forget that Trump is on record publicly endorsing foreign intervention in American political campaigns. In fact, in June 2019, the then-president spoke to ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, who asked an important hypothetical: If foreigners offered Trump campaign officials information ahead of the 2020 election, should they accept the dirt or should they call the FBI?
“I think maybe you do both,” Trump replied. “I think you might want to listen, there’s nothing wrong with listening. If somebody called from a country, Norway, ‘We have information on your opponent,’ oh I think I’d want to hear it.”
In other words, by Trump’s own reasoning, the Harris campaign would’ve been justified responding to Iran — “there’s nothing wrong with listening” — and perhaps even examining the materials Iran allegedly stole.
Fortunately for the integrity of our political system, that’s not what happened.
[eyeroll] Trump’s stupidity continues to amaze and astound.
In Nebraska on Tuesday, two dozen state senators met with Gov. Jim Pillen as part of what may be the cycle’s most unlikely scheme to save Donald Trump. The plot drew in Trump’s most sycophantic sycophant, Sen. Lindsey Graham, and is part of a national effort to steal away just one potential electoral vote from Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
Unlike most states, Nebraska doesn’t award all its electoral votes to the candidate who takes the most votes in the state. Instead, it awards two votes to the state’s popular-vote winner and then one to the winner of each of its three congressional districts. Nebraska has been that way since 1991, when a Nebraska state senator heard about the idea, thought it sounded fairer than the winner-take-all approach, and was “jazzed” enough to draft legislation that narrowly passed the Nebraska legislature.
Now Republicans are trying to change those rules at the last minute in hopes that this will snatch victory from Harris and restore Trump to the White House. But not only is this extremely unlikely to make a difference in the overall race, it would set off a waiting trap that would cost Trump at least as much as he gained.
[…] What if Kamala Harris doesn’t win any southern or western swing state that Joe Biden picked up in 2020 (Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada), while North Carolina stays in the red column and Harris makes a sweep of the northern industrial states?
Democrats have twice (2008 and 2020) picked up the “blue dot” of Nebraska’s 2nd District that covers Omaha and surrounding portions of two counties. But both of those elections would have been solid Democratic victories even without the rogue Nebraska electoral vote.
Still, the idea of the blue dot making a difference is not totally impossible. [video at the link]
All that adds to 270, enough to put Harris on the inaugural stage … but only if she also secures that little blue dot.
Democrats feel pretty optimistic that the Omaha dot will be blue once again. Republicans are afraid they’re right. So while the “Blue Wall and Nothing Else” scenario may be extremely unlikely, they don’t want to take the chance. Which is why Graham was there to share Trump’s wishes with Pillen and the state senators on Wednesday.
They want that dot.
The effort to snatch away Omaha’s vote was bolstered earlier in the year when a state senator made his own flip from Democrat to Republican and announced that he would support a winner-take-all solution … or promised to oppose it. It depends on whom he spoke to last. But the pressure is definitely on from Washington, with the Republican members of Nebraska’s U.S. House delegation sending a letter to state legislators urging them to squash the dot.
However, not only is it extremely unlikely the election comes down to one electoral vote, but also all the efforts to change Nebraska’s system are probably pointless in the first place.
That’s because the state senator who brought this idea to Nebraska back in 1991 got the idea from another state that had already split the vote: Maine. And if Nebraska decides to slip their system back to winner-take-all, Maine House Majority Leader Maureen Terry has promised that the Pine Tree State has promised to follow suit.
“If Nebraska’s Republican governor and Republican-controlled Legislature were to change their electoral system this late in the cycle in order to unfairly award Donald Trump an additional electoral vote,” Terry wrote in a statement to the Nebraska Examiner, “I think the Maine Legislature would be compelled to act.”
This matters because Maine has a reliable little red dot—a single rural Maine electoral vote, which Trump picked up in 2016 and 2020.
Flipping Maine to winner-take-all would be more certain to take a point away from Trump than changing Nebraska would be to take a point from Harris. The latest Maine polling shows Trump leading Harris 49% to 42% in Maine’s 2nd District, but Harris with a 50% to 41% advantage statewide.
That Republicans are working so hard to push change in Nebraska is a real sign of Trump’s desperation. But it’s not a real threat to Harris’ election.
Pierce R. Butlersays
I recently received an email from ex-Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s “re-election” (after 12 years out of office) campaign, in which he rejoices over an endorsement from … Tucker Carlson. :-p
Kucinich also touts an endorsement from a group called “Stand for Health Freedom”:
“Stand for Health Freedom supports candidates who make and support policy to protect and expand individual and family choice in matters of personal health. We believe Dennis Kucinich will defend and expand these rights for Ohio residents.”
whose amazingly vague website implies an anti-vax, anti-public-health-mandates, etc, viewpoint (and says nothing I could find about abortion/contraceptive/etc rights).
What the hell happened to the once-progressive Kucinich? I personally wrote him off when he lost office and took a job with False Noise (which I thought hadn’t lasted because I never saw any follow-up on that), but now I get the sense he’s moved so far to the right he now lives in Vladivostok. My web search indicates he worked briefly in ’23 as RFK Jr’s campaign manager, but I didn’t find anything reporting how or why he jumped to the dark side – anybody got a clue to the story?
Mark Robinson, the controversial and socially conservative Republican nominee for governor of North Carolina, made a series of inflammatory comments on a pornography website’s message board more than a decade ago, in which he referred to himself as a “black NAZI!” and expressed support for reinstating slavery, a CNN KFile investigation found.
Despite a recent history of anti-transgender rhetoric, Robinson said he enjoyed watching transgender pornography, a review of archived messages found in which he also referred to himself as a “perv.”
The comments, which Robinson denies making, predate his entry into politics and current stint as North Carolina’s lieutenant governor. They were made under a username that CNN was able to identify as Robinson by matching a litany of biographical details and a shared email address between the two…
A judge is dead after a shooting at the Letcher County Courthouse.
The Mountain Eagle is reporting that Letcher County Sheriff Mickey Stines is accused of shooting District Judge Kevin Mullins in his office.
The coroner confirms one person was killed in the shooting but did not identify that person as Mullins. However, Governor Andy Beshear says he has been informed that a judge in Letcher County was shot and killed in his chambers Thursday afternoon…
The state of Ohio is giving taxpayer money to private, religious schools to help them build new buildings and expand their campuses, which is nearly unprecedented in modern U.S. history.
While many states have recently enacted sweeping school voucher programs that give parents taxpayer money to spend on private school tuition for their kids, Ohio has cut out the middleman. Under a bill passed by its Legislature this summer, the state is now providing millions of dollars in grants directly to religious schools, most of them Catholic, to renovate buildings, build classrooms, improve playgrounds and more.
The goal in providing the grants, according to the measure’s chief architect, Matt Huffman, is to increase the capacity of private schools in part so that they can sooner absorb more voucher students…
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Teamsters President Sean O’Brien sparred following the union’s decision to not endorse Vice President Harris or former President Trump in the presidential election…
In response, O’Brien told Bash that Ocasio-Cortez should focus on her district.
“She [Ocasio-Cortez] should maybe get into her district where it voted far-right Republican,” O’Brien said in a CNN interview with Dana Bash that was posted Thursday by a pro-Trump X account.
Bash was quick to question what O’Brien meant by Ocasio-Cortez’s district voting “far-right Republican,” asking if he meant among Teamsters.
“In our polling, New York, her district, voted overwhelmingly Republican to support former President Trump,” O’Brien said.
Bash noted that if his polling is accurate, it would mean that almost 60 percent of Teamsters members prefer Trump over Harris.
Ocasio-Cortez responded to the X post with a Thursday press release from her district’s local Teamsters union showing that it endorsed the Harris-Walz ticket.
“The NY-14 Teamsters mentioned here have actually voted overwhelmingly to endorse Harris-Walz,” she wrote in her response…
Days after a shooter attacked an interstate and disappeared, leaving a Kentucky community scared and on guard, Fred and Sheila McCoy decided to lace up their boots for the first time in a long time and spend days in rugged terrain searching until, finally, they found a body.
Kentucky State Police credited Fred and Sheila McCoy, who typically spend their retired days creating YouTube videos about the Hatfield-McCoy feud, with helping investigators find what they believe are the remains of Joseph Couch. Couch, 32, is suspected of firing randomly at vehicles on Interstate 75 on Sept. 7, wounding five people.
The person believed to be Couch died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, said Kentucky’s Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. William Ralston. A soft tissue DNA test was inconclusive on the identification of the body, and testing on the bones could take up to two days, Ralston said. A toxicology test is also pending…
Bill Gates says if he set tax rates, the rich would be almost 70% poorer — but unlike Bernie Sanders, he would not outlaw billionaires.
The Microsoft cofounder said that “under the tax system I would go for, the wealthy would have, say, a third as much.” He revealed his ideal tax policy in an episode of his new Netflix series “What’s Next? The Future with Bill Gates.”
The comment suggests Gates would like to see Elon Musk, the world’s richest man with a net worth of $249 billion per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, only have about $83 billion to his name…
The group White Dudes for Harris rolled out a $10 million ad campaign Thursday, with the first ad of the effort targeting white men in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
The more than minutelong spot addresses former President Trump’s grip on the white male vote but works to appeal to voters in the bloc who are disillusioned with him and his campaign.
“All they’ve ever done is screw us over, but if you’re not on the MAGA train, where do you go?” the narrator says. “Then it hit me, this isn’t picking teams. It’s about who’s got a plan that’s going to make life better for me and my family.”
The ad goes on to say Vice President Harris and her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) “are actually talking to guys like us.” …
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Re: Bekenstein Bound @359:
What’s with the interjections of “opens new tab” here and there?
An accessibility thing, done annoyingly. The article had a link (which obvs opens in a new tab). It’s common practice to include a visual indicator when something unusual happens—in this case, a symbol after the link (square with a diagonal arrow escaping it). Screen readers for the visually impaired won’t get that hint though, so a bit of text was written for their benefit and conversely made invisible to ordinary views (a span of text given a clipping style of 0 pixels). The clipboard ignored visual styles, as it did links, so that text was NOT clipped into invisibility when copying and pasting. It was an oversight by the web developer.
Kentucky judge shot, killed in his chambers; sheriff arrested
JFC. Two assassination attempts and one completed assassination in a two-month span, with the election from hell another two months away, and Repugs undoubtedly already having greenlit a sequel to J6.
Get yet bulletproof vests and popcorn, it’s gonna be a wild ride from here on out …
Screen readers for the visually impaired won’t get that hint though, so a bit of text was written for their benefit and conversely made invisible to ordinary views (a span of text given a clipping style of 0 pixels).
Oops. (The correct way to do this is to assign that text to the image’s “alt” attribute. Of course, these days we should just be thankful the web designer even knew how to use the img tag at all. Half or more of sites I visit come up with no images and it usually turns out to be because the idiot coder used some Javashit copied and pasted from somewhere instead of a plain old img tag. And that’s leaving aside the ones so misbegotten the body tag itself is empty, or even missing, and all of the page content was stuffed into a script element in the head tag!)
An adviser to Robinson, granted anonymity to speak freely, confirmed to POLITICO that the email address in question belongs to Robinson. A spokesperson for Robinson said he had not made an account on Ashley Madison.
“Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson denies that he ever created or used an account on this website,” said Mike Lonergan, Robinson’s communications director
Robinson’s campaign also pointed to a website showing the email address in question has been compromised in multiple data breaches…
I presume that is https://haveibeenpwned.com/
If that’s the case, then his denials might actually be believable.
birgerjohanssonsays
I see Tommy Lee Jones aka Twoface has turned 78. At the same age as Trump, he would be a much more cool cartoon villain.
As the election season reaches its fever pitch, labor unions are rallying behind their chosen candidates. The Teamsters, a national union representing 1.3 million workers in the transportation industry and many other sectors, announced on Wednesday that they have opted not to endorse any presidential candidate this year.
Teamsters president Sean O’Brien reacted to criticism by defending the decision not to endorse a Republican or Democratic candidate on CNN Thursday, citing the Donald Trump campaign’s refusal to support the PRO Act, which gives unions more power to organize. Democratic nominee Kamala Harris has already agreed to sign that bill into law.
“This was not an endorsement for the Republican Party,” O’Brien told CNN. “This is a wake-up call that the system is broken.”
But regional Teamsters have opted to go rogue. The 300,000-member West Coast Teamsters faction has thrown its support behind the vice president, signaling a strategic alignment with the Harris campaign. Ten other regional Teamsters councils have issued statements of support for Harris, including in the battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Nevada.
“Trump wishes your bosses could just fire you for challenging their authority with a strike. Never forget that. Trump wants to eliminate your legally protected right to challenge your employer and demand the dignity and respect all hardworking Teamsters deserve,” said Rick Hicks, president of Teamsters Joint Council 28, in the division’s official endorsement of Harris.
Prominent labor unions American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, known collectively as the AFL-CIO, threw their support behind the Harris-Walz ticket with an endorsement earlier this month.
Other unions who’ve endorsed Harris over GOP nominee Trump are: the Service Employees International Union; the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; the American Federation of Teachers; the United Food & Commercial Workers International Union; the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers; and the United Steelworkers, to name a few. […]
birgerjohanssonsays
At the end of the video, Seth Meyers has a brilliant reaction to Vance refusing to apologise.
‘Fox Cuts Away from Trump’s NY Rally, Vance Gets Fact-Checked on Pet Eating Lies; A Closer Look’
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=MbYojL1zcH8
birgerjohanssonsays
Trumpy Cat:
Trump Has “Bigger Crowds Than Elvis,” Hasn’t Read Melania’s Book & JD Vance Has the Hots For Couches
A controversial “reimagining” of the South Australian Museum has been taken off the table, following a government review of proposed changes which would have seen 27 positions abolished.
In February, the museum’s chief executive David Gaimster announced a restructure of the North Terrace institution’s research and collections division, with a vision of creating a more contemporary experience for visitors to the site.
But those changes would have seen 27 full-time positions in the division abolished and replaced with 22 new jobs, which the Public Service Association (PSA) said would be of lower classification and pay.
The genetic studies of the virus in the earliest covid-19 cases revealed that few, if any, people were infected prior to the market outbreak, the team reports. However, it couldn’t rule out the possibility that the virus was brought to the market by an infected person handling animals.
We know that SARS-CoV-2 can pass from humans to other animals and back, because exactly that happened on mink farms. AFAIK, no-one who accepts that SARS-CoV-2 exists except possibly the Chinese authorities, who continue to claim the virus was brought into China from abroad, perhaps on frozen food packaging when they’re not blaming it on deliberate introduction by ebil Americans, disputes the role of the Huanan market in spreading the virus. What has not been determined – as the research team admitted – is how it got there.
birgerjohanssonsays
Europe has questions to answer over migrant abuse in Tunisia, say MEPs and activists | Global development | The Guardian
The regular season ended last night. That means the final numbers are in on season records
First, a couple career records. Tina Charles set two career records last night with 4014 rebounds and 195 career double-doubles.
A’ja Wilson extended two season records, for total points in season at 1021 and rebounds in a season at 451.
Caitlin Clark extended her WNBA season record for assists to 337 and WNBA season record for turnovers to 223. Naturally, she also has the rookie record for those, as well as rookie records for total points in a season at 769, and 3-point goals made in a season at 122.
That 122 3-point goals in a season is only second for the league, with the record being 128 by Sabrina Ionescu in 2023.
Clark also has the record for most triple-doubles by a rookie at 2 (the only rookie to ever log even one) and the WNBA record most assists in a game at 19.
With Clark both scoring and assisting, the Fever improved their record from 13-27 in 2023 to 20-20 in 2024.
Angel Reese, who ended her season with a broken wrist a couple weeks ago, set the rookie record for rebounds at 446, a league record for most consecutive double-doubles at 15, the rookie record for most point-rebound double-doubles at 26.
The second generation of Starlink satellites being lobbed into orbit by SpaceX might not reflect as much sunlight as the old ones, yet astronomers say they’re leaking up to 32 times the unintended radio waves instead.
In a paper published yesterday, a group of scientists reported that observations at the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON)’s LOFAR radio telescope found massive amounts of unintended electromagnetic radiation (UEMR) leaking from Starlink V2 satellites – both the mini and direct-to-cell capable variants.
“Compared to the faintest astrophysical sources that we observe with LOFAR, UEMR from Starlink satellites is 10 million times brighter,” ASTRON’s Cees Bassa, lead author of the study, said…
For the first time in Major League Baseball history, a player has hit 50 home runs and stolen 50 bases in the same season. On Thursday, Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani slugged his 49th, 50th, and 51st home runs of 2024, and also stole his 50th and 51st bases of the season, making him the charter member of the 50-50 club…
One of America’s premier magazine writers has been placed on leave following the news that she had a romantic relationship with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. while he was running for president and while she was covering him.
Status, a newsletter from former CNN journalist Oliver Darcy, broke the news on Thursday night. According to Status, New York Magazine Washington Correspondent Olivia Nuzzi had an inappropriate relationship with Kennedy. The relationship began around the new year after Nuzzi profiled Kennedy for the magazine last November and continued until August.
New York Magazine learned of the relationship a few days ago and has placed Nuzzi on leave pending a “third-party review” of her work…
birgerjohanssonsays
Regardless of what you think of their professions, they all deserve to be respected as human beings.
Reginald Selkirk @ 401
If the brain worm was still alive I would have said it was manipulating its host for a chance to spread its offspring to new hosts.
But you never know with RFK jr. Was he planning to get a new specimen? I am getting Norman Bates vibes from that weirdo. Ms. Nuzzi is better off without him.
Donald Trump managed to roll out a new idea this week, announcing that he wants to impose a temporary 10% cap on credit-card interest rates. The former president made the declaration at a rally, and his audience seemed quite impressed with the proposal, which the Republican characterized as a sure thing. [video at the link]
It prompted The Wall Street Journal to publish an analysis of the candidate’s pitch, describing the proposal as a “longshot.”
Borrowers in lower- and middle-income households who carry balances would benefit the most from caps on credit-card charges. But they would also be the first ones banks would stop lending to if Trump’s cap were passed, said David Robertson, publisher of the Nilson Report, an industry publication. “Wall Street banks would say, how much further risk do I want to bring on given the fact that my revenue is shrinking?” Robertson said. “That’s where the rubber meets the road.” Banks might also impose other fees to make up for the lost revenue, he said.
There’s nothing wrong with this analysis, and I completely understand why the WSJ published an article about Trump’s idea. He is, after all, a major party presidential nominee who might very well be back in the White House in January.
But it’s also worth taking a moment to emphasize a key point: Trump’s policies aren’t actual policies. There’s no point in taking these ideas seriously, because Trump doesn’t take them seriously.
On the contrary, we’ve reached a point in the presidential race in which Trump, frustrated by his standing in the polls, fearing a possible defeat, and feeling increasingly desperate, is starting to blurt out all kinds of ideas without vetting or forethought.
Earlier this week, for example, Trump published an item to his social media platform vowing that he’ll cut consumers car insurance bills in half. Can he do that? No. Does he have any meaningful ideas about pursuing such a goal? No. Has he mentioned it since? No. Will anyone remember this a month from now? Probably not.
And therein lies the point. Trump continues to bombard the public with panic-stricken proposals — I’m using the word “proposals” loosely — not because he intends to implement them, but apparently because he thinks they might help squeeze a few more votes out of people who don’t know better.
Indeed, it’s been difficult to keep up with the flurry of random ideas the GOP nominee has blurted out lately. Remember the plan for free IVF? How about defraying the costs of child-care expenses with imaginary tariff money? What about the proposal to amend the 25th Amendment? Or the avalanche of multi-trillion-dollar tax cuts that collapse under minimal scrutiny?
At one point in June, he even talked about eliminating the Department of the Interior for reasons that didn’t make any sense, and he apparently forgot about it soon after.
I haven’t the foggiest idea what proposal Trump might come up with next, but with 46 days remaining before Election Day, it’s a safe bet the list will be long and nonsensical.
Philippine military spokesperson Xerxes Trinidad also stressed that the platform will stay “as long as it is being used for training.”
Following the announcement of plans to place the mid-range capability in the Asia-Pacific, China criticized the U.S., accusing it of “undermining peace and stability in the region.”
This is political cheese on both sides. The US brought in the system for a joint military exercise and training but it will remain after the exercise is done until it is no longer being used for training. Training can, of course, be extended forever.
For it’s part, Chinese complaints that the US is raising tensions when China is claiming territory from other countries and ramming ships from other countries is silly level propaganda.
Bits and pieces of news, as summarized by Steve Benen:
* As the North Carolina Republican Party expresses its ongoing support for scandal-plagued gubernatorial hopeful Mark Robinson, the Democratic National Committee is launching new ads linking him to Donald Trump. [source: NBC News]
* There’s been a flurry of polling out of Pennsylvania in recent days, and most of the statewide surveys found incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey leading Republican challenger Dave McCormick by margins ranging from four to nine points. […]
* Speaking of the Keystone State, The New York Times reported that the Republican National Committee and the Pennsylvania Republican Party “are suing to try to stop election officials in the state from letting voters correct technical problems with their mail ballots.” [voter suppression]
* In Colorado, the state GOP is involved in an election-related lawsuit, but because no one can say for sure who the state Republican Party’s chair is, officials have asked a court to postpone the lawsuit. [Rachel Maddow Show]
* A coalition called “White Dudes for Harris” launched a digital ad campaign this week that will reportedly cost nearly $10 million. [source: Washington Post]
* In the early summer, Trump’s 2024 campaign believed it might be able to compete in some “blue” states, but the latest polling in New Hampshire, Virginia, and New Mexico found the former Republican trailing by double-digit margins. […]
* NBC News reported that political donations from, or in support of, the crypto industry are up to around $190 million this election cycle — so far — with Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss helping lead the charge. The pair have spent a combined $10.1 million.
* And the U.S. Supreme Court has rejected Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein’s last-ditch request to be included on the ballot in Nevada. That’s likely to be good news for the Democratic ticket in one of the nation’s most competitive battleground states. [source: NBC News]
Nearly every state allocates its electoral votes in the same straightforward way: The presidential ticket that wins the most votes gets all of the state’s electoral votes. The Electoral College can be complex, but this part of the process is simple: 48 states use a winner-take-all model.
There are two exceptions — Nebraska and Maine — that rely on a hybrid system. In the Cornhusker State, for example, which has five electoral votes, the candidate who wins Nebraska’s popular vote automatically gets two votes, while the other three go to the candidate who wins the popular vote in each of the state’s three congressional districts. Maine has four electoral votes, and it operates the same way.
In theory, with 46 days remaining in the 2024 election cycle, and early voting already underway in some areas, both states are locked into this same model in this year’s presidential race. In practice, quite a few Republicans apparently disagree. The New York Times reported:
Former President Donald J. Trump’s allies are resurrecting efforts to change how Nebraska awards its five electoral votes, a hybrid system that could deliver a single but decisive vote to Vice President Kamala Harris from a reliable red state in one tiebreaking scenario. With less than seven weeks until the election, all five Republicans who represent the state in Congress are pushing for Nebraska to return to a winner-take-all system of awarding electoral votes that had been used before 1992 and was based on the statewide popular vote.
Yes, with roughly six weeks to go, Republicans are worried that the Democratic ticket might be able to win Nebraska’s Omaha-area district — an area where vice presidential nominee Tim Walz is from — fair and square. With this in mind, these same Republicans believe there’s still time to change the rules of the game, pass a new law, overhaul the state’s system, and make it effectively impossible for Harris to win this one electoral vote.
In other words, GOP officials are eyeing what is effectively an electoral-vote heist in the campaign’s final weeks.
Up until fairly recently, Nebraska Republicans had an incentive not to bother: Maine Democrats said they’d retaliate in kind. This would, for all intents and purposes, negate the effort.
But as NBC News reported, under state law in Maine, it’s now too late for Democrats to change the state’s system to a winner-take-all model. Nebraska Republicans can therefore proceed, knowing that their scheme would not force a retaliatory move, at least not before Election Day 2024.
[…] As for congressional Republicans’ interest in developments in Nebraska, Sen. Lindsey Graham missed some votes on Capitol Hill this week because he was in — you guessed it — Nebraska, meeting with local GOP policymakers.
[…] I won’t pretend to know what will happen next, but those thinking, “It’s just one vote” should think again. As a Semafor report explained, “The campaign to end winner-take-all started with simple math. On the current national map, if Trump won three Sun Belt states he lost in 2020 — Arizona, Georgia, and Nevada — he’d need to flip one more state Biden won, plus Omaha to reach 270 electoral votes. But if Nebraska awarded its five electors in one block, Trump would get 269 votes on that map, enough to throw the election to the House, where he’d be favored to win.”
About a week ago, The New York Times published a curious report on the “absence” of health care as a “top issue” in this year’s election cycle. “In nearly every major presidential race for decades, health care has been a central issue,” the Times’ report added, concluding that health care has become “a second-tier issue.”
A lot can change in a week.
The day the article was published, Vice President Kamala Harris relentlessly mocked Donald Trump for saying he has “concepts of a plan” to replace the Affordable Care Act
Two days later, the former president’s running mate, Republican Sen. JD Vance, appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and sketched out a plan that would undo core protections in the ACA related to Americans with pre-existing conditions.
On Wednesday, instead of backing down, the Ohio senator — who only arrived on Capitol Hill last year, and wasn’t around for “Obamacare” conflicts most of his colleagues remember well — doubled down, telling a North Carolina audience about his desire to move those with pre-existing conditions into separate insurance pools.
The Harris campaign responded in a statement soon after, “There should be no doubt about Donald Trump’s commitment to end the Affordable Care Act — he and House Republicans tried doing it over 60 times. Now, one of the ‘concepts’ he’s bringing back is his plan to rip away protections for pre-existing conditions, throw millions off their health care, and drive up costs for millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions.”
As a new Washington Post report explained, the rival campaigns are “reopening a health-care debate that Democrats are eager to have — and resurrecting a fight that has repeatedly burned the GOP.”
Experts said the ideas sketched out by Vance threaten consumer protections enshrined in the 2010 health law, such as rules that guarantee health coverage to the tens of millions of Americans with preexisting conditions. “I feel like I’ve been transported back to 2009,” said Adrianna McIntyre, a Harvard University health professor who has studied health insurance markets. “Prior to the Affordable Care Act, a number of states had these high-risk pools, and in general, they were hard for people to access.”
[…] Vance might be new to the issue, but the United States has plenty of experience with the model he’s endorsed in recent days. It’s a model that didn’t work, and which the Affordable Care Act fixed.
[…] As the Post’s Catherine Rampell explained in her latest column, “Thanks to GOP vice-presidential nominee JD Vance, we finally know what Donald Trump’s ‘concepts of a plan’ for ‘replacing the Affordable Care Act might look like. Unfortunately, those concepts would probably unravel the U.S. health-care system.”
[…] Ammar Moussa, the Harris campaign’s rapid response director, declared, “Health care is back on the ballot.” It’s the same Democratic campaign that organized 19 events with health care advocates in key states this week, shining a light on Trump’s and Vance’s views.
To the extent that health care was “a second-tier issue,” it’s not anymore.
tomhsays
WaPo Live:
Pro-Trump Georgia election board votes to require hand counts of ballots
By Amy Gardner
ATLANTA — The Georgia State Election Board approved a rule Friday requiring counties in the critical presidential battleground to hand-count all ballots this year, potentially upending the November election by delaying reporting of results by weeks if not months.
The change was spearheaded by a pro-Trump majority that has enacted a series of changes to the state’s election rules in recent weeks and approved the hand-count requirement despite a string of public commenters who begged them not to. Critics included democracy advocates who accused the board of intentionally injecting chaos and uncertainty into the presidential contest as well as election supervisors and poll workers who said hand counts would take too long, cost money and almost certainly produce counting errors.
The board voted 3-2 to approve the measure, which would require the hand count in addition to the customary machine count in each precinct. The rule requires the hand count to take place the night of the November election or the next day. But dozens of election officials said that would be physically impossible in all but the smallest counties. Many also said in public comments Friday that it is far too late in the year to adopt new procedures for which their staffs have not been trained and for which they have no funds….
The hand-count requirement was one of 11 rules expected to be voted on Friday, the latest batch the State Election Board has considered in recent weeks in an effort, proponents say, to make state elections more secure and transparent. The flurry is the work of a new right-wing majority that took control of the board in May with an avowed mission of preventing fraud and other irregularities from tainting the presidential result this year.
All three are supporters of former president Donald Trump, and the rules they are pushing have been promoted by the state’s leading proponents of the false claim that Joe Biden stole the Georgia election in 2020.
[…]
Saira Draper, a Democratic member of the state legislature and election lawyer from DeKalb County, was pointed in her comments at the meeting.
“It makes me question whether members of this board are operating in good faith,” Draper said. “Putting 11, maybe 12 new rules into play days before Election Day is a grift. We are setting up our counties to fail. Why do we know they are going to fail? Because they are telling you that.”
Democrats have already sued over a rule passed earlier this year that could allow counties to delay certification, with a hearing scheduled Oct. 1. More litigation is expected.
[…]
The GOP Is Stuck With Mark Robinson
The deadline for removing Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R-NC), the GOP nominee for governor, from the ballot passed at 12:01 a.m. ET today without any action. And so it appears that Republicans will ride this broken horse all the way to the finish line in November despite another bombshell revelation about Robinson’s conduct before entering public life.
The CNN story that had been rumored all day finally landed with enough force to sink any other candidate. But since March 2023, when TPM’s Hunter Walker first surfaced Robinson’s Facebook posts railing against gays, Blacks, and Jews, Robinson has managed to endure a series of stunning revelations without abandoning his Trump-endorsed candidacy.
By every account, the CNN story can’t quite capture how sordid the Robinson posts it uncovered actually are. Calling himself a “Black Nazi” is just a sampling. The well from which CNN drew makes NSFW look like a Disney movie.
It was almost comical when additional reporting chimed in that Robinson’s email was in the leak-and-dump Ashley Madison episode from a few years ago. [An email address belonging to North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson was registered on Ashley Madison, a website designed for married people seeking affairs. An adviser to Robinson, granted anonymity to speak freely, confirmed to POLITICO that the email address in question belongs to Robinson. A spokesperson for Robinson said he had not made an account on Ashley Madison.]
The calculus for Republicans has changed dramatically in North Carolina, where Biden’s exit from the race and Harris’ entry have put the state in play in a way that could seriously upend Trump’s path to Electoral College victory.
Republican Sex Scandal Week continues as a new court filing details events related to the ongoing sex trafficking allegations surrounding Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz. The late-Thursday night federal filing references sealed eyewitness statements that describe a high school junior attending a party in a home laden with drugs, where Gaetz and other adults came together for sex.
As NOTUS reports, Gaetz has consistently claimed he was not at the July 2017 party, but testimony from his own ex-girlfriend rebuts that claim. The witnesses cite the presence of “alcohol, cocaine, ecstasy … and marijuana” and confirm that those present were there to “engage in sexual activities.” They also confirm the presence of a 17-year-old girl who was “naked” at the party.
The event took place at the home of lobbyist Chris Dorworth, a friend of Gaetz. Cell phone records show that Gaetz and Dorworth communicated “constantly” during the day before the party—including some 30 text messages.
Gaetz remains under investigation by the House Ethics Committee. The scandal began heating up again earlier this month after Dorworth dropped a 2023 defamation suit against Gaetz’s former associate Joel Greenberg. A confession letter from Greenberg, published by The Daily Beast, detailed claims that both he and Gaetz had paid for sex with an underaged girl.
“From time to time, gas money or gifts, rent or partial tuition payments were made to several of these girls, including the individual who was not yet 18,” wrote Greenberg.
As The New Republic explains, Thursday’s filing was part of a Dorworth’s own team’s effort to claw back attorneys’ fees from his dropped lawsuit.
Greenberg was sentenced to 11 years in prison after pleading guilty to six federal charges— including sex trafficking of a minor, stalking, identity theft, wire fraud, and conspiracy to bribe a public official.
Gaetz has made no comment on the court documents as of this writing […]
GOP Rep. James Comer held a House Accountability and Oversight Committee hearing on Thursday titled, “A Legacy of Incompetence: Consequences of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Policy Failures.” The laughably biased display is the latest Republican attempt to bash President Joe Biden, tarnish Vice President Kamala Harris’ record, and bolster Donald Trump’s flailing presidential campaign.
Not unlike the committee’s abject failure to find a single shred of evidence to impeach Biden, this new attempt did not go the Republican Party’s way. Instead of creating angry and aggrieved sound bites for MAGA minions to salivate over, the hearing was mostly a boring stream of conservative lies.
Enter Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia, who used his time to detail the Biden administration’s many accomplishments on behalf of the American people. Connolly enlisted Skye Perryman, CEO of public policy organization Democracy Forward and the only witness the Democrats were allowed to call during the hearing, as his willing accomplice in this brief history lesson.
He began by countering the GOP claims that the Biden administration’s environmental regulations preventing energy industries from drilling for oil willy-nilly are “impeding energy production.”
Not only are Trump and Republicans lying about how superior they are when it comes to American energy production, they are lying about the Biden administration’s historic success in reaching new levels of energy independence.
Connolly moved on from there, asking Perryman about the Trump administration’s attempts to pass an infrastructure bill.
Connolly: Did they ever pass an infrastructure bill?
Perryman: They did not.
Connolly: Did President Biden pass an infrastructure bill?
Perryman: He did.
Connolly: Is it also the largest infrastructure bill in American history?
Perryman: The Biden-Harris infrastructure bill is the largest in American history.
Connolly: And pretty comprehensive, covers lots of different kinds of infrastructure. Is that correct?
Perryman: Many infrastructure and lots of investment.
The Biden administration did indeed pass an infrastructure bill with nearly zero support from the Republican Party.
Connolly then detailed the Trump administration’s failures in Afghanistan, including the rushed withdrawal timeline that Republicans now decry and blame on Biden. Trump tried to make his already terrible plan catastrophic by ordering a rapid withdrawal from Afghanistan after he lost the election in 2020. Thankfully, senior military staff did not follow through.
The GOP and Trump have also blamed Biden for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine. So Connolly walked down memory lane to recall why, unlike Biden, Trump was first impeached in 2019. We all remember how Trump tried to extort Ukraine into interfering in the 2020 election by withholding weapons for the country’s defense.
“Would it be fair to say that that development, that threat and that withholding of weapons, might be construed—if you were Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin—as a sign of weakness on the part of Ukraine and a sign that maybe the United States wasn’t going to be there should something bad happen between Russia and Ukraine?” Connolly asked.
“It seems plausible,” Perryman agreed.
Finally, in light of the right wing’s frequent fearmongering over nuclear war and Iran, Connolly gave everyone watching the hearing a quick history lesson.
Connolly: Iran and nuclear weapons: Was there not an agreement that the United States actually led that involved Russia and China, Europe and Iran, to limit nuclear weapon production in Iran?
Perryman: There was a historic agreement.
Connolly: And was it working?
Perryman: Yes.
Connolly: In all respects?
Perryman: I believe so.
Connolly: Inspected by IAEA [the International Atomic Energy Agency] and the Trump administration, and certified by both.
Perryman: Yes.
Connolly: Is that correct? And what happened to that treaty?
Perryman: President Trump pulled out.
Connolly: And has Iran been less active in producing nuclear weapons, or more?
Perryman: Iran is now a greater threat because of that failure.
Connolly: So much for efficacy. Just thought I’d revisit that revisionist history.
[video at the link]
Comer seems to have found a novel way to waste taxpayer money: using his position as chairman of the Accountability and Oversight Committee to nakedly campaign against the Biden-Harris administration and prop up Trump’s dogged quest to return to the White House.
If Thursday’s display was any indication, this latest effort will be about as effective as Comer’s last set of bogus hearings.
No One At Wonkette Has Sexted Or Wants To Sext With RFK Jr., In Case You Were Wondering
I believe I can speak for us all, here.
New York magazine reporter Olivia Nuzzi has been put on leave after informing her editors of a relationship with former presidential candidate and current Trump surrogate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from December 2023 to this August.
“The relationship was never physical but should have been disclosed to prevent the appearance of a conflict. I deeply regret not doing so immediately and apologize to those I’ve disappointed, especially my colleagues at New York,” Nuzzi told the New York Times in a statement.
While it’s entirely possible that 70-year-old RFK Jr was just sending the 31-year-old Nuzzi romantic poems over text, […] Like what else would that be, really? Brainworm pics? Decapitated whale pics?
Kennedy is, of course, married to Cheryl Hines, who for years played a woman married to a far less humiliating person on Curb Your Enthusiasm. She shouldn’t be too surprised though, given that his last wife killed herself after finding the secret journal where he had detailed the 37 affairs he’d had in the previous year. Besides, she’s stood by him through his COVID nonsense, his vaccine nonsense, and his endorsement of Trump that will likely decimate her career and social life — it seems unlikely that this would faze her, either. […]
It is unclear, frankly, what either of these women see in this man beyond the fact that he is a Kennedy, but Nuzzi is engaged to noted sex pest Ryan Lizza, so her judgment may be a tad off to begin with.
New York released an official statement saying that they didn’t think it had influenced her reporting on him, but that they were enlisting a third party to investigate more thoroughly:
Recently our Washington Correspondent Olivia Nuzzi acknowledged to the magazine’s editors that she had engaged in a personal relationship with a former subject relevant to the 2024 campaign while she was reporting on the campaign, a violation of the magazine’s standards around conflicts of interest and disclosures. Had the magazine been aware of this relationship, she would not have continued to cover the presidential campaign. An internal review of her published work has found no inaccuracies nor evidence of bias. She is currently on leave from the magazine, and the magazine is conducting a more thorough third-party review. We regret this violation of our readers’ trust.
Of course, while it may not have impacted her reporting for New York magazine, Nuzzi did stand for him quite a bit in a New York Times roundtable discussion back in March.
Example 1:
NUZZI: The establishment press has been reluctant to cover Kennedy like a serious contender because they fear they will face criticism for “platforming an anti-vaxxer.” But the establishment press doesn’t get to decide who voters take seriously. In 2016, Gary Johnson and Jill Stein earned enough of the vote in enough swing states to cost Hillary Clinton the election. Kennedy is performing way better than either of them ever did.
Example 2:
NUZZI: Yes, we’re forgetting or purposefully ignoring something rather important about this election: It’s not a two-man race. It’s a three-man race. A majority of Americans say they are unhappy with another “lesser of two evils” contest, and they’re in luck, as they have a range of third-party candidates to choose from. One of those candidates, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is polling competitively, especially among young people, and he’s steadily gaining ballot access across the country. Last Tuesday, the campaign announced it had collected enough signatures to qualify in Arizona and Georgia, crucial swing states.
[…] Just to be completely open and honest and transparent here — in case you were wondering, absolutely no one at Wonkette has ever communicated sexually, romantically, or otherwise with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., unless you count the many PR emails I have received from his anti-vaccine Children’s Health Defense group over the years, which I do not.
Liquidating Rudy Giuliani Exhumed To Scream That Biden Should Be Hung*
*Hanged.
In your fervor about Mark Robinson posting on a porn forum about getting peed on by his sister-in-law, did you forget about pants-dropping pervert Rudy Giuliani? Well, he’s back! Kamala Harris might have Oprah, Meryl, Taylor and Billie, but Donald J. Trump’s got star endorsements too! And he dug up Rudy to yell at supporters in Uniondale, New York. You’re welcome, America! And that disbarred, multiply indicted, bankrupt, horny Scotch goblin is still a howling nut.
Trump still owes Roodles at least $2 million for legal fees, but apparently he’s fine with working for free. Hey, remember last year when FBI agent Johnathan Buma told the Senate Judiciary Committee that Giuliani was compromised by Russian intelligence, and maybe got “a large payment directly from a Russian asset,” and that Buma’s investigation into those ties got thwarted? Remember all those years Giuliani spent acting like a fucking Russian agent, and Giuliani’s years of intensive efforts to not even let his own accountants look at his books? But we are off on a tangent again!
Anyway, Tuesday night Trump had Roodles on as his hype man before his performance in Uniondale, New York, where Rudy rattled his horse dentures by hollering some Hunter Biden election fraud lies, claimed Biden got $21 million from “Red China,” based on who-knows-what, and strongly suggested Biden should be hung*, for good measure. [video at the link]
“They were cheating with the hard drive and fixing the election! Biden was elected on a fraud! They hid the fact that he and his family got $21 million from red China! What are we doing with a man in the White House who got $21 million from our biggest enemy?! Imagine if … Reagan got $21 million from Russia. We would’ve hung ’im!”
Biden hid it so well this is the first time anyone’s heard of it, apparently!
RooGoo ended in a complete froth, screaming, “No more attacks! No more attacks! No more! Stop it. If there’s anybody behind it, I’ll find them. I did it to the mafia, I can do it to them!”
[…] Why was Trump campaigning in New York anyway? Harris is up by 13 points in the polls there, so shouldn’t those two be working their hustle in some swing state? Also, is it going to be good for their many respective civil and criminal cases to be out publicly hanging together? Guess if Trump or Roodles were still sane enough to be able to appear to be sane, they would’ve done that a long time ago.
[…] old Rudy keeps coming back. Things haven’t been going too well for him. As usual. When we last embedded a sad horn noise for America’s Mayor™, his bankruptcy case had gotten thrown out, because he wouldn’t cooperate in the filing that he, himself, had asked for. So liquidation time began! The financial kind, not the shoe-polish-down the temple kind.
Before that, he got served an indictment for his role in the Arizona fake-electors scheme at his 80th birthday party, where he’d asked guests to buy him a sleeper chair, cologne, and ceiling paint, and other stuff that most grownups getting at least $43k a month just order for themselves […]
And, after nearly a year of his legal fuckerooney, his creditors, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, those Georgia election workers whose lives got ruined by Giuliani’s lies, have filed to collect. They want his bank accounts, and those of Giuliani Communications, LLC, along with his 1980 Mercedes, 26 watches, and:
New York Yankees World Series rings, signed Reggie Jackson and Joe DiMaggio memorabilia, a claim for “about” $2 million in “never paid” legal fees for his work on behalf of the 2020 Donald Trump campaign, “cash accounts,” and his “interest” (“1,430 shares of stock”) in his multi-million dollar Manhattan apartment.
Also they want the proceeds from that coffee brand he tried to hide from the bankruptcy court, Rudy Coffee […]
Then there’s the Arizona fake electors case. Giuliani’s lawyers want it thrown out, of course, whine whine. […] His sidekick, Jenna Ellis, the gal who was the assistant riding his pooter-toot express, has flipped and is presumably quite willing to testify against the old ghoul.
And on Monday, Rudy’s federal lawsuit against Joe Biden for calling him a “Russian pawn” and “facilitator of Russian disinformation” got tossed out, because he filed it in New Hampshire, where neither he nor handsome Joe live or do any kind of business.
[…] He could’ve taken his retirement money, stayed in Florida with his married mistress, and simply left everybody else alone. Maybe had some cash to leave to his kids! Trump won’t pay his legal bills, but maybe he at least bought him that cologne from his wish list?
*Pictures are hung, people are hanged. This has been your pedantry for the day.
Microsoft deal would reopen Three Mile Island nuclear plant to power AI
The owner of the shuttered Pennsylvania plant plans to bring it online by 2028, with the tech giant buying all the power it produces.
Pennsylvania’s dormant Three Mile Island nuclear plant would be brought back to life to feed the voracious energy needs of Microsoft under an unprecedented deal announced Friday in which the tech giant would buy 100 percent of its power for 20 years.
The restart of Three Mile Island, the site of the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history, would mark a bold advance in the tech industry’s quest to find enough electric power to support its boom in artificial intelligence. The plant, which Pennsylvanians thought had closed for good in 2019 amid financial strain, would come back online by 2028 under the agreement, according to plant owner Constellation Energy.
If approved by regulators, Three Mile Island would provide Microsoft with the energy equivalent it takes to power 800,000 homes, or 835 megawatts. Never before has a U.S. nuclear plant come back into service after being decommissioned, and never before has all of a single commercial nuclear power plant’s output been allocated to a single customer.
But the economics of both the power and computing industries are changing rapidly. Tech companies are scouring the nation for power that is both reliable and helps them meet their pledge to fuel AI development with zero emissions electricity — driving a nuclear power revival.
[…] The four-year restart plan would cost Constellation about $1.6 billion, he said, and is dependent on federal subsidies in the form of tax breaks earmarked for nuclear power in the 2022 Inflation Recovery Act.
Constellation will also need to clear steep regulatory hurdles, including intensive safety inspections from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which has never before authorized the reopening of a plant. The deal also raises thorny questions about the federal tax breaks, as the energy from the plant would all be produced for a single private company rather than a utility serving entire communities.
A partial reactor meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979 sent the nation into a panic and the nuclear industry reeling. The unit that Constellation plans to fire back up sits adjacent to the one that malfunctioned 45 years ago.
Constellation and Microsoft conceived the novel deal to solve a deepening energy problem. The sprawling data centers Microsoft and other digital giants need have become so big and energy-intensive that they are straining existing power supplies across the nation. […]
I’m the Republican Governor of Ohio. Here Is the Truth About Springfield.
[snipped details from DeWine’s and his wife’s high school days in Springfield]
Springfield has a rich history of providing refuge for the oppressed and being a place of opportunity. As a stop on the Underground Railroad, the Gammon House, which still stands, was a safe haven for escaped slaves seeking freedom. And, as a stop on the Old National Road, America’s first east/west federal highway, Springfield attracted many settlers both before and after the Civil War. Immigrants from Ireland, Greece, Germany, Italy and other countries helped build the city into what it is today.
For a long time, commerce and manufacturing flourished in Springfield, which earned the title “Champion City” after the founding there of the agriculture implement giant Champion Machine Company.
But the city hit tough times in the 1980s and 1990s, falling into serious economic decline as manufacturing, rail commerce and good-paying jobs dwindled. Now, however, Springfield is having a resurgence in manufacturing and job creation. Some of that is thanks to the dramatic influx of Haitian migrants who have arrived in the city over the past three years to fill jobs.
They are there legally. They are there to work.
It is disappointing to me that Springfield has become the epicenter of vitriol over America’s immigration policy, because it has long been a community of great diversity. […]
Bomb threats — all hoaxes — continue and temporarily closed at least two schools, put the hospital on lockdown and shuttered City Hall. The two local colleges have gone remote. I have posted Ohio Highway Patrol troopers in each school building in Springfield so the schools can remain open, teachers and children can feel safe and students can continue to learn. On the troopers’ first day in the schools, Fran and I visited Simon Kenton Elementary, where reassured teachers told us: “Yesterday was rough. Today was a good day.”
As a supporter of former President Donald Trump and Senator JD Vance, I am saddened by how they and others continue to repeat claims that lack evidence and disparage the legal migrants living in Springfield. This rhetoric hurts the city and its people, and it hurts those who have spent their lives there.
The Biden administration’s failure to control the southern border is a very important issue that Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance are talking about and one that the American people are rightfully deeply concerned about. But their verbal attacks against these Haitians — who are legally present in the United States — […]
[…] Haitian migrants have gone to Springfield because of the jobs and chance for a better life there.
On Monday, I met with Springfield manufacturing business owners who employ Haitians. As one of them told me, his business would not have been able to stay open after the pandemic but for the Haitians who filled the jobs. cloud what should be a winning argument about the border.
There have been language barriers and cultural differences, but these Haitians come to work every day, are fitting in with co-workers and have become valuable employees. […]
At the same time, the sudden surge in population has created challenges that no city could anticipate or prepare for. The health care system, housing market and school classrooms have been strained. There is a desperate need for more Haitian Creole translators. And ensuring that Haitians learn how to drive safely and understand our driving customs and traffic laws remains a top priority.
These are the real challenges. Mayor Rob Rue; the City Council; the county commission president, Melanie Flax Wilt; and others have been working tirelessly on these issues, and we are assisting them at the state level.
[…] When four of the nation’s biggest railroads built the Big Four Train Depot in Springfield, the city became a hub for passenger and express rail, with an average of 3,000 freight cars and 40 passenger trains speeding through the city daily in the mid-1920s. Located downtown, the Depot became the perfect campaign whistle stop for politicians. […]
Springfield today has a very bright future. The people who live there love their families, value education, work hard, care about one another and tackle the challenges they face head-on, just as they have done for over 200 years.
I am proud of this community, and America should be, too.
The largest union of maritime workers in North America is preparing to strike at all of its Atlantic and Gulf Coast ports at the end of the month.
A major strike is on the horizon for thousands of maritime workers, posing a threat to East Coast ports responsible for billions of dollars of goods.
The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), the largest union of maritime workers in North America, has vocalized plans to go on strike at all of its Atlantic and Gulf Coast ports Oct. 1 if a new contract agreement can’t be reached with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX). The union is arguing for better wages and continued protections against automation and new technology in its terminals.
[…] negotiations with the ILA began in the last week of May. Now, the union’s current six-year contract is less than two weeks away from expiring.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey told NBC News that while it is not at the table for the ILA-USMX negotiations, the agency is “closely monitoring developments and remain hopeful.”
[…] The ILA and USMX will need to agree upon a new master contract by Oct. 1, before the current six-year contract expires and the ILA pledges to go on strike.
Since its founding in 1954, high-energy physics laboratory CERN has been a flagship for international scientific collaboration. That commitment has been under strain since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. CERN decided to cut ties with Moscow late last year over deaths resulting from the country’s “unlawful use of force” in the ongoing conflict.
With the existing international cooperation agreements now lapsing, the Geneva-based organization is expected to expel hundreds of scientists on November 30 affiliated with Russian institutions, Nature reports. However, CERN will maintain its links with the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, an intergovernmental center near Moscow…
A rare polar bear that was spotted outside a cottage in a remote village in Iceland was shot by police after being considered a threat, authorities said Friday.
The bear was killed Thursday afternoon in the northwest of Iceland after police consulted the Environment Agency, which declined to have the animal relocated, Westfjords Police Chief Helgi Jensson told The Associated Press.
“It’s not something we like to do,” Jensson said. “In this case, as you can see in the picture, the bear was very close to a summer house. There was an old woman in there.” …
Instead of writing uncertain urls in a comment, you can just paste them in a browser tab to find out.
In general, you only MIGHT be able to trim a url if you see a question mark and not beyond that. Or a hash mark. A question mark indicates what follows are key=value pairs that tweak requests for the page. For example, UTM parameters, serve no purpose other than to track from where you clicked the link for marketing purposes. The hash mark indicates what follows identifies a fragment within the page that the browser should scroll to or highlight.
Cards Against Humanity sued SpaceX yesterday, alleging that Elon Musk’s firm illegally took over a plot of land on the US/Mexico border that the party-game company bought in 2017 in an attempt to stymie then-President Trump’s attempt to build a wall.
“As part of CAH’s 2017 holiday campaign, while Donald Trump was President, CAH created a supporter-funded campaign to take a stand against the building of a Border Wall,” said the lawsuit filed in Cameron County District Court in Texas. Cards Against Humanity says it received $15 donations from 150,000 people and used part of that money to buy “a plot of vacant land in Cameron County based upon CAH’s promise to ‘make it as time-consuming and expensive as possible for Trump to build his wall.'”
Cards Against Humanity says it mowed the land “and maintained it in its natural state, marking the edge of the lot with a fence and a ‘No Trespassing’ sign.” But instead of Trump taking over the land, Cards Against Humanity says the parcel was “interfered with and invaded” by Musk’s space company. The lawsuit includes pictures that, according to Cards Against Humanity, show the land when it was first purchased and after SpaceX construction equipment and materials were placed on the land…
On Wednesday, the FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence advanced the Iran hacking controversy, explaining that Iranian operatives sent “unsolicited emails” — including materials stolen from Donald Trump’s campaign — to Democrats.
At least for now, the available information suggests Democrats ignored the outreach and did not respond to the unsolicited emails.
A day later, the former president addressed the matter on camera for the first time, spinning a tale on Newsmax that bore little resemblance to reality. [video at the link]
To hear him tell it, the FBI contradicted the Harris campaign — the exact opposite is true — and this controversy is “real,” unlike his Russia scandal. (The Trump-Russia scandal continues to be real, whether the former president likes it or not.)
In the same interview, the GOP candidate said, “So when is the grand jury meeting, I want to know. Is there going to be a grand jury?”
In reality, of course, there might very well be a grand jury to indict the Iranian hackers — who, incidentally, targeted both parties’ campaigns — but that’s probably not what Trump had in mind. Rather, he apparently is under the impression that the Democratic campaign should endure the kind of investigation that he and his operation faced after the 2016 campaign.
Let’s break this down in a way the former president should be able to understand.
Did the candidate and his/her team welcome foreign intervention in a U.S. presidential campaign?
Trump: Yes
Harris: No
Did the candidate and his/her team encourage foreign intervention in a U.S. presidential campaign?
Trump: Yes
Harris: No
Did the candidate and his/her team engage with a foreign adversary as it targeted a U.S. presidential campaign?
Trump: Yes
Harris: No
Did the candidate and his/her team use information obtained by a foreign adversary after it successfully hacked a rival’s computer system?
Trump: Yes
Harris: No
Did the candidate and his/her team publicly declare that foreign intervention in a U.S. presidential campaign is acceptable?
Trump: Yes
Harris: No
Did the candidate and his/her team lie to the public about their private interactions with the foreign adversary that hacked a rival’s computer system?
Trump: Yes
Harris: No
The more the Republican nominee argues that the Iranian hacking controversy is somehow worse than the Russian hacking controversy, the more we’re reminded of the degree to which he has the stories backward.
Friday is the first day that Donald Trump can sell his majority shares in Trump Media & Technology Group, the company that operates his Truth Social platform. Unfortunately for him, the stock opened Friday by dropping to its lowest level so far, at $13.73 a share.
The company was valued at more than $5 billion in March, with shares reaching a closing high of $66.22, but is now worth less than $3 billion. As of early Friday, Trump’s shares are estimated to be worth around $1.6 billion.
The media company stock was originally overvalued at close to $9 billion. It quickly dropped after its initial public offering and has been trending down for months. In May, the company’s revenue filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission revealed the company was operating at a net loss through its first earning quarter. It has continued to hit new lows over the past few weeks. [graph at the link]
Many have called the media company something of a pump-and-dump stock, which matches with the rest of Trump’s ventures these days, including his new crypto venture. You know cryptocurrency? It’s the thing Trump once rightly called a “scam” (broken clock and all of that). But on Wednesday, Trump was handing out what he termed “crypto burgers”—burgers he bought with bitcoin—at a bar in New York City.
Trump’s Truth Social platform began after he was kicked off of Twitter for his part in inciting the violence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The social media network has been something of a disaster since the start with its legally dubious logo design, top executives jumping ship, and stakeholder lawsuits. In the end, its main value has been as a forum to watch Trump freak out over the state of his life every few hours.
Back in March, businessman Mike Crispi, who chairs New Jersey’s America First Republicans group, had this prognostication to offer “liberals”: [X post available at the link. Mike Crispi says he liquidated his entire portfolio and put it into $DJT stock. He suggests that, because liberals did not do the same, they can “stay poor.”]
Tennessee Congressman Divorces Wife After Discovering Fountain Of Youth (A Much Younger Woman)
How do all these sex scandals this week keep involving Republicans, huh?
This week has seen so many weird sex scandals about Republican gubernatorial candidates writing very graphic sex fantasies on Internet porn sites and Republican congressmen chasing underage booty and reporters sexting with one of the highest-profile and much older supporters of the Republican presidential candidate that we almost missed another Republican congressman blowing up his long marriage because he was knocking boots with a woman in Washington 27 years his junior. Let’s rectify that slip-up. Our slip-up, not his.
Mark Green is a third-term Tennessee congressman of heretofore undistinguished accomplishment while in Congress, where he was sent to fill the seat of Marsha Blackburn when she was elected to the (United States!) Senate. In August he filed for divorce from his wife of 35 years, Camilla, citing that old chestnut, irreconcilable differences.
What are those irreconcilable differences? Well, if you believe his soon-to-be-ex wife, it is that Green wants to run around Sodom-on-the-Potomac drinking and carousing and chasing younger women like a common Kappa Alpha while continuing to sell himself to the public as a good Christian conservative, and she would prefer that he not do that.
The story burst into the public eye a week ago when Camilla Green revealed her husband’s affair with the 32-year-old woman in a series of text messages to acquaintances. She wrote that her husband was “living life greatly deceived,” and that she had “offered reconciliation, and he wants nothing of it.” She also wrote that “Satan has rewritten our marriage in his mind.”
The stories we’ve seen so far have been a bit unclear, but the acquaintances who received this text may have been other congressional wives. We base this on the messages having apparently circulated amongst lawmakers and also that Green told the original recipients she wanted “to make others aware of how readily available ‘predators’ are for our husbands. If my story can prevent this tragedy from happening to someone else, I will tell it.”
“Our husbands” seems like a tell that possibly has Mark Green’s colleagues scrubbing all text messages from their phones.
“Predators” is an interesting way of deflecting blame for the affair from her husband, who after all is a 59-year-old family man with agency. Also it is 2024 and at least some parts of society have learned to not automatically blame age-inappropriate affairs on the younger jezebels who tempted the powerful husbands into sin. […]
Note that Green so far had blamed “Satan” and female “predators” for her husband’s actions, when the simpler explanation […] is staring her right in the face.
Camilla Green also accused a 32-year-old reporter at Axios of being her husband’s mistress. This prompted lawyers for the outlet to write her a cease-and-desist letter informing her that she had gotten the wrong woman. Camilla later apologized to the still-anonymous reporter, admitting that she had misidentified both the woman and her employer. (The real mistress reportedly works in politics, but has not been publicly identified.)
[…] Really makes you wonder how much of this kind of stuff is happening in Washington at all times. Ha ha, no it doesn’t […]
Green’s daughter Catherine also weighed in, saying that the family had noticed a marked shift in Mark Green’s behavior over the last year and a half and said politics was a negative influence on her father:
“Over the last year and a half, two years, we’ve really noticed a difference in him. So who knows if that’s just the toxic environment that is D.C., but something has changed,” Catherine said. […] Catherine described her father as increasingly “self-centered” and aloof, noting a lack of communication and disinterest in family activities over Christmas.
One irony here is that Green, a Donald Trump supporter […]
Tennessee’s Seventh is a deep red district, and Green is expected to roll right over whatever roadkill the Democrats put on the ballot to run against him. And then, with his marriage behind him, it’s look out, ladies of DC.
Enjoy National Treasure Jasmine Crockett Dragging Project 2025ers For Filth
And she called Trump simpleminded and under-qualified, ha.
[…] Four Project 2025 architects showed up for a hearing in the House on Thursday, and boy oh boy did it not go well for them. Democrats, tipped off by the title of the hearing, “A Legacy of Incompetence: Consequences of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Policy Failures,” and how the committee chair is Kentucky fried yee-haw Rep. James Comer, came loaded for metaphorical bear, and it turned into a scorcher!
The whole thing is four hours long, so probably don’t watch it all unless you’re absolutely glued to your couch. There’s lots of good stuff, so let’s talk about the meaty bits! [video at the link]
Maryland’s Jamie Raskin kicked it off: “The majority has assembled a group of leading Project 2025 intellectuals for a Project 2025 coming-out party today; the witnesses will advertise their wares, which almost makes me a bit nostalgic, Chairman, for the days my colleagues said they were pursuing President Joe Biden for the worst presidential crime in America history, which unfortunately they were never able to identify, which they now appear to have dropped completely.”
[…] Raskin pointed out how Republicans have refused to hold a single hearing about gun violence, other than the one about when Trump got his ear shot in Pennsylvania in July, and that there have been 101 mass shootings since then. Hey, how about some criminal background checks? How about some red flag laws? But nooo, instead of something like that, Comer has assembled these Project 2025 brain geniuses, “so they can audition for Trump’s approval and land a spot on his Cabinet, or sub-cabinet, a fate not necessarily to be envied if you talk to former vice president Mike Pence.” Or Esper, or Bolton, or Cassidy Hutchinson, or the more than a hundred other former Republican officials who found that the job was not really all that. “But here we are, with these Project 2025 luminaries.” LOL!
Before we get to Crockett, would you like to see Mark Krikorian, director of the right-wing Center for Immigration Studies and a Project 2025 advisor, admit that he said it would have been “better in the long run” if Haiti had had slavery for 30 more years? Probably not, but here’s the clip anyway: [video at the link]
Well, that was painful. So here’s Jasmine Crockett bringing up how Trump’s name is in the Project 2025 document 312 times! Skye Perryman was the only one on the panel who was not Project 2025-affiliated, she is one of the good guys, CEO of a legal organization that does things like fight book bans, so everybody pretty much ignored her all day. Watch her smile while Crockett loses her patience with Brendan Carr’s bullshit. [video at the link]
“You know what, this hearing is actually the best example of what waste, fraud, and abuse looks like, because the only reason we’re having this hearing is because somebody got their feelings hurt in a debate, and I don’t understand why we’re wasting taxpayer dollars.”
“This election is the best example of why y’all are so afraid of [DEI] because then you can’t have a simple-minded, under-qualified white man. […] You’ve got to pay attention to the qualified Black woman that is on the other side.”
Yep, that about sums it up! Though to be fair, they also had plenty of tax-dollar-wasting bullshit hearings when smart-minded, qualified Old Handsome Joe was the candidate too.
[…] Brendan Carr is a commissioner at the Federal Communications Communication (FCC), and he wrote the Project 2025 manifesto section on the FCC. Er, was that a misuse of his position and a Hatch Act violation? His Project 2025 contributions are to opine that conservative loyalists should be running the FCC, and it should get rid of regulations. Won’t TV be great again when the Sinclair Broadcast Group can own everything? The mandate also calls on punishment for media companies that ban users for espousing “conservative viewpoints,” like how people should cure COVID by eating horse paste and shine lights up their assholes, or marinate kids in honey instead of vaccinating them.
The other Project 2025 luminaries there for their Trump tryout:
[Snipped Information re Meaghan Mobbs] Mandy Gunasekara! She is a Project 2025 author who was in the Trump administration as the former chief of staff to EPA chief Andrew Wheeler, the guy who was previously a coal lobbyist. Gunasekara has a book coming out called Y’all Fired: A Southern Belle’s Guide to Restoring Federalism and Draining the Swamp. Very folksy, very trad!
[…] Her part of Project 2025 was writing about how the EPA is “coercive,” full of “activists,” “job killing” and so on, wah wah, so the agency should get restructured, staffed by party loyalists, and the federal government should fuck on off and leave regulation to the states, instead of trying to deal with air pollution like a bunch of nagging downers. (Her chapter starts at page 417, if you would like to read it.)
It wasn’t Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s first time encountering some Project 2025 creeps, and it’s a joy every time. Here she is roasting contributing author and condescending little shit Gene Hamilton back in May for that whole turning-the-American-military-against-citizens part. [video at the link]
Last month, Crockett was named a co-chair for Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, an excellent choice! […]
Terry Belk, who owed thousands for cancer treatment for himself and his late wife, said he was stunned by a call from Atrium Health telling him the lien on his home was cancelled. [video at the link]
Less than a week after NBC News detailed how the hospital system Atrium Health of North Carolina aggressively pursued former patients’ medical debts, placing liens on their homes to collect on hospital bills, the nonprofit company announced it would cancel those obligations and forgive the unpaid debts associated with them. Some 11,500 liens on people’s homes in North Carolina and five other states will be released, Atrium’s parent company, Advocate Health, said with some dating back 20 years or more.
Advocate Health said it is changing its policy now as “the next logical step” following a 2022 decision to stop filing lawsuits and property liens to collect on patients’ medical debts. […]
Reporting on the nationwide problem of medical debt last week, NBC News focused on Terry Belk, 68, a Charlotte resident whose wife died of breast cancer in 2012 and who was himself later diagnosed with prostate cancer. Both his wife’s treatment and Belk’s own racked up tens of thousands of dollars in bills their insurance did not cover. When Belk could not afford to pay them, Atrium Health pursued him in court, the company confirmed. In 2005, Belk signed what’s called a deed of trust with Atrium, granting it the right to receive $23,000 when he sold his family home.
Belk said he was stunned to receive a phone call from an Atrium Health executive Tuesday advising him that his debts would be forgiven. “There’s no way this would have happened without national coverage by NBC News,” Belk said.
Rebecca Cerese, health policy advocate at North Carolina Justice Center, a nonprofit fighting poverty in the state, said she was very pleasantly surprised by Atrium’s move and hopes other hospitals will follow suit. “I’m really thankful that folks like Terry have had the courage to speak out about something that is difficult to speak out on,” Cerese told NBC News. “Dealing with an illness or loss of a loved one is hard enough — we should not be compounding that with this additional stress of facing financial ruin.”
Americans owe some $220 billion in medical debt, according to KFF, a nonprofit health policy research, polling and news organization. The top three states for medical debt are South Dakota, where 18% of the population is affected, followed by Mississippi at 15% and Belk’s home state of North Carolina at 13%, KFF says.
From January 2017 through June 2022, North Carolina hospitals sued 7,517 patients and their family members to collect medical debt, according to a study by Duke University School of Law faculty and North Carolina’s Office of State Treasurer. Many of the legal actions resulted in default judgments in state district courts; interest charges and other added fees accounted for an astounding 35% of the $57.3 million in total judgments owed by patients.
In July, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, announced a medical debt relief program that all of the state’s 99 eligible hospitals agreed to participate in, forgiving medical debts dating back to Jan. 1, 2014, for Medicaid beneficiaries. In addition, medical debt considered uncollectible for patients whose income is at or below at least 350% of the federal poverty level will be relieved under the program, as will past medical debt exceeding 5% of a person’s annual income. Nine Atrium hospitals in the state are among the participants.
But that program did not help many former patients carrying medical debt from prior years. For instance, Belk said his debt was excluded from the governor’s initiative. [video of NC Governor speaking is available at the link]
Announcing its new lien release program, Advocate Health said it would start with the oldest cases first, resolving them individually “over the next several months.” The company warned that the process would take time as it coordinates with courts in each jurisdiction.
When NBC News contacted Atrium Health previously about Belk’s situation, the company spokesman provided a statement saying that the health system has used litigation against patients “as a last resort,” and that Belk signed both the deed of trust and the other judgment voluntarily, “and presumably on the advice of his attorney.”
The company statement added: “As the leading, nonprofit health system in the Southeast, Atrium Health works to ensure access to high-quality care for everyone in each community we’re privileged to serve. For us, there are no profits — just outcomes, in the form of improving health, elevating hope and advancing healing — for all.”
Putin on Monday ordered the regular size of the Russian army to be increased by 180,000 troops to 1.5 million active service members in a move that would make it the second largest in the world after China’s.
Russia says they are not considering another mobilization of reserve troops, so how they can recruit this many is an open question. I expect that officials in the Kremlin are at least considering a mobilization, if this was only hiring more mercenaries there wouldn’t be a need to increase the cap.
The Russian recruiters have developed a technique of offering large salaries and huge bonuses but only to surviving soldiers, knowing that most will die on the front. Word of this is getting around and volunteers to take the money are dropping off.
Russia has also had to slow down recruiting from prisons. The ones that are useful have already been recruited. Russia had to back off after several violent alcoholics created more problems for fellow Russian soldiers then Ukrainian forces.
redwoodsays
@406 Trump promising the moon. Isn’t this like a high-schooler running for Student Body President promising free soft drink machines in the cafeteria if they win?
whheydtsays
Re: redwood @ #436…
The difference is that a week later, the high schooler will remember making the promise. Trump will deny that he did, even if shown a recording of him doing so.
The LOFAR researchers also identified more brightly glowing satellites than publicly published orbital data accounted for. The researchers suspect the extras could be military Starlink satellites […] called Starshield. If they’re right, the satellites are not as secret as the Pentagon thinks—and the interference problem could be worse than the public satellite numbers suggest.
The detection method relies on forward scatter, where an object like a plane or drone disrupts electromagnetic waves from a satellite, causing small signal disturbances, which are […] analyzed to determine the object’s location. This technique does not require the radar to emit signals, making it harder for adversaries to detect or jam.
Wordfreq is a program that tracked the ever-changing ways people used more than 40 different languages by analyzing millions of sources across Wikipedia, movie and TV subtitles, news articles, books, websites, Twitter, and Reddit. The system could be used to analyze changing language habits as slang and popular culture changed and language evolved, and was a resource for academics who study such things.
[…]
“Generative AI has polluted the data,” she wrote. “I don’t think anyone has reliable information about post-2021 language usage by humans.” […] She gives the example that ChatGPT overuses the word “delve,” in a way that people do not, which has thrown off the frequency of this specific word. […] Wordfreq also validates a concern we raised back in April about Google including AI-generated books in Google Books, which would pollute data used in Google Ngram viewer, an important tool used by researchers to track language use throughout history.
Bekenstein Boundsays
Why the hell are Harris’s odds slipping again at the 538 forecast? :(
Exclusive analysis finds the rate of maternal deaths in Texas increased 56% from 2019 to 2022, compared with just 11% nationwide during the same time period.
The number of women in Texas who died while pregnant, during labor or soon after childbirth skyrocketed following the state’s 2021 ban on abortion care — far outpacing a slower rise in maternal mortality across the nation, a new investigation of federal public health data finds.
From 2019 to 2022, the rate of maternal mortality cases in Texas rose by 56%, compared with just 11% nationwide during the same time period, according to an analysis by the Gender Equity Policy Institute. The nonprofit research group scoured publicly available reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and shared the analysis exclusively with NBC News.
“There’s only one explanation for this staggering difference in maternal mortality,” said Nancy L. Cohen, president of the GEPI. “All the research points to Texas’ abortion ban as the primary driver of this alarming increase.”
“Texas, I fear, is a harbinger of what’s to come in other states,” she said.
The SB 8 effect
The Texas Legislature banned abortion care as early as five weeks into pregnancy in September 2021, nearly a year before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade — the case that protected a federal right to abortion — in June 2022.
At the time, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, lauded the bill as a measure that “ensures the life of every unborn child.”
Texas law now prohibits all abortion except to save the life of the mother.
The passage of Texas’ Senate Bill 8 gave GEPI researchers the opportunity to take an early look at how near-total bans on abortion — including cases in which the mother’s life was in danger — affected the health and safety of pregnant women.
The SB 8 effect, Cohen’s team found, was swift and stark. Within a year, maternal mortality rose in all racial groups studied. [Graph at the link]
Among Hispanic women, the rate of women dying while pregnant, during childbirth or soon after increased from 14.5% in 2019 to 18.9% in 2022. Rates among white women nearly doubled — from 20% to 39.1%. And Black women, who historically have higher chances of dying while pregnant, during childbirth or soon after, saw their rates go from 31.6% to 43.6%.
While maternal mortality spiked overall during the pandemic, women dying while pregnant or during childbirth rose consistently in Texas following the state’s ban on abortion, according to the Gender Equity Policy Institute.
[…] Beyond the immediate dangers of pregnancy and childbirth, there is growing evidence that women living in states with strict abortion laws, such as Texas, are far more likely to go without prenatal care and much less likely to find an appointment with an OB-GYN.
Doctors say the feeling among would-be moms is fear.
“Fear is something I’d never seen in practice prior to Senate Bill 8,” said Dr. Leah Tatum, an OB-GYN in private practice in Austin, Texas. Tatum, who was not involved with the GEPI study, said that requests for sterilization procedures among her patients doubled after the state’s abortion ban.
That is, women prefer to lose their ability to ever have children over the chance that they might become pregnant following SB 8.
“Patients feel like they’re backed into a corner,” Tatum said. “If they already knew that they didn’t want to pursue pregnancy, now they’re terrified.” […]
The U.S. is considering sending Ukraine a medium-range missile for its new F-16 fleet as part of a $375 million military aid package expected to be announced Monday.
The Joint Standoff Weapon, already used by the U.S. Air Force and Navy and a number of allies, can hit targets over 70 miles away, giving Ukraine a major upgrade to the weapons it’s using to strike Russian forces and allowing them to do it at safer distances.
The package, which is still being finalized according to two U.S. officials and a person familiar with the issue, will also include artillery munitions, rockets and air defense missiles. The people were granted anonymity to discuss the package ahead of the announcement and acknowledged that the contents could still change before the official announcement is made. […]
The $375 million will be the largest package the U.S. has sent Ukraine since May, and could be the last presidential drawdown of equipment before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. Under authority granted by Congress, the U.S. pulls existing weapons from its stockpiles, and the money is meant to purchase replacement munitions and equipment.
The Pentagon is working with Congress to roll the remaining $5.8 billion left in the presidential drawdown authority over to the next fiscal year. […]
The new missiles, while not having the reach that Kyiv has been asking for, will still give Ukrainian pilots a powerful new weapon as their forces battle advancing Russian troops in the country’s east, where Ukrainian troops have been slowly losing ground.
The 70-plus-mile range would allow pilots to stay away from the front lines and Russian air defenses, giving Kyiv a new way to target those defenses and frontline weapons depots, complicating operations for Russian forces.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has pressed the White House to allow his forces to use long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems and British-made Storm Shadows deeper inside Russia, to no avail. He is slated to meet with President Joe Biden and Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris next Friday at the White House, where he will present his plan to end the war, and where he is also expected to make his case for the missile restrictions to be lifted.
Ukraine’s defense minister, Rustem Umerov, and Andriy Yermak, senior adviser to Zelenskyy, came to Washington last month to present the administration with potential targets they would like to hit inside Russia with the U.S. and British missiles. The U.S. says that Russia has moved most of its aircraft and weapons depots out of the missiles’ range, but Ukrainian officials are still interested in targeting logistics and command-and-control centers closer to its border.
The U.S. and Denmark have been training Ukrainian pilots, but the numbers have been small due to the amount of qualified Ukrainian pilots available and open training slots.
Speaking with reporters at a conference in Washington this week, Gen. James Hecker, commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Africa, said while there have been criticisms of the training, “it’s a very delicate balance to make sure we’re keeping all of our allies trained with pilots, and we’re also training Ukrainian pilots. We can’t just stop training all of the allies that we have and just focus strictly on Ukraine.” […]
@443 Lynna, OM: It occurred to me that the reason the US is slowly raising the limit on how far into Russia that Ukraine can strike is that Russia is slowly decaying and their ability to do anything about it is going down. At the very start of the war they could have cut of the EU from vital oil but now Russia is more dependent on the trickle of oil for money. Later they could have threatened Ukrainian shipping with the Russian navy but there isn’t enough navy left in the Black Sea. Russian threats to expand the war to other countries or escalate the war now ring hollow, they have already thrown everything they have into the war.
The only real threat Russia has left is nuclear and even if they are losing the war that won’t be used unless there is risk of large scale loss of Russian territory. The oligarchs will hold on to that for bargaining, insuring that no permanent sanctions or harsh penalties will be applied to Russia post war. They know if they go nuclear it’s WWIII and Russia ceases to exist as a country one way or another.
I would not be any good at planning or running a war. There are so many variables, and I get stuck in the “people are dying” view and then I can’t see anything else.
I do think that Russia’s ability to wage “conventional” war was overrated from the start, and now even what ability Russia had has been seriously degraded.
Still, a big country with hundreds of thousands of soldiers (soldiers the leaders see as expendable) can do a lot of damage over a distressingly long period of time.
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he’s ignorant and hateful and proud of it. here are just a few of the lovely views Marky Rob has espoused:
— that transgender women should be arrested for using women’s bathrooms. if they need to relieve themselves, they should “find a corner outside somewhere,” to use his exact words.
— that political assassinations are necessary. again, to use his own words, “some folks need killing.”
— that stories about the Holocaust — once again, to use his own words — are hogwash.
— that Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby got railroaded by the woke mob.
— that Michelle Obama is a man.
— that women should not have the right to vote.
basically there is not one issue where Mark hasn’t planted his flag on the most extreme MAGAfied side of it.
House Republicans are overwhelmingly [“overwhelmingly” may not be the right word] dismissing former President Trump’s calls for a government shutdown in the absence of a proof-of-citizenship voting bill being signed into law […]
A group of Republicans this week rejected a bill that combined a six-month continuing resolution (CR) with the Trump-backed voting bill, tanking the legislation in a move that thwarted Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) funding strategy.
Now, as the Speaker prepares to defy Trump’s wishes and stage a vote on a “clean” three-month stopgap, rank-and-file Republicans are expected to back it — balking at the former president’s request. Republicans almost universally support the voting bill, but they say pushing the issue so intensely that it results in a shutdown would backfire on the party.
[…] Trump for weeks has urged House Republicans to pair government funding with a conservative voting bill. Johnson fulfilled that request with his opening salvo in the government funding talks.
The former president, however, amped up his request last week, urging Republicans to shut down the government if they did not secure “absolute assurances on Election Security.” And he reiterated that position Wednesday, hours before the House rejected the six-month stopgap-plus-SAVE Act.
“If Republicans don’t get the SAVE Act, and every ounce of it, they should not agree to a Continuing Resolution in any way, shape, or form,” Trump posted on Truth Social, adding: “BE SMART, REPUBLICANS, YOU’VE BEEN PUSHED AROUND LONG ENOUGH BY THE DEMOCRATS. DON’T LET IT HAPPEN AGAIN. Remember, this is Biden/Harris’ fault, not yours!”
Trump’s pleas contrasted with the strategy among GOP lawmakers, who saw the CR-plus-SAVE Act as an opening offer — and a way to play into Trump’s past false stolen election claims and repeated skepticism of the voting system — but knew it would not be the measure that prevented a shutdown. [Republicans being realistic? Sort of?]
Even if the lower chamber passed it, the Democratic-controlled Senate and White House — which point out that it is already illegal for noncitizens to vote and expressed concern about burdening eligible voters — never would have accepted it.
[…] Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), for example, called a government shutdown at this juncture “politically beyond stupid” and predicted the GOP would bear responsibility for allowing the lights to turn off in Washington. [snipped similar comments from other Republicans]
The insistence from Trump, nonetheless, is complicating the GOP’s path to averting a shutdown at the end of the month as House GOP leaders move on to their plan B: A clean, short-term stopgap until December.
Johnson is now in the delicate position of managing the expectations of the former president, with whom he has kept a good relationship — and whose support he will likely need to remain Speaker next year if Republicans win the House.
[…] Johnson met with Trump in Washington on Thursday night — the second gathering of the two leaders in a week. The Speaker would not detail their discussion, but he did say the former president “understands the situation” House Republicans are currently in.
“I’ve had a lot of conversations with President Trump, and I won’t divulge all of them, but he understands the situation that we’re in, and he is doggedly determined to ensure that election security remains a top priority,” Johnson told reporters Friday. “And I am as well, which is why I put the SAVE Act with CR.” […] Friday morning, he posted a photo of Trump’s Truth Social message that read: “IF YOU VOTE ILLEGALLY, YOU’RE GOING TO JAIL.”
[…] Later in the day on Fox News after the vote failed, Johnson said: “I don’t think it’s going to come to a shutdown. I believe we can get this job done.”
Not every Republican, however, is resistant to a shutdown, with some fiscal hawks wishing the Speaker would have used the threat of a shutdown as a real leverage point to pressure Democrats to swallow the SAVE Act.
“He still has an aversion to any kind of shutdown,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) said of Johnson. “Trump is saying, have a shutdown. And just hadn’t happened. We got to fight at some point.”
[…] Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), lead sponsor of the SAVE Act and major proponent of pairing it with a stopgap, also said Republicans should not shy away from a shutdown.
[…]
But those most involved with the intricacies of government funding strongly disagree.
“We can’t have a shutdown,” said Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), another appropriator. “A shutdown would be catastrophic for our national defense, for our economy.”
I keep posting notices of celebrities that have reached the same age as Trump, and are way less rambling and confused than him.
Today, Joanna Lumley (of Absolutely Fabulous) turned 78.
Her TV persona would make a much more interesting bad leader than Trump, as she is a physical danger to everyone around her, drinking herself into a stupor with champagne while holding on to a burning cigarrette and setting places on fire.
Kamala Harris Gains, But Voters Still Weirdly Think Trump Can ‘Economy’ At All
A new AP-NORC poll released Friday has good but kind of frustrating news for Kamala Harris: After months of polling showing registered voters think Donald Trump would be better at handling the economy than Joe Biden or Harris — yes, that Donald Trump! — the new poll, taken after Harris shellacked Trump in their only debate, shows that
About 4 in 10 registered voters say Republican Trump would do a better job handling the economy, while a similar number say that about the Democratic vice president. […] About 1 in 10 voters don’t trust either candidate, and a similar share has equal faith in them.
We suspect that a separate poll of the same folks might find that roughly equal percentages believe that you should only cross the street when no cars are coming, or that you’d have a pretty good chance of jumping over any cars like an action hero before they hit you.
Still, it’s yet another poll that suggests that Harris is doing better and better in head-to-gross-muddled-pervy-head comparisons, so hooray!
The poll showed Harris coming closer to Trump on a number of issues where she and Biden had previously trailed the blobby liar. Here, look at a chart! [Chart at the link]
The AP explains that the new poll is
a warning sign for Trump, who has tried to link Harris to President Joe Biden’s economic track record. The new poll suggests that Harris may be escaping some of the president’s baggage on the issue, undercutting what was previously one of Trump’s major advantages.
This is where we point out that maybe the AP could think a bit more critically before repeating the GOP talking points about Biden’s economic track record being terrible. Hell, at least get the word “perceived” in there! [I agree!]
The poll also found that only about a third of voters say the economy is “somewhat” or “very good,” but that they’re far happier about their own situation, with around “6 in 10 voters saying their household’s finances are somewhat or very good. Both of those numbers have remained steady over the course of the year, despite falling inflation.” Yes, that is the sound of us concussing ourselves.
Just to remind y’all, Biden’s economy is pretty goddamned good (and it is also Harris’s!), not that the AP will come right out and say so. Instead, we get sentences like the one above, giving you part of the economic data, even noting the gap between perception and reality, but not actually saying people are misperceiving anything, because heavens that would be biased, wouldn’t it?
Still, the comparative improvement for Harris may indicate that her message is getting through, and that at least part of the electorate is wondering how Trump will bring their grocery prices down by drill baby drilling.
But let’s also take a look at a few other findings in the poll, which has Harris roughly equal to Trump on issues that are often thought to favor Republicans, like crime (a dead heat, with the prosecutor up by one point over the convicted felon) and Trump’s single-minded fixation, immigration, where Harris trails Trump by only five points. It’s also probably significant that when asked to name their top issues, the economy was the most important to most voters, while immigration is the fourth most important, after health care (where Harris has a huge advantage, 50 percent to 30 percent) and crime.
Harris also has a big polling advantage over Trump when it comes to trust on abortion policy (55 to 27 percent), guns (47-35) and climate (54 percent to 19 percent, with the remainder of respondents crumpling up the poll and either composting or burning it, in equal shares).
So all in all, things seem to be looking up for Harris on several key issues, although the close results on the economy still suggest that America’s poll respondents need some remedial education, the end.
Russia has a long history of spying on the U.S. from the relative safety of Mexico City, dating back to the 1980s. Decades before that, Stalin had his chief rival assassinated there.
Russian intelligence services are building up their presence in Mexico for spy operations targeting the United States, a return to Cold War tactics by an increasingly aggressive regime, according to U.S. officials and former intelligence officers.
Russia has added dozens of personnel to its embassy staff in Mexico City in the past few years, even though Moscow has only limited trade ties with the country. U.S. officials say the trend is concerning and believe the extensive buildup is aimed at bolstering the Kremlin’s intelligence operations targeting the U.S., as well as its propaganda efforts aimed at undermining Washington and Ukraine.
[…] CIA Director William Burns said earlier this month his agency and the U.S. government are “sharply focused” on Russia’s expanding footprint in Mexico, which he said was partly the result of Russian spies being expelled from foreign capitals after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
[…] Russia’s actions in Mexico reflect a more aggressive posture by its intelligence services across multiple fronts, as the Kremlin seeks to silence critics abroad, undermine support for Ukraine and weaken Western democracies, former intelligence officials said. That approach has included sabotage and attempted sabotage in Europe, assassination plots, relentless cyberattacks and large-scale global disinformation campaigns, according to U.S. and European officials.
[…] Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck, head of U.S. Northern Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in March 2022 that Russia’s GRU military intelligence service had a massive presence in Mexico.
“I would point out that the largest portion of GRU members in the world is in Mexico right now. [Yikes!] Those are Russian intelligence personnel, and they keep an eye very closely on their opportunities to have influence on U.S. opportunities and access,” VanHerck said.
[…] Russian spies — and their American informants — have a long history in Mexico. [History is available at the link]
[…] Part of the mandate of the GRU is to prepare possible sabotage operations in the event of a war with the U.S., and Mexico would be a practical base for such contingency plans, former intelligence officers said.
The perception of a large Russian spying bastion in Mexico is useful as a propaganda tool as well, to exaggerate Moscow’s capabilities and fuel a perception of a supposedly “uncontrollable border,” Kolbe said.
U.S. officials also are concerned about Russia’s effort to manipulate the information landscape in Mexico, seeking not only to undercut international support for Ukraine but also to sow social divisions. Russia has expanded its state-funded media outlet RT in Mexico and run a large advertising campaign for the channel.
In April, the Russian ambassador to Mexico posted a false report by Russian state media claiming that the U.S. was recruiting members of drug cartels from Mexico and Colombia to send them to fight in Ukraine. The baseless account was picked up by some Mexican news organizations.
Countdown To Smith’s New Evidence In Trump Immunity Case
Birds fly, grass grows, Trump lawyers try to get the Jan. 6/immunity case dismissed at procedurally inappropriate moments.
This week was no exception, as the team filed a late-night brief (after blowing the 5 p.m. deadline and asking for an extension — ah, college) nominally about the boundaries of discovery the lawyers were seeking from Smith’s office. As usual, it became another venue for relitigating arguments to dismiss or delay the case, many of which U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan had already rejected.
Part of the effort is to push off a due date next week, when Smith is scheduled to file his opening brief defending the superseding indictment under the Supreme Court’s new (vague) parameters of presidential immunity. Smith’s team has already indicated that the filing will include new evidence not included in the indictment.
Chutkan did not take kindly to these delay attempts earlier this month, instead granting Smith’s request to go first on his schedule. I wouldn’t expect her to change directions now due to a reheated, hours-late brief from the lawyers who already pretty consistently tick her off.
What’s Being Done About the Rogue Georgia Election Board?
The Trump-backed Georgia state election board just approved another rule that has the potential to delay election certification and sow chaos in the election administration system — only 45 days away from the upcoming presidential election.
On Friday, in a 3-2 vote, the board voted to enact a new rule that requires counties in the state to hand count the number of ballots cast. It’s a process that experts warn is both inefficient, and error-prone. And, of particular concern, the rule, like the previous two the board has passed, has the potential to delay certification of election results in the state.
[…] On August 6, the board passed a rule that gives the board the power to not certify the results of the election until after a “reasonable inquiry” into any discrepancies in the voting process at the county level has been conducted by election officials. And the second rule, approved on August 19, gives board members power to “examine all election-related documentation before certifying the results.” Both rules give board members the chance to delay certification with false claims of voter fraud.
Last month, the Democratic Party of Georgia and Democratic National Committee, along with Democratic Georgia lawmakers, filed a lawsuit against the state board in response to the passage of these two August rules. The plaintiffs are asking the court to declare that, according to Georgia law, election officials do not have the power to delay certification.
Although no legal action against the hand-counting rule has been announced just yet, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the American Civil Liberties Union in Georgia, and Public Rights Project filed a comment objecting to the board’s new rule proposals ahead of Friday’s vote.
[…] And Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has consistently criticized the board and the rules, saying most recently, according to CNN: “We’re 50 days out before we have our election. In fact, we’re really just three weeks before we start early voting, and it’s just too late in the cycle.”
Link Scroll down at the link to view the text quoted above. Both subjects are part of a longer “Weekender” presentation of news.
Malaria tRUMP is making a big deal about her silly nude ‘modeling’. It is an attempt to trigger criticism so she can play victim and say those ‘radical liberals’ are trying to her censor ‘art’. What a crock of tRUMP!
[…] Nikki Haley’s co-chair in Iowa just came out supporting Kamala Harris. Local unions are supporting Harris, despite national offices differing. The first day Donald Trump could sell his Twuth Social fake media company stock. The stock price has tanked to its lowest level yet. […] The stock price dropped 10% after Trump’s debate. What else do you need to know?
When Donald Trump chose J.D. Vance, as his running mate. Trump said it was because he saw something in J.D. which reminded Donald of himself. I think I see it too. Competitive stupidity, taking turns making false and fictitious statements as if trying to top one another. J. D. endears himself with his childless cat lady remarks. Then Donald Trump tries to beat that. I’ll see your childless cat lady and raise you a Haitian immigrant. [“Competitive stupidity” is a good description.]
[…] Donald speaks to a Jewish audience in the basest of Archie Bunker terms. “I like Jews; some of my best friends are Jews. My daughter married a Jew, so I must like them. They can use the pool and restrooms in my hotel. But if you don’t vote for me your precious Israel is toast! […] Part campaign rally and part ominous threat.
[…] The ambience for the Trump campaign stinks. […] There’s hardly ever any good news! Trump paused and was taken aback by a movement off stage. He called it “the yips.” As much as I detest the man, I can hardly blame him. I’d have the yips too. […] Of course, the theoretical fear of an assassin is always present, but taking a near miss off the side of the head really brings the reality home.
Trump was expected to make a statement disavowing North Carolina Lt. Governor Mark Robinson. […] Trump once called Robinson “Martin Luther King on steroids times two.” Now, Trump was expected to call Mark a man he hardly knew. But Trump said nothing, assuming if he ignores it and the scandal will go away all by itself. Trump is trying to distance himself without saying he’s distancing himself. […]
No sooner had they got one fire under control when they had another in the return of the Matt Gaetz dates little girls’ saga. […] According to reports, it was a party like out of a soft-core porno movie. Ecstasy, weed, snorting cocaine off of a naked teenage hooker’s backside while she’s having sex with other lecherous old men in the room. […]
A sex scandal and Nazi scandal which could cost Trump the election. At the very least, it could cost Trump North Carolina or even (gulp) Florida. Painting Republicans as crazy immoral shams! […]
The Trump team is trying to conjure up some curtain of Junior sophistry. Casting a spell of crime, immigration and a terrible economy, while outperforming the rest of the world. And it might have worked too and probably would have worked, but for Donald Trump himself.
Trump’s outrageous and bigoted statements draw attention to himself instead of on the campaign messaging. Immigrants eating dogs and cats. […] Their message is lost in the gaffes. Instead of telling a story, they become the story.
In Arizona, Republican Kari Lake (The woman without a smile) parrots Donald Trump’s campaign themes of crime and immigration. Lake continues falling further and further behind her Democratic opponent in the polls. It’s not working! And if it’s not working in Arizona, it’s probably not going to work in Pennsylvania, Michigan, or Wisconsin.
[…] On Friday, the Republican Governor of Ohio Mike DeWine condemned Donald Trump and J.D. Vance for their comments about Springfield. Of all the states which Donald Trump must win in November to have any chance at the White House. Ohio tops that list! Bar none! Without Mr. Trump winning Ohio, it’s all but over. Ohio is a bellwether state for Republicans. […] The Republican Governor of the most critical bellwether state in the Union just condemned the Republican ticket out of hand, 45 days out from a national election. [“Condemned” is too strong a word here.]
That’s not just bad, that’s fucking awful!
“He may look like an idiot and talk like an idiot but don’t let that fool you. He really is an idiot.”
― Groucho Marx
I didn’t want to be right about MAGAs going on to voodoo animal sacrifice cooties after the pet/wildlife eating cooties. You grow up in a bigot culture, you have to make it useful somehow.
Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday accepted an invitation from CNN to debate former President Donald Trump on October 23, challenging her rival to another engagement on a public stage in the final weeks of the campaign.
“Vice President Harris is ready for another opportunity to share a stage with Donald Trump,” campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement. “Donald Trump should have no problem agreeing to this debate.”
The Harris campaign is more trying to needle Trump and get a bit of publicity then actually get another debate. Trump already said no more debates and has just made a few waffling mentions of doing another one.
Trump is declining this one so far and his excuse is that voting has already started. A thin excuse as only some mail in ballots will be accepted by that date.
It’s possible that Trump might accept the debate. His campaign is doing badly and just looks to get worse. He might go for the debate as a last gasp attempt to gain some ground. If he does he is likely to wait until the last minute to accept, hoping to keep Harris from having a chance to prepare.
Russell Bentley, a U.S. national who went missing in Russian-controlled eastern Ukraine early this year, is believed to have been tortured to death by Russian soldiers who are now set to go on trial, Russia’s top investigative body said on Friday.
Bentley was also a Russian citizen. He had been in the area since 2014 and had worked for Russian media at a minimum, he may have fought with Russian partisans in the previous conflict.
Details are rather short but the theory made public by the Russian investigation is that the soldiers may have mistaken Bentley for an American spy.
A drone spotted 22-year-old Russian marine Andrey Alimov on an island in Kherson region. He was holding a piece of paper saying: “Can I have something to eat? It’s hard.” As it turned out, he was given one field ration for three weeks but was abandoned for three months. He ate frogs, reed roots, and drank water from the Dnipro River, hoping to be rescued.
“His faith disappeared when he was shot in the leg, and he was fed with promises of evacuation for another two months. When his leg got really bad, he came out and surrendered to a Ukrainian drone,” journalist Yurii Butusov, who posted the video, wrote.
Video with English subtitles is available at the link.
President Biden met Saturday with the leaders of India, Australia and Japan, which make up a cooperative partnership in the Indo-Pacific, as the U.S. looks to strengthen ties in the region and counter a growing threat from China.
Biden announced new initiatives to enhance maritime cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region in a joint meeting Saturday evening between all four leaders.
The U.S., India, Australia and Japan make up the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad), which primarily focuses on maritime cooperation in the broader Indo-Pacific region, but also includes tackling an array of issues from security to the economy and healthcare investment.
The Quad leaders announced the bolstering of a maritime agreement that monitors waters for illegal fishing and other unlawful international activity, with the new pact now including the Indian Ocean under the partnership’s purview.
Leaders also announced the deployment of new technologies and training programs to increase that maritime pact, along with Quad nations now able to join a U.S. Coast Guard vessel for the first time.
Biden said at the opening of the joint meeting that the Quad “was here to stay.”
“We’re democracies who know how to get things done,” Biden said. “Our four countries are more strategically aligned than ever before.”
Modi said the Quad has “enhanced cooperation in every sphere in ways unprecedented.”
[…] Before the meeting, Biden spoke individually with each of the world leaders in Wilmington, Del., meeting first with Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Friday evening. On Saturday, he spoke with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Biden spoke on world issues with the three leaders, including the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and the threat from China against the self-governing island nation of Taiwan.
JD Vance suggested that the US may reconsider its support for NATO if the European Union pursued regulations targeting social media platforms, particularly Elon Musk’s X.
Vance made the remarks during a recent appearance on the “Shawn Ryan Show,” where he expressed concerns about a perceived threat to free speech…
The problem with that: you need a lot of support to win elections. The Republican Party has, for a long time, represented the interests of the rich. But it turns out there are not enough billionaires to support the interests of billionaires in a democratic system. That’s why the GOP has been deliberately appealing to certain demographics for the last ~ 50 years. Specifically: Southern racists, Evangelical Christians, anti-abortionists. The very groups that have high support for Trump, and which now embarrass Cheney. If you boot those groups out, then what will you do for votes?
There’s no “might” about Repugs blaming the assassination attempts by disillusioned Repugs against Trump on Democrats. Vance and others are already doing that. Oh & this is election actual interference as well as political extortion. First it’lll be those with Kamala Harris or Democratic signs, then it’ll be anyone without Trumpo signs and so on. This is obtaining gain through menaces and should be treated as criminal.* Will it be? Who will arrest that Sheriff?
1) Hezbollah came out of the Israeli occupation of south Lebanon […] from 1982 to 2000 […] the south was liberated in 2000, a ‘low-level’ conflict continued until 2006
[…]
2) Hezbollah is intimately tied to Iran, which doesn’t make it any less Lebanese
[…]
3) Hezbollah’s popularity grows when Israel bombs civilians […] when Israel threatens to exterminate you and everyone you know, you have no other recourse but to depend on Hezbollah and hope that they can protect you.
[…]
4) The south, Dahieh and Bekaa are not “strongholds” […] Dahieh just means ‘suburb’ in Arabic […] They are, by far, the most powerful armed group in those areas, but they rely on complicated alliances and understandings including with foes […] Behind the projection of omnipotence lies a rigidly patriarchal party with a shit ton of internal contradictions that its members navigate on a daily basis.
[…]
The Lebanese sectarian parties are led by warlords and oligarchs […] like instead of having one Stalin or one Assad, Lebanon was cursed with 8-9 men who, because they constantly fight for dominance, seek compromises when possible.
[…]
5) Hezbollah’s arms are a nightmarish clusterfuck […] Hezbollah is the only major party that was not forced to disarm after the official end of the civil wars in 1990 […] ostensibly because south Lebanon was still occupied by Israel […] [Their armed status is] more directly questioned when Israel is not concerned. When Israel is concerned, it is very difficult to argue against them. The actual Lebanese army, in case that thought crossed your mind, does not have the capacity to fight Israel, and it is a barely kept open-secret that Hezbollah is stronger than them, despite the latter having the USA as its main funder
[…]
6) Syria changed everything […] Hezbollah militarily intervened in Syria and committed war crimes to support the Assad regime. […] They support one of Lebanon’s two former military occupiers, Syria, while claiming to be ‘the resistance’ against the other military occupier, Israel. […] a prelude to them becoming the single most aggressive backers of the extremely corrupt status quo in Lebanon.
[…]
7) Hezbollah is not just an armed militia […] Hezbollah is a political party. […] it provides social services such as healthcare, education, debt relief, food and so on. This does not make them ‘good’ as the only reason they have that role to play is because the Lebanese state […] has been hollowed out, with social services virtually non-existent.
[…]
This also complicates the picture with regards to its ‘membership’, which is often not even a formal one. […] Many people will be deemed ‘members’ because a cousin found them a gig as a bodyguard, or a neighbor found them a gig as a grocer, or taxi driver
[…]
8) Hezbollah is an ultra-conservative party. […] Their leader, Hassan Nasrallah, is not just a militia leader, but he is also a religious cleric
[…]
10) Hezbollah is not anti-Christian […] Sectarianism is complicated. […] think of it as power-sharing agreements by elites that carve out a country. Allegiances shift
[…]
Bonus: Is Hezbollah a terrorist organization? Hezbollah has committed acts of terror, multiple times. […] Hezbollah doesn’t partake in some ‘global jihad’ against random civilians in Western cities. It is not building a caliphate. […] Although there are objective definitions of terrorism, being accused of being a ‘terrorist organisation’ is always a political decision, not a legal one.
[…]
Any accusations of Hezbollah being a terrorist organization that doesn’t include a thorough denunciation of the only nuclear-armed US-backed state in this ‘conflict’ that deploys terrorism as a routine practice is not just meaningless but, at best, reckless and, at worst, complicit in Israel’s crimes against humanity.
birgerjohanssonsays
Project 2025 Leader Mark Krikorian Admits To Being Champion Of HAITIAN SLAVERY!!!
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Zhutl268Alw
To be precise, he says the liberty of the slaves should have been delayed by 30 years, but I doubt the slaves would have agreed.
StevoRsays
Happy September Equinox yáll!
Spring here and Winter in the upside down northern hemisphere.
KGsays
birgerjohansson@472,
The enslaved Haitians demonstrated graphically that they did not agree, launching the only successful slave uprising known to history. Indeed, they did so twice: after their first victory, Napoleon sent troops to reimpose slavery, but the attempt failed.
birgerjohanssonsays
KG @ 474
There were succesful small-scale slave rebellions in north and south America, but they fled to areas where indians kept away the Europeans. Haiti was big enough to muster a large defensive army.
On top of that Napoleon’s troops got a tropical disease, which eventually made Napoleon give up the western hemisphere and finance his wars by selling the lot to USA (minus Guyana and that tiny island outside Canada).
birgerjohanssonsays
Gary Busey turned 80.
He has played over-the-top villains, so he is a better Republican candidate than the mediocre Trump. You want the villain to brag about his intentions in a reasonably well-spoken manner.
“The Investion of Moses WIll Blow Your Mind!” #1 Moses Documentary
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=4uqQdbR_WiQ
I find these careful detective stories of reconstructing how biblical tales emerged impressive, but also slightly boring. At more than a hour it is only for those interested in the history of ideas.
birgerjohanssonsays
@ 478
Should be the invention of Moses.
birgerjohanssonsays
…and I just realised that if we are to believe the reconstruction going back to hellenistic and various egyptian and mesopotamian sources, practically everything in the bible is fanfic, with tiny morsels of even older beliefs thrown in.
A Mississippi town has taken down a Confederate monument that stood on the courthouse square since 1910—a figure that was tightly wrapped in tarps the past four years, symbolizing the community’s enduring division over how to commemorate the past.
Grenada’s first Black mayor in two decades seems determined to follow through on the city’s plans to relocate the monument to other public land. A concrete slab has already been poured behind a fire station about 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometers) from the square.
But a new fight might be developing. A Republican lawmaker from another part of Mississippi wrote to Grenada officials saying she believes the city is violating a state law that restricts the relocation of war memorials or monuments.
The Grenada City Council voted to move the monument in 2020, weeks after police killed George Floyd in Minneapolis. The vote seemed timely: Mississippi legislators had just retired the last state flag in the U.S. that prominently featured the Confederate battle emblem.
The tarps went up soon after the vote, shrouding the Confederate soldier and the pedestal he stood on. But even as people complained about the eyesore, the move was delayed by tight budgets, state bureaucracy or political foot-dragging. Explanations vary, depending on who’s asked.
A new mayor and city council took office in May, prepared to take action. On Sept. 11, with little advance notice, police blocked traffic and a work crew disassembled and removed the 20-foot (6.1-meter) stone structure.
“I’m glad to see it move to a different location,” said Robin Whitfield, an artist with a studio just off Grenada’s historic square. “This represents that something has changed.”
Still, Whitfield, who is white, said she wishes Grenada leaders had invited the community to engage in dialogue about the symbol, to bridge the gap between those who think moving it is erasing history and those who see it as a daily reminder of white supremacy. She was among the few people watching as a crane lifted parts of the monument onto a flatbed truck.
“No one ever talked about it, other than yelling on Facebook,” Whitfield said.
Mayor Charles Latham said the monument has been “quite a divisive figure” in the town of 12,300, where about 57% of residents are Black and 40% are white.
“I understand people had family and stuff to fight and die in that war, and they should be proud of their family,” Latham said. “But you’ve got to understand that there were those who were oppressed by this, by the Confederate flag on there. There’s been a lot of hate and violence perpetrated against people of color, under the color of that flag.”
The city received permission from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History to move the Confederate monument, as required. But Rep. Stacey Hobgood-Wilkes of Picayune said the fire station site is inappropriate.
“We are prepared to pursue such avenues that may be necessary to ensure that the statue is relocated to a more suitable and appropriate location,” she wrote, suggesting a Confederate cemetery closer to the courthouse square as an alternative. She said the Ladies Cemetery Association is willing to deed a parcel to the city to make it happen.
The Confederate monument in Grenada is one of hundreds in the South, most of which were dedicated during the early 20th century when groups such as the United Daughters of the Confederacy sought to shape the historical narrative by valorizing the Lost Cause mythology of the Civil War. [True. Important to remember.]
The monuments, many of them outside courthouses, came under fresh scrutiny after an avowed white supremacist who had posed with Confederate flags in photos posted online killed nine Black people inside the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015.
Grenada’s monument includes images of Confederate president Jefferson Davis and a Confederate battle flag. It was engraved with praise for “the noble men who marched neath the flag of the Stars and Bars” and “the noble women of the South,” who “gave their loved ones to our country to conquer or to die for truth and right.”
A half-century after it was dedicated, the monument’s symbolism figured in a voting rights march. When the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders held a mass rally in downtown Grenada in June 1966, Robert Green of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference scrambled up the pedestal and planted a U.S. flag above the image of Davis.
The cemetery is a spot Latham himself had previously advocated as a new site for the monument, but he said it’s too late to change now, after the city already budgeted $60,000 for the move.
[…] “It’s tucked back in the woods, and it’s not visible from even pulling behind the fire station,” Chavis said. “And I think that’s what got some of the citizens upset.”
Photos at the link.
birgerjohanssonsays
Good riddance of bad statues.
.
I am re-posting this from a year ago in case some new reader with an interest in astronomy has not seen it.
HuffPost has a shocking expose on il Douche’s favorite pillow maker and election denier, Mike Lindell, who has now thrown away all pretense and gone full Nazi with his latest ad. While the HuffPost headline merely refers to the $14.88 “promotional price” as a Nazi dog whistle, in reality this is a brazen air raid siren calling out to neo-Nazis everywhere. For those who may not be familiar with this particular code yet, from wikipedia:
“The Fourteen Words” (also abbreviated 14 or 1488) is a reference to two slogans originated by David Eden Lane,[1][2] one of nine founding members of the defunct white supremacist terrorist organization The Order,[3] and are accompanied by Lane’s “88 Precepts”. The slogans have served as a rallying cry for militant white nationalists internationally.[4]
The primary slogan in the Fourteen Words is, We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children,[1][5][6][7]
Followed by the secondary slogan, because the beauty of the White Aryan woman must not perish from the Earth […]
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, inspiration for the Fourteen Words “are derived from a passage in Adolf Hitler’s autobiographical book Mein Kampf”.[13] The Fourteen Words have been prominently used by neo-Nazis, white power skinheads and certain white nationalists and the alt-right.[14][15] “88” is used by some as a shorthand for “Heil Hitler”, ‘H’ being the 8th letter of the alphabet,[16]
Posted by readers of the article:
I’ve seen xx.88 on lots of sale items, not just the traditional .95 etc. Serious accusations need to be solid, and real coincidences abound. It would help to have more directly-relevant data points to triangulate around.
———————-
With the picture of Christ with the crown of thorns always behind him. [Yes. That picture is included in the advertisement.]
———————–
I’m not necessarily refuting this diary, but Walmart uses this price on a TON of stuff, and I would think it’s more likely that this complete nimrod is trying to compete with Walmart pillow pricing over dog whistling. I don’t doubt for a second he is a racist idiot, but I don’t think he is smart enough to keep up on Nazi code speak.
——————
8 is a lucky number in China. 88 is luckier. Does not change the fact that from Lindell it’s a nazi dog whistle.
————-
Anyone who hangs out with that crowd almost certainly knows full well what 14-88 is code for, and that would definitely include Mein Pillow Guy and il Douche, regardless of how often they might plead ignorance (HT to Rusticana for Mein Pillow).
——————-
88 has been banned on customised license plates here in Germany for a long time. I think since the late aughts if not before.
——————–
Unfortunately for this theory about a reprehensible man, I think Wal-mart is to blame. And not for any neo nazi reasons. They like prices that end in 88 for whatever reason. $15 would be the natural price of the pillow at Wal-Mart, so we have 14.88. And Wal-Mart probably made a deal with Lindell that he must not undersell them. So his price is also 14.88.
Well that’s a conundrum. Can’t tell if Mike Lindell is being stupid, a Nazi, or a stupid Nazi.
During his speech, Trump mispronounced words, had trouble coming up with the word “schools,” etc.
Scandal-ridden candidate for governor of North Carolina, Mark Robinson, was not at the rally. However, Donald Trump has not withdrawn his support of Robinson. See comments 365, 376 and 412 for more on Robinson.
Hello, Would You Like To Know Why We Have These Haitian Immigrants In The First Place?
It’s Learn A Thing Sunday!
Excerpts from a longer article:
[…] Once Haiti was free and independent, the French were like “OK, well, we guess it’s fine that we don’t get to own you anymore but that means you owe us reparations, because now we can’t make money off of you and your nation’s natural resources!” and forced the small nation to pay them the equivalent of about 560 million American dollars today. Being a small, poor nation whose natural resources were simultaneously being plundered by the United States, they did not pay it in full until 1947.
Oh! And also they didn’t get to be free and independent for all of that time, either! Fearing the possibility of German influence on Haiti, Woodrow Wilson instructed the United States Marines to invade the island nation in 1915. The United States then occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934 during which time it did the usual things — enslave people, rule through martial law, appoint puppet governments, kill anyone who resisted, expropriate their national bank over to Citibank, bring in US sugar companies to the Dominican Republic (which we occupied from 1916 to 1924), put Haitians to work there for very low pay, and create and train the Gendarmerie (security force). At least 15,000 Haitians were killed in combat during the US occupation, while 5,500 died in the forced labor camps.
Following the occupation, there was a succession of heads of state, and in 1957, they elected Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier. Duvalier, as you likely know, was a deeply corrupt brutal dictator known largely for deploying his secret police […] against his political enemies. The US went kind of on-and-off with him; Kennedy was skeeved out by the whole “totalitarian dictator” thing and offered some support to opposition forces, but ultimately he was embraced by US leaders as a necessary “bulwark against communism.” The same was true of the regime of his son, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, until he was ultimately overthrown in 1986.
Then, in 2003, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti’s first democratically elected president since before Duvalier, made the mistake of suggesting that France should maybe pay them $21,685,135,571.48 in restitution (a figure the New York Times estimated was actually at the lower range of what the actual cost of the damage to the Haitian economy was as a result of the payments), which France very much did not want to do. Aristide also wanted to raise the minimum wage for the workers making American clothes and to increase spending on education and healthcare, which the United States really didn’t like.
So when some right-wing paramilitary group decided that they should be in charge instead, Aristide got mysteriously whisked away on a plane by US forces under President George W. Bush; the US forces conveniently helped him sign a document announcing his resignation. Aristide describes this as having been kidnapped and then offered a choice between signing or being shot, all of which the US has denied. […]
We don’t get to be surprised that they are now coming here to escape that. The real lesson here is that treating people decently and kindly is its own reward, and oppression, discrimination and cruelty will never, ever produce a positive, consequence-free outcome for either party.
Loomer: “It’s out of control. They’re letting illegal aliens buy guns.”
“Pro-white nationalism” Trump ally Laura Loomer pushed a lie that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives is allowing undocumented immigrants to buy guns. Loomer was responding to a comment in the chat on her Rumble stream noting that the background check questionnaire for purchasing a firearm asked for an Alien ID number if the person filling it out is not a citizen.
An ATF spokesperson told The Associated Press that under federal law, people in the country illegally are prohibited from purchasing or possessing firearms. The ATF does allow documented migrants to legally purchase firearms, provided that they list their Alien ID number when filling out a required background check. Alien ID numbers are not provided to undocumented people.
Loomer is actively spreading misinformation by claiming that the ATF allows undocumented people to buy firearms and suggesting that undocumented people have Alien ID numbers. […]
Video at the link.
Sounds like a lie calculated to prompt Trump cult followers to buy more guns … and is likely to get someone killed.
KGsays
birgerjohansson@475,
I guess it depends how you define “successful uprising”. The events you mention were escapes; the enslavers remained in charge of the same area they held before, and continued holding enslaved people there. In Haiti they were overthrown, and killed or driven out. And yes, Napoleon’s reinvasion failed primarily due to disease (although guerilla warfare was also important), but that doesn’t mean it somehow “didn’t count”; deaths from disease outnumbered deaths in battle in most wars involving Europeans until WW1. The French colony on the South American mainland is Guyane; Guyana is the former British colony, now independent. (BTW, how is it the French can maintain colonies around the world with barely a peep out of anti-colonialists?)
birgerjohanssonsays
KG yes, my understanding of the Haiti uprising is imperfect.
.
Alien Super Show from a week ago
‘Trump SCREWS HIMSELF in Front of MILLIONS at WORST TIME’
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ytlo_OjaZzo
JMsays
@467 Reginald Selkirk: The short answer is that Cheney isn’t saying get rid of the current party member coalition, at least not automatically. She is saying get rid of the elected radicals and party officials that enable them. In the view of the moderate Republicans a lot of the problem is that the party leadership in Congress has been willing to cut it’s own throat to get a few votes from the MAGA crowd rather then cut a deal with the Democrats. The only way to get a big break from the way the party is run now likely requires forming a new splinter party and controlling who is allowed to join.
The long answer is really long because it gets into the interconnected tactics of rebuilding the party, rebuilding the Republican coalition and how the party is run afterwards. A likely change is dropping the southern racists and going with a more general social conservative block, which could bring in black and Latino conservatives.
Pierce R. Butlersays
KG @ # 487: … how is it the French can maintain colonies around the world with barely a peep out of anti-colonialists?
Because France learned from all that “no taxation without representation” stuff and gives their colonies citizenship rights, full parliamentary participation, etc?
Excerpts from a longer article published by The New Yorker:
Volodymyr Zelensky’s situation room, where the Ukrainian President monitors developments in his country’s war with Russia, is a windowless chamber, largely taken up by a rectangular conference table and ringed by blackened screens, deep inside the Presidential Administration Building, in central Kyiv. On a recent afternoon, as I sat inside, waiting for Zelensky, I heard his voice—a syrupy baritone, speckled with gravel—before he entered, dressed in his signature military-adjacent style: black T-shirt, olive-drab pants, brown boots. He was in the midst of preparations for a trip to the U.S., where he is scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly and, crucially, meet with Joe Biden at the White House, to present what Zelensky has taken to calling Ukraine’s “victory plan.” […]
[Interview question:] For some time, when you talked about the end of the war, you talked about a total victory for Ukraine: Ukraine would return to its 1991 borders, affirm its sovereignty in Crimea, and retake all of its territory from Russia. But in recent months, you have become more open to the idea of negotiations—through peace summits, for example, the first of which was conducted this summer, in Switzerland. What has changed in your thinking, and your country’s thinking, about how this war might end?
When I’m asked, “How do you define victory,” my response is entirely sincere. There’s been no change in my mind-set. That’s because victory is about justice. […] there will never be an excuse for what Putin and his Army have done. You can’t simply sew this wound up like a surgeon because it’s in your heart, in your soul. And that is why the crucial nuance is that, although justice does not close our wounds, it affords the possibility of a world that we all recognize as fair. […]
The fact that Ukraine desires a just victory is not the issue; the issue is that Putin has zero desire to end the war on any reasonable terms at all. If the world is united against him, he feigns an interest in dialogue—“I’m ready to negotiate, let’s do it, let’s sit down together”—but this is just talk. It’s empty rhetoric, a fiction […] He pretends to open the door to dialogue, and those countries that seek a geopolitical balance—China, for one, but also some other Asian and African states—say, “Ah, see, he hears us and he’s ready to negotiate.” […] From our side, we see the game he is playing and we amend our approaches to ending the war. Where he offers empty rhetoric, we offer a real formula for bringing peace, a concrete plan for how we can end the war.
[Interview question:] And yet, in 2022 and 2023, your words and actions signalled a categorical refusal to negotiate with the enemy, whereas now you seem to have opened a window to the idea of negotiating, a willingness to ask if negotiations are worth pursuing.
If we go back two years, to the G-20 summit, in Indonesia, in my video appearance, I presented our formula for peace. Since then, I’ve been quite consistent in saying that the Russians have blocked all our initiatives from the very beginning, and that they continue to do so. And I said that any negotiation process would be unsuccessful if it’s with Putin or with his entourage, who are all just his puppets.
Everyone said that we have to allow the possibility of some kind of dialogue. And I told them, “Look, your impression that Putin wants to end the war is misguided. That’s a potentially fatal mistake you are making, I’m telling you.” But, on our end, we have to demonstrate that we do have this desire for dialogue—and ours is a genuine one. Our partners think we should be at the negotiating table? Then let’s be constructive. Let’s have a first summit where we all get together. We shall write up a plan and give it to the Russians. They might say, “We are ready to talk,” and then we’d have a second summit where they say, “This formula of yours, we agree with it.” Or, alternatively, “We disagree. We think that it should be like this and like that.” This is called dialogue. But to make it happen, you have to prepare a plan without the Russians, because, unfortunately, they seem to think that they have a kind of red card, as in soccer, that they can hold up and block everything. Our plan, however—it is being prepared.
[Interview question:] I understand that you are going to present this plan to Biden?
The victory plan is a bridge. After the first peace summit, our partners saw that Russia was not prepared for any talks at all—which confirmed my message to them and my insistence that without making Ukraine strong, they will never force Putin to negotiate fairly and on equal terms. No one believed me. They said, We’ll invite them to the second summit and they’ll come running. Well, now we have the second summit planned and they don’t look like they’ll come running.
And so the victory plan is a plan that swiftly strengthens Ukraine. A strong Ukraine will force Putin to the negotiating table. I’m convinced of that. It’s just that, before, I was only saying it and now I’ve put it all on paper, with specific arguments and specific steps to strengthen Ukraine during the months of October, November, and December, and to enable a diplomatic end of the war. The difference this time will be that Putin will have grasped the depth of this plan and of our partners’ commitment to strengthening us, and he will realize an important fact: that if he is not ready to end this war in a way that is fair and just, and instead wishes to continue to try to destroy us, then a strengthened Ukraine will not let him do so. Not only that but continuing to pursue that goal would also considerably weaken Russia, which would threaten Putin’s own position.
[…]
My feeling is that Trump doesn’t really know how to stop the war even if he might think he knows how. With this war, oftentimes, the deeper you look at it the less you understand. I’ve seen many leaders who were convinced they knew how to end it tomorrow, and as they waded deeper into it, they realized it’s not that simple.
[…] [Interviewer says:] Vance has come out with a more precise plan to—
To give up our territories.
[…] I don’t take Vance’s words seriously, because, if this were a plan, then America is headed for global conflict. It will involve Israel, Lebanon, Iran, Taiwan, China, as well as many African countries. That approach would broadcast to the world the following implicit rule: I came, I conquered, now this is mine. It will apply everywhere: land claims and mineral rights and borders between nations. It would imply that whoever asserts control over territory—not the rightful owner but whoever came in a month or a week ago, with a machine gun in hand—is the one who’s in charge. We’ll end up in a world where might is right. And it will be a completely different world, a global showdown.
Let Mr. Vance read up on the history of the Second World War, when a country was forced to give part of its territory to one particular person. What did that man do? Was he appeased […]
[…] [Interviewer says:] A last question about how war changes a person. It’s hard to imagine an experience with a more profound effect on the human psyche.
I’m still holding it together, if it’s me you’re talking about.
[Interviewer question:] But I wonder if there are moments when you catch yourself reacting to things differently than you might have before. Do you notice you’ve changed at all?
Perhaps I’ve become less emotional. There’s simply no time for that. Just like there’s no time for reasoned discourse and arguments. I only have the opportunity to think aloud in that way during interviews. I don’t do this with my subordinates and colleagues in the government. If I were to sit down and ruminate on every decision for an hour, I would be able to make only two or three decisions a day. But I have to make twenty or thirty.
Because France learned from all that “no taxation without representation” stuff and gives their colonies citizenship rights, full parliamentary participation, etc? – Pierce R. Butler@490
KG @ # 493 – I can’t argue with those stats, but if anything they reinforce my unstated thesis: give the local politicians a bright shiny boondoggle, and they will keep the locals distracted enough that nobody rocks the boat.
If George III had offered John Hancock and Ben Franklin seats in Parliament, USAnian children would still sing “God Save the King” in class every morning.
The program is revised—with Ken Paxton suing again—because Paxton convinced the state Supreme Court to halt it once already. The state constitution bans “gratuitous payments to individuals”, with an exemption if it serves a “public purpose”.
The Court had ruled that—unlike economic-development grants to businesses (for business growth & job creation) which qualify as “public purpose”—”We remain skeptical
of the County’s argument that a program of unmonitored, ‘no strings attached’ cash payments to individuals serves ‘the public purposes of development and diversification of the economy of the state’.” The revised program aims to use preloaded debit cards instead of cash. Failing that, the funds will be reallocated to other county anti-poverty support programs.
“The ruling […] sets a dangerous precedent—most state constitutions have bans on gifting public funds, but no other state court has barred guaranteed programs on those grounds. And of course, they haven’t, because those bans are there to stop cronyism and gratuitous gifts of tax dollars. They aren’t intended to stop governments from providing public benefits.”
Former President Donald Trump said he doesn’t believe he would run for office again in four years if he loses the November election.
“No, I think that that will be, that will be it. I don’t see that at all,” Trump told interviewer Sharyl Attkisson on her show “Full Measure” when asked if he sees himself running again in four years if his presidential bid is unsuccessful.
“I think that hopefully we’re going to be successful,” Trump added in the interview, which aired Sunday.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hmmm…. Well odds are that he’ll be dead (natural causes), confined to a loony bin, or in jail in 4 years, anyway.
In Texas [crypto miners] found everything they needed: cheap power, an abundance of land, low taxes and a libertarian ethos that matched their own. […] But soon the Lone Star State could drive them out.
[…]
[After the 2021 winter storm, Gov Abbott had] looked to crypto as a tool to make the grid more robust. Bringing more large loads onto the grid would incentivise power stations to produce more electricity and keep the cost of energy low, he reckoned.
[…]
many crypto miners, including Riot, signed contracts with energy suppliers that locked them into fixed rates for up to a decade. […] That allows them to take advantage of two emergency schemes. On the hottest and coldest days, when demand for electricity peaks and the price soars, the bitcoin miners either sell power back to providers at a profit or stop mining for a fee, paid by ERCOT. Doing so has become more lucrative than mining itself. In August 2023 Riot collected $32m from curtailing mining and just $8.6m from selling bitcoin.
[…]
a non-profit organisation based in Washington, DC, accuses miners of acting as an energy-arbitrage business in disguise, holding Texas “hostage” and wasting taxpayer dollars. Their ties to China make them more dubious.
Bekenstein Boundsays
We remain skeptical
of the County’s argument that a program of unmonitored, ‘no strings attached’ cash payments to individuals serves ‘the public purposes of development and diversification of the economy of the state’.
If anti-poverty measures are not a “public purpose” and a legitimate function of the state then what the hell is?
KGsays
KG @ # 493 – I can’t argue with those stats, but if anything they reinforce my unstated thesis: give the local politicians a bright shiny boondoggle, and they will keep the locals distracted enough that nobody rocks the boat. – Pierce R. Butler@494
That’s certainly not the case in New Caledonia, where the campaign for independence has given rise to repeated clashes! In Guyane and the French Caribbean islands there has been serious unrest in quite recent times. In all three cases, the tensions have an important ethnic component. My unstated thesis is that French imperialism largely escapes the attention of anti-imperialists, just as Russian and Chinese imperialism does, because so many “anti-imperialists” are, in practice, merely anti-American-imperialism. British imperialism is an intermediate case – the UK’s close, and indeed subordinate relationship with the USA means it is regarded as a relatively insignificant appendage to American imperialism. My secondary unstated thesis is that today’s “great powers” – the USA, China and (in purely military terms) Russia are those imperialist powers of the 17th-19th centuries that have managed to hold onto their empires, while the UK and France are those second-rank powers which have retained fragments of their empires and thus something of a global presence (note that these five are the main victors of the wars of the first half of the 20th century, and hence the permanent members of the UNSC).
Tom Selleck just turned 79 which is older than Trump. I don’t know his political leanings but I think he could handle a debate better than Trump.
“Tan Andreas Fault.” Jimmy Kimmel
“Trump Still Pushing Pet Eating Conspiracy, Won’t Debate Kamala Again & MTG Vs. Laura Loomer”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Kf4p2pf7y6s
Stephen Colbert:
“Vance: Taylor Swift’s Endorsement Doesn’t Matter | Trump’s Picture Book | Biden dons MAGA hat.”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=zWU7w68uT0s
Trump Adviser Outs Republican Senator
.https://youtube.com/live/Z1D3dS5kYD0
This is VERY long-winded but at 1 hour 10 minutes Laura Loomer outs Lindsay Graham as gay as punishment for calling the debate a disaster.
BTW some years back Trump gave out Graham’s cell phone number to his followers at a speech where he was angry at Graham for not being subservient enough.
Graham is trash and I don’t feel sorry for him but this shows how utterly base Trump and his minions are.
Seth Meyers
“Taylor Swift’s Endorsement of Kamala Harris Brings in 337K Users to Voter Link”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=WPJ3v5L4E68
Another classic from God Awful Movies.
GAM 281 The Laws of the Sun Happy Science Cult
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=JacN6r1dYhw
The delusions of this toxic cult leader are not worse than those of some current politicians. And they are more entertaining.
Ig Nobel prize goes to team who found mammals can breathe through anuses | Ig Nobel prizes | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/sep/12/ig-nobel-prize-goes-to-team-who-found-mammals-can-breathe-through-anuses
Japan to put a small red Swedish house on the Moon
@1
Selleck has long been a fash.
Man sets himself on fire outside Four Seasons hotel in Boston
/The text article’s buries “Israeli consulate” in a caption.
Other recent immolations:
– 2023-12-01 An unnamed woman in a Palestinian flag outside the Israeli consulate in Atlanta. Hospitalized without further update.
– 2024-02-25 Aaron Bushnell shouting “Free Palestine!” outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC. Died.
– 2024-04-19 Max Azzarello promoting his conspiracy theory website, outside the New York City courthouse during Trump’s hush money trial. Died.
Wolf Blitzer Says CNN Is Cutting Away From Trump’s ‘Very Weird Statements’
Take another look at the bolded line, and remember who is saying this.
@2, 4 Laura Loomer amps up the rhetoric
Forget the cats: ‘They eat HUMANS.’ Meet Laura Loomer, Trump’s misinformation muse
Hello, Readers of The Infinite Thread,
For your convenience, here are a few links back to the previous set of 500 comments:
https://proxy.freethought.online/pharyngula/2024/07/06/infinite-thread-xxxii/comment-page-7/#comment-2235921
Haitian families in Ohio under attack as racist claims spread
https://proxy.freethought.online/pharyngula/2024/07/06/infinite-thread-xxxii/comment-page-7/#comment-2235917
Famously racist Trump adviser goes ballistic when asked for facts
https://proxy.freethought.online/pharyngula/2024/07/06/infinite-thread-xxxii/comment-page-7/#comment-2235909
2nd Circuit rejects Donald Trump’s request to halt postconviction proceedings in hush money case
Brutal Video Shows Pace of Trump’s Cognitive Decline Between Debates
Ahem. I remind readers of repeated statements by Trump throughout the 2016 campaign that “Hillary acid-washed her emails.” The truth behind this:
HIllary’s tech staff for her ill-advised server, with court permission, wiped a hard drive full of email messages. Anyone who know anything about computers knows that just deleting the files isn’t enough, you need to erase the entire surface of the disk. For this, the techs used open source software named BleachBit.
In Donald Trump’s addled 2016 mind, this morphed into actual chemical bleach. He started going around telling people that they had dunked the hard drive in bleach.
That wasn’t weird enough. Soon a few more synapses shorted out and Trump changed the story to “acid-wash.” Hillary had literally “acid-washed her emails.”
So, maybe his cognitive decline has worsened on the last 8 years, but there were certainly clear signs of it back then.
link
JD Vance was already suffering through a humiliating week. Then he started flubbing the basics of economic and immigration policy on national television.
Link
Pastor Claims ‘Witchcraft’ To Blame For Donald Trump’s Bad Debate
Link
https://www.msnbc.com/all
Chris Hayes presented a segment that discusses how Trump has cozied up to the racist far-right. Some of the details were familiar to me, but others were new … and shocking. See photo of Nazi sympathizer, styled to look like Hitler, who was Trump’s guest at Bedminster … twice. There were also new details concerning Laura Loomer.
Trump said about Loomer: “A friend of all of ours. This woman is amazing. Laura Loomer. Where is she? […] A fantastic woman, a true patriot, Laura Loomer. […] You’ve been really very special. You work hard and you are a very opinionated lady in my opinion. I like that. […] You’ve been wonderful.”
Loomer replies: “Thank you very much. Thank you for allowing me to sit with you. I love you.”
Okay then.
Video at the link.
Followup to Reginald @12, and to comment 18.
Trump’s embrace of a vile extremist troll is dividing the GOP
@498 Bekenstein Bound:
The head of the postal service is one of those jobs that is protected. The president can’t fire and replace the head of the postal service. The board of governors, which is a board of directors, has that job. The structure of the board makes it hard to remove the Postmaster and the president only gets to appoint directors as their term is up. It would take a fair bit of work for Biden to remove Dejoy and he hasn’t really tried.
J.D. Vance Mocks Taylor Swift for Being “Billionaire Celebrity”
Chris Walker Truthout
https://truthout.org/articles/j-d-vance-mocks-taylor-swift-for-being-billionaire-celebrity/
My question is how can the vancehole honestly complain about that when his nose is up the ass of a self-proclaimed “Billionaire Celebrity”?
Reginald @16, I wondered how long it would take Trump’s cult followers to come up with “witchcraft” to explain Trump’s failures and Kamala Harris’ successes.
In other news: Biden marks 30th anniversary of pivotal bill to protect women
Karl Rove, writing in the Wall Street Journal:
David From:
Tim Alberta:
@20 JM wrote: It would take a fair bit of work for Biden to remove Dejoy and he hasn’t really tried.
I reply: We have experienced, first-hand, the degradation and destruction dejoy has wreaked on the USPS. There is NO EXCUSE for not kicking his thug ass out. The USPS is older than the u.s. government and is virtually a ‘sacred trust’ with the american people. I am so angry at the absurd incompetence of the government when it comes to acting in the interest of the populace in this and so many other issues. The rtwingnuts are busy posturing and acting only in the interests of corrupt corporate aholes, the billionaires that own them and hateful, destructive project 2025 ideology.
Nebraska Examiner:
Dueling abortion measures make ballot, Nebraska Supreme Court decides
Aaron Sanderford – September 13, 2024
@21
As far as I can tell, to right-wing chuds, there are two types of billionaires: The “legitimate”ones like Vance, Trump (at least in reputation), and Musk who supposedly “earned” their obnoxious wealth and support ‘Murica, “free markets,” “sovereignty,” guns, and JEEEEEEZ-us.
The rest are the likes of Swift, Gates, and Soros who they claim got their obnoxious through immoral (or, depending on the chud’s level of religiosity, sometimes literally diabolical) means and supposedly hate ‘Murica due to their performative public “liberalism” and the few crumbs of “charity” (i.e. tax write offs) they toss to the proles.
Smartmatic’s defamation lawsuit against Newsmax likely headed to trial
Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski:
News summarized by Steve Benen:
I must correct this inaccuracy: malignant narcissists don’t have friends. Trump has minions, cronies, sycophants, and those he in turn is sycophantic towards.
The Military Times reported:
Commentary:
Link
How JD Vance And A Virulent Neo-Nazi Group Inflamed Tensions Over Migrants In Springfield
Followup to comment 34.
Link
Florida sued for using taxpayer money on website promoting GOP spin on abortion initiative
Vessel rescued in English Channel after emergency call to Dover, Delaware, instead of Dover, England
In blow to Newsmax, judge rules Smartmatic’s case over 2020 election lies will go to trial this month
Followup to comment 18.
Trump’s Bedminster club reportedly hosted an alleged Nazi sympathizer
See also: ‘All the alarms going off all at once’: Trump leans into extremism as election approaches
https://www.wonkette.com/p/are-rfk-jr-and-the-state-supreme
Are RFK Jr. And The State Supreme Court Stealing North Carolina For Trump? Well, They’re Sure Trying!
So much fuckery, so little time (for early voting).
Shouldn’t be necessary:
Link
Ben & Jerry’s is So Down For Kamala, They Dedicated This Brand New Ice Cream Flavor to Her
Ooh, I’m guessing it’s gonna have coconut.
New beanless ‘coffee’ emerges but does it taste any good?
‘My jaw dropped’: Bat loss linked to death of human infants
Claymation. Not like Wallace and Gromit.
“Chainsaw Maid Episode Zero”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=bh-IGg9Vcoc
Pope slams both Harris and Trump as ‘against life’ and urges Catholics to vote for ‘lesser evil’
A fetus is not a “baby.” If you can’t make your case without telling that lie, then you don’t have a very good case.
Walz: ‘You mess with cat people and you will find out’
Who pays for all the quantum crap? Probably you
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=RtDwpOIRHZM
Lynna, OM @ 19
See @ 4. Loomer is toxic trash.
Akira MacKenzie @ 9
Why have so many actors of my youth gone and become evil?
Reginald Selkirk @ 44
Makes sense. When a species disappears there are consequences.
Astronomers discover an Earth-sized exoplanet orbiting a nearby ultracool dwarf star
https://phys.org/news/2024-06-astronomers-earth-sized-exoplanet-orbiting.html
This world will have a ‘locked’ rotation, but with a 17-hour orbit, the coriolis forces in the core should maintain a healthy magnetic field.
But orbiting this close to a small red dwarf will subject the world to flares that would erode the atmosphere.
Maybe post-humans could set up a terraforming enclave on the dark side and vaporise enough volatiles to re-establish an atmosphere.
Arstechnica: Court clears researchers of defamation for identifying manipulated data
This was a raging ego lawsuit, the researcher filed a lawsuit because people did analysis of her evidence and said it looked off. The court took the sensible position that if you have good evidence then pointing out possible errors can not be defamation, case dismissed.
It’s the inverse of the voter fraud allegations, where people have made allegations and then gone fishing for possible evidence. Which eventually got Fox News sued when they continued to repeat the allegations after it was clear that there was no evidence to support it.
Financial Times: How SEC mobile phones can signal an imminent stock price drop
There is a connection between visits by SEC regulators and stock prices. If a bunch of SEC regulators visit a company there tends to be selling by insiders and the stock price tends to go down, even if it was a non-public visit and nothing was done after the visit. This drop suggests possible insider trading abuses but it isn’t clear from one analysis if this is the case.
I really just find it amusing that you can follow SEC officials by the cell phone data and expect that somebody is going to do that all the time if it wasn’t already happening.
Sahara desert hit by extraordinary rainfall event that could mess with this year’s hurricane season
Senegal’s president dissolves parliament to call a snap legislative election
One of our cohorts just read an article that mentioned that biden’s spokesperson jean-pierre is either Haitian or of Haitian descent. WOW, how many people can the rtwinnuts insult and threaten? (crossposted from main blog.)
https://www.nbcbayarea.com/decision-2024/california-prop-3-marriage-law/3650757/
About time this got to the ballot.
Caitlin Clark has set the WNBA record for assists in a season at 318, with 2.5 games to finish. In her rookie season.
Re: Bekenstein Bound @ xxxii p7 #498:
I responded earlier regarding diversity and environmental contingency of ape societies, below your post prior to the chapter rollover. Now a bit more.
When one’s politics revolve around defending wealth hoarders from impoverished masses, truth becomes an inconvenience. Hence the lying and cheating and general descent into corruption and coercion.
No dodgy neuropolitics theory of everything necessary.
/My framing still works before the 18th century for defending kings and clergy. The quote below is just a convenient paper trail.
Alt-Right Playbook – The Origins of Conservatism
Re: Bekenstein Bound @ xxxii p7 #498:
I couldn’t verify this, and I caution against hyping a slight leaning in large statistics to build narratives. Setting aside norm obliviousness, being targeted VERY much tends to make one less receptive to threatening ideologies (either for identity itself or socioeconomic comorbidities of neurodivergence). Conservatives have provided many flavors of marginalization to drive people away, toward inclusive communities that promote further self-discovery and labelling. Extremism is rare at least.
Neurodivergence and the rabbit hole of extremism (2024)
Lynna @17:
Trump said in California, “We will do large deportations from Springfield, Ohio—large deportations. We’re gonna get these people out. We’re bringing them back to Venezuela.”
Lynna@15:
Heh heh heh heh heh … “fractured”? That presupposes he ever had one.
Oh, he’s not assuming anything. He knows exactly how foolish Republican voters are.
Reginald Selkirk@16:
Interesting that he accuses Trump of witchcraft.
Meanwhile, this suggests an excellent opportunity for Harris to troll the troglodytes witch only involves paying a brief visit to a costume store on the way to her next public appearance. They should have plenty of what she needs in stock, this close to October …
Lynna@17:
Hey, Trumphole! Just because you Americans make a point of being ignorant about geography beyond your own national borders doesn’t mean the rest of humanity has any difficulty locating Haiti on a map!
Lynna@18:
Should Melania be worried?
Or relieved?
Lynna@19:
Excellent, excellent. You two divide your whole party with your silly spat, while Harris laughs all the way to the Oval Office. Meanwhile, off I go to get some popcorn …
(emphasis added)
I do hope the prosecutors, judges, and potential jurors in his federal criminal trials were paying attention to this self-incriminating statement …
The … what? “NRSC”? Is that what the NSDAP is calling itself these days or something?
JM@20:
So, the civil service protections Trump’s Project 2025 would do away with are protecting one of Trump’s own partisan hacks?
How ironic.
Then he should start immediately. We can’t afford that fuckhead screwing up the mail-in ballots. The fate of the world depends on Harris winning, and we’re running out of time.
shermanj@21:
To which one were you referring, Trump or Thiel?
Lynna@23:
Why, “dumb as a rock”, of course. With these goofballs, every accusation is a confession.
Lynna@34:
Hmm. “National Conservatism”.
Well, I suppose that’s a somewhat more honest name for it than “National Socialism” was …
Oh, look who’s the real threat to pets in Springfield. As I noted previously, every accusation is a confession with these chucklefucks.
This is probably how the Tulsa so-called “race riots” (i.e., a white-on-black massacre) started. Some similar KKK/Nazi feedback loop. The Rwanda genocide, too, and Kristallnacht, etc. … Unfortunately, for a subset of (alleged) human beings, hate seems to be addictive and they eventually go on benders with the stuff.
Lynna@35:
Until those lies have consequences for Stephen Miller, though, he won’t stop.
…
I think it’s likely Harris will win now, especially after the debate performance (and Lichtman’s “Keys” also indicate this likelihood).
I also think it’s likely there will be serious civil unrest after the election, perhaps on a larger scale than 2020’s and far more violent, with widespread revolt by the far right. This may be focused around one or another stage of the election certification, a la J6, but I doubt it will be either localized in space to the Capitol mall or localized in time the way the J6 violence was. Anything from widespread rioting to coordinated and major terror attacks.
I don’t see us getting out of this election, let alone this decade, without a significant bloodletting … I just hope the tree of liberty emerges watered, rather than burnt down, in the end.
Reginald Selkirk@44:
Mess with nature, and it tends to mess back. Hard. Ecosystems exemplify chaotic nonlinear dynamics.
Former Wharton Professor: “Donald Trump Was the Dumbest Goddam Student I Ever Had.” (2017)
Lynda Carter, Original Wonder Woman, Tells Arizonans Not To Vote For Her Sister
Martha Stewart makes her endorsement in the 2024 presidential race
John Cleese explains Fox News
.https://www.facebook.com/share/p/6UmpTj1oojVeYnTu/
Fox News shields audience from Trump’s scandalous bestie Laura Loomer
Fox News does not want to make Trump look bad, so they really have to pick and choose what news they report.
In case you want to unwind a bit.
“Chat with a Talkative Siamese”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=MDb_YSE3bb8
My link @ 65 was thoroughly borked.
This should work
“John Cleese Explains Fox News ”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=XF-5-5MMpGw
Happy 78th Birthday to Ernie Hudson
Yet another 78 year old that would make a better president than Trump.
New therapy that targets and destroys tau tangles: A promising Alzheimer’s disease treatment
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-09-therapy-destroys-tau-tangles-alzheimer.html
https://www.wonkette.com/p/elon-musks-secret-campaign-against
Elon Musk’s Secret Campaign Against Progressive Austin Prosecutor Melted Like One Of His Trucks In The Rain
He is bad at everything, even dark-money campaigns.
Russia, Ukraine exchange 206 prisoners in second swap in two days
Kyiv and Moscow have frequently exchanged prisoners since Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
Cooler weather could help firefighters contain California wildfires
Frontline crews took advantage when record-breaking heat exited this week. They’re making progress on three large wildfires — the Airport, Bridge and Line — burning in four counties. [video at the link]
More details at the link. Cooler weather will prevail for only a short time. Hotter temperatures are expected to arrive the weekend of September 21. Some of the fires are still raging in areas where steep terrain complicates fire-fighting efforts. Some terrain is even at a higher elevation than the cooling marine layer of clouds reach.
Link
Garbage in, garbage out.
This week’s episode of QAnon Anonymous goes over the origins of Trump/Vance’s (and Marianne Willams’) demonization of Haitian immigrants. Julian Field’s comments about the current American political landscape left me particularly depressed and black-pilled:
https://youtu.be/Z50GEOgSQMg?si=Lvlga0JzdWS7-dW8
Followup to comment 74.
How a Pro-Trump Islamophobe Who Just Won a Congressional Primary Got Famous on the Internet
New Yorker link to an article by Andrew Marantz.
NYT Live:
Donald Trump Jr. piled on with racist comments about Haitians.
Sept. 14, 2024, 54 minutes ago
Simon J. Levien
Don Jr. is hardly a specimen proving the superiority of aryans. 😄
“The Patton Tank Family – Magnificent or Mediocre?”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=yczAwijHcoA
How the US reacted to Soviet tanks
Texas governor creates special courts to benefit big oil companies.
.http://youtube.com/post/Ugkxe1d7OQnUWYc6qOlpxv6ny2tN579DNH4Z
Brilliant! Now, when you protest their decisions you are ‘against justice’! /s
Well, this is probably a typical reaction that PZ would not like.
https://assets.amuniversal.com/0fd9be704f04013013a1001dd8b71c47
(the html tag ‘img’ didn’t work to embed the image, so here is the link)
NYT Live
Tim Balk, 12 minutes ago
@74 Lynna, OM wrote about Loomer and tRUMP
I saw a couple of articles today asking ‘where is melania?’ At the risk of propagating salacious rumors, they hinted at tRUMP ignoring his wife and getting ‘cozy’ with loomer. The insanity continues to spread, eveywhere.
@82
Laura Loomer Fires Back as Bill Maher Goes There on Donald Trump Affair Rumors
Gingrich: Harris acted like ‘spoiled teenager’ at debate
1) Newt Gingrich is still alove
2) Someone is actually soliciting his opinion
3) Said opinion is clearly full of shit, as it always has been
SaveAFox:
“More saved foxes experience life outside a wire cage!”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=FcJS6Yq6M3M
Isn’t Gingrich too old to look at women? I know he had a habit of trading up to younger models, but he is no longer a catch.
Major Russian disinfo site featuring anti-Trudeau articles prompts calls for new focus at public inquiry
Star Wars film newly dubbed in Ojibway will give ‘boost’ to the language, its Darth Vader actor says
@86
Gingrich converted to Catholicism at some point, and so far as I know is still married to his third wife.
YouTubers Are Almost Too Easy to Dupe
A man who set himself on fire for Gaza near the Israeli consulate in Boston on September 11 has been identified as Matt Nelson in a video posted on YouTube.
Link
New Yahoo News/YouGov poll: After debate, Harris surges to 5-point lead over Trump among registered voters in head-to-head matchup
Trump Claims Justin Trudeau Is Fidel Castro’s Son: Canada Goes Ape Sh**t on DJT
https://www.wonkette.com/p/hey-any-good-environmental-news-lately
Hey, Any Good Environmental News Lately? There IS?
Thanks Joe Biden.
Melania Trump blasts FBI’s Mar-a-Lago raid: ‘A warning to all Americans’
That was the raid in which the FBI – with a proper warrant – searched for, and found, multiple classified federal documents in Trump’s home. What is her message? That you too, if you choose to steal classified government property, could be subject to properly warranted search?
‘Clearly chicken you weirdo’: People respond to JD Vance sharing video he claims shows migrants grilling cats
NASA confirms it’s developing the Moon’s new time zone
Portland State cancels game due to whooping cough outbreak
Arizona’s 1864 abortion ban is officially off the books
@ 99
Gee…I those kids were born just as anti-vaccine bullshit started to become fashionable. You don’t think there’s some sort of connection, do you?
Reginald Selkirk@84:
Look for a portrait of him somewhere. You know, like Dorian Gray’s, except uglier.
So much for “in sickness and in health”. What a cad!
I just do not understand why women ever so much as date conservative men when, in modern times, they have much better choices. Lots of men are liberal. Some are even feminist!
ScienceAlert
Scientists Discover a Brain Network Twice The Size in Depression Patients
.https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-discover-a-brain-network-twice-the-size-in-depression-patients
12,000 Year Old Female Shaman Discovered In Türkiye?
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=81Q7GUbWQXo
Ronald Reagan’s former staff back Harris-Walz ticket: “Today is a choice between integrity and demagoguery.”
Latest Polaris Dawn news :
https://proxy.freethought.online/pharyngula/2024/08/24/i-thought-capitalism-private-enterprise-would-make-space-travel-more-efficient/comment-page-1/#comment-2236213
They’re back safe. Now we learn more.
Why some Silicon Valley billionaire bros want Trump to be the ‘CEO of America’
Much more at the link.
Followup to Reginald @100.
A Hopeful Week for Abortion Rights: Four State Courts Issue Favorable Rulings
Nevada and North Dakota expanded access, while courts in Missouri and Nebraska ensured voters a chance to weigh in.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/jordan-peterson-launches-new-grift
Jordan Peterson Launches New Grift, Steps On New Rake With Kamala Harris Diss
A fool and his rubles are soon parted.
Washington Post:
NBC News: How AI images of cats and ducks powered the pet-eating rumor mill in Springfield, Ohio
3 hostages were likely mistakenly killed in military airstrike, IDF investigation confirms
The military said there was a “high probability” three people who were found in a tunnel in December were killed “as a byproduct of an IDF airstrike.”
China’s Risky Power Play in the South China Sea. That’s a New York Times link.
That reminds me a lot of Russian blustering and saber rattling.
Floods claim two more casualties as torrential rain batters central Europe
Rivers overflowed from Poland to Romania, where four people were found dead on Saturday, after days of torrential rain in a low-pressure system named Boris.
If this is correct, and Vance is in effect admitting he lied, that’s remarkable. But that the strategic point of the racist lie was to foreground immigration, an issue where Trump has a big poll lead over Harris, was obvious to me from the start.
There is one notable exception, this video from 2015:
Bald Eagle Attacks Trump During Photoshoot
That could be very interesting from a legal perspective. I could see a class action lawsuit by people and institutions who have suffered harm due to these lies, which Vance is now apparently taking credit for. There have been school and hospital shutdowns, for example.
‘A piece of garbage’: Republican Ohio Gov. condemns Trump-Vance false immigrant pet-eating conspiracy
Republicans spread baseless slurs about ‘cat-eating migrants’ in Ohio city
“I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT”: Trump goes on Truth Social tirade against Harris supporters
Aside from the stupid mention of Swift, the notion that rich people should vote strictly for their financial interests is pretty dim.
Reginald @116,
I agree.
In other news: Secret Service: Trump safe after shots reported in his vicinity in Florida
Followup to comment 116.
Here are JD Vance’s actual words:
https://x.com/samstein/status/1835309131269382345
And here he is on video, https://x.com/krassenstein/status/1835329126615445729
Posted by readers of articles about JD Vance admitting he lied about Haitian immigrants:
What I see is that JD Vance is both doubling down on the lie, and at the same time he is trying to create some wiggle-room kind of phony excuse that blames the media (or softens his intent).
Walz is likely to hit this issue hard at the debate between Vice Presidential candidates.
NBC News:
Oh FFS.
Trump plans to visit Springfield, Ohio, the site of his baseless claims about Haitian immigrants
The former president hasn’t nailed down a date for his visit, but his campaign is actively planning a trip there.
Followup to Reginald 2118:
Liz Cheney references Taylor Swift song in response to Trump posting he hates her
Link
Examples, video, and more details are available at the link.
Followup to comments 119 and 122.
NBC News:
Caitlin Clark has secured the WNBA record for total points in a rookie season.
She achieved this in the third quarter of the Fever’s game agains the Dallas Wings. The Fever have one more game to fill out their season, Sep. 19 against Washington.
Election Law Blog
Blockbuster NYT Reporting…Reveals Key Details on Trump v. Anderson, the Trump Immunity Case, and the Fischer Obstruction Case…
Rick Hasan / September 15, 2024, 9:34 am
How Roberts Shaped Trump’s Supreme Court Winning Streak
[Free Link]
Far too much to quote, this is a deep dive into the three cases that saved Trump and doomed the American people.
@127
Caitlin Clark scores career-high 35 points as Fever win shootout over Wings, 110-109
As of now, Clark has 120 3-point goals for the season. The WNBA record is 128. Their next (and last) game is September 19 against the Washington Mystics.
* corrected by me
GOP members of House Judiciary Committee join in the “Haitian immigrants are eating pets’ nonsense</a.
What’s the policy here? Are we allowed to ask hypothetical science fiction questions?
Newsweek: Donald Trump Issues Warning After Stock Halted
The stock was given 2 5 minute halts, most likely due to volatility. Trump promised not to sell when he became eligible later this month. This caused the stock to shoot up.
Trump threatened to move the stock to the NYSE. Unless Trump wins this is unlikely but possible. DJTs ridiculous valuation means it is big enough on paper but the NYSE doesn’t like small unstable companies in volatile industries or ones with questionable paperwork. It would be a lot of work for petty revenge but that part I don’t put past Trump.
Politico: Peace plan should not be imposed on Ukraine from the outside, US’s Sullivan says
Several peace plans have surfaced recently, some written while consulting with the Russian government but not Ukraine’s government. This is obviously designed to shut down that sort of talk. The US and EU are not going to force a peace plan on Ukraine, at least not right now and not one so bad for Ukraine.
Despite what Sullivan says I expect that position could change if a plan better for Ukraine surfaced. If somebody had a plan that returned most of what Russia occupied in this attack, was otherwise OK and Russia accepted there would be a lot of pressure on Ukraine to accept.
The article also points out that if Trump wins the election the situation changes entirely. Anybody who saw the debate knows that, Trump wouldn’t answer if he wanted Ukraine to win let alone what he would do in office. That such a radical change is possible means that nothing will happen until November. Russia isn’t going to back down while a chance at winning is only a few weeks away. If Trump loses I expect some real negotiations will happen over the winter but I’m not sure if a way for Putin to back out while saving enough face will happen.
An Electromagnetic Vortex Cannon, Finally!
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=oruA427cpTg
At last a research idea I can get the North Korean guy to finance.
Wired: Stephen Hawking Was Wrong—Extremal Black Holes Are Possible
Such a black hole would have properties so weird they are hard to describe, such as zero effective gravity at the event horizon. It still isn’t known if any exist or are likely to exist because it would require a very precise sequence of events. If you simply drop charged matter into the black hole time dilation will prevent an extremal black hole from forming.
@119, 122, 126
Trump’s Suspected Would-Be Assassin Ryan Wesley Routh had Go-Pro, AK-47 as Details Emerge
* I am joking. Sort of.
** Clearly this bit is speculation.
Hundreds march in Brazil to support religious freedom as cases of intolerance rise
Research reveals reality of puberty for Ice Age teens from 25,000 years ago
Electricity generated by earthquakes might be the secret behind giant gold nuggets
Youtube: Ukrainians CAUGHT HUGE RUSSIAN REDEPLOYMENT ON THE MOVE
Large scale movement in areas without dug in defenses and multiple mine fields have resulted in something more like open field combat. This favors the Ukrainians who have better intelligence, command coordination and transports.
The Russians have something like 3000 Russian soldiers now trapped by a river and Ukrainian forces on the other 3 sides. Destruction of bridges and capture of the only highway left them with no reliable route for supplies or to get in and out. The Russians recaptured the supply highway but trying to use it while it’s within easy access of the Ukrainian forces is resulting in heavy losses of supplies and men. Combat continues along the highway area while Ukrainian forces move to capture territory and soldiers in the area.
Lynna@109:
I can’t imagine this “university” offering any diplomas that would get you into any professional jobs engineering bridges, say, or managing nuclear reactors. Which makes this just a glorified streaming video service. And an online video streaming service charging five hundred bucks a year (roughly $42/mo), about 4x the going rate elsewhere, with a mere few micro-Netflixes of selection at most, would get a hard pass from me even if it weren’t chock full of far right wing kookery.
Lynna@113:
Wait, what? How in the hell do you get a named storm in Romania? It’s nowhere near the Atlantic basin, and even farther from the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Tropical storms need large areas of sea with warm surface waters to form. Did it come off the Mediterranean? That’s common enough for them to have a name list for Mediterranean tropical storms?
KG@114:
And why is that? What’s caused Americans to become more bigoted, against the trend of the past several decades? And how can this be corrected?
Lynna@119:
God fucking damn it, is the orange bastard actually being protected by the Devil or something? This is sorely testing my atheistic faith here. These fuckers never miss when they aim at a JFK or a Lincoln, but they can’t seem to hit the biggest, stupidest, Day-Glo orange fat-ass sitting-duck target in the history of big, stupid, Day-Glo orange fat-ass sitting-duck targets? Pah!
Sky Captain@139:
Gold that electroplates itself. Cool.
Re: Bekenstein Bound @141:
Wikipedia – 2024–25 European windstorm season
* Italy’s criteria (translated), because it was hit first. Uses colors from the MeteoAlarm interactive map. Normally reserved for orange-red wind levels, but yellow is accepted if precipitation is heavy.
WaPo
Follow-up to xxxii p6 #458, #460:
Link
Recap: Internet providers were ordered to enforce the block of X in Brazil. X’s other failure to turn over documents accrued fines beyond its worth, which led the court to freeze both X and Starlink’s accounts (both being part of an ‘economic group’). Starlink, as an internet provider, refused to enforce the website ban until its own accounts were unfrozen. Now X’s document fines are paid. And Starlink lost its excuse for defiantly maintaining X access in Brazil.
Ryan Wesley Routh: What we know about Trump shooting suspect
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=2LelG_IAb4g
He has previously supported GOP candidates Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley.
NASA finally figures out what’s up with those “Mars spiders”
.https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/mars-spiders-experiments/
Sadly, nothing that would interest PZ. Just another of those weird permafrost land phenomena, this time involving carbon dioxide.
In the UK, decades of lies in the right-wing press have led to most people having completely false ideas about immigration – e.g. thinking that most migrants enter illegally whereas in fact those who do are a tiny minority, greatly exaggerating the Muslim proportion of the population, thinking asylum seekers live in luxury… I’d guess the same is true in the USA. In the UK, fortunately, this does not seem to have produced quite the same upsurge in bigotry as in the USA (of course, we still have an ample supply of bigots, please don’t send us any more!), and my guess (again) is that this is because there are legal limits on how far the media can promote racial hatred – that is, yes, limits on freeze peach.
Office Work #claymation #clayanimation #stopmotion #shorts
.https://youtube.com/shorts/eNY0-gHGI8I?si=thjuFgMuMz7a4AeO
My first thought, given the venue, was that the would-be assassin was someone who Trump had cheated at golf.
Exceptional new fish fossil sparks a rethink of how Earth’s geology drives evolution
.https://phys.org/news/2024-09-exceptional-fish-fossil-rethink-earth.html
Tectonic plate activity correlates with evolution.
Trump has bought a spell from Nyarlahotep that makes assassins aim like shit. The latest one fired four shots, judging by the sounds reported. The cops found an AK with an optic sight.
When the rich rule:
“What Aristotle Knew About Oligarchy That We Forgot”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=HMguSl8PHS4
Trump shooting attempt: suspect had ‘delusional ideas’ about supporting war effort, says Ukrainian official
.https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2024/sep/15/donald-trump-shooting-florida-golf-course
Desinformation:
The attempted Trump shooter has never been a recruiter for the Ukrainan legion.
.http://youtube.com/post/Ugkxk1wzp_sjkC9McG2tEFiVEzhOBN_XJ86m
Myself @ 153
He is apparently delusional and has been called out several times over false claims about his connections to Ukraine. As the MAGA social media will lap up the lies it is important we spread the truth before the lies become the accepted truth.
Tito Jackson, Jackson 5 member and brother to Michael, dies aged 70 | Pop and rock | The Guardian
.https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/sep/16/tito-jackson-jackson-5-member-and-brother-to-michael-dies-aged-70
Jeez, everyone who was a musician during my youth is dropping dead. :(
re KG @148:
That would be an extremely large group of people because I doubt that The Orange Idiot has ever played an honest round of golf.
Forgotten Right-Wing Founding Father Has A Super Villain Origin Story
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=pLJExYMIG6M
johnson catman@156,
Exactly!
A more fun story than the constant coverage of the orange one.
“A stray cat I sheltered from the rain a week ago brought her kittens today!”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=0ygrVGQpjjA
Long-term metastatic melanoma survival dramatically improves on immunotherapy, clinical trial finds
.https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-09-term-metastatic-melanoma-survival-immunotherapy.html
Resurfaced Tim Walz Clip Shows Why MAGA Hates Him So Much
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=bIKy8-ccu40
Elon Musk Has the Worst ‘Both Sides’ Take on Latest Trump Assassination Attempt
Bluesky adds 8 million users in last ten months.
Aces’ A’ja Wilson first to score 1,000 points in single season
The next-highest scoring season was 939 by Jewel Lloyd in 2023, so Wilson’s year-end tally will probably stand out by at least 10%.
birger @150: “Trump has bought a spell from Nyarlahotep that makes assassins aim like shit. The latest one fired four shots, judging by the sounds reported. The cops found an AK with an optic sight.”
It was the Secret Service that fired those four shots, not the would-be assassin.
BB @141:
On this thread we do not fantasize about killing anyone by shooting them.
On this thread we do not bemoan the fact that other humans were not assassinated.
A secretive group recruited far-right candidates in key US House races. It could help Democrats
‘Entire ecosystem’ of fossils 8.7m years old found under Los Angeles high school
“Saber-toothed salmon” would be a great mascot for the school’s sportsball teams.
The Guardian
‘Ozempic changed my life’: do diabetes jabs boost the chances of conception for women with poycystic ovary syndrome?
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/sep/15/ozempic-changed-my-life-do-diabetes-jabs-boost-the-chances-of-conception
Cartoon: The undecided voter
McClellan defends Democrats’ opposition to SAVE Act, calls it a ‘modern poll tax’
Cartoon: Breaking news
Lunna, OM @ 165
I stand corrected.
I still think the would-be assassins -if I may generalize from two samples – seem like a sorry lot. If you have watched the original “Jackal” film you would envision months of preparations relying on expert criminals to get the best hardware, artful disguises, lots of effort in finding multiple getaway routes, et cetera. Instead, they just show up and hope no one will notice the big gun they are aiming. If it wasn’t so goddamn serious it might be the subject for a black comedy.
Link
On MSNBC it was noted by Frank Figliuzzi that the would-be assassin may have been seeking infamy, and that no motive that makes sense to other people may be revealed.
Trump is complaining about rhetoric that he says encourages people to shoot at him. Sheesh. That’s rich coming from him. Trump is the champion of rhetoric that encourages violence.
Followup to comment 174.
Link
Storm nearing Carolinas threatens area with up to 10 inches of rain, possible flooding
https://www.wonkette.com/p/mtg-admits-imaginary-abc-whistleblower
Marjorie Taylor Greene Admits Imaginary ‘ABC Whistleblower’ Did Not Die In An Imaginary Car Accident
The sheep and the wolf
.https://www.facebook.com/share/p/f1afktHES54QfMFR/
JD Vance on one hand
JD Vance on the other hand
Well, which is it? Vance wants to have it both ways. He wants standards applied to his opponents, but not to himself. One difference is that the problems Vance is talking about, such as immigrants eating pets, are completely fictional.
The say Vance is intelligent. They point out that Vance graduated from Yale Law School. But he doesn’t seem to be capable of generating consistent logic. He is a tangled bundle of special pleading.
and now for something completely different:
https://www.smbc-comics.com/comics/1726504194-20240916.png
regarding @166 Lynna, OM
I say, Thank you. It is important that we observe at least some self-control and civil limitations. The Precepts we follow admonish us: ‘Do you control your emotions? Or, do your emotions control you?’
Also @141 BB uses a phrase I perceive as self-contradictory: ‘my atheistic faith’. I see atheism as rational not requiring anything as vaporous as faith.
The more Donald Trump blames Democrats for apparent assassination attempts, the more outrageously wrong his argument appears.
Bits and pieces of news, as summarized by Steve Benen:
Abortion Bans Have Delayed Emergency Medical Care. In Georgia, Experts Say This Mother’s Death Was Preventable. Originally published by ProPublica
Re: CompulsoryAccount7746 139
That’s timely. I was considering trying for something in washes around Tucson. Near the Tucson mountains where the magma from the old caldera surfaced. Maybe I should check around quartz if I see any.
I’m using this and thinking about “dry washing” otherwise.
“Selective attachment processes in ancient gold ore beneficiation”
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0892687514000107
In Racist FB Rant, Ohio Sheriff Tells Cty Residents to Write Down Address of People with Harris Sign
Satire
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/3PJeSGAKfX2wmFBp/
Christian school goes back to court after facing consequences for anti-trans bigotry
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=FvD_mtcZ9-Y
First, DT says he does not care about Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Harris. Then he writes “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT”. Both statements cannot be true. I think there is an english word for a deliberately non-true statement.
Re: birgerjohansson @ #189…
Actually…both statements can be true. There are forms of popular entertainment that I dislike enough to say that I hate them. At the same time, I am completely indifferent to who the practitioners may or may not endorse for political office.
Of course, it’s also possible that I’m more nuanced in my opinions than Trump is.
New XEC Covid variant starting to spread
whheydt @ 190
“Of course, it’s also possible that I’m more nuanced in my opinions than Trump is.”
A+ 🙂
A very timid black leopard. A typical cat reaction to unknown people turning up.
“The reaction of the panther Luna 😅😁”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=zWcCrHE-
Agent’s swift action stopped gunman getting line of sight to Trump, Secret Service says
Jon Stewart condemns Trump for loving Laura Loomer and hating Taylor Swift
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=hizIYmezyuM
We have found a person more reprehensible and revolting than Donald (which is perfect for diverting attention from him).
Second Circuit Says Libraries Disincentivize Authors To Write Books By Lending Them For Free
birgerjohansson @192:
Working panther video link
(a few missing letters at the end)
Headlines from The Onion
Photo: Trump defiantly pumped fist for 20 minutes after assassination attempt searching for camera
Ohioan disturbed by reports of Haitians eating vegetables
Republican goes into the deep end
Stock market today: Dow sets a record as Wall Street gears up for a cut to interest rates
Local Libertarian Party Doubles Down After Violent Harris Threat
Ohio Attorney General Refuses to Disavow Racist Pet-Eating Lie
Before He Hated Her, Donald Trump Thought Taylor Swift Was ‘Terrific’
New details of Trump family crypto project released, including who can buy in
For over a month, the former president and his family have been pumping up a secretive family crypto project, promising that it will do many things at once.
Followup to comment 203.
https://thehill.com/policy/technology/4883290-donald-trump-crypto-project-launch/
I’m sure Trump still thinks that crypto is a scam but now that he can be in on it, i.e. be the scammer and not the scammed one, it is the best thing ever.
Followup to comments 203 and 204.
Behind the Trump Crypto Project Is a Self-Described ‘Dirtbag of the Internet’
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-09-13/behind-the-trump-crypto-project-is-a-self-described-dirtbag-of-the-internet
There’s more to this story, I’m sure. All of the sordid details about how the grift works, and how Trump is making money from it, will eventually come out. I wonder how long it will be before tales of failure and financial woe follow.
Jimmy Kimmel:
Trump’s Taylor Swift Tantrum, UNFAIR Emmys RIGGED Against Jimmy & Guillermo Drinks With Emmy Winners
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=iVGeVgeMxhA
Yes Kimmel totally won, the Democrats rigged the Emmys!
“Megyn Kelly’s Guest DROPS N-WORD While Defending Trump”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=lOHJl8tZ_YI
Is this even news? I mean, this is what I expect from Trump apologists.
The first Haitian-American immigrant ever to become U.S. attorney has taken charge of the prosecution of Trump’s alleged assassin.
Robot Chicken
Alien vs. Golden Girls
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=v62AHoZBX4M
Big pets welcoming human dad.
.https://youtube.com/shorts/EoX5BXbG2oo
Little Girl Has Up-Close Encounter With Cheetah In Zoo
.https://youtube.com/shorts/J3AIIlMjLpY
Cheetahs can purr, but in a zoo setting they are probably only doing it when resting, without being distracted by an audience.
Guardian: Rupert Murdoch attends court hearing in battle over future of media empire
Rupert Murdoch created an irrevocable family trust that will pass control of his media empire to his 4 children after his death. The trust was likely setup for tax avoidance. Now he wants to amend the terms of the trust to give control to his eldest son. The other children oppose this and the trust can be altered only under specific conditions if they don’t agree. He will have to argue in court that control should be given exclusively to his eldest son so that the company can maintain it’s conservative point of view, that this has to be done to maintain the value of the company and he only has the financial interests of his kids in mind. The first and second points may be true and at least can be argued. The third should get him laughed out of court but he has very expensive lawyers and can maintain a straight face while lying.
Kamala Surges in Republican Strongholds in the Latest Polls
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=B-wUY0Zi8sM
The first music video ?
“when the music is so good you forget to stop filming”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=64Izw09Z8hM
There’s going to be a news doco – Dateline SBS on this broadcast in SouthOz in about half an hours time approx. (9.30 pm, SA time, SBS, c3) Riding ‘the beast’: Migrants board Mexico freight train to reach US To think some utter fools think Trump’s hateful failure of a wall will stop these people?
The ideals of the USA, the dream, the desperation, the cost to so many, the journey, the reality..
Now imagine when Global Overheating starts really kicking in..
whheydt@190:
A rock is more nuanced in its opinions than Trump is.
Reginald Selkirk@200:
Up is down, black is white, and the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire is pro-slavery.
Welcome to 2024.
Lynna@206:
Clearly not. One other red flag, for instance, is “it involves cryptocurrency”. Under ordinary circumstances, that would be an enormous one, but in this particular instance there is an even bigger one: “it is a Trump business venture”.
How Community Feedback Shapes User Behavior
Justin Cheng∗, Cristian Danescu-Niculescu-Mizil†, Jure Leskovec∗
∗Stanford University, †Max Planck Institute SWS
https://cs.stanford.edu/people/jure/pubs/disqus-icwsm14.pdf
So, all of that research just to end up reinventing the age-old advice: “Do not feed the trolls.”
Gotcha.
Ex-Trump aide Mark Meadows loses bid to move Arizona election case to federal court
https://pluralistic.net/2024/09/16/gamer-gate/#descartes-revenge
(seems to be back, but rather intermittent and far from the original, and still-promised, frequency of “daily”)
…
It seems there’s some potentially large such reconfigurations brewing in American politics now.
For starters, since the 70s the Republican coalition has been glued together from two disparate groups, with largely divergent interests: the superrich, who want low taxes and lax regulation of their business enterprises, and the far right, who want theocracy and/or ethnic cleansing of nonwhite people. They have little in the way of common interests — what made it possible to weld them together into a coalition was that they shared a common enemy, as Democrats post-Nixon have tended historically to champion both socially liberal positions (thus making them an enemy of the far right) and economically leftish ones (thus making them an enemy of the superrich).
That coalition is very clearly fracturing now, as the far right, having metastasized into the MAGA movement, has usurped the superrich as the party’s string-pullers and put people in charge who have misguided, but populist economic policy prescriptions that turn banksters white as a sheet (tariffs!) as well as threatening the rule of law (businessmen, by and large, prefer a predictable set of rules to the ever-shifting whims of successive generations of kings, unless they get to be the king of course).
But I think there’s a deeper insight to be taken here that is prompted by a paragraph from the article’s main topic of focus:
I think we can generalize this. A lot.
Time and again, “we’re stamping out cheating” has proven itself to be the only reliable way to recruit proletarians to fight against their own interests.
Think about it. What are the usual Republican appeals to the white working class?
“You work so hard every day for a pittance while that guy over there just sits on his lazy butt collecting welfare checks.”
“Where did all the quality jobs go? Mexicans crossed the border and stole them from you.”
“Your hard work won’t get you that promotion. Not when there are 20 African-Americans waiting to use affirmative action to jump the queue.”
And so on, and so forth. Lies, all of it, of course, the job woes are down to the mostly-white superrich and their greed and the “welfare bum” is probably disabled or between jobs rather than a work refusenik. But unfortunately effective lies, and moreover, all of them amount to pointing at some group or another and saying “cheater!” … so the Republican appeal to the white working class amounts to “we’re stamping out cheating”, by promising to make it harder to get welfare, by repealing affirmative action, by claiming to be tougher on immigration and, especially, on illegal immigration.
“We’re stamping out cheating!” should be recognized in all of its many guises and taken as a red flag: this is someone who is trying to pick your pocket in some way, while pointing at someone else and yelling “squirrel!”; and moreover, that someone is not above throwing whole groups of other people into the bus and facilitating the rise of fascism itself just to get their hand into your wallet. Show them the door.
GOP Rep Demands Harris Take Down Project 2025 Ads After Trump Assassination Bid
CNN Pundit Flamed For ‘Embarrassing’ Argument About Trump’s And Harris’ Rhetoric
So, he thinks that using Trump’s actual words is unfair.
Meanwhile, Trump continues to use overblown rhetoric on a daily basis, including calling Harris aa communist.
Ohio Supreme Court clears ballot language saying anti-gerrymandering measure calls for the opposite
Rare woolly rhino mummies emerge from the permafrost
Arctic Sea Ice minimum 2024. Three degrees Celsius warming now baked in! Just over a dozen mins long.
Does Donald Trump’s Republican campaign really want to have a debate over which party deserves to be seen as the “party of violence?”
State police guard Springfield schools amid dozens of bomb threats
Millions Have Amnesia About the Worst of Trump’s Presidency. Memory Experts Explain Why.
How Trump is benefiting from the limits of our memory.
More at the link.
Do the benefits of the expanded child tax credit actually fade with time?
A new study argues the long-run benefits outweigh the costs nearly 10 to 1.
More at the link.
12 Democrats urge quick approval for new gas exports for Ukraine”>12 Democrats urge quick approval for new gas exports for Ukraine
https://www.wonkette.com/p/as-wnba-wraps-up-its-season-women
As WNBA Wraps Up Its Season, Women Won, And Bigots Lost
Damn, what a great summer.
Scores injured in Lebanon as electronic pagers explode, officials say [video at the link]
Health officials reported chaotic scenes at hospitals across the country, including in the capital, Beirut.
Washington Post link
What the hell?
A closer look at data centers:
Washington Post link
@230 WNBA
It’s too early to wrap up the WNBA season. When a player sets a season record, that means every time they play they set the record again. For example, A’ja Wilson has 1000 total points, and Caitlin Clark has 329 assists, but their final season totals will be higher.
The Caitlin Clark situation is somewhat complicated. Clark has exceptional, generational talent. Some established figures in the game who ought to know better (noticeably analyst Sheryl Swoopes, veteran guard Diane Taurasi, the Olympic selection committee) have failed to respect her talent, and there is a real story there. And Clark has been subjected to abuse on the court, being on the receiving end of many flagrant fouls this season. Mostly this is resentment towards the new person on the block who is getting all the attention even before she has any actual accomplishments. This ought to be dying soon, because after only one season, she does have some pretty impressive accomplishments.
Where it goes wrong is trying to turn it into a racial “white grievance” story. It is unfortunate that some media outlets on YouTube and elsewhere have tried to play the race card, which Clark herself has never done.
The last regular season game for Clark and the Indian Fever is Thursday. I will post a summary of her records after that. There is one more record which she is edging toward, but may or may not reach (3 point goals made per season)..
Russian state media outlet RT banned by Facebook “for foreign interference”
GOP Congressman Decides to Change Definition of ‘Pro-Choice’ to ‘Pro-Whatever Will Get Me Re-Elected’
Women Share Their Abortion Ban Horror Stories After Project 2025 Adviser Smugly Says They’re Fake
Earth Had Rings Like Saturn Millions of Years Ago, Study Suggests
Growth is good. He seems to have listened.
“Steve-O Reveals Why He Decided Not To Get A ‘Boob Job’ The Day Of His Surgery”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/steve-o-why-he-decided-not-to-get-boob-job_n_66e88540e4b0b7fef8322a9a
Scientific American makes presidential endorsement for only the second time in its 179-year history
A Brazilian mayoral candidate attacked his opponent with a chair mid-debate
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs arrest live updates: ‘Freak offs’ at center of sex trafficking, racketeering charges
More at the link.
The Trump campaign apparently believes it’s simply a bridge too far to tell voters that one candidate is a “fascist” — except when Trump himself does it.
Suspicious packages sent to election officials in at least 6 states
More details at the link.
Trump’s ‘uninformed’ water proposal is mocked on Canadian television
Followup to comments 203, 204, 205 and 206.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/step-right-up-suckers-trumps-got
Step Right Up, Suckers, Trump’s Got A Crypto-Something!
Sounds very legit!
Move over, Paul Rudd — these microscopic videos are more vivid than the latest Marvel movie
MAGA runs wild with random poster’s “ABC whistleblower” claims
Senate Republicans reject bill to protect IVF access (yes, again)
For the fourth time this year, Senate Republicans rejected legislation to protect in vitro fertilization — even as party leaders claim to support IVF.
B.C. researchers find fossils in ‘relatively unexplored’ area
Judge Who Tossed Trump’s Docs Case Repeatedly Violated Disclosure Rule: Report
Phoenix could finally break its streak of 100-degree days
House speaker risks government shutdown for racist bill—again
https://www.wonkette.com/p/its-pumpkin-spice-and-be-mean-to
[…] Jill Stein Season
Bloomberg News:
Associated Press:
Good economic news.
HuffPost:
Hasan Minhaj:
“Bernie has a message for his supporters.” Full interview live now. #shorts
.https://youtube.com/shorts/rAv9PifnAFc
Amber Ruffin et al
Presidential Debate and Taylor Swift’s Endorsement | Have I Got News for You US
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=AK7ThKX6-LY&si=pbbGm_UJmSJVP2wo
Schroedinger’s Immigrant
.http://youtube.com/post/UgkxNSBdWbb7RkSu0YwupQoeR4ITxZiBrun_
Georgia prosecutors drop all 15 counts of money laundering against 3 ‘Cop City’ activists
Trump makes pitch to NY voters: ‘What the hell do you have to lose?’
Democracy, the rule of law, the make-up of the courts for a generation, health care, personal rights, economic stability, …
Oh wait, was that a rhetorical question?
J.D. Vance Scrubbed Old Blog Post Attacking Republicans for Racism
Taco Bell moves National Taco Day to Tuesday
WNBA’s Angel Reese Gets Limited Edition ‘Reese’s Puffs’ Cereal amid Fashion Collab
Hezbollah’s deadly exploding pagers
This list goes on and on…I lost count
“10 Worst Things About The Trump Presidency” | Robert Reich
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=gdstZDCCgAc
@ 221, 225 & 245
Republicans: “How dare they call us fascists and bigots! That sort of rhetoric will only lead to violence!”
Also Republicans: “Democrats are communists who hate Jesus and ‘Murica who want to make you a slave to Big Socialist Government and molest and mutilate your children!”
Judge orders Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs sent to jail while he awaits sex trafficking trial
Combs, who pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution, was denied bail.
GOP senator tells Arab American witness at hate crimes hearing to ‘hide your head in a bag’
Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana also repeatedly suggested the witness, a leading Arab American activist, supports Hamas even as she repeatedly denied it.
Spacex Polaris Dawn: Risk Taker or Reckless? by Space Mog – Dr Maggie Lieu – nine minutes length.
Reckon this is very good. Ofc subjective and mileage varies by individual as is standard.
Scott manley’s clip on the Polaris Dawn flight Is Testing A New Space Suit in Space The Ultimate Thrill?
Somewhat misleading title.
Qasim Rashid, human rights lawyer
CBS
NPR
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
“A Note To Gun Owners | Trump Attacks David Muir | Why J.D. Vance Lied About Springfield, OH”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=VuBKGZxgf8Q
Researchers discover new blood group system
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-09-blood-group.html
Trump WON’T STOP Pushing Pet Eating Lies, Oprah Surprises Audience
and Clooney and Pitt help Jimmy
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=_RTiD4dqZDs
The first minute is confusing.
People underestimate the income of the top 1%, researchers find
https://phys.org/news/2024-09-people-underestimate-income.html
Astronomers discover new feature in exoplanet distribution that’s between the Neptunian Desert and Savanna
https://phys.org/news/2024-09-astronomers-feature-exoplanet-neptunian-savanna.html
.
Why some organs age faster than others: Scientists discover hidden mutations in non-coding DNA
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-09-age-faster-scientists-hidden-mutations.html
Propolis from a Morocco-native plant found to improve cognitive function in male rats experiencing chronic mild stress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-09-propolis-morocco-native-cognitive-function.html
Lynna@245:
If the US really wants to help underbanked communities I’d suggest a) restoring postal banking and b) getting rid of DeJoy so he can’t fuck it up.
Underbanked communities need crypto snake-oil like they need a hole in the head.
A bit of a stopped-clock moment for Trump there, though, as both crypto and AI are real gas-guzzlers.
Reginald Selkirk@260
Not to mention the Lower East Side.
How much sea level rise gets locked in again, if the party of drill, baby, drill regains the WH?
This explains a lot.
https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/monolith-2
Late Night with Seth Meyers
Trump Says He Hates Taylor Swift in Truth Social Post
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=PjdMGbEqyRk
Understanding changes in pre-clinical Alzheimer’s disease: Study finds two proteins impact brain activity differently
.https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-09-pre-clinical-alzheimer-disease-proteins.html
Hidden craters reveal Earth may once have had a ring—like Saturn
https://phys.org/news/2024-09-hidden-craters-reveal-earth-saturn.html
Lawrence on Trump’s deadly abortion ban: ‘Women are dying. They (the Republicans) got what they wanted’
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=KMaHAI5tGUI
All nine Republican senators running for reelection voted against The right to IVF act
http://youtube.com/post/UgkxrdOQytSYfdsRli2CIcylavY0ea9pgV0r
@WNBA
Aces’ A’ja Wilson sets WNBA single-season rebounding record
Which means she also set (extended?) the record for total points in a season last night as well.
As it stands:
WNBA record for total points in a season: 1021
WNBA record for rebounds in a season: 451
But those numbers won’t stand for long, because the Aces play again Thursday night.
Ukrainian drones strike a large military depot in a Russian town northwest of Moscow
The Tonight Show
Trump Threatens Lawsuit to Challenge Mail-in Ballots, 8-Year-Old Girl Drives herself to Target
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=n5Jo90PYoCM
Jeez, Merica has too many evening shows for me to keep track of them! I thought this was Jimmy Kimmel but this is J. Fallon.
McConnell Warns It’d Be ‘Politically Beyond Stupid’ To Shut Down Government Before Election
Which means the Republicans in Congress will probably do it.
Reginald Selkirk @ 288
The House Republicans have progressed further into nihilism, so, yes, they might just do that.
It will be very destructive, but maybe – if the idiocy repels enough potential Republican voters- it could save USA from another Trump presidency.
The 2024 US Senate Map Based on the Latest Polls in Every Key Race
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=kDD2yzWYVSw
It currently looks like the Riot & Corruption party will get 51 senators and be able to sabotage the senate, but Ted Cruz and Rick Scott do not quite have the margins they would like.
“Things Go From Bad To Worse For Ted Cruz In Reelection Bid”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=TBZavQegL0Y
Amber Ruffin and Roy Wood Jr in the American version of ‘Have I Got News for You’. 🙂
“Who Has George R.R. Martin Offended?” | Have I Got News for You US
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=f4bt8imTe4o
I also recommend you check out the Brit version, even if not all the participants are known to you.
BB @278: “If the US really wants to help underbanked communities I’d suggest a) restoring postal banking and b) getting rid of DeJoy so he can’t fuck it up.”
I agree. Postal banking is a good idea, and it would serve a lot of rural communities really well, not to mention banking deserts in some inner city locations.
There’s mounting evidence of Russia targeting U.S. elections, hoping to return Donald Trump to power. Does Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan care?
Increasingly desperate, Trump unveils yet another weird tax idea
The thing to remember about Donald Trump’s tax plans: They’re not actual tax plans. They’re desperate grunts, blurted out without forethought or vetting.
More at the link.
A vote for Jill Stein is a vote for Republicans—and Russia
YouTube link to Pete Buttigieg breaking down Donald Trump and JD Vance’s ugly campaign.
Commentary from Walter Einenkel:
Link
Reuters:
Followup to comment 298.
Posted by readers of the article:
Another horrible film dissected by God Awful Movies
“GAM 474 God’s Not Dead 5: In God We Trust”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=XA2NV-qest4
Davd E. R. Wright keeps ageing. And this film arrived two days after the Trump-Harris debate. And the third act consists of a debate…
5 takeaways from Trump’s town hall with Sarah Huckabee Sanders
https://www.wonkette.com/p/trump-has-good-answer-about-food
Trump Has Good Answer About Food Prices, It Is Farmers With Tears In Their Eyes Saying ‘Sir!’ And Windmills
Sanewash this, New York Times. LOL, you probably already did.
Followup to comment 302.
Posted by a reader of the article:
Weekly mortgage demand surges 14% as interest rates hit two-year low
More at the link.
New reporting makes Vance’s handling of Springfield story look even worse
According to the city manager in Springfield, Ohio, JD Vance knew the truth about Haitian immigrants.
Campaign news, as summarized by Steve Benen:
Link
The new ad from the Harris campaign is available at the link.
Also from the link provided in comment 306:
Continental drift:
240 million years ago to 250 million years in the future
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=uLahVJNnoZ4
Followup to comment 268.
GOP senator launches racist attack on witness at hate crimes hearing
Network of Georgia election officials strategizing to undermine 2024 result
Emails reveal Georgia Election Integrity Coalition, a group of officials and election deniers, coordinating in swing state
Link
Fed lowers interest rates by half-point
https://www.wonkette.com/p/republican-springfield-mayor-invites
Republican Springfield Mayor Invites Trump And Vance to Stay TF Out Of His Town
ORNL shreds 250 petabytes of disk drives from the Summit supercomputer — Alpine storage system dismantled in preparation for the world’s fastest supercomputer
14 dead as Hezbollah walkie-talkies explode in second, deadlier attack
Newly Discovered Antibody Protects Against All COVID-19 Variants
X working again in Brazil as Elon Musk finds ban loophole
In other words, he found a technical loophole, not a legal loophole. I expect this will result in more fines.
Party over for Tupperware as it files for bankruptcy
Teamsters union opts to not endorse any presidential candidate
Racist chickenshits.
Re: Reginald Selkirk @ #316…
About the antibody that beats ALL COVID-19 variants… Note the end of the article…they’re going to patent the antibody. This raises two questions–for me, at least–first is, how can you patent a naturally occurring substance? Second, shouldn’t the person whose sample was used to find and isolate the antibody be able to insist on getting royalties…or even ownership of the patent?
@WNBA
WNBA awards Portland an expansion franchise that will begin play in 2026
@320 whheydt
I know some about the biology involved, but I know very little about intellectual property, so I won’t bother to fudge an answer. You probably know that those questions have come up before, most famously in the case of Henrietta Lacks.
Re: Bekenstein Bound @xxxii p7 #498:
electoral-vote.com
Link
House votes down Speaker Johnson’s funding plan as shutdown deadline approaches
Seth Meyers:
Audience Members Leave Rally as Trump Gives Incoherent Answers on Manufacturing, Food; A Closer Look
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=aNPQVuCNqOc
@317
X says its return in Brazil after ban ‘inadvertant’
Trump Arlington cemetery incident still under investigation
NB: Colbert explains how the myth of Haitians taking cats got started:
The cat Miss Sassy hid for a couple of days and the owners thought their Haitian neighbors had taken her, calling the police.
“Wall Street Cheers Fed Rate Cut | Youth Vote Tilts Towards Harris | Celebrating Melania’s nudes”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=MU4rHCjDs20
Rugged Falklands landscape was once a lush rainforest, researchers say
https://phys.org/news/2024-09-rugged-falklands-landscape-lush-rainforest.html
Pro lifer vs evil fetus #shorts
.https://youtube.com/shorts/SSqGcHamjeY
“Hitler 2 is writing Mein Kampf in my uterus!”
Jimmy Kimmel Live
‘Trump’s Wild Debate Conspiracies, Former GOP Leaders for Kamala, MAGA Fashion Show & iPhone Prank’
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=9Ue2bY09_lU
The Late Show
‘The Sound Of Science: Grumpy Fish | AI Nightmare Surveillance | Dead Butt Syndrome’
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=0DS2N4EkTu8
The Twingle Split Single Engine used for 70 years 🤯
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=pur8Uo58at8
N-WORD DROPPED On Megyn Kelly’s Show?! | The Kyle Kulinski Show 12 min 42 secs
Harmony of Resilience (Violin cover) by Sarah Gillis | Rey’s Theme by John Williams | Polaris Dawn
See also :
https://www.classicfm.com/composers/williams/spacex-astronaut-star-wars-first-violin-solo/
Incredible Moment Officer Climbs Into Moving Car to Help Driver
The brutal truth behind Italy’s migrant reduction: beatings and rape by EU-funded forces in Tunisia | Global development | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/sep/19/italy-migrant-reduction-investigation-rape-killing-tunisia-eu-money-keir-starmer-security-forces-smugglers
Low oxygen levels in tumors could enhance some of the body’s immune responses against cancer
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-09-oxygen-tumors-body-immune-responses.html
Newsom Takes Significant Stab At Reining In Social Media Disinfo, Prompting Ire From Musk
Yep, it is becoming increasingly obvious that this is Trump’s main tactic: Even before election, Trump, allies sue over claims that non-citizens might vote
More at the link.
Trump flip-flops again on tax policy to keep his wealthy pals happy
Cartoon: Tom the Dancing Bug visits The Haitians, of Springfield, USA
https://www.wonkette.com/p/arizona-found-some-illegal-voters
Arizona Found Some ‘Illegal Voters’! Whoops, They’re Mostly Republicans
Near-Collision With Other Star Jumbled Up Our Solar System, Physicists Says
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=WB2LgS6U4Cg
Since our solar system was born from a huge nebula that would have created thousands of other stars, in the first few million years there would have been plenty of nearby stellar neighbors. If such neighbors form a compact group, you get a star cluster, like the Pleiades. If they are not held together by gravity, they slowly drift apart but for some tens of million years they form an “association”. Most of the bright stars in the Big Dipper are part of such an association.
Iranian hackers offered stolen Trump data to the Biden campaign, say the feds.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/fed-cuts-interest-rates-maga-absolutely
Fed Cuts Interest Rates, MAGA Absolutely Enraged By Good News
Naturally, a MAGA rally crowd booed lower inflation.
Myself @ 346
Summary: For the young sun, it would have been much more likely to make a close passage of a “sibling” star.
BTW the objects we are talking about are mostly very distant icy objects in the Kuiper belt. But some of the disturbed objects may have entered the inner solar system and possibly ended up as small moons of the gas giants.
Putin wants Russia’s youth to become ultranationalist patriots. Many are all in.
Washington Post link
Much more at the link.
New Technologies 2024: W-Piston Toyota | Free piston – efficiency of 50%. ; powerful new engines
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=5lwxbwjcnzc
A possible hybrid technology for cars.
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-19/why-are-political-protests-becoming-more-violent/104373628
I know and have stood with these people. I wasn’t there for that but fucking hell..
“Delusional and unsettling”: Trump forgets there was no debate audience, claims crowd “went crazy”
Pennsylvania state senator sues critics of his book about WWI hero Sgt. York
It sounds like he did some very bad historical research, which didn’t go over well, so he is suing everybody.
Fact check: 12 completely fictional stories Trump has told in the last month
I guess somebody should keep track.
Did someone use the short wave UV sterilizers with people around again?
https://www.joemygod.com/2024/09/arizona-trump-rally-goers-complain-of-eye-injuries/
re Reginald Selkirk @355: Those 12 are just the “greatest hits”. Practically everything that comes from his mouth is a lie. That is, everything that isn’t complete gibberish. I don’t understand how anyone could listen to him and think he has provided any kind of answer to a question raised.
@ 354
I got a feeling his only likely source was the 1941 jingoistic hagiography Sergeant York starring Gary Cooper.
ABOUT FUCKING TIME!!!
Lynna@342:
Reuters seems to have developed a rather peculiar verbal tic here. What’s with the interjections of “opens new tab” here and there?
crossposted:
Breaking News: http://theartsinarizona.org/alieneatscat600l.gif
Donald Trump is under the impression that the Iran hacking story makes him look better and Kamala Harris look worse. That’s precisely backwards.
[eyeroll] Trump’s stupidity continues to amaze and astound.
Why Trump’s wild new scheme to win an extra electoral vote won’t work
I recently received an email from ex-Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s “re-election” (after 12 years out of office) campaign, in which he rejoices over an endorsement from … Tucker Carlson. :-p
Kucinich also touts an endorsement from a group called “Stand for Health Freedom”:
whose amazingly vague website implies an anti-vax, anti-public-health-mandates, etc, viewpoint (and says nothing I could find about abortion/contraceptive/etc rights).
What the hell happened to the once-progressive Kucinich? I personally wrote him off when he lost office and took a job with False Noise (which I thought hadn’t lasted because I never saw any follow-up on that), but now I get the sense he’s moved so far to the right he now lives in Vladivostok. My web search indicates he worked briefly in ’23 as RFK Jr’s campaign manager, but I didn’t find anything reporting how or why he jumped to the dark side – anybody got a clue to the story?
Smugglers are advertising illegal Canada-U.S. border crossings on TikTok
‘I’m a black NAZI!’: NC GOP nominee for governor made dozens of disturbing comments on porn forum
Kentucky judge shot, killed in his chambers; sheriff arrested
In an Unprecedented Move, Ohio Is Funding the Construction of Private Religious Schools
Ocasio-Cortez, Teamsters head spar over Trump-Harris support
A couple found the Kentucky highway shooter’s remains by being bounty hunters for a week, they say
Bill Gates says the rich would be a lot poorer if he set taxes — but banning billionaires isn’t on his agenda
White Dudes for Harris unveils eight-figure swing-state campaign
Re: Bekenstein Bound @359:
An accessibility thing, done annoyingly. The article had a link (which obvs opens in a new tab). It’s common practice to include a visual indicator when something unusual happens—in this case, a symbol after the link (square with a diagonal arrow escaping it). Screen readers for the visually impaired won’t get that hint though, so a bit of text was written for their benefit and conversely made invisible to ordinary views (a span of text given a clipping style of 0 pixels). The clipboard ignored visual styles, as it did links, so that text was NOT clipped into invisibility when copying and pasting. It was an oversight by the web developer.
* Render “clipping” and copy/paste “clipboard” are unrelated.
Now a Roe advocate, woman raped by stepfather as a child tells her story in Harris campaign ad
JFC. Two assassination attempts and one completed assassination in a two-month span, with the election from hell another two months away, and Repugs undoubtedly already having greenlit a sequel to J6.
Get yet bulletproof vests and popcorn, it’s gonna be a wild ride from here on out …
Oops. (The correct way to do this is to assign that text to the image’s “alt” attribute. Of course, these days we should just be thankful the web designer even knew how to use the img tag at all. Half or more of sites I visit come up with no images and it usually turns out to be because the idiot coder used some Javashit copied and pasted from somewhere instead of a plain old img tag. And that’s leaving aside the ones so misbegotten the body tag itself is empty, or even missing, and all of the page content was stuffed into a script element in the head tag!)
@365
Email address belonging to Mark Robinson found on Ashley Madison
I presume that is https://haveibeenpwned.com/
If that’s the case, then his denials might actually be believable.
I see Tommy Lee Jones aka Twoface has turned 78. At the same age as Trump, he would be a much more cool cartoon villain.
Local Teamsters go rogue and join other unions in backing Harris
At the end of the video, Seth Meyers has a brilliant reaction to Vance refusing to apologise.
‘Fox Cuts Away from Trump’s NY Rally, Vance Gets Fact-Checked on Pet Eating Lies; A Closer Look’
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=MbYojL1zcH8
Trumpy Cat:
Trump Has “Bigger Crowds Than Elvis,” Hasn’t Read Melania’s Book & JD Vance Has the Hots For Couches
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=_Pd-5qjd468
Mick Jagger turned 81 this Tuesday. He is three years older and infinitively wiser than…’that’ political candidate.
birgerjohansson@381,
He’s reputed to have voted Tory. When this rumour surfaced in 2019 I sent a letter to the Guardian:
KG @ 382
That is weird. I recall when he criticised Thatcher which prompted her to make a patronising answer.
Antidepressant vortioxetine shows promise for treating brain tumors
.https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-09-antidepressant-brain-tumors.html
Researchers build AI model database to find new alloys for nuclear fusion facilities
.https://phys.org/news/2024-09-ai-database-alloys-nuclear-fusion.html
Sami in Russia
‘They want total control’: how Russia is forcing Sami people to hide their identity | Russia | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/20/russia-forcing-indigenous-sami-people-to-hide-their-identity
Evidence points to Wuhan market as source of covid-19 outbreak | New Scientist
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2448671-evidence-points-to-wuhan-market-as-source-of-covid-19-outbreak/
Phew! This is good news :
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-19/sa-museum-restructure-scrapped-following-government-review/104371408
About rumors
.https://www.facebook.com/share/p/XicYStRFcTksTj2M/
Lying liars tend to lie.
Britain: Nigel Farage Security Excuse Debunked Voters Wants Answers
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=T-kOoR-s_2g
(if “voters” are plural, why is it “wants”?)
Aliens Acid Blood | Robot Chicken
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=7N0jaxb94Fc
Ripley, Hicks and ACME.
Number of Civilian Guns per 100 Persons
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=INr2h58wpek
Yemen and Canada were # 2 and 3. Guess who is number one?
Holocaust survivor marks 80th birthday with protest outside Israeli prison | Israel | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/20/holocaust-survivor-veronica-cohen-80th-birthday-protest-israeli-prison
birgerjohansson@386,
From your link:
We know that SARS-CoV-2 can pass from humans to other animals and back, because exactly that happened on mink farms. AFAIK, no-one who accepts that SARS-CoV-2 exists except possibly the Chinese authorities, who continue to claim the virus was brought into China from abroad, perhaps on frozen food packaging when they’re not blaming it on deliberate introduction by ebil Americans, disputes the role of the Huanan market in spreading the virus. What has not been determined – as the research team admitted – is how it got there.
Europe has questions to answer over migrant abuse in Tunisia, say MEPs and activists | Global development | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/sep/20/europe-has-questions-to-answer-over-migrant-abuse-in-tunisia-say-meps-and-activists
@WNBA
The regular season ended last night. That means the final numbers are in on season records
First, a couple career records. Tina Charles set two career records last night with 4014 rebounds and 195 career double-doubles.
A’ja Wilson extended two season records, for total points in season at 1021 and rebounds in a season at 451.
Caitlin Clark extended her WNBA season record for assists to 337 and WNBA season record for turnovers to 223. Naturally, she also has the rookie record for those, as well as rookie records for total points in a season at 769, and 3-point goals made in a season at 122.
That 122 3-point goals in a season is only second for the league, with the record being 128 by Sabrina Ionescu in 2023.
Clark also has the record for most triple-doubles by a rookie at 2 (the only rookie to ever log even one) and the WNBA record most assists in a game at 19.
With Clark both scoring and assisting, the Fever improved their record from 13-27 in 2023 to 20-20 in 2024.
Angel Reese, who ended her season with a broken wrist a couple weeks ago, set the rookie record for rebounds at 446, a league record for most consecutive double-doubles at 15, the rookie record for most point-rebound double-doubles at 26.
And now, it’s on to the playoffs!
Starlink’s new satellites emit 30x more radio interference than before, drowning cosmic signals
Shohei Ohtani records first 50-50 season in MLB history: Dodgers superstar slugs 50 homers, steals 50 bases
Walmart Plans Instant Bank Payments, Cutting Out Card Networks
Happy birthday Sophia Loren, 90 years today. Her film career predated the aneroxia-inducing beauty ideals for women that have done so much harm.
Donald Trump intends to blame Jews if he loses.
“Trump Claims Democrats Have A ‘Hold Or Curse’ Over Jews” | HuffPost Latest News
.https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-jews-loss-november-election_n_66ed12c6e4b083d40a2cc3bb
I will test if a shorter link will work:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-jews-loss-november-election
RFK Jr. Was Having a ‘Digital and Emotional’ Affair With a New York Magazine Writer
Regardless of what you think of their professions, they all deserve to be respected as human beings.
.https://www.facebook.com/share/p/GwSV8HiEqhe6Erav/
Reginald Selkirk @ 401
If the brain worm was still alive I would have said it was manipulating its host for a chance to spread its offspring to new hosts.
But you never know with RFK jr. Was he planning to get a new specimen? I am getting Norman Bates vibes from that weirdo. Ms. Nuzzi is better off without him.
Scathing Atheist 605 Vogon Apologist Edition
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=y39SjPqWmwk
The usual suspect provides Vogon poetry.
South Carolina to execute man despite bombshell admission from key witness | South Carolina | The Guardian
.https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/20/south-carolina-death-row-prisoner-execution
Link
Good analysis from Steve Benen.
Newsweek: China Responds as US Ignores Protest Over Missile Launcher on Doorstep
This is political cheese on both sides. The US brought in the system for a joint military exercise and training but it will remain after the exercise is done until it is no longer being used for training. Training can, of course, be extended forever.
For it’s part, Chinese complaints that the US is raising tensions when China is claiming territory from other countries and ramming ships from other countries is silly level propaganda.
Bits and pieces of news, as summarized by Steve Benen:
Followup to comment 362.
Republican officials in Nebraska are eyeing what is effectively an electoral vote heist in the campaign’s final weeks. The consequences could be dramatic.
Democrats wanted to make health care a key issue in the 2024 elections. It was generous of Donald Trump and JD Vance to give them a hand.
WaPo Live:
Pro-Trump Georgia election board votes to require hand counts of ballots
By Amy Gardner
Followup to comments 365 and 376.
Link
Matt Gaetz attended sex party with minor, federal court filing alleges
Link
Cartoon: The concept of a plan
https://www.wonkette.com/p/no-one-at-wonkette-has-sexted-or
No One At Wonkette Has Sexted Or Wants To Sext With RFK Jr., In Case You Were Wondering
I believe I can speak for us all, here.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/liquidating-rudy-giuliani-exhumed
Liquidating Rudy Giuliani Exhumed To Scream That Biden Should Be Hung*
*Hanged.
Washington Post link
Microsoft deal would reopen Three Mile Island nuclear plant to power AI
The owner of the shuttered Pennsylvania plant plans to bring it online by 2028, with the tech giant buying all the power it produces.
More at the link.
New York Times link
I’m the Republican Governor of Ohio. Here Is the Truth About Springfield.
More at the link.
Major maritime strike could threaten ports across the East Coast
The largest union of maritime workers in North America is preparing to strike at all of its Atlantic and Gulf Coast ports at the end of the month.
CERN cuts ties with Russia, will expel hundreds of scientists by December
A rare polar bear showed up on the shores of Iceland. Police shot it
Fox News host Jesse Watters claims he’s ‘never heard of’ Mark Robinson — despite interviewing him this year
How This Duck Outsmarted Disney’s Lawyers
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=D5fNMBqCncg
Ha! This vulgar, hard-drinking duck is one of my cartoon favourites.
For first time, TX Senate candidate Colin Allred leads Ted Cruz in new poll. By how much?
Damn you, Reginald Selkirk, for giving me hope!
.
The Mistake: Eating a russian MRE
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=oD3fY1GLpEU
Re: birgerjohansson @400:
Instead of writing uncertain urls in a comment, you can just paste them in a browser tab to find out.
In general, you only MIGHT be able to trim a url if you see a question mark and not beyond that. Or a hash mark. A question mark indicates what follows are key=value pairs that tweak requests for the page. For example, UTM parameters, serve no purpose other than to track from where you clicked the link for marketing purposes. The hash mark indicates what follows identifies a fragment within the page that the browser should scroll to or highlight.
Cards Against Humanity sues SpaceX, alleges “invasion” of land on US/Mexico border
The more Donald Trump claims that Iranian hacking is worse than Russian hacking, the more we’re reminded that he has all of this backward.
Truth Social stock craters on first day Trump can sell his shares
https://www.wonkette.com/p/horny-tennessee-congressman-divorces
Tennessee Congressman Divorces Wife After Discovering Fountain Of Youth (A Much Younger Woman)
How do all these sex scandals this week keep involving Republicans, huh?
https://www.wonkette.com/p/enjoy-national-treasure-jasmine-crockett
Enjoy National Treasure Jasmine Crockett Dragging Project 2025ers For Filth
And she called Trump simpleminded and under-qualified, ha.
North Carolina hospital company forgives debts of 11,500 people after NBC News report
Terry Belk, who owed thousands for cancer treatment for himself and his late wife, said he was stunned by a call from Atrium Health telling him the lien on his home was cancelled. [video at the link]
How Ukraine’s Paper Planes are Destroying Russia’s Military
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Z8P8Wp14na8
Cardboard drones vs steel.
NBC: Putin orders Russian army to expand to become the world’s second largest
Russia says they are not considering another mobilization of reserve troops, so how they can recruit this many is an open question. I expect that officials in the Kremlin are at least considering a mobilization, if this was only hiring more mercenaries there wouldn’t be a need to increase the cap.
The Russian recruiters have developed a technique of offering large salaries and huge bonuses but only to surviving soldiers, knowing that most will die on the front. Word of this is getting around and volunteers to take the money are dropping off.
Russia has also had to slow down recruiting from prisons. The ones that are useful have already been recruited. Russia had to back off after several violent alcoholics created more problems for fellow Russian soldiers then Ukrainian forces.
@406 Trump promising the moon. Isn’t this like a high-schooler running for Student Body President promising free soft drink machines in the cafeteria if they win?
Re: redwood @ #436…
The difference is that a week later, the high schooler will remember making the promise. Trump will deny that he did, even if shown a recording of him doing so.
Addenda to Reginald Selkirk @396:
Science
Wikipedia – SpaceX Starshield
Not only are satellites radiating enough to out themselves, they’re acting as a backlight to detect stealth aircraft from the shadows.
Chinese scientists use Starlink signals to detect stealth aircraft and drones
Project analyzing human language usage shuts down because ‘generative AI has polluted the data’
Why the hell are Harris’s odds slipping again at the 538 forecast? :(
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain, AI being seen as pollution, or at least a polluting agent. Interesting revelation.
In other news, A dramatic rise in pregnant women dying in Texas after abortion ban
Exclusive analysis finds the rate of maternal deaths in Texas increased 56% from 2019 to 2022, compared with just 11% nationwide during the same time period.
More at the link.
Democrats TAKE THE LEAD in Texas Senate Race
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=LgPeM2hbrEg
US likely to send medium-range missiles for Ukraine’s F-16s
He Was an Anti-Racist Vegan Radical… in 1738!
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=gIkQrr8pgSI
@443 Lynna, OM: It occurred to me that the reason the US is slowly raising the limit on how far into Russia that Ukraine can strike is that Russia is slowly decaying and their ability to do anything about it is going down. At the very start of the war they could have cut of the EU from vital oil but now Russia is more dependent on the trickle of oil for money. Later they could have threatened Ukrainian shipping with the Russian navy but there isn’t enough navy left in the Black Sea. Russian threats to expand the war to other countries or escalate the war now ring hollow, they have already thrown everything they have into the war.
The only real threat Russia has left is nuclear and even if they are losing the war that won’t be used unless there is risk of large scale loss of Russian territory. The oligarchs will hold on to that for bargaining, insuring that no permanent sanctions or harsh penalties will be applied to Russia post war. They know if they go nuclear it’s WWIII and Russia ceases to exist as a country one way or another.
Donald Trump Likely Just Lost North Carolina in 2024
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=JooKxtwdwHs
The “Black Nazi” candidate has been poison.
“New Survey Proves That Trump Supporters Are Genuinely Stupid”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=goo6oCMXmVo
Naah. Schools affording surgeons to do improvised sex-change operations seem perfectly plausible.
JM @445, that’s a thoughtful analysis.
I would not be any good at planning or running a war. There are so many variables, and I get stuck in the “people are dying” view and then I can’t see anything else.
I do think that Russia’s ability to wage “conventional” war was overrated from the start, and now even what ability Russia had has been seriously degraded.
Still, a big country with hundreds of thousands of soldiers (soldiers the leaders see as expendable) can do a lot of damage over a distressingly long period of time.
Cartoon: Trump threats
Marc E.Elias:
Here’s the link to sign up the Democracy Docket newsletter if you are interested.
https://www.jefftiedrich.com/p/self-styled-black-nazi-mark-robinson
Link
I keep posting notices of celebrities that have reached the same age as Trump, and are way less rambling and confused than him.
Today, Joanna Lumley (of Absolutely Fabulous) turned 78.
Her TV persona would make a much more interesting bad leader than Trump, as she is a physical danger to everyone around her, drinking herself into a stupor with champagne while holding on to a burning cigarrette and setting places on fire.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/kamala-harris-gains-but-voters-still
Kamala Harris Gains, But Voters Still Weirdly Think Trump Can ‘Economy’ At All
Russia uses Mexico as a hub for spying on the U.S.
Russia has a long history of spying on the U.S. from the relative safety of Mexico City, dating back to the 1980s. Decades before that, Stalin had his chief rival assassinated there.
Link Scroll down at the link to view the text quoted above. Both subjects are part of a longer “Weekender” presentation of news.
Malaria tRUMP is making a big deal about her silly nude ‘modeling’. It is an attempt to trigger criticism so she can play victim and say those ‘radical liberals’ are trying to her censor ‘art’. What a crock of tRUMP!
Let’s examine the real issue:
http://croswind.com/heroicheretic/isitart.htm
Link
I didn’t want to be right about MAGAs going on to voodoo animal sacrifice cooties after the pet/wildlife eating cooties. You grow up in a bigot culture, you have to make it useful somehow.
And they moved on to cannibalism. Where next?
CNN: Harris accepts CNN debate invitation
The Harris campaign is more trying to needle Trump and get a bit of publicity then actually get another debate. Trump already said no more debates and has just made a few waffling mentions of doing another one.
Trump is declining this one so far and his excuse is that voting has already started. A thin excuse as only some mail in ballots will be accepted by that date.
It’s possible that Trump might accept the debate. His campaign is doing badly and just looks to get worse. He might go for the debate as a last gasp attempt to gain some ground. If he does he is likely to wait until the last minute to accept, hoping to keep Harris from having a chance to prepare.
Reuters: U.S. national tortured to death in Ukraine by Russian soldiers, Moscow says
Bentley was also a Russian citizen. He had been in the area since 2014 and had worked for Russian media at a minimum, he may have fought with Russian partisans in the previous conflict.
Details are rather short but the theory made public by the Russian investigation is that the soldiers may have mistaken Bentley for an American spy.
https://x.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1837092582557401133
Video with English subtitles is available at the link.
Biden meets with key Pacific leaders, shores up maritime cooperation
Trump Says Women ‘Will No Longer Be Thinking About Abortion’ If He Wins
“Do not think of a pink elephant”
JD Vance suggested the US’s support for NATO could be pulled if Europe tries to regulate Elon Musk’s X as free speech debate rumbles on
Liz Cheney: Conservatives may need a new party
The problem with that: you need a lot of support to win elections. The Republican Party has, for a long time, represented the interests of the rich. But it turns out there are not enough billionaires to support the interests of billionaires in a democratic system. That’s why the GOP has been deliberately appealing to certain demographics for the last ~ 50 years. Specifically: Southern racists, Evangelical Christians, anti-abortionists. The very groups that have high support for Trump, and which now embarrass Cheney. If you boot those groups out, then what will you do for votes?
MAGA Sheriff THREATENS All Kamala Supporters In County | The Kyle Kulinski Show – 7 and a half mins temporal length. WARBNING : Swearing. Not much and justifiable.
There’s no “might” about Repugs blaming the assassination attempts by disillusioned Repugs against Trump on Democrats. Vance and others are already doing that. Oh & this is election actual interference as well as political extortion. First it’lll be those with Kamala Harris or Democratic signs, then it’ll be anyone without Trumpo signs and so on. This is obtaining gain through menaces and should be treated as criminal.* Will it be? Who will arrest that Sheriff?
.* I’m not a lawyer but, come on..
Owen Jones – Israel’s Mass Murder Of Babies Exposed
14 pages of names of babies under a year old, age zero, killed. WARNING : Confronting material discussed.
The left is probably more supportive of nude modeling (as long as it’s consensual, rather than pressured or something) than the right is.
Hezbollah: 10 Things You Need To Know
Project 2025 Leader Mark Krikorian Admits To Being Champion Of HAITIAN SLAVERY!!!
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Zhutl268Alw
To be precise, he says the liberty of the slaves should have been delayed by 30 years, but I doubt the slaves would have agreed.
Happy September Equinox yáll!
Spring here and Winter in the upside down northern hemisphere.
birgerjohansson@472,
The enslaved Haitians demonstrated graphically that they did not agree, launching the only successful slave uprising known to history. Indeed, they did so twice: after their first victory, Napoleon sent troops to reimpose slavery, but the attempt failed.
KG @ 474
There were succesful small-scale slave rebellions in north and south America, but they fled to areas where indians kept away the Europeans. Haiti was big enough to muster a large defensive army.
On top of that Napoleon’s troops got a tropical disease, which eventually made Napoleon give up the western hemisphere and finance his wars by selling the lot to USA (minus Guyana and that tiny island outside Canada).
Gary Busey turned 80.
He has played over-the-top villains, so he is a better Republican candidate than the mediocre Trump. You want the villain to brag about his intentions in a reasonably well-spoken manner.
Odd Couple
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=CMpcGi5kNQs
Bernie Sanders and Dick Cheney agreeing on something.
“The Investion of Moses WIll Blow Your Mind!” #1 Moses Documentary
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=4uqQdbR_WiQ
I find these careful detective stories of reconstructing how biblical tales emerged impressive, but also slightly boring. At more than a hour it is only for those interested in the history of ideas.
@ 478
Should be the invention of Moses.
…and I just realised that if we are to believe the reconstruction going back to hellenistic and various egyptian and mesopotamian sources, practically everything in the bible is fanfic, with tiny morsels of even older beliefs thrown in.
Mississippi town moves Confederate monument that became an eyesore, by Associated Press
Photos at the link.
Good riddance of bad statues.
.
I am re-posting this from a year ago in case some new reader with an interest in astronomy has not seen it.
“The Fermi Paradox Has An Incredibly Simple Solution”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=sbUgb2OPpdM
WTAF — Mike Lindell Goes Full Nazi with Latest Ad
Posted by readers of the article:
Well that’s a conundrum. Can’t tell if Mike Lindell is being stupid, a Nazi, or a stupid Nazi.
Yesterday, Saturday, Trump spoke at a rally in North Carolina.
He said, among a lot of other offensive, untrue and/or bonkers shit:
Lots of video snippets documenting the rally are available here, and here: https://x.com/atrupar/status/1837552396483940554
During his speech, Trump mispronounced words, had trouble coming up with the word “schools,” etc.
Scandal-ridden candidate for governor of North Carolina, Mark Robinson, was not at the rally. However, Donald Trump has not withdrawn his support of Robinson. See comments 365, 376 and 412 for more on Robinson.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/hello-would-you-like-to-know-why
Hello, Would You Like To Know Why We Have These Haitian Immigrants In The First Place?
It’s Learn A Thing Sunday!
Excerpts from a longer article:
More at the link.
Trump ally Laura Loomer falsely asserts “the ATF is letting illegals buy guns”
Loomer: “It’s out of control. They’re letting illegal aliens buy guns.”
Video at the link.
Sounds like a lie calculated to prompt Trump cult followers to buy more guns … and is likely to get someone killed.
birgerjohansson@475,
I guess it depends how you define “successful uprising”. The events you mention were escapes; the enslavers remained in charge of the same area they held before, and continued holding enslaved people there. In Haiti they were overthrown, and killed or driven out. And yes, Napoleon’s reinvasion failed primarily due to disease (although guerilla warfare was also important), but that doesn’t mean it somehow “didn’t count”; deaths from disease outnumbered deaths in battle in most wars involving Europeans until WW1. The French colony on the South American mainland is Guyane; Guyana is the former British colony, now independent. (BTW, how is it the French can maintain colonies around the world with barely a peep out of anti-colonialists?)
KG yes, my understanding of the Haiti uprising is imperfect.
.
Alien Super Show from a week ago
‘Trump SCREWS HIMSELF in Front of MILLIONS at WORST TIME’
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ytlo_OjaZzo
@467 Reginald Selkirk: The short answer is that Cheney isn’t saying get rid of the current party member coalition, at least not automatically. She is saying get rid of the elected radicals and party officials that enable them. In the view of the moderate Republicans a lot of the problem is that the party leadership in Congress has been willing to cut it’s own throat to get a few votes from the MAGA crowd rather then cut a deal with the Democrats. The only way to get a big break from the way the party is run now likely requires forming a new splinter party and controlling who is allowed to join.
The long answer is really long because it gets into the interconnected tactics of rebuilding the party, rebuilding the Republican coalition and how the party is run afterwards. A likely change is dropping the southern racists and going with a more general social conservative block, which could bring in black and Latino conservatives.
KG @ # 487: … how is it the French can maintain colonies around the world with barely a peep out of anti-colonialists?
Because France learned from all that “no taxation without representation” stuff and gives their colonies citizenship rights, full parliamentary participation, etc?
Social Democrats fend off (extreme-right) AfD in crucial German state election, according to exit polls | Germany | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/22/social-democrats-afd-alternative-germany-state-election-brandenburg
Excerpts from a longer article published by The New Yorker:
More at the link.
New Yorker link
That’s one side of things, but Guyane’s GDP per capita is less than half that of metropolitan France, and unemployment is near 20%. In New Caledonia, there are deep divisions between the Kanak indigenous population, and French colonial settlers. And in Mayotte, 84% of the population lives below the poverty line.
KG @ # 493 – I can’t argue with those stats, but if anything they reinforce my unstated thesis: give the local politicians a bright shiny boondoggle, and they will keep the locals distracted enough that nobody rocks the boat.
If George III had offered John Hancock and Ben Franklin seats in Parliament, USAnian children would still sing “God Save the King” in class every morning.
Texas Attorney General’s office sues Harris County over revised basic income program
The program is revised—with Ken Paxton suing again—because Paxton convinced the state Supreme Court to halt it once already. The state constitution bans “gratuitous payments to individuals”, with an exemption if it serves a “public purpose”.
The Court had ruled that—unlike economic-development grants to businesses (for business growth & job creation) which qualify as “public purpose”—”We remain skeptical
of the County’s argument that a program of unmonitored, ‘no strings attached’ cash payments to individuals serves ‘the public purposes of development and diversification of the economy of the state’.” The revised program aims to use preloaded debit cards instead of cash. Failing that, the funds will be reallocated to other county anti-poverty support programs.
“The ruling […] sets a dangerous precedent—most state constitutions have bans on gifting public funds, but no other state court has barred guaranteed programs on those grounds. And of course, they haven’t, because those bans are there to stop cronyism and gratuitous gifts of tax dollars. They aren’t intended to stop governments from providing public benefits.”
https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/politics/decision-2024-trump-says-he-wont-run-again-if-he-loses-november-election/3659184/?os=vbkn42tqhoPnxGo4IJ&ref=app
Hmmm…. Well odds are that he’ll be dead (natural causes), confined to a loony bin, or in jail in 4 years, anyway.
Why Texas Republicans are souring on crypto
If anti-poverty measures are not a “public purpose” and a legitimate function of the state then what the hell is?
That’s certainly not the case in New Caledonia, where the campaign for independence has given rise to repeated clashes! In Guyane and the French Caribbean islands there has been serious unrest in quite recent times. In all three cases, the tensions have an important ethnic component. My unstated thesis is that French imperialism largely escapes the attention of anti-imperialists, just as Russian and Chinese imperialism does, because so many “anti-imperialists” are, in practice, merely anti-American-imperialism. British imperialism is an intermediate case – the UK’s close, and indeed subordinate relationship with the USA means it is regarded as a relatively insignificant appendage to American imperialism. My secondary unstated thesis is that today’s “great powers” – the USA, China and (in purely military terms) Russia are those imperialist powers of the 17th-19th centuries that have managed to hold onto their empires, while the UK and France are those second-rank powers which have retained fragments of their empires and thus something of a global presence (note that these five are the main victors of the wars of the first half of the 20th century, and hence the permanent members of the UNSC).
LOL: Senate Republicans Too Broke to campaign
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=HH92LFqkPnQ
And senator Rick Scott “misplaced” millions back in 2022 :)
.
New Ukrainian Weapons Hit Russia Where It Hurts || Peter Zeihan
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=pBfxY3b3R1g