Money Is Not Wealth: Heading into the 2024 Election - By A.R. Miller

MONEY IS NOT WEALTH

Right-Wing Erosion of U.S. Election Safeguards:
Trump, Trump's stacked Supreme Court, Trump's new running-mate, Trump's predictable and childish attacks on "The Enemy", etc. - some Good News - and some Election Cartoons, T-Shirts, etc.
Subsection 5 of Money Is Not Wealth.

Jay Caspian Kang: How I Became A Subaru Socialist. (The New Yorker; August 18, 2026)
By the time Bernie Sanders ran for President, in 2015, I was financially secure. But the previous decade had left a mark.
(This is part of a series of columns about young people and the economy.)
During the past few weeks, I've heard from a lot of readers who have theories about Subaru Socialists, the term I used, in a recent column, to refer to middle-class, college-educated, liberal millennials. Some of the critics of this cohort blame colleges for pushing left-wing politics and engendering an excess of concern for struggling people; more sympathetic readers credit the work of community organizing and activism for generating those very same things. Reading these reactions has pushed me to consider a subset of the Subaru Socialists: professionals in their thirties and forties who are now basically doing fine financially, and may even belong to the upper middle class. It used to be a cliché that youthful idealism eventually gives way to fiscal conservatism (and to thinking way more than you ever expected you would about your taxes). How did this group veer away from that once seemingly-inevitable trajectory?
A little self-reflection might be in order. Like many of my Subaru Socialist ilk, I went into debt for an arguably useless graduate degree - a Master of Fine Arts in fiction, from Columbia University. After finishing that degree, I spent several years getting rejected by pretty much every publishing house and magazine there is. When the Great Recession happened, I was twenty-eight, and I lost my job as a private-school teacher, leading to an extended stay on unemployment. All of this felt bad, but I didn't really channel it into the politics of the left until Bernie Sanders began showing up on campaign stages, in 2015. By then, I had paid off my student loans, had bought a home, and was making enough money as a writer that I no longer needed to feverishly check my account balances or worry too much about buying a plane ticket or new car parts.
As I have thought more about others like me - comfortable people in their forties who are nonetheless frustrated enough with capitalism and the Democratic establishment to vote for seemingly any insurgent candidate in sight - I've wondered why I started thinking seriously about universal health care, wealth redistribution and the expansion of the public sector, at the precise moment that I didn't really need them anymore. An obvious answer would be that it's hard to think very much about politics when you're struggling to get your bank account consistently above five hundred dollars. But I find that unconvincing - even when things were bad, I wasn't entirely immiserated, and I still read the news. I also can't plead ignorance: I had a Marxist phase in college and spent my early twenties talking solemnly about revolutions and the proletariat. But those convictions were abstract, if sincere, and I suppose they stayed that way until Sanders came along.
[It's the start of an interesting New Yorker article.] 
I'm No Einstein: Large Areas Of Our Planet Are Ablaze. When Will Governments Act And Admit What And Why It's Happening? (Daily KOS Community, Earth is on Fire; August 5, 2026)
This article will be very brief. It's all over the news this morning in most countries. Even Trump's mega-media sell-outs can no longer cover over the many large fires burning all over the planet. When will he have to face and admit to this crisis? Or will Trump blame the Democrats and the Communist-left for mass sabotage, like he did with the Reflecting Pool renovations? They can invent no lie big or believable enough to cover over what's happening, and the threat to all of humanity.
I've long suspected that the Democratic Party leadership group was making a terrible mistake by not calling crisis-level public attention at the right time, re the threats being posed by climate change across the entire planet. Now is that time!!!
It’s also time we take to the streets and demand they finally tell the full truth. Truth which the Planet has dictated can no longer be covered over! Publicly identify the causes of climate change and, after scientific consultation for the best ways to proceed, start taking massive action. Wait, and civilization is targeted for unthinkable crisis, death and destruction.
I’m fed up with the silence as to what's happening, and so should you. I suspect the Trumps of the world may still try offering some B.S. story. The fools that rule over us may think they themselves can escape from the disasters that await us from climate change. They cannot.   
Chris Walker: Voters Reject GOP "Power-Grab" Referendum Measures in Kansas and Missouri. GOP-sponsored measures in both states went "down in flames", observers of the elections noted. (TruthOut; August 5, 2026)
Yesterday, voters in Kansas and Missouri overwhelmingly rejected ballot measures proposed by Republican lawmakers that aimed to restrict their democratic and human rights.
In Kansas, proposed Amendment 1 would have required direct elections for state Supreme Court justices. The measure was introduced by Republicans in the state legislature to counter the process for appointing jurists to the state's highest court, which has protected reproductive rights over the past decade despite efforts by the GOP to pass laws restricting abortion. As of 9AM Central Time today, that measure was losing - with 61.3% of voters rejecting the idea. Several counties in the state, including in rural areas that have traditionally sided with Republicans, voted against it as well. The rejection of the measure comes just four years after Republicans sought to reverse the state Supreme Court's abortion protections in a different ballot measure in 2022.
Missouri voters also rejected a measure aimed at curtailing voters' right to self-determination at the ballot box. Proposed Amendment 4 would have changed the ballot initiative process altogether. Instead of simply requiring a majority vote in the state to pass changes to state law, it would require a majority vote in every congressional district in the state. Such a measure would allow lawmakers to gerrymander the state's political lines in order to prevent voters from passing ballot initiatives.
Oliver Willis: "Filled With Excuses, Trump Admits Failure In His Plot To Rig Mid-Term Elections." (links, graph cartoon, Fox News video; Daily Kos, April 15, 2026)
In a Fox interview that aired on Wednesday, President Donald Trump effectively admitted that the on-going Republican campaign to rig electoral maps in their favor to avert a wipe-out in this year's mid-term elections has been a spectacular failure.
Speaking to his long-time booster and Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, Trump made a perfunctory statement that Republicans would "do good" in the election, but then began speaking as if the party had already lost.
"When somebody gets elected president, that party always loses the midterms, I don't know why. I don't know why, nobody can explain it.", Trump said.
He further complained that he had "the greatest opening year" ever and "the greatest economy ever". Both assertions are false. The public surely doesn't think things have gone great, with Trump's disapproval spiking an average of 13 percentage-points since Inauguration Day to a current level of 56%. On the economy, unemployment is up after years of decline under former President Joe Biden, and consumer sentiment has begun to nose-dive.
Trump even restated his lie that he has "ended" eight wars and more absurdly said "nobody" has ended wars, which is completely ignorant.
Alix Breeden: "For Chrissake: Trump posts another Jesus AI pic." (pic, comments; Daily Kos; April 15, 2026)
If you were looking for a reason other than Tax Day to throw your phone out the window, look no further than the newly-dropped AI-generated image of President Donald Trump and Jesus looking … quite intimate.
"The Radical Left Lunatics might not like this, but I think it is quite nice!!!", Trump wrote via Truth Social Wednesday alongside the re-post. The low-resolution image depicts the religious icon standing almost behind the president, as his left arm drapes over Trump's shoulder and his right hand rests tenderly on Trump's chest. The president, who sports laughably-defined facial features in the image, seems to be embracing the moment fully with eyes closed.
"I was never a very religious man .. but doesn't it seem, with all these satanic, demonic, child-sacrificing monsters being exposed … that God might be playing his Trump card!", the original poster, Daniel Kelly, wrote via X (ex-Twitter). Kelly seemingly blasted this doctored image across the social-media platform for days, spamming it in the replies of many users' posts before it garnered attention from the so-called leader of the free world.
Trump has apparently seized on Kelly's social-media spamming to distract from his other recent religious blunder.
Keef Knight: "Dr. Trump" (cartoon; Daily Kos, April 15, 2026)
Oliver Willis: "Pope Leo Swats Away Trump's Blasphemous Meltdown." (image of Trump playing Jesus, comments; Daily Kos, April 13, 2026)
Pope Leo XIV, the first pope born in the United States, showed off his Chicago roots on Monday by refusing to stoop to President Donald Trump's level, after Trump attacked the pontiff in an unhinged late-night social media frenzy.
"I'm not afraid of the Trump administration or of speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel, which is what the Church works for", Leo told reporters.
The pope has repeatedly denounced Trump's war in Iran, rooting his criticism in the Bible's opposition to killing and unjust war. Previously, Pope Leo noted, "God does not bless any conflict. Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs." He has also condemned "absurd and inhuman violence" and "the blasphemy of war".
Leo’s latest rebuke of Trump came after the president posted a 334-word screed on his Truth Social account on Sunday night, attacking the pope as "WEAK on Crime." "I don't want a Pope who thinks it's OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon. I don't want a Pope who thinks it's terrible that America attacked Venezuela, a Country that was sending massive amounts of Drugs into the United States and, even worse, emptying their prisons, including murderers, drug dealers, and killers, into our Country", Trump fumed.
He added, "Leo should get his act together as Pope, use Common Sense, stop catering to the Radical Left, and focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician. It's hurting him very badly and, more importantly, it's hurting the Catholic Church!"
Trump's post was followed up with another featuring an apparently AI-generated image of Trump depicted as Jesus Christ, healing a man with his touch.
The Bible defines blasphemy - one of the most serious crimes in the Christian faith - as the promotion of a false doctrine and leading Christians away from following the teachings of God and Jesus.
Trump's decision to depict himself as a god-like figure also signals that Trump's mental state makes him unfit to lead the country. Several Democrats have called for the 25th Amendment to be invoked and for Trump to be removed from office, citing his inability to execute his position.
Trump's post about the pope was condemned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. "I am disheartened that the President chose to write such disparaging words about the Holy Father", Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, the conference's president, said in a statement. "Pope Leo is not his rival; nor is the Pope a politician. He is the Vicar of Christ who speaks from the truth of the Gospel and for the care of souls."
Trump's missive also drew a statement from Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who wrote on X in Persian, "Your Excellency Pope Leo XIV (@Pontifex), on behalf of the great nation of Iran, I condemn the insult to Your Excellency and declare that the desecration of Jesus (peace be upon him), the Prophet of peace and brotherhood, is unacceptable to any free person. I wish glory for you from Allah."
Trump's attack on the pope appears to have been triggered by a segment that aired on CBS' "60 Minutes" on Sunday night. In the segment, Catholic bishops aired their criticisms of Trump echoing the Pope's statements, particularly on immigration and the war.
Speaking about the attack on Iran, Cardinal Robert McElroy told the outlet, "In the Catholic teaching, this is not a just war."
Reacting to the controversy, CNN data analyst Harry Enten speculated on X, "Maybe Trump's jealous of the Pope? … It's a blow-out favoring the Pope in terms of popularity in America. The Pope's net popularity rating: +34%; Trump: -12%."
[What say? Trump now favors the U.S. Constitution's separation of Church and State? Well, only on days when it suits his (angry) mood.] 
 Doug Bock Clark and Jen Fifield: Inside Trump's Effort To "Take Over" The Midterm Elections (32-min. audio track; ProPublica, April 13, 2026)
Safeguards Destroyed: In advance of this year's mid-term elections, President Donald Trump has systematically demolished federal guardrails that prevented him from overturning the 2020 election.
Changing of Guard: At least 75 career staff are gone. Two-dozen appointees, including many from the election-denial movement, have been hired. Ten helped try to overturn the 2020 vote.
Political Interference: Once-fringe actors now have access to vast powers, which they've already used to push forward unprecedented actions that critics say amount to partisan interference.
- Many older articles await re-posting here. -
EARLY VOTE (NBC News and TargetSmart, updated daily)
Early voting has begun in states across the U.S.A. where voters are able to cast their ballots either in person or via mail. Some states provide details about the early votes that are cast, including partisan divisions and age of voters, as well as voting method.
Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign has pushed for Democratic voters to utilize early voting more aggressively, seen as a tactic to help bank votes ahead of Election Day. While former President Donald Trump has been critical of early voting, his campaign and the Republican Party have also been pushing for voters to cast early ballots.
ELECTIONS: TOP25 (Associated Press, undated; posted here October 22, 2024)
Americans will cast roughly 160-million ballots by the time Election Day comes to a close - in several different ways, including many submitted a few weeks before polls even open. They will choose a president, members of Congress and thousands of state lawmakers, city-council members, attorneys general, secretaries of state - and in Texas, a railroad commissioner who has nothing to do with the trains.
This year's election also comes at a moment in the nation's history when the very basics of how America votes are being challenged as never before by disinformation and distrust.
‍It can be tough to make sense of it all. To help better understand the way America picks its president and its leaders - all the way down the ballot - The Associated Press offers the following thoughts on the Top 25 people, places, races, dates and things to know about Election Day. A guidebook, of sorts, to American democracy as it nears its 250th birthday.

Brad Reed: MAGA Operative Gets Live Fact-Check, After Saying "Nazis Were Left-Wing Socialists". (4-min. YouTube video; MSN, October 25, 2024)
Republican strategist Tricia McLaughlin tried to defend former President Donald Trump against charges of being a fascist, by falsely claiming that Fascism is a left-wing socialist political ideology.
"John Kelly, his former chief of staff, was the person who called him a fascist", replied Sidner. "And Democrats have been repeating what his former chief of staff said."
At this point, McLaughlin tried to deflect from the issue by denying that Fascism is a right-wing political ideology at all - despite the fact that it is defined as an ideology "that exalts nation and often race above the individual, that is associated with a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, and that is characterized by severe economic and social regimentation and by forcible suppression of opposition." Additionally, when Nazis took power in the 1930s, socialists and communists were among the first people whom they targeted for political persecution.
"Fascism is rooted in socialism!", she said. "So we've got to get the definition correct, because Donald Trump by no means is a socialist."
"Fascism certainly isn't socialism, either", Sidney shot back.
Democratic strategist Matt Bennett also issued a fact-check of his own, saying, "Socialism and Fascism are very, very different. Fascism is right-wing authoritarianism."
Chris Stein: U.S. Elections 2024: Kamala Harris Holds Rally In Georgia With Barack Obama And Celebrities. (The Guardian/UK, October 24, 2024)
Early-voting totals have been breaking records in Georgia, with about 30% of the electorate having already cast a ballot.
U.S. Elections Live: Kamala Harris Hails Her Republican Endorsements, As Her Campaign Condemns Trump's Threat To Fire Jack Smith. (The Guardian, October 24, 2024)
VP says her latest Republican backing signals that America's leaders understand "what's at stake". Trump vows to fire the justice-department special-counsel who is prosecuting him.
["And if elected, I promise to fire the man assigned to bring me to justice"? Say, that does sound like TrumPutin - or Hitler. But, how else to avoid an honest trial? This Guardian link leads to other confirming articles.]
Rebecca Shabad and Daniel Barnes: Trump, Who Says He Would "Fire" Jack Smith "Within Two Seconds", Moves To Challenge Special Counsel's Role In Election Case. (NBC News, October 24, 2024)
Donald Trump said today that, if elected to a second term in November, he would immediately fire special-counsel Jack Smith, who brought two federal indictments against the former president.
Hours later, his attorneys informed the judge overseeing one of those cases that they want to challenge the constitutionality of Smith's appointment. They asked for permission to make their filing because they're in a dispute with Judge Chutkan over whether new motions to dismiss the case can be filed. Chutkan's original deadline for these types of motions has already passed, but Trump's lawyers say they should be allowed to file new ones because of Smith's superseding indictment in August.
If Chutkan agrees that the motion can be filed, Trump's lawyers would encounter obstbacles they did not have in Florida. Unlike in Florida, the D.C. Circuit has a binding precedent upholding the legality of special counsels. The precedent prevents Chutkan from granting Trump's motion, if she allowed his team to make the initial filing.
Trump has successfully delayed court proceedings in the election-interference case because of his claims of presidential immunity, which were ultimately ruled on by his stacked Supreme Court in July, so a trial has not been set in the case.
Last week, Chutkan allowed the release of hundreds of pages of heavily-redacted documents that contained evidence the special counsel was using for the prosecution. In response, Trump called Chutkan "the most evil person" and Smith "a sick puppy" and characterized the release as "election interference".
The former president has disparaged them both numerous times, which led the judge to issue a gag order on him. It prohibited Trump from making statements about potential witnesses or the federal prosecutors who charged him.
Last year, Trump warned that Smith and other Justice Department officials would wind up in a mental institution if he's re-elected. In an effort to pre-empt any moves by Trump if he returns to the White House, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a fierce Trump critic, introduced legislation last month with Democratic co-sponsors that would prevent a sitting president from dismissing an active criminal prosecution against him or herself, a measure that will go nowhere in the Republican-run House.
[TrumPutin wants to be his own judge and jury, while accusing existing ones of his own failings.]
Edith Olmsted: Old-Man Trump Is So Desperate For A War, He's Inventing Them Now. Donald Trump Made Up A War With America's Oldest Ally, France. (New Republic, October 24, 2024)
Donald Trump made up a fictional war with France Wednesday, and then claimed to have stopped it. During a speech in Duluth, Georgia, Trump - who previously touted himself a "wartime president" but now lies about how peaceful and safe his time in office was - was bragging about his record when he falsely claimed he really had prevented an international conflict.
"You have no idea what I did in the White House. I stopped wars … with France!", Trump said. "France, you know the France story? They were gonna charge us, think of this, 25% to all Ameri - I have to protect American companies, whether we like 'em or not. Some of 'em I didn't even like. You know Google is treating us much better, did you notice that? What happened to Google? They're treating us much better. They say McDonald's was one of the most-viewed things that they've ever had", Trump cheered.
While there was obviously no threat of war with France, it's possible that Trump was referring to a trade skirmish with France from his time in office. Paris passed a digital-services tax on large tech companies, including Google, Facebook, and Amazon, in 2019. In response, Trump threatened to place tariffs of up to 100% on French goods, such as champagne and luxury bags.
Undeterred, France ordered the tech companies to pay up in 2020. After Joe Biden entered the White House in 2021, he suspended Trump's plan for retaliatory tariffs against France.
So the "war" Trump stopped wasn't a war, it was a trade fight. And he didn't even stop it. If anything, he escalated it. But this might explain his incoherent weave from France to Google and back to his favorite subject: himself.
[Let's give credit where credit's due: TrumPutin, America's (and Russia's) incoherent and traitorous weaver of lies, actually wove a half-truth into this lie. Credit, yes; presidency, HELL, NO!]
Corey G. Johnson: Without Knowledge Or Consent (ProPublica, October 24, 2024)
In the late 1990s, the gun industry launched a secret project. At least 10 gun-industry businesses, including Glock, Smith & Wesson, Remington and Mossberg, secretly handed over names, addresses and other data to lobbyists, who used the details to rally firearm owners to elect pro-gun politicians.
Stephanie Kirchgaessner and Lucy Osborne: "Donald Trump Groped Me In What Felt Like A 'Twisted Game' With Jeffrey Epstein", Former Model Alleges. (The Guardian/UK, October 23, 2024)
Stacey Williams, a former model who says she met Donald Trump through the late sexual-abuser Jeffrey Epstein, has accused the former president of groping and sexually touching her in an incident in Trump Tower in 1993, in what she believed was a "twisted game" between the two men. The alleged groping occurred in the late winter or early spring of 1993, when Epstein suggested during a walk they were on that he and Williams stop by to visit Trump at Trump Tower.
Epstein was later convicted on sex offenses, and killed himself in prison in 2019.
Lisa Song: Selling A Mirage: The Plastics Industry's Wish List For A Second Trump Administration. (ProPublica, October 23, 2024)
Critics call it the plastics industry's Project 2025. Tucked into a federal recycling bill is a litany of regulatory rollbacks and other industry-friendly provisions that federal agencies under Donald Trump could adopt without congressional approval.
T. Christian Miller, ProPublica; Patrick Rucker, The Capitol Forum; and David Armstrong, ProPublica:
"Not Medically Necessary": Inside EviCore, The Company Helping America's Biggest Health Insurers Deny Coverage For Care  (ProPublica, October 23, 2024)
- Dialing for Dollars: America's largest insurers hire EviCore to make decisions on whether to pay for care for more than 100-million people - about 1-in-3 insured people. EviCore is owned by the insurance giant Cigna.
- "The Dial": EviCore uses an algorithm that allows it to adjust the chances that company doctors will screen prior-authorization requests, increasing the possibility of denials.
- Lucrative Deals: Some EviCore contracts are based on how deeply the company can reduce spending on medical procedures. It tells insurers that it can provide a 3-to-1 return on investment.
Mark Olalde: Trump Says He'll Move Thousands Of Federal Workers Out Of Washington. Here's What Happened The First Time He Tried. (ProPublica, Oct. 23, 2024)
He moved The Bureau of Land Management's headquarters from the capital to Colorado in 2020, causing an exodus of leadership. If elected, Trump plans to use the same tactic across more of the federal government.
Edith Olmsted: In Chilling Speech, Trump Says Free Speech Is Only For People He Likes. (New Repubic, October 22, 2024)
Donald Trump issued a grave threat against free speech rights. During a speech at the 11th Hour Faith Leaders Meeting in Concord, North Carolina, yesterday, the former president took issue with people criticizing judges who appear to like him. "I actually think it's illegal what they do", Trump said, before going on a long tangent about basketball coach Bobby Knight. When Trump finally returned to his point, he explained his plot to limit free speech. "They play the ref, they start screaming about "The judge is no good", and "This one's no good", and "They're slow" and "They're lousy judges" and "The judge should be impeached", and all of this crap, when you have a brilliant judge that's doing the right thing", Trump said.
The Republican presidential nominee is evidently still touchy about Judge Aileen Cannon, whose bias in favor of Trump was apparent throughout the proceedings of his classified documents case. Her unprecedented decision to toss out the felony case by ruling special counsel Jack Smith's appointment unconstitutional has been criticized by legal scholars.
Fred Wellman, On The Line: UNBELIEVABLE! Trump Wants Hitler's Generals….And Worse! (16-min. YouTube video; VoteVets, October 22, 2024)
When it was first reported that Trump called the fallen "suckers" and "losers", Trump and his spokespeople denied it. But Trump's former White House Chief of Staff, retired Marine General John Kelly, confirmed it.
Any time allegations like this arise, Trump denies it. His staff deny it. But eventually, it's confirmed by former members of his inner circle.
And every time it happens, these confirmations demonstrate - beyond any doubt - Donald Trump's disrespect, his disdain, his outright contempt for the men and women who put on the uniform of our country and put their lives on the line in our defense…
It has no limit. This is a man who uses the same words, the same phrases, as fascists like Hitler and Mussolini.
Jeffrey Goldberg: Trump: "I Need the Kind of Generals That Hitler Had." (The Atlantic, October 22, 2024)
The Republican nominee's preoccupation with dictators, and his disdain for the American military, is deepening.
[President? More like traitor.]

Heather Cox Richardson: Trump And His Supporters, Tracing Hitler's Footsteps (links below; Letters from an American, October 21, 2024)
On Saturday, September 7, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump predicted that his plan to deport 15- to 20-million people currently living in the United States would be "bloody". He also promised to prosecute his political opponents, including, he wrote, lawyers, political operatives, donors, illegal voters, and election officials. Retired chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley - "Trump's top general" - says that Trump is "a fascist to the core…the most dangerous person to this country."
On October 14, Trump told Fox News Channel host Maria Bartiromo that he thought enemies within the United States were more dangerous than foreign adversaries and that he thought the military should stop those "radical left lunatics" on Election Day. Since then, he has been talking a lot about "the enemy from within", specifically naming Representative Adam Schiff and former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, both Democrats from California, as "bad people". Schiff was the chair of the House Intelligence Committee that broke the 2019 story of Trump's attempt to extort Volodymyr Zelensky that led to Trump's first impeachment.
Trump's references to the "enemy from within" have become so frequent that former White House press secretary turned political analyst Jen Psaki has called them his closing argument for the 2024 election, and she warned that his construction of those who oppose him as "enemies" might sweep in virtually anyone he feels is a threat.
In a searing article today, political scientist Rachel Bitecofer of The Cycle explored exactly what that means. In a piece titled "What (Really) Happens If Trump Wins?" (below), Bitecofer outlined Adolf Hitler's January 30, 1933, oath of office, in which he promised Germans he would uphold the constitution, and the three months he took to dismantle that constitution.
[EXCELLENT article, with many great links: Experts THEN (Dorothy Thompson, the 1930s anti-Nazi radio and newspaper correspondent who married Sinclair Lewis, author of the best-selling 1935 novel "It Can't Happen Here") - and TODAY (Rachel Bitecofer, "What (Really) Happens If Trump Wins?").]
Rachel "The Doc" Bitecofer: What (Really) Happens If Trump Wins? Like Hitler, Trump Has Made Clear His Plan is Dictatorship, Not Democracy. (The Cycle, October 21, 2024)
January 30th 1933 dawned cold and clear in Berlin as Adolph Hitler took his oath of office and promised Germans he would uphold the constitution. It would ultimately take him less than 30 days to dismantle it. By March, Dachau concentration camp was opened with its inaugural prisoners: members of the Communist and Social Democrat parties and other prominent Hitler critics. including some members of the Reichstag which Hitler's allies would join with the National Socialists to voluntarily dissolve to give Hitler near total power.
If Donald Trump returns to power, Americans should be prepared for catastrophic change. In addition to his explicit admissions that he prefers dictatorship over democracy, Trump has centered his 2024 campaign strategy on mass deportations - that he cannot deliver unless he violates both the Constitution and federal law to do so. He and his surrogates at America First and Project 2025 have also made clear that purging the civil service of trained professionals and replacing them with partisan hacks is a Day One goal of the Trump regime. In order to suspend or ignore the Constitution, Trump cannot have a merit-based civil service. Instead he will need one that is loyal to him personally - not to the Constitution.
I have read several "what-ifs" about a potential Trump win, all of which seem to assume the Constitution will be there to reign him in. Indeed, I heard Zoe Lofgren of the January 6th committee completely reject the idea she is vulnerable, even though Trump has directly threatened to come after the committee's members because it would be "unconstitutional".
My four-year study into totalitarianism generally, and fascism specifically, has taught me two valuable lessons. The first is that the common thread, among democracies that collapse into dictatorship, is that no one panicked until the threat was already in power and it was too late. That is why I have continued to pound my Paul Revere-style "the fascists are coming!" campaign.
The second thing I learned is that the constitution/law can only protect you if all parties agree to adhere to it. All you need to end a democracy, is a leader willing to suspend or end the Constitution and a supporting cast large enough to allow him to do it.
Republicans have both.

HealthCarewatcher: Despite the Republican BS-Headline Factory, Harris is Poised to Win Big. (Daily Kos, October 19, 2024)
Harris is not going to lose. While the left-behind political hacks are busy working to create the worst vibes possible for the last three weeks of the election, Team Harris-Walz (which is largely Team Biden-Harris 2020) is busy turning out the vote. Nearly 12-million votes (probably 8-10% of all votes) have already been cast; 47% of those votes are Democratic, while just 36% are Republican. Most polls model Democrats and Republicans at 33-35% each and roughly equal to each other. Turnout to date has been 11% more for the Democrats.
[We hope that it so shall be - even though this article tends to minimize the Electoral College (instead of "one man, one vote") and the fact that early voters tend to vote Democrat.]
Jane E. Calvert: The Debate That Gave Us The Electoral College (Time magazine, October 18, 2024)
Even as new presidential polls are released each day with one candidate or the other in the lead, Americans have learned in recent elections that, because of the Electoral College, the candidate with the most popular support can still lose the election. The 2016 election is a prime example.
The origins of the Electoral College - at the Constitutional Convention held in Philadelphia in 1787 - are usually described as being either about the delegates' distrust of the people or as a means to perpetuate slavery.
Actually, the Electoral College was about both and more. Examining the perspective of John Dickinson, a delegate from Delaware and an architect of the Electoral College who neither distrusted the people nor supported slavery, sheds light on the Framers' intentions and how we might proceed at this moment in American politics.
[It's an important time to read the entire article.]
NEW: Press Release: Oversight Democrats' New Report Proves Trump Used His D.C. Hotel to Take Unconstitutional Domestic Emoluments, Fleecing the Taxpayers. Trump Also Accepted Other Corrupt Payments from Federal Job Seekers and Presidential-Pardon Recipients. (Office of U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, October 18, 2024)
Today, the Committee on Oversight and Accountability released a new staff report revealing how, while he was in office, Donald Trump used the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. to unlawfully take hundreds of payments from a federal agency - the U.S. Secret Service - and also to take legally- and ethically-questionable payments from federal and state officials, federal job seekers, and presidential-pardon recipients. These payments demonstrate how Donald Trump violated the Constitution's Domestic Emoluments Clause as he used the Secret Service as his personal ATM and repeatedly took payments that raise the specter of pay-to-play corruption from individuals who sought and, in many cases obtained, favors from the Commander-in-Chief.
The report is based on a limited set of records - hotel guest logs covering just 11 months at a single one of Donald Trump's more than 500 business entities - produced by Mr. Trump's former accounting firm, Mazars USA LLP, before Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, working with attorneys for former President Trump, slammed the door shut and blocked Committee Democrats from obtaining additional records pursuant to a Committee subpoena and court-supervised settlement. Giving new meaning to the term "petty cash", most of the payments made in the time frame discussed in this report were small - and their cumulative total is just over $300,000 - but these transactions provide a glimpse into the wide array of unlawful and unethical transactions, including flat-out violations of the Constitution, that characterized Donald Trump's methodical exploitation of his presidency for money-making purposes.
During the 118th Congress, the Republican-led Oversight Committee systematically obstructed Democrats' investigation into evidence of unconstitutional wrongdoing and profiteering by former President Trump. And they tried to hide a mountain of evidence documenting how Trump used his hotel to fleece the American taxpayer to line his own pockets in direct violation of the U.S. Constitution's Domestic Emoluments Clause. The Constitution makes clear: Beyond a salary, the president may not receive any additional payments from federal or state governments. This is a non-waivable prohibition against exploiting the office to convert and pocket public funds.
[Yes, there's more in this article. And much more, we can deduce, in the much-greater evidence that Republicans illegally blocked.]
NEW: Calder McHugh: "Lying Used To Have Greater Consequences": A Fact-Checker's Dispatch From The War On Truth. (Politico, October 18, 2024)
Former President Donald Trump has been and continues to be a complete out-lier for fact-checking. A veteran of the business explains the war over truth, and what it means for 2024.
In an interview with Politico magazine, Bill Adair - who started PolitiFact in 2007 - made the case that yes, fact-checking does still matter and can make a difference, even in an age of disinformation and polarization. And while he's under no illusions that Trump will ever change his behavior based on being fact-checked, others are not so shameless.
[Out-lier and Out-Liar.]
Ryan J. Reilly: Jan. 6 Capitol Rioter Who Assaulted Police Says She Was "Duped" By Trump's Election Lies (NBC News, October 18, 2024)
Dana Jean Bell, who yelled at an officer who later died by suicide, "regrets ever having responded to Trump's call", her lawyer wrote. She was sentenced to 17 months in prison.
Ryan J. Reilly, Kevin Breuninger, CNBC and Daniel Barnes: Trump Calls Judge Overseeing His Jan. 6 Case "The Most Evil Person". (NBC News, October 18, 2024)
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump today called the judge over-seeing the Jan.-6-related federal criminal case against him, "the most evil person", despite threats U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan has already faced from his supporters.
Trump also called special counsel Jack Smith, who has faced threats from Trump supporters as well, "a sick puppy" - a term he frequently deploys against figures he dislikes - during a podcast with right-wing media personality Dan Bongino.
Trump slammed the judge for releasing hundreds of pages of documents - most of them heavily redacted - that Smith had submitted, in connection with an earlier filing arguing against Trump's motion to dismiss the case.
[Same sick pattern: TrumPutin accuses others of his own awful characteristics and actions.]
Asawin Suebsaeng, Miles Klee and Andrew Perez: Republicans Tell Trump That Elon Musk's Super PAC Is Blowing It. (Rolling Stone, October 16, 2024)
Donald Trump's allies have been warning him that Musk's field operation is failing in key states - and that it's being led by DeSantis' failed team.
Donald Trump has largely out-sourced his 2024 campaign's get-out-the-vote operation to America PAC, a Super PAC bankrolled and directed by Elon Musk, the world's richest man - and one of its most awkward. In recent weeks, several Republican operatives and other figures in the national party have bluntly and directly informed Trump they fear Musk's organization is falling down on the job of mobilizing voters to cast their ballots for the Republican nominee.

Kamala Harris' October 16th Fox-News Interview by Bret Baier:
Roy Zimmerman and Melanie Harby: "Fight, Fight, Fight (Unless You Have Bone Spurs)" (2-min. song video, and links; A Mighty Little Song, October 17, 2024)
Yesterday was a great day for the Harris campaign. Vice-President Kamala Harris entered the lion's den of Fox "News" and handled Bret Baier like a boss.
Meanwhile Trump did a sham Faux News town hall with pre-selected female Republican operatives and still managed to whiff the softball questions. And then he was thoroughly owned by the excellent audience in a Univision town hall.
[Enjoy their 2018 song about five-times Draft-Dodger Donald, and memorize DDD's 2015 put-down words about a real hero who took a real bullet in the face.]
Mika Brzezinski: Nothing Fair And Balanced About What We Saw In Harris' Interview. (16-min. video fact-checking what Fox News tried to pass as Trump facts; MSNBC's "Morning Joe", October 17, 2024)
Vice-President Kamala Harris sat for a contentious interview with Fox News' Bret Baier that aired last night. Mika Brzezinski shares her thoughts on the interview, along with former-president Trump's "Fox town hall" which also aired yesterday.
[View it! It shows what Fox News edits out of Trump videos.]
Joaquin Blaya: "It Was An Infomercial!": Former Univision President Slams "Trump Town Hall". (7-min. video analysis; MSNBC's "Morning Joe", October 17, 2024)
Former-President Trump held a "town hall" yesterday with Univision, as part of his campaign's attempted outreach to Hispanic voters. During the "town hall", Trump repeated his false claims about migrants. Former Univision president Joaquin Blaya joins Morning Joe to share his thoughts about that "town hall".
Peter Wehner: Trump Isn't Just Fascist To The Core, He's An Undisguised Fascist To His Core. (11-min. video; MSNBC's "Morning Joe", October 16, 2024)
The Atlantic's Peter Wehner joins Morning Joe to discuss his latest piece on the 2024 election and why he says it's different.
Heather Cox Richardson: Harris Dominated Fox-News Interview. (Letters From An American, October 16, 2024)
Two Fox News Channel (FNC) interviews bracketed today: one this morning with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in front of an audience of hand-picked Republican women in Georgia, the other by Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris with host Bret Baier. Together, the two were a performance of dominance.
FNC billed Trump's so-called town hall as a chance for female voters, a demographic that is swinging heavily to Harris, to ask Trump about issues they care about. But Hadas Gold and Liam Reilly of CNN reported that FNC had packed the audience with Trump supporters. The first question came from the president of the Fulton County Republican Women, though she was not identified as such. FNC then edited the broadcast to cut out remarks in which the attendees expressed support for Trump. It seems unlikely that Trump attracted any new voters by speaking to an audience of loyalists audibly cheering him on.
After Trump refused to debate her again, Vice-President Kamala Harris voluntarily moved into his right-wing territory, agreeing to an interview with FNC host Bret Baier. In that interview, Baier reframed right-wing talking points as questions, essentially giving Trump a second shot at a debate. Baier kept talking over the vice president's attempts to answer - even putting out a hand to interrupt her - in a stark contrast to FNC's deference to Trump. Harris asked him to let her reply, and then answered his questions, sometimes testily, usually turning them into opportunities to contrast her own candidacy and record with Trump's.
Control of the interview changed abruptly when Harris called out Trump for referring to the "enemy within" and talking about using the American military against those he considers enemies. Baier used that opportunity to show a clip of Trump saying he wasn't threatening anyone, but the clip was edited to remove Trump's threats against "sick", "evil", "dangerous" "Marxists and communists and fascists" including Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) and "the Pelosis" - presumably former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and her husband, who was attacked in 2022 by a man with a hammer, who wanted to force Nancy Pelosi to renounce the investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign's ties to Russia.
Harris had had enough propaganda. "Bret, I'm sorry, and with all due respect, that clip was not what he has been saying about "the enemy within", that he has repeated when he's speaking about the American people. That's not what you just showed…. You and I both know that he's talked about turning the American military on the American people. He has talked about going after people who are engaged in peaceful protest. He has talked about locking people up because they disagree with him. This is a democracy. And in a democracy, the president of the United States in the United States of America should be… able to handle criticism without saying he'd lock people up for doing it. And this is what is at stake, which is why you have someone like the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff saying what Mark Milley has said about Donald Trump being a threat to the United States of America."
Simply by going on the right-wing network, Harris was demonstrating dominance. Then, by answering as thoroughly as she did, she undercut the right-wing narrative that she is stupid and inarticulate. By calling out the FNC for deliberately misleading its viewers, she took command. Baier, rather than Harris, was the one doing the post-interview spinning.
Writer Peter Wehner, who worked for presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush, wrote: "Bret Baier has rarely looked as bad (or tendentious) as he did in his interview with Kamala Harris. On the flip side, this was one of her best interviews. She dominated Bret. All in all it was quite a bad day for MAGA world's most important media outlet."
In between the two FNC events were two others that also told a story, this one about how the Republican Party's descent into MAGA is creating a new political coalition to defend American principles.
[What a contrast to the Fox-News take on this evening's "interview"! Heather has more to say and, as usual, it's dead on.]
WATCH FULL REPLAY: Barry Cunningham: Vice-President Kamala Harris' Interview With Brett Baier On Fox News. (28 minutes of 102-min. YouTube video; Fox News, October 16, 2024)
[The opening 2.5 minutes is a Trump commercial, followed by Fox "analysts" acting like a Trump commercial until, at 30:30 minutes in, the actual 28-min. Kamala Harris interview runs until the 59-minute mark. The rest of the video is dominated by Fox News' Barry Cunningham, who echoes the distracting MAGA comments of Trump fans that show prominently under the image throughout the interview. Like Trump, most of his fans' quotes seem to be accurate critiques of Trump and themselves, mis-aimed at Vice-President Harris. They've drunk the poisoned Kool-Aid. Sigh!]
What To Expect During Vice President Harris' Fox News Interview Tonight. (1-min. YouTube video; The National Desk, October 16, 2024)
Vice-President Kamala Harris will sit for an interview with Fox News that will air today, as she delivers her closing message to voters with less than three weeks left until Election Day.
Chris Cillizza Previews Kamala Harris's Interview With Bret Baier On Fox News. (4-min. YouTube video; Forbes Breaking News, October 16, 2024)
On "Forbes Newsroom", Chris Cillizza (political adviser, and Senior Partner at DGA Group) spoke about Vice President Kamala Harris and her upcoming interview with Bret Baier on Fox News.
Will McDuffie, Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, and Fritz Farrow: Kamala Harris Steps Out Of Friendly-Media Confines To Do Interview With Fox News' Bret Baier At 6PM Today. (ABC News, October 16, 2024)
Vice-President Kamala Harris will sit down with Fox News' Bret Baier today as she steps out of the comfort of what has so far been a relatively-friendly series of interviews since she became the Democratic nominee this summer. Harris and Baier will tape the interview in Pennsylvania, where the vice president will be holding a campaign event Wednesday, and it will air in full today in the 6PM ET hour.
With three weeks until Election Day, Harris' interview with Baier will mark her first sit-down with Fox News - and her first interview with a conservative news outlet since she became the Democratic nominee. The interview with Bret Baier could be a chance to "clean up" recent missteps.
Bill Goodykoontz: Fox News Interviewing Kamala Harris Has Trump Furious. How To Watch. (Arizona Republic, October 15, 2024)
Kamala Harris will sit for an interview with Bret Baier, Fox News' chief political anchor, at 6PM Eastern time on Wednesday, Oct. 16 on Fox News.   
It's a really smart move. You can tell, because Trump immediately went ballistic upon the announcement.
Abby Phillip and panelists: Is Kamala Harris' Fox News Interview Worth The Risk? Analysts Discuss. (8-min. YouTube video; CNN, October 15, 2024)
Vice President Kamala Harris is set to sit down tomorrow for her first-ever interview on Fox News. Is it a bold move, or a sign of desperation?

Brett Meiselas: Trump Gets Bad News He's Been DREADING…In FLORIDA. (23-min. YouTube video, with evidence of Trump's treasonous loyalty to HITLER (and PUTIN); MeidasTouch, October 15, 2024)
MeidasTouch host Brett Meiselas reports on a wave of enthusiasm for Kamala Harris in Florida and contrasts it to a disturbing pro-Trump/pro-Hitler/pro-Nazi event in that state.
[SEE this video! SHARE this video - with voters on both sides!
NOTE: Also see (on YouTube?) Kamala Harris' interview on Fox News, tomorrow at 6PM.]
NEW: Peter Wehner: This Election Is Different. (The Atlantic, October 15, 2024)
I find this moment particularly painful and disorienting. I have had strong rooting interests in Republican presidential candidates who have won and those who have lost, including some for whom I have great personal admiration and on whose campaigns I worked. But no election prior to the Trump era, regardless of the outcome, ever caused me to question the fundamental decency of America. I have felt that my fellow citizens have made flawed judgements at certain times. Those moments left me disappointed, but no choice they made was remotely inexplicable or morally indefensible.
This election is different. The nominee for the Republican Party, Donald Trump, is a squalid figure, and the squalor is not subtle. His vileness, his lawlessness, and his malevolence are undisguised. At this point, it is reasonable to conclude that those qualities are a central part of Trump's appeal to many of the roughly 75-million people who will vote for him in three weeks. They revel in his vices; they are vivified by them. Folie à millions.
Trump may lose the election, and by that loss America may escape the horrifying fate of another term. But we have to acknowledge this, too: The man whom the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff called "fascist to the core" and "the most dangerous person to this country" is in a razor-thin contest against Kamala Harris, a woman who, whether you agree with her or not, is well within the normal boundaries of American politics. If he loses, he will not concede. Trump will instead attempt to tear the country apart. He can count on the near-total support of his party, and the majority of the white evangelical world. They will once again rally to his side, in the name of Jesus. This should leave the rest of us shaken. Not because America, despite being an exceptional nation, has ever been perfect, or close to perfect. Americans have experienced slavery and segregation, the Trail of Tears and the internment of Japanese Americans, McCarthyism and My Lai, the Johnson-Reed Act and the beating and torture of the suffragists, the Lavender Scare, and the horrors of child labor. But what makes this moment different, and unusually dangerous, is that we have never before had a president who is sociopathic; who relishes cruelty and encourages political violence; who refers to his political opponents as "vermin", echoing the rhetoric of 20th-century fascists; who resorts to crimes to overturn elections, who admires dictators and thrives on stoking hate. Trump has never been well, but he has never been this unwell. The prospect of his again possessing the enormous power of the presidency, this time with far fewer restraints, is frightening. Ari Melber: "Fascist!" Trump Rocked By Blistering Rebuke From Top U.S. General - As Harris Surges. (7-min. YouTube video; MSNBC, October 15, 2024)
Mark Miley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has issued a stark warning that Trump is "a fascist to the core".
Anna Betts: Trump Bizarrely Claims Democrats Want To Ban Cows And Windows In Buildings. (The Guardian/UK, October 15, 2024)
Donald Trump over the weekend told supporters of his campaign for a second presidency that his Democratic opponents want to ban cows and windows in buildings, inviting another round of questions about his mental fitness.
"They just come up, they want to do things like no more cows and no windows in buildings", the Republican White House nominee said during a campaign event with Hispanic voters in Las Vegas on October 12. "They have some wonderful plans for this country. Honestly, they're crazy, and they're really hurting our country, badly."
Kamala Harris's presidential campaign subsequently reacted to the remarks on social media by writing, "a confused Trump goes on a delusional rant". Other Trump critics echoed the Democratic vice-president's observation, describing the rant as "stunningly senile" and "incoherent".
[As he's been demonstrating so very well, Trump is "stunningly senile" and "incoherent" - and a proved liar. But when he say, "Honestly, (Democrats are) crazy", it's possible that - for once - he is being honest; remember, that Trump constantly projects his own many vices onto his opponents. So, "Trump is crazy"? I'd say that's honest!]
Chris Jansing, Tim Miller and Zerlina Maxwell: Questions Mounting Over Trump's Mental Acuity, After Derailed Event Turns Into Dance Fest. (7-min. YouTube video; MSNBC, October 15, 2024)
Former President Trump is taking questions at the Economic Club of Chicago today. Many are questioning Trump's mental capability after his event last night turned into an impromptu concert. Former Communications Director for the Jeb Bush 2016 campaign Tim Miller and SiriusXM host Zerlina Maxwell join Chris Jansing to react.
Jeff Mason and Gabriella Borter: Harris Blasts Trump's "Enemy From Within" Comments At Pennsylvania Rally. (Reuters, October 14, 2024)
Today in Erie, Pennsylvania, Democratic presidential-candidate Kamala Harris slammed Donald Trump for his ominous comments about "the enemy within" the United States and his threat to deploy the military domestically, in a renewed effort to paint her Republican opponent as a threat to democracy. In a rare move at her own campaign rally in the political swing-state Pennsylvania, the U.S. vice president showed a clip of Trump, the former president, telling his supporters "Those people are more dangerous - the enemy from within - than Russia."
Harris, 59, has recently pressed Trump to release his health records, as she has, and knocked him for his meandering tangents and his focus on fictional characters such as Hannibal Lecter.
"A second Trump term would be a huge risk for America, and dangerous. Donald Trump is increasingly unstable and unhinged", Harris told the Erie crowd after playing the clip. She went on to say that Trump poses a danger because he believes those who do not agree with him are the enemy.
Jen Psaki: "Massive Crisis In November": Neal Katyal Reveals Details Of Trump Efforts To Overturn Election. (8-min. YouTube video; MSNBC, October 13, 2024)
Brian Tyler Cohen: Ted Cruz's Opponent Drops BAD NEWS On Cruz Ahead Of Election. (21-min. YouTube video; YouTube, October 13, 2024)
Brian interviews the Democratic nominee for the US Senate in Texas, Colin Allred, about Texas being in play for the Democrats and Ted Cruz's inability to give a straight answer on abortion.
Brian Tyler Cohen: Trump Fans Reach BREAKING POINT As Chaos ERUPTS At Rally. (9-min. YouTube video; YouTube, October 13, 2024)
A comment: "Something went wrong." "It's chaos." Right. That's what we've been trying to tell you people. They probably didn't pay the bus company. The first thing they do is blame the mayor and somebody else.
Folks, he just got done telling you Californians that he will withhold natural disaster aid because he doesn't like the governor.  Didn't this happen before, somewhere else? It did.
Saudi-Funded Twitter Lets Musk Boost Trump And Censor His Critics: Follow The Money! (Democracy Labs, October 13, 2024)
It leads to here: Matt Durot: Saudi Prince Alwaleed Becomes Twitter's Second-Largest Shareholder. (Forbes, October 31, 2022)
When Elon Musk's $44-Billion Twitter acquisition was finalized on October 27, a few key questions remained. Chief among them: whether a group of 19 investors would follow through on the $7.1-Billion equity commitment they made to the Tesla chief in May – back before tech stocks plummeted. A piece of that puzzle was revealed Monday when Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia announced in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that he'd made good on his $1.9-Billion commitment, making him the social-media company's second-largest shareholder after Musk. That made him one of two investors who chimed in about co-investing with Musk. The Qatar Investment Fund announced in an SEC filing that it had committed a previously agreed upon $375-Million.
These Middle-Eastern investments have sparked national security concerns for a number of government officials, including Senator Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) who called for a review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (aka CFIUS) in a tweet today.
Joseph Ax: Man Arrested Near Trump Rally In California Faces Gun Charges. (Reuters, October 13, 2024)
A man arrested at a security checkpoint near Republican presidential-candidate Donald Trump's Coachella, California rally yesterday faces gun charges after he was found in possession of loaded firearms, multiple passports and a fake license plate, the local sheriff said on Sunday. Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said he believed his department halted an assassination attempt, though he acknowledged that was "speculation".
The 49-year-old man, identified as Las Vegas resident Vem Miller, was stopped in a black SUV by sheriff's deputies around 5 p.m. local time yesterday and taken into custody without incident, according to the sheriff's office. Trump had not yet taken the stage. Jail records show Miller was released on $5,000 bail on Saturday after being charged with possession of a loaded firearm and a high-capacity magazine, both misdemeanors. He could not immediately be reached for comment on Sunday.
The U.S. Attorney's Los Angeles office, in a statement on its web site today, said Trump was not in danger, citing the U.S. Secret Service. The statement added that while no federal arrest had been made, an investigation was ongoing.
Trump narrowly survived an assassination attempt in July, when a gunman's bullet grazed his ear during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. In September, another man was charged with trying to assassinate Trump after Secret Service agents discovered him hiding with a rifle near Trump's Palm Beach golf course. He pleaded not guilty. Those attempts raised questions about Secret Service security planning and response.
Jason Linkins: Three Critical Arguments Harris Needs To Make In These Final Days. (New Republic, October 12, 2024)
What "more" should Kamala Harris be doing? My two cents: Harris needs to drill down on specific matters that help define her candidacy, contrast it with the corrupt impunity that a second Trump term will bring, and cast the widest possible net to woo any or all voters who might join her coalition. Specifically, here are three matters critical enough to be part of any closing argument that Harris and her Democratic allies make in these final days:
1. Democrats really need to raise the salience of the Supreme Court. Everyone committed to a Harris victory should make it clear that there are two Supreme Court vacancies at stake: Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. This is honestly the alpha and omega of anything Democrats might otherwise argue. Right now, anything that might be considered a "Democratic policy" is subject to the review of a hostile court that's making up the rules as they go along. "Two Supreme Court vacancies are at stake in this election" needs to become a mantra.
2. 2024 has become a year defined by Republicans largely lying about their unpopular positions on abortion rights. They will, of course, seek to ban nationally as soon as the opportunity presents itself (before moving on to other retrograde policies from Project 2025's pages). Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, have in recent weeks gone all in on the centerpiece of their deception, constantly reiterating that Trump will veto any abortion ban that crosses his desk.
Harris and her allies must do a better job explaining how Republicans actually plan to bring about a national abortion ban if Trump is elected. Such a ban is not going to arrive in the form of a bill landing on Trump's desk; Congress need not be involved at all. What Trump might do - what his allies want him to do - is enact a ban by enforcing the 1873 Comstock Act, which can't be vetoed since it's already on the books. Trump's misdirection distracts from his consistent anti-abortion record while in office, what the Republican Party platform states, and the very public plans of his former staffers detailed in Project 2025, which Trump also pretends he has nothing to do with.
This is a strong issue for Harris, which is all the more reason not to fight this battle on Trump's terms but to actually level with people about what he intends to do. In their two debate performances, the Harris-Walz ticket failed to make mention of Comstock, despite the fact that Vance actually asked the DOJ to enforce it in a January 2023 letter. This needs to change: Democrats have the truth on their side, and it's stupid to not use it against an inveterate liar, dissembling on an issue of paramount importance.
3. If abortion is one of the Democratic Party's best issues, then immigration has to be one of their worst. The biggest overhang of Trump's first term is that he managed to set the terms on immigration and yank Democrats to the right. He's also managed to drag public opinion in his direction. A September 18 Ipsos poll found that there is majority support for some form of mass deportation - a policy Trump plans to deliver.
Democrats haven't exactly met Trump's demonization of Haitian Americans with a full-throated defense of these citizens, and it's not clear that Harris has the stomach for that sort of entanglement. There's too little daylight between Trump and Harris on immigration, but his plan to exile tens-of-millions of Americans is the centerpiece of his campaign, so Democrats should attack it with gusto. Fortunately they have another angle to wage war: Correctly depict Trump's plan as a neutron bomb on the American economy.
NEW: Amy Sherman and Paul Specht: Donald Trump Stated On October 11, 2024 In A "Truth Social" post: "It Has Just Come Out That Democrats In Washington And The Democrat Governor's Office Of North Carolina (Roy Cooper) Were Blocking People And Money From Coming Into North Carolina." ("TRUE PANTS-FIRE"; PolitiFact, October 12, 2024)
Trump said North Carolina Gov. Cooper, Democrats blocked aid. That's not what their actions show.
Former President Donald Trump has fueled a persistent and unproven narrative since Hurricane Helene struck the southeast: "Democratic leaders have failed residents who faced the wrath of the hurricane that left more than 200 people dead."
In the span of a week, Trump falsely said Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp could not reach President Joe Biden, falsely said the feds were offering only $750 to people whose homes were washed away and falsely said the Federal Emergency Management Administration had used up its money for relief on migrants.
Add another one involving North Carolina's Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper to the list: "It has just come out that Democrats in Washington and the Democrat Governor's Office of North Carolina (Roy Cooper) were blocking people and money from coming into North Carolina to help people in desperate need", Trump wrote Oct. 11 on "Truth Social". "Biden knew about it, and so did Kamala! It's all over the place – A HORRIBLE SITUATION. I will make it up to everyone when we take Office on January 20th. HOLD ON, I'M COMING!" Trump's accusation follows a significant number of false claims on social media that said federal agencies had blocked supplies, confiscated donations and banned drones. Cooper rejected Trump's claim that he blocked people from coming to help, writing on X: "This is a flat-out lie. We're working with all partners around the clock to get help to people. Trump's lies and conspiracy theories have hurt the morale of first-responders and people who lost everything, helped scam artists and put government and rescue workers in danger."
NEW: Dennis Aftergut and Austin Sarat: Trump Wants The FCC To Take Away CBS's License. This Is A Dark Omen. (The Guardian/UK, October 12, 2024)
Donald Trump's 10 October attack on CBS for editing its 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris – a normal television process – is pure distraction. It is designed to draw our attention away from the fact that he was afraid to give the news magazine its traditional interview with both political candidates. Trump's statement that the Federal Communications Commission should "take away" CBS's broadcast license betrays his ignorance of the fact that the FCC does not license networks, and foreshadows a full-on assault on free speech and freedom of the press if he becomes president.
History is clear that dictators move early to take control of the media in order to censor information unfavorable to their people. Our safety requires preventing that control, as Thomas Jefferson wrote two centuries ago: "The only security of all is in a free press. The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to be expressed."
NEW: Ali Abbasi: "The Apprentice": New Film Opens Despite Trump's Attempts to Block Anyone from Seeing It. (22-min. YouTube video; Democracy Now!, October 11, 2024)
We speak with Ali Abbasi the director of The Apprentice, "the movie Trump doesn't want you to see", which opens today in theaters despite legal threats from the former president. The film looks at how Trump was mentored by Roy Cohn, former chief counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy during the Red Scare. He went on to represent Trump as he built his New York real-estate empire, and "was the person who sort of built Trump, as a person, as a brand, as an identity", says Abbasi.
[A comment: "I love how Trump's billionaire buddy Dan Snyder invested in the film under the impression it was going to be a flattering portrayal of Trump - and was reportedly furious when he discovered the film instead depicts the truth."]
Timothy Noah: Trump Has A Sweet Deal For American Tax Dodgers Overseas. (New Republic, October 11, 2024)
For Trump, it's "America First" - unless it conflicts with the interests of his plutocrat allies.
Donald Trump's project of gradually replacing the progressive income tax with an across-the-board tariff of 10-to-20% on all imported goods - which Kamala Harris and Tim Walz describe, quite accurately, as a national sales tax - proceeds apace. The latest instance is Trump's promise to stop making American citizens who live abroad pay income tax to the United States. This would incentivize wealthy Americans to resettle abroad, which is not a policy you'd expect from a self-professed America Firster. Trump's xenophobia in this instance bows to the more-conventionally-Republican imperative to pander to the rich. With Trump, oligarchy comes first.
[Besides, Trump may have to leave the country unexpectedly...]
Brian Tyler Cohen: JD Vance CRASHES AND BURNS In Disastrous Interview. (9-min. YouTube video; YouTube, October 11, 2024)
A comment: Lulu Garcia-Navarro, host of the "The Interview" for the New York Times and a former Sunday Morning Edition host (NPR), is one of the very few reporters I have ever seen actually hold the person they're interviewing to account. Kudos to her for that, and for not letting him reroute the topic of conversation. We need more reporters like this.
Jimmy Kimmel Live: Trump Farts On Stage, MAGA Nuts Push Insane Weather Lies, And Mr. USA's Products Are Made In CHINA! (15-min. YouTube video; YouTube, October 10, 2024)
More than 3-million residents of Florida are without power after Hurricane Milton made its way through. Trumpers have been blaming the White House for the mess - even though two weeks ago, 11 House Republicans from Florida voted against keeping the Government and FEMA fully funded. Marjorie Taylor Greene is pushing this bonkers idea that Democrats can somehow control the weather to target Republican voting districts, and we meet a woman who actually believes this.
We have reached the point of the campaign where Kamala Harris' emails are making Jimmy feel like he's going through a break-up.
Trump is going all-in on these absolutely-bogus stories about forced gender-swaps in schools, is letting out gas onstage, spent some time in Detroit bad-mouthing Detroit, and he's mad at Whoopi Goldberg for using foul language - even though he uses profanity all the time.
Jimmy has a new theory that Trump is King Midas and he thinks everything he touches will turn into gold. "Mr. Made in the USA" (Trump) is out there promising tariffs on China - even though many of the items he is hawking are made there, and there is a new non-official Trump product called Trumpy Trout.
NEW: Greg Sargent's Daily Blast: Trump Suddenly Facing Loss of Crucial GOP Support, Surprise Data Shows. (New Republic, October 10, 2024)
As new polling finds a small but critical group of GOP voters backing Kamala Harris, a veteran reporter who's well-sourced among Republicans lays out the danger this poses to Trump.
NEW: Timothy Noah: Harris May Finally Be Breaking Through To The Most Critical Voters. (New Republic, October 10, 2024)
A Times/Siena poll shows working-class voters are finally moving in the Democrats' direction. She may need them, to win in November.
NEW: Chris Stein: Kamala Harris And Allies Top Trump And Republicans With $1-Billion In Donations. (The Guardian/UK, October 9, 2024)
NEW: Kali Holloway: America Is So Ready for Kamala Harris! (New Republic, October 8, 2024)
This is no ordinary campaign, but it is exactly the campaign we needed at this extraordinary historic juncture.

Big Money Talks; Public Doesn't Get To Listen:
Ken Klippenstein: The FBI Knocked On My Door. The Powerful Federal Agency Tries To Edit Me. (KenKlippenstein.com, October 14, 2024)
Last Friday, a young special agent from my local FBI office arrived at my Madison, Wisconsin home to read me a statement prepared in Washington. The Bureau told me that I had been the target of a foreign-influence operation with regard to a news article I had written, a clearly reference to my publication of the JD Vance Dossier.
No subpoena, no search warrant, no prior announcement, no claim of illegality. America's most powerful law-enforcement agency wants me to know that it was displeased. It is delivering what many would consider a chilling message: we know where you live, we know what you've done, we are watching.
This is how out of control the disinformation and foreign-influence hysteria has become.
Ken Klippenstein: Elon Musk Accepts Defeat. My Twitter Ban Has Been Reversed. (KenKlippenstein.com, October 12, 2024)
Late last night, X (née Twitter) reinstated my account after banning me on September 26 for publishing the J.D. Vance dossier. Elon Musk personally intervened, in the name of "free speech principles", according to correspondence I've seen. Musk had previously declared me "evil", before X suspended me in a move we now know was coordinated with the Trump campaign.
"I've asked X Safety to unsuspend him, even though I think he is an awful human being", Musk told political commentator Brian Krassenstein (a frequent doppelgänger of mine) on October 11. "Important to stay true to free-speech principles."
The reinstatement of my account later that day reversed what X had previously informed me was a "permanent" suspension. The only explanation I've received from X came in an email from Twitter Support last night. The email reiterated my alleged violation of X's policy on posting private information, but also said that the incident may have been a mistake on my part, for which reason I was being un-suspended.
Marianne LeVine: Harris Releases Letter From Doctor; Trump Continues Campaign Swing In Western U.S. (Washington Post, October 12, 2024)
Vice President Kamala Harris's office released a letter from her doctor stating that the 59-year-old "possesses the physical and mental resiliency required to successfully execute the duties of the presidency", drawing a contrast with former-president Donald Trump, 78. Trump held a Hispanic round-table in Las Vegas, organized by a right-leaning political action committee that presses an anti-immigrant message. The event comes a day after Trump hammered his arguments centered on fear-mongering, falsehoods and stereotypes about migrants. Trump held a rally in Coachella Valley, the California desert area known more for an annual music and arts festival.
["Drawing a contrast" is putting it mildly!]
Hannah Knowles and Marianne LeVine: Trump Suggests Heckler Should "Get The Hell Knocked Out Of Her" After Rally. The Remarks Were Part Of A Dark Speech At A California Rally Where Trump Called The U.S. An "Occupied Country". (Washington Post, October 12, 2024)
Former-president Donald Trump suggested that a heckler would later get "the hell knocked out of her", during an insult-laced speech here today that portrayed a dark image of the country and demonized undocumented immigrants.
As Trump called the Nov. 5 election a "chance to send a message", he stopped his remarks and turned to the crowd. "Back home to mommy, she goes back home to mommy", Trump said, resuming his speech and appearing to address a heckler. "'Was that you darling?' And she gets the hell knocked out of her. Her mother's a big fan of ours; you know that, right? Her father, her mother. You always have that."
It was not the first time Trump has used violent language to attack hecklers who interrupt his rallies. In 2016, after a heckler interrupted a Las Vegas rally, Trump told the crowd: "Here's a guy throwing punches, nasty as hell, screaming at everybody else", before adding: "I'd like to punch him in the face." In Iowa during the same campaign, he also encouraged supporters to "knock the crap" out of potential hecklers.
During today's speech in Coachella, Trump repeated falsehoods about migrants and sought to portray the country in apocalyptic terms. He described the elections on Nov. 5 as "liberation day", comparing the United States to an "occupied country".
[Seriously, would you want this sociopathic lying clown to be your children's school-bus driver, let alone president?]
Oliver Milman: Trump Campaign Worked With Musk's X To Keep Leaked JD Vance File Off Platform. (The Guardian/UK, October 12, 2024)
Journalist who published vetting document on Trump's Republican running-mate was kicked off site formerly known as Twitter.
The former president's team contacted X, owned by the billionaire Trump-backer Elon Musk, about a 271-page document compiled by his campaign to vet his running mate, that was linked to by Ken Klippenstein, an independent journalist, the New York Times has reported.
X responded by blocking links to the material, claiming that it contained sensitive personal information such as the Ohio U.S. senator's social security number, and banned Klippenstein from the platform.
The materials published by Klippenstein on his Substack in September appear to be related to a hack of the Trump campaign earlier this year, which the FBI has linked to Iran. Documents from the hack have been shared with several media outlets, which have chosen to not publish them.
Media outlets did NOT reach the same decision, when they gave significant attention to files from Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign that had been hacked and leaked by Russian intelligence, before she ultimately lost that election to Trump. At one point, Trump had said he hoped Russia would be "able to find" some of Clinton's files.
The removal of the material from X has highlighted the increasingly-strident support of Musk, the world's richest person, for Trump's attempt to return to the White House after losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden. After buying Twitter in 2022, Musk said that he was an advocate of free speech and the open sharing of information, even if it offended either political party.
Last week, Musk appeared at a Pennsylvania rally alongside the former president, performing an awkward jump on stage before declaring that "I'm not just MAGA – I'm dark MAGA" while invoking the Republican nominee's Make America Great Again slogan.
Musk added that "this will be the last election" if Trump doesn't win in November against Kamala Harris, complaining that she and her fellow Democrats want "to take away your freedom of speech, they want to take away your right to bear arms, they want to take away your right to vote, effectively".
Klippenstein, whose X account was restored following the New York Times reporting, said in a Substack post yesterday (below) that Musk had purchased political influence and "is wielding that influence in increasingly-brazen ways. The real election interference here is that a social-media corporation can decree certain information unfit for the American electorate."
Philip Bump: Vance Suggests The Left Stole 2020 … By Doing What His Own Campaign Did. (Washington Post, October 11, 2024)
There's a through-line - between two New York Times stories released today - that needs to be drawn.
In one, reporters detail how Elon Musk is using his fortune and social media platform (X, once known as Twitter) to benefit former president Donald Trump's campaign. In the other, the paper details how Trump's running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), refused to acknowledge that Trump lost his bid for reelection in 2020.
And the through-line is that Vance is pretending Trump's loss was driven by something that his own campaign with Trump actually did. Vance revived the old, false claim that briefly limiting the Hunter Biden story on social media made Trump lose. Meanwhile, his campaign pushed X to do just that.
Vance sat down for an interview with the Times during which he was asked the same question that came up in the vice-presidential debate: Did Trump lose in 2020? This question has been portrayed as a "gotcha", an unfair attempt to knock Republicans back on their heels. But it's actually a very useful proxy for a question that nearly any Republican would otherwise sidestep, one centered on their willingness to prevent Trump from attempting to subvert the results in 2024. If they can't say Trump lost the 2020 election even now, we can't be confident they're going to oppose Trump should he attempt similar machinations later this year.
Vance couldn't say Trump lost. Instead, he reverted to a version of the same response he presented during that debate.
NEW: Robert Reich Opens An Interesting Substack Thread. (Substack, October 4, 2024)
Today's strong jobs report is another reminder that you don't grow the economy through trickle down economics. You grow it by investing in workers. When workers have more to spend, the economy grows, and businesses create more jobs. It's a virtuous cycle.
Ken Klippenstein: Trump Camp Worked With Musk's X To Censor My Reporting. Trump Collusion Scandal Targets Your Right To Know. (KenKlippenstein.com, October 11, 2024)
Next month, millions of Americans will decide who will be the next president. The decision will be made not just without knowledge of the contents of the J.D. Vance dossier, but also without knowledge of any of the other allegedly-hacked documents the news media is apparently too afraid to cover.
The media's decision not to report on the dossier's contents - and what it says about Vance - is the result of government pressure and interference. The media blackout laid the groundwork for X to actively suppress my story when I decided to publish the dossier in full, empowering the Trump campaign to successfully push for having links to my article taken down not just from X but also from Instagram, Facebook, and Google Docs. Even the major media, which are plenty critical of Trump, would not cover the clearly newsworthy document. Why? Because they are reluctant to break from the position taken by the Intelligence Community, the White House, the political campaigns, and the social media and Internet companies. These virtual censors have profound influence over what the public can and cannot see.
These are the stakes. The standard for publication used to be whether the document is in the public interest. Now media outlets ask whether the document is in the national interest, as defined by the national security state.
A prominent national security lawyer informed us that he did not receive a single inquiry from any news media outlet for legal advice on publishing the hacked documents. Compare that to the frenzy of media interest in the actual classified and sensitive disclosures of Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning during the Obama administration.
At some point the public needs to say enough is enough and reclaim their authority to determine what is in their interest - the public interest. In our capacity as members of the public, we're going to keep publishing what we determine to be in the public interest, rather than what the government claims.
[As an easy first corrective action, I'm subscribing to KenKlippenstein.com's "no-nonsense reporting on U.S. politics and the national security state". Will YOU?]
NEW: Ken Klippenstein: Twitter Banned Me. I Was Banned After Publishing The JD Vance Dossier. (Ken Klippenstein, September 26, 2024)
Self-styled free-speech-warrior Elon Musk's X (Twitter) banned me after I published a copy of the Donald Trump campaign's JD Vance research dossier. X says that I've been suspended for "violating our rules against posting private information", citing a tweet linking to my story about the JD Vance dossier.
First, I never published any private information on X. I linked to an article I wrote here, linking to a document of controversial provenance, one that I didn't want to alter for that very reason.
The principle involved here is complex. I do not believe it is the job of the news media to alter documents, as if it's a defacto government deciding what the public should and shouldn't know. Yes, I know that it is general practice to delete "private" information from leaks and classified documents, but in this case, not only is Vance an elected official and Vice-Presidential candidate, but the information is readily available for anyone to buy.
Did I make a mistake in not redacting the "private" information on J.D. Vance? If I wanted a Twitter account, apparently so. But on principle? I stand by it absolutely.
NEW: Ken Klippenstein: Read The JD Vance Dossier. We're Publishing The Supposed Iran-Hacked Document. Here's Why. (Ken Klippenstein, September 26, 2024)
Behold the dossier! It reportedly comes from an alleged Iranian-government hack of the Trump campaign, and SINCE JUNE, the news media has been sitting on it (and other documents), declining to publish in fear of finding itself at odds with the government's campaign against "foreign malign influence".
I disagree. The dossier has been offered to me, and I've decided to publish it because it's of keen public interest in an election season. It's a 271-page research paper that the Trump campaign prepared, to vet now vice-presidential-candidate J.D. Vance. As far as I can tell, it hasn't been altered, but even if it was, its contents are publicly verifiable. I'll let it speak for itself.
"The terror regime in Iran loves the weakness and stupidity of Kamala Harris, and is terrified of the strength and resolve of President Donald J. Trump", Steven Cheung, communications director for the Trump campaign, responded when I asked him about the hack.
If the document had been hacked by some "anonymous" hacker group, the news media would be all over it. I'm just not a believer of the news media as an arm of the government, doing its work to combat foreign influence. Nor should it be a gatekeeper of what the public should know.
Ken Klippenstein: Why I'm Resigning From The Intercept...And Starting Something New. (KenKlippenstein.com, April 30, 2024)
I resigned from The Intercept today in order to pursue a new kind of journalism here on Substack, one more hard-hitting than what's possible in the corporate world. The Intercept has been taken over by suits who have abandoned its founding mission of fearless and adversarial journalism, and I can't continue in an environment where fear of funders is more important than journalism itself. On a brighter note, though, I'm leaving DC to move back to Wisconsin, excited to embrace independence both in my journalism and from the Washington bubble.
The reason so much of the news media sucks is they aren't writing for you. They're writing for their sources in Washington, for the industries they cover, for rich people, and for fancy awards committees. Just take a look at the ads they run: for investment banks, defense contractors, oil companies. Unless you're in the market for any of these products, they aren't writing for you.
I want to write for you.

Shawn Tully: Harris Holds A 66-Electoral-Vote Lead Over Trump, Calculates Prominent Data Scientist. (MSN, October 3, 2024)
Data scientist Thomas Miller has crafted a model for forecasting the 2024 presidential election that, he says, is far more reliable than the polling that's constantly cited in the media as the best guide to the outcome on Nov. 5. Instead, the Northwestern University professor deploys a framework based on the betting odds set by folks wagering their dollars not on the candidate they intend to vote for, but the one they expect to win.
This writer began following Miller's predictions during the 2020 White House contest, and the two Georgia Senate races that followed in early January of 2021. Miller called the former within 12 electoral votes, and correctly posited that the Democrats would sweep both Senate seats when the polls showed the Republicans significantly ahead. His calls for the margins of victory proved right on the mark.
Given Miller's excellent record in the 2020 cycle, it's highly instructive to examine his outlook for this year's race. And as in the case of the Georgia runoffs, his view is shockingly contrarian: While most pundits and prognosticators see a "dead heat" or "toss-up", Miller's numbers show the Harris-Walz ticket far in the lead and the wide Democrat advantage settling into a remarkably stable pattern.
NEW: Jason Koebler: Internal Emails Reveal How Hate Overwhelmed Springfield Ohia, After Trump's Lies About Haitian Immigrants. (404 Media, October 2, 2024)
Internal emails from Springfield, Ohio reveal what has happened in the city after Donald Trump and JD Vance spread the conspiracy that Haitians are eating pets.
Robert Faturechi, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski: Top Execs Exit Trump Media Amid Allegations Of CEO's Mismanagement And Retaliation. (ProPublica, October 3, 2024)
Former president Donald Trump's media company has forced out executives in recent days after internal allegations that its CEO, former Rep. Devin Nunes, is mismanaging the company, according to interviews and records of communications among former employees. Several people involved with Trump Media believe the ousters are retaliation following what they describe as an anonymous "whistle-blower" complaint regarding Nunes that went to the company's board of directors.
The chief operating officer and chief product officer have left the company, along with at least two lower-level staffers, according to interviews, social media posts and communications between former staffers reviewed by ProPublica. The company, which runs the social-media platform [mis-named] "Truth Social", disclosed the departure of the chief operating officer in a securities filing this afternoon.
Steve Harrison: Hurricane Helene Up-Ends Election Planning In Some Parts Of North Carolina. (NPR, October 1, 2024)
North Carolina election officials said today that early voting would start as planned on Oct. 17, including in counties that were devastated by flooding from Hurricane Helene.
But they don't know how many early voting sites and Election Day polling places might be unusable in the swing state because of the storm. Heavy rains from Hurricane Helene caused record flooding and damage in Asheville, North Carolina.
Twelve county elections offices were still closed because of the storm as of this evening. That means elections officials there can't process new registrations and they can't send out or receive mail ballots.
The state's registration deadline is Oct. 11 - though eligible voters can register in person at early-voting sites during the early-voting period, from Oct. 17 to Nov. 2. It's possible the board could set up temporary early-voting sites in tents in parking lots - something it did after Hurricane Dorian in eastern North Carolina in 2019.
Sharon Lerner: EPA Says It Plans To Withdraw Approval For Chevron's Plastic-Based Fuels That Are Likely To Cause Cancer. (ProPublica, September 30, 2024)
The decision comes after a ProPublica investigation revealed that the EPA had found that one of the fuels had a cancer risk more than 1-million times higher than the agency usually considers acceptable.
Chris Jansing Reports: What To Expect From The Walz-Vance Showdown Tomorrow. (MSNBC, September 30, 2024)
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Sen. JD Vance will go head-to-head tomorrow night in the Vice-Presidential Debate. Former campaign manager for Julián Castro Maya Rupert and chief strategist for the Romney 2012 campaign Stuart Stevens join Chris Jansing to share their outlook for the face-off.
D. Earl Stephens: The NYT Just Set Itself On Fire. (10-min. podcast; Raw Story, September 30, 2024)
Buckle your seat-belts, friends, because I want to talk about The New York Times' mind-bending endorsement of Kamala Harris this morning.
Let's go with the line that newspapers, and in this case The New York Times, are the real experts on the candidates and the issues in this presidential election. If that is the case, then the editorial The New York Times published today just demolished its very own news staff by exposing them for catastrophic and democracy-threatening incompetency.
[Strong words! Read on...]
NEW: Heather Cox Richardson: Republicans Are Attempting To Create A Fake World To Motivate Their Base With Fear And Anger, While Leaving Democrats To Come Up With Real-World Solutions. And Since Those Solutions Are Popular, Republicans Are Claiming Credit For Them. (Letters From An American, September 29, 2024)
Late Friday night, Tennessee House Republican Caucus chair Jeremy Faison posted, "President Biden has finally approved [Tennessee governor Bill Lee's] state of emergency request", making it sound as if the delay in federal support for the state during the devastation of Hurricane Helene was Biden's fault. In fact, while Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina all declared emergencies (and requested and received federal approval of those declarations before the hurricane hit), Governor Lee did not.
Instead, in keeping with an April joint resolution from the Republican-dominated Tennessee legislature calling for 31 days of prayer and fasting to "seek God's hand of mercy healing on Tennessee", Lee proclaimed September 27 "a voluntary Day of Prayer & Fasting".
Lee did not declare a state of emergency until late on September 27, after flash flooding had already created havoc. President Biden approved it immediately.
The extraordinary damage from Helene in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia continues to mount. The National Weather Service office in Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina, wrote to the residents of the western Carolinas and northeast Georgia: "This is the worst event in our office's history."
Faison's implication that Democratic president Biden, rather than Republican governor Lee, was to blame for the slow federal response to Helene in Tennessee illustrated the Republicans' attempt to create a fake world to motivate their base with fear and anger, while leaving Democrats to come up with real-world solutions. And since those solutions are popular, Republicans are claiming credit for them.
 [Republican lies and damned lies. Heather describes, and accurately documents, many more GOP lies - Trump's game plan to steal our democracy in this election. Read, and share!]
Eric Deggans: "SNL" Has Always Taken On Politics. Here's What Works – And Why. (NPR, September 28, 2024)
Saturday Night Live has had a profound impact on how America views politics. But the show has seemingly struggled in recent years, as the absurdity of modern politics has caught up to satire.
Former president Donald Trump's references to myths about Haitian immigrants eating pets, his running mate JD Vance's comments about women without children, Vice President Kamala Harris having to defend stories about working at McDonald's as a youth – it all seems like stuff which would have been in sketches years ago, instead of real life.
As a historic election looms, and the show begins its landmark 50th season this week, SNL faces an ongoing challenge: to make America laugh – and think differently – about a political world which has gotten stranger than anyone could have predicted when the show debuted back in 1975.
Greta Reich: Everything You Need To Know About The Upcoming Vance-Walz VP Debate. (Politico, September 26, 2024)
JD Vance and Tim Walz will face off in a debate hosted by CBS News on Oct. 1 at 9-10:30 PM Eastern Time.
NEW: Richard Needleman: We Have The Worst Health Care System. (2-min. podcast; Asheville NC FM News Hour, September 25, 2024)
UNITED STATES – September 19, 2024 – The Commonwealth Fund conducted their triennial report comparing the performance of the United States health care system with other nations. The top 3 countries are Australia, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Many countries were very similar in the performance categories. The United States was an outlier with much lower measures. All countries were developed nations. In addition to the U.S., they are Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
Five domains of health system performance were looked at: access to care, care process, administrative efficiency, equity, and health outcomes. Three groups were surveyed: seniors (age 65 and older), primary care physicians, and persons 18 and older. The study was sensitive to the impact that COVID-19 had on the health care system. It also stratified for income, gender, and geography.
Each of the countries were found to have done better in some areas and worse in others. In other words, a high overall ranking did not guarantee a high ranking for all the domains. The low-overall ranked U.S. ranked 2nd in care process and last in access to care and health outcomes. The U.S. health care system excels in the high-quality care parameters of preventive services, safety, coordination, patient engagement, and sensitivity to patient preferences. The most obvious conflict is that the U.S. ranked the lowest on health outcomes, despite spending more money than the other developed nations per capita.
Understanding other health care systems may be used to help improve how things are done in the low-performing U.S. The other developed countries seem to meet their residents' basic health care needs, which included universal coverage.
Kaithleen Culliton: "Tapestry Of Resentment And Victimhood": Experts Say Trump Campaign Survives Scandal Because Of One Skill. (3-min. podcast; Raw Story, September 25, 2024)
The success of former President Donald Trump's 2024 campaign - despite an unlikable
running mate, a criminal conviction, million-dollar rulings on sex abuse and fraud, comments belittling Medal of Honor recipients, accusations of a physical fight at Arlington National Cemetery and an ongoing federal court case stemming from his attempt to overturn the 2020 election - is not surprising once voters consider his one unique skill, a slate of experts told the New York Times.
Columnist Thomas Edsall on Wednesday set out to solve what he called "The Mystery Of 2024: How is it possible that Donald Trump has a reasonable chance of winning the presidency despite all that voters now know about him?" - and he found an alarming answer.
"Trump has remained a powerful, if not dominant, political figure by weaving together a tapestry of resentment and victimhood", wrote Edsall. "The real glue holding his coalition together is arguably racial animus and general resentment toward minorities."
["TrumPutin" used this ploy since he was a kid, and polished it with the help of Adolf Hitler's "My New Order". Full text of "My New Order"; was TedK "The Unibomber"?]
NEW: Chris Jansing Reports: Could Gen Z Sway The Election? 18-Year-Old Voter Registrations Are "Spiking". (8-min. video; MSNBC, September 23, 2024)
Voter registration deadlines are approaching in some key states and a record number of young people are participating this year. CEO of Vote.org Andrea Hailey, Rock the Vote president and executive director Carolyn DeWitt and "The Circus" creator Mark McKinnon join Chris Jansing to discuss.
The 60 Minutes Interview: Lina Khan, Federal Trade Commission Chair (13-min. video; CBS News, September 22, 2024)
At the Federal Trade Commission, Chair Lina Khan's mission is breaking illegal monopolies, blocking mergers that stifle competition, and protecting consumers.
[Inhaler that sells for $7 in France had cost $500 in USA! Under Khan, FTC reduced that to $35.]
Chas Danner, Intelligencer: Harris Agrees To Another Debate Against Trump On October 23. (New York Magazine, September 21, 2024)
Kamala Harris is officially challenging Donald Trump to another presidential debate. Her campaign announced today that it had accepted an invitation from CNN to attend a second debate on Wednesday, October 23 - just under two weeks before Election Day. But it won't happen unless Trump also signs on, and at this point there's no indication he will.
Trump seemed to dismiss the possibility again on Saturday. "The problem with another debate is that it's just too late, voting has already started", he said at a rally in North Carolina. (Early voting got underway Saturday in Minnesota, South Dakota, and Virginia.)
[A second debate certainly is possible, but why would Trump volunteer to be demolished twice by Kamala Harris? He lies that he won (the presidency, the debate, whatever), and falsely tries to pin his own failures on good people that he slanders. Would you trust Trump to be president of the U.S.A.? Would you trust him to drive your kids to school?]
Heidi Desch: Ballot Error Shuts Down Montana Online Absentee-Voting System. (Daily Inter Lake (Montana), September 20, 2024)
When Max Himsl opened his electronic ballot on Friday, he was dismayed to see a candidate missing from the list of options. Voting absentee electronically while living abroad, Himsl saw that under the options for president, only Republican Donald Trump and Independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. were listed. Missing was Democrat Kamala Harris.
Gretchen Morgenson: North Carolina Hospital Company Atrium Health Forgives Debts Of 11,500 People After NBC News Report. (3-min. video; NBC News, September 20, 2024)
Millions of Americans grapple with medical debt now topping $220-Billion.
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 non-profit 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. The company declined NBC News' request for an interview about the shift.
According to KFF, a non-profit health policy research, polling and news organization, Americans owe some $220-Billion in medical debt. The top three states for medical debt are South Dakota, where 18% of the population is affected, followed by Mississippi at 15% and North Carolina at 13%.
Mark Herz: Climate Change May Be Contributing To More Frequent, Widespread EEE Outbreaks. (GBH News, September 19, 2024) The rare but dangerous Eastern equine encephalitis virus continues to pose a threat to Massachusetts residents in Bristol, Plymouth, Middlesex and Worcester counties.
The EEE virus, which infects birds and is then spread by mosquitos, was first discovered in humans nearly a century ago in Massachusetts. It's most often been found in and around Plymouth and Bristol counties. But this year, as it has in 2012 and again in 2019, the virus has spread to other regions of the state. In addition to a wider distribution of the virus, EEE outbreaks have become more frequent in recent years.
The Department of Public Health's state epidemiologist, Dr. Catherine Brown, said she believes both factors suggest climate change is increasing this threat by shifting bird migration habits and creating conditions for a longer mosquito season.
Berkeley Lovelace Jr.: U.S. Ranks Last In Health Care Compared With Nine Other High-Income Countries, Report Finds. People In The U.S. Die The Youngest And Experience The Most Avoidable Deaths, Despite Spending Much More On Health Care. (chart, 3-min. video: NBC News, September 19, 2024)
The health system in the U.S. is failing, a startling new report finds. The U.S. ranks as the worst performer among 10 developed nations in critical areas of health care, including preventing deaths, access (mainly because of high cost) and guaranteeing quality treatment for everyone, regardless of gender, income or geographic location, according to the report, published today by The Commonwealth Fund, an independent research group.
Based on the new findings, people in the U.S. die the youngest and experience the most avoidable deaths, even though the country spends nearly twice as much - about 18% of gross domestic product - on health care than any other nation ranked.
Surveys indicate that health care is among the top priorities for voters in the November presidential election. Vice President Kamala Harris has pitched building on the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. Former President Donald Trump has given little detail about his health-care vision; his running mate, JD Vance, has suggested deregulation.
Thursday's findings show, the researchers say, that the U.S. spends the most but gets the least from its investment. Ironically, the steep price people pay doesn't guarantee superior care. "We are undersupplied with the things that people need most, including doctors and hospital beds", Dr. David Blumenthal, the former president of The Commonwealth Fund, said on the call. "That's one of the reasons why you have to wait so long in the United States for specialty care and one of the reasons why no one can find a primary care physician."
Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck:"I'm A Black NAZI!": NC GOP Nominee For Governor Made Dozens Of Disturbing Comments On Porn Forum. (CNN, September 19, 2024)
Editor's Note: This story contains offensive language.
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.
Many of Robinson's comments were gratuitously sexual and lewd in nature. They were made between 2008 and 2012 on "Nude Africa", a pornographic website that includes a message board. The comments were made under the username minisoldr, a moniker Robinson used frequently online.
Sarah K. Burris: "Dribbling The Apple Sauce": Political Experts Say "Feeble" Trump Has Moved Beyond "Crazy". (Raw Story, September 19, 2024)
A panel of longtime political commentators agreed that Donald Trump may have always been a little "crazy" or nutty in a laughable way, but they're now concerned he's "dribbling the apple sauce" - meaning they believe he is showing signs of a cognitive decline.
Speaking to MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace, former MSNBC host Donny Deutsch began by describing Trump as a laughable kind of disturbed. "I don't think they care that he's crazy", Deutsch said of Trump's MAGA loyalists. "I don't know how people can extrapolate out. This is the guy making decisions for the world, and he's not well."
Deutsch, who has known Trump for decades, said that he never "knew" the man who was making comments like he has in the past year or so. "He was always full of baloney, he was always braggadocio. He was sharp, but now he's not."
Wallace said that Benito Mussolini was "crazy, but he was vicious. I mean, this is feeble", she said of Trump. She also thinks Trump might be "scared" because he's made too many mistakes.
Deutsch, however, thinks that Trump has people around him who aren't telling him the truth and instead are there to prop him up as "doing great".
Bulwark editor Charlie Sykes agreed there's a difference between the "raving lunatic" or being somebody in decline, "dribbling the applesauce". "Look, the latter is weakness, and it's exhausting", he said. "I think one of Donald Trump's greatest political accomplishments has been to convince the media and much of the country that his gibbering nonsense is just Trump being Trump. That it's completely normal, and that we should not hold him accountable." He said that it highlights the media's dilemma and dangers of "sane-washing" the things Trump says. It's the problem The New York Times has gotten itself into with its readers. It's why even Fox News "is backing away".
Sykes ended with "Trump has a reptilian instinct for what the voters want to hear" and he's turning back to what was comfortable for him and got him reactions from his crowd. "Why should we report that Trump is saying crazy crap? Because he always says crazy crap - because this crazy man wants to be the leader of the free world and have access to nuclear weapons."
Matthew Chapman: Trump Co-Author Believes MAGA Leader Has "Lost A Great Deal Mentally". (Raw Story, September 19, 2024)
Former President Donald Trump is losing his mental acuity, "Art of the Deal" co-author Tony Schwartz told MSNBC's Ari Melber today. This is more apparent than ever after he was crushed in the debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, Schwartz argued.
"He is a very different man than the man in the late 1980s, and the man I somewhat interacted with in the 2016 election and the 2020 election", said Schwartz. "This is a man who's lost a great deal mentally. I doubt that he is still capable of exciting a crowd - beyond that 20% or 25% that are absolutely the core."
Daniel Hampton: "He's A Loser!" Ex-RNC Spokesperson In Disbelief As Fellow Republican Flatly Rejects Trump. (Raw Story, September 19, 2024)
Georgia's Republican lieutenant governor sparred with a former spokesperson for the Republican National Committee on CNN last night, as he flatly rejected that Trump did "anything good" while in the White House - citing Jan. 6 and even "death threats" against his family.
Geoff Duncan joined a panel on "NewsNight" with anchor Abby Phillip, who played a clip of former President Donald Trump repeating the "Big Lie" that he actually won the 2020 election and noted that his support for a GOP-led government shutdown is at odds with what's best for down-ballot candidates in his party. Responding to Phillip, Duncan blasted Trump for "sabotaging policy" and said that the U.S. appears to be at the "epitome of stupidity again" over the government funding bill. "It infuriates me to watch us get to this spot," he said, noting that the government has already budgeted for the money, but doesn't want to cut a check. "If we do that at home, we ultimately go to jail, or get evicted or lose your car or your wife leaves you", he said.
The dig against his own party earned a question from Gesiotto, who immediately replied, "And you don't think he did a good job at anything as president on that front?" Duncan swatted away the notion. "Uh, NO", he said, deliberately over-enunciating, earning an eye-roll from Gesiotto. As the panel begins to talk over each other, Duncan continues to jab Gesiotto. "I've got a fogged memory at this point. Jan. 6. Death threats against my family. $8-Trillion worth of debt. Yeah, there's a few things that cloud my memory."
Kathleen Culliton: "Sheer terror!" Election Workers Brace For Violence, As Trump Amps Up Prosecution Rhetoric. (Raw Story, September 18, 2024)
The New York Times interviewed more than two-dozen election officials and democracy experts nationwide, and discovered they're not impressed with Trump's threats or his tactics. "You won't find instances in the contemporary world of a mature and stable and even faintly-liberal democracy where a major presidential candidate is making these kinds of threats", Larry Diamond, a Stanford University fellow, told the Times. "It's just bizarre and unprecedented."
This reporting comes as Trump amps up political rhetoric in a tightening race against Vice President Kamala Harris - by accusing election workers of corruption and promising they'll be jailed should Republican National Committee monitors uncover proof. "WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long-term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again", Trump wrote on Truth Social earlier this month. "We cannot let our Country further devolve into a Third World Nation, AND WE WON'T!"
The threat is troubling, considering Trump spread baseless election fraud claims in 2020 as he tried to dismantle his defeat and claim Joe Biden's rightfully-won presidency for himself, the Times reported.
Kamala Harris Skyrockets In New Swing-State Polling Averages. (Arkive Productions, 8-min. YouTube video;
September 18, 2024)
NEW: David Corn:Millions Have Amnesia About The Worst Of Trump's Presidency. Memory Experts Explain Why. (Mother Jones, November+December 2024 Issue, September 18, 2024)
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
- 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 the U.S. death rate was 40% higher than in similar countries, and that many 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
- his incitement of January 6's insurrectionist attack
- a trade war with China that cost the U.S. hundreds-of-thousands of jobs and hundreds-of-$Billions 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.
David McAfee: "Delusionally Insane!" Trump Is Mocked For Saying "Everyone" Is Finally Saying He Won Debate. (Raw Story, September 18, 2024)
Donald Trump is being ridiculed for his claim late last night that "everyone" is finally recognizing he beat Vice President Kamala Harris in the recent presidential debate. "Finally everyone is agreeing that I won the Debate with Kamala", Trump wrote on Truth Social. "It was like a delayed reaction but, as one Political Pundit said, 'Trump is still the G.O.A.T.'" The comment spurred mockery online.
- Republicans Against Trump quoted the former president and wrote, "Imagine thinking this delusional, narcissistic buffoon should become the president of the U.S."
- A popular liberal influencer, Spiro's Ghost, also chimed in, saying, "He is delusionally insane - more so every day."
- Mike Sington, a former senior executive at NBC Universal, said the ex-president "never stops gaslighting". "Literally no one thinks he won the debate", Sington added today.
Judy Kurtz: George Clooney Reacts To Trump Saying He Should "Get Out Of Politics": "I Will If He Does." (The Hill, September 18, 2024)
George Clooney is responding to former President Trump's call that he should abandon politics and focus on his TV career, saying, "I will if he does."
"He's a big fan of mine", the "Ocean's Eleven" and former "ER" star jested yesterday during an interview on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", when asked about comments Trump made this summer.

On Tuesday, Sept. 17 At 9:00-10:30PM Eastern, "Stopping The Steal" Will Air On HBO. Its director, Dan Reed, described it to Anderson Cooper during the September 12th "360 Degrees" show on CNN:
REED: In 2020, ethical Republicans were crucial. They're the ones that held the line, they're the ones that put their duties to the country, their duty to democracy, before their political interests - and often paid the price. And they're the people who narrate this story for us.
This isn't a story told by people who have a political axe to grind against Donald Trump. These are people who embraced his policies, and who really wanted him to win. But when it came to that moment when they were asked to betray the very principles of democracy in the American Constitution, they just couldn't do it. And so they are the ones that we have to thank for holding the line in 2020.
A. COOPER: I've talked to a number of people who were involved in various states in various efforts. I've talked to some of the fake electors who have now said, "I didn't know. We thought this was legit. Lawyers had signed off on this. I didn't know that this was part of this larger plan, that this was only to take place in case the Supreme Court overturned the election."
When do you trace the start of this? When did these efforts really begin?
REED: Well, you can see President Trump laying the groundwork even before - in July 2020, before the election - saying, the only way we're going to lose is if it's rigged. I think the steal really starts when Trump begins to ignore people like Bill Barr as attorney-general, who's telling him there was no fraud. Trump turns to Rudy Giuliani, and to what Bill Barr in my documentary called "the clown car of lawyers" who then roll out this effort to overturn the election results, which is very consistent throughout states and counties in the United States.
That may not have been very clear at the time. But when you rise to the 10,000-foot view - which is what this documentary does - and join all the dots, it becomes quite chilling.
A. COOPER: And at the end of the documentary, a number of people warn that, if Trump gets the chance, he will try again to overturn the decision that goes against him.
REED: Yes. This documentary is timely, but also timeless. And I think it pinpoints a moment of danger for elections in general, not just for this one; for the idea of democracy. If you look back at what Trump did in 2020, it's very clear to the Republicans who spoke to me, to the Trump supporters who spoke to me, that he may well try to do this again. "There's always more," as one of them said, "there's always more. You know he will take it further."
P.S.- You can watch this 2-min. YouTube "Stopping The Steal" trailer, now!

Robert Reich: Election 2024 Video of the Week: "The Ten Worst Things About The Trump Presidency" (18-min. YouTube video; Substack, September 17, 2024)
Donald Trump left office with the lowest approval rating of any president ever. But some people now seem to be suffering from amnesia. Let me jog your memory.
[ONLY TEN? Well, maybe a few more... And, for those with memory issues, they're all easy to look up. Thank you, Robert Reich. This is **an 18-minute MUST-SHARE** with ALL of our U.S. population! Maybe, weekly.]

Michael B. Cornelison: Chat-GPT On Our Corrupt Politics; How It Happened, How To Fix It (Substack, September 17, 2024)
I have long thought that the main reason behind our inept and corrupt politics is short terms of office, leading to a constant need for campaign funds and continuous voter manipulation and deception. I asked Chat-GPT about this.
[Our friend of Fotocx fame asks a good/timely question, and shares the interesting response!
NOTE: MMS advises that you read some Chat-GPT concerns (click its link, above) before deciding whether and how to use it yourself.]
Dylan Stableford: Harris Calls Out Trump For Pushing Baseless Claims About Haitian Immigrants In Springfield, Ohio: "It's Got To Stop." (3-min. YouTube video; Yahoo News, September 17, 2024)
Trump first amplified the baseless claims about the community's Haitian immigrants in the ABC News debate with Harris, then doubled down on them on the campaign trail. City officials, including Springfield's mayor, have issued public pleas for him to stop.
At a press conference at his golf course in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., Trump dismissed the notion that his comments have led to the bomb threats at Springfield's schools. "No, no, the real threat is what's happening at our border", he said.
"You say you care about law enforcement", Harris said Tuesday. "Law enforcement resources are being put into this because of these serious threats that are being issued against a community. "It's got to stop", she continued. "We've got to say that you cannot be entrusted with standing behind the seal of the president of the United States of America, engaging in that hateful rhetoric that as usual is designed to divide us as a country, is designed to have people pointing fingers at each other. I think most people in our country, regardless of their race, are starting to see through this nonsense and starting to say, 'You know what, let's turn the page on this'", Harris added. "This is exhausting and it's harmful and it's hateful and … grounded in some age-old stuff that we should not tolerate."
[Well said! Lock him up.]
Filip Timotija: Hillary Clinton: Musk's Offer To Give Taylor Swift A Child Is "Rotten And Creepy". (The Hill, September 17, 2024)
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton slammed billionaire Elon Musk's offer to give pop superstar Taylor Swift a child, saying his social media post was "rotten and creepy".
Following the ABC News debate last week between Vice President Harris and former President Trump, Swift shared on Instagram her endorsement of the Democratic nominee in the 2024 election. Musk, who is backing Trump in the 2024 White House race, reacted to the endorsement on his social media platform X, writing "Fine Taylor … you win … I will give you a child and guard your cats with my life."
Clinton, the former 2016 Democratic nominee, in response, said that Musk's post was "another way of saying rape. I can't understand why he says what he says", Clinton said. "It just is beyond my imagination."
Rachel Maddow, Hillary Clinton, Morning Joe and more: Тrumр іո Тrouble Аftеr Рosting Sick Death Threat Тodау. (14-min. YouTube video; MSNBC, September 17, 2024)
[A sad overview of many reasons to jail Trump for what he's been doing, reasons the major news channels have been glossing over.]
Rachel Maddow: "We Were Supposed To Get Better At Not Having Our Chains Yanked" By Trump. (12-min. YouTube video; MSNBC, September 17, 2024)
Rachel Maddow outlines the sheer volume of objectively bad news for Donald Trump's campaign since even before he lost the presidential debate to Kamala Harris, and points out the "made-to-order outrage" tactic that Trump and his supporters have used to distract from that bad news, even if it means exposing themselves as racist liars and offending the entire Haitian-American community.
Brian Tyler Cohen: Election Rocked As Kamala Harris Gets Another Huge Endorsement. (11-min. YouTube video; September 17, 2024)
[No wonder Trump "hates" Taylor Swift; she didn't even mention his name. Classy!]
Travis Gettys: "Wouldn't Be The Worst Idea.": Analyst Suggests Trump Will Force Vance To Skip VP Debate. (MSN, September 17, 2024)
J.D. Vance has been one of the least-popular vice-presidential picks in recent memory, and he's got a chance to sink even lower with a disastrous showing in the upcoming debate with Tim Walz, a columnist wrote today.
The Ohio Republican seemingly loses his cool with strong women interrogators, and with the Oct. 1 debate set to be moderated by CBS News correspondents Norah O'Donnell and Margaret Brennan, the Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin argued that Vance might be better off skipping that face-off with Kamala Harris' running mate. "Vance's role in fanning what amounts to a racist blood libel, followed by his confession that he feels compelled to 'create stories' to score points with voters, will not be his only vulnerability", Rubin wrote.
[The new GOP run-and-hide policy? Maybe we can do an AI version, instead.]
Kathleen Culliton: "Really Dumb!": Conservative Columnist Bursts Out Laughing As Asked About J.D. Vance On CNN. (Raw Story, September 17, 2024)
A conservative columnist has just two words for Donald Trump's and Sen. J.D. Vance's attacks on liberal rhetoric they blame for two recent attempts on the former president's life. "This whole thing has gotten", Jonah Goldberg said on CNN this morning, "really dumb!"
Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Dispatch, made this assessment just hours after Vance and Trump tried to thread the needle of condemning Democrats' political rhetoric - even as they face blame for spreading discord with fake stories about immigrants eating pets.
John Stoehr: Trump Turned Politics Into A Joke - And Now He's The Punchline. (Raw Story, September 17, 2024)
Trump turned politics into a joke and people laughed. Now he's the butt.
On Friday, Bill Maher compared Trump to another demagogue, Joseph McCarthy. Just as Trump rails against "the deep state", McCarthy in the 1950s railed against deep-state Communists. Like McCarthyism, Maher believes that Trumpism is going to burn itself out. "Before we were around, there was a guy named Joe McCarthy in the early '50s, and he had a hold on America, and it blew out in about two, three years", Maher said. "It was the biggest thing … and I feel that with Trump's 'eating the dogs', we're at that point."
Matt Young: Mitch McConnell Pleads With GOP Colleagues To Avoid Government Shutdown: "Beyond Stupid!" (Daily Beast, September 17, 2024)
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was blunt in his assessment of a potential shutdown on Tuesday, warning that it would be "beyond politically stupid" for Republicans to allow the government to shutter just weeks before the election. "One thing you cannot have is a government shutdown. It would be politically beyond stupid for us to do that right before the election, because certainly we'd get the blame", McConnell told reporters. "One of my favorite old sayings is there's no education in the second kick of a mule. We've been here before. I'm for whatever avoids a government shutdown, and that'll ultimately end up, obviously, being a discussion between the [Senate] Democratic leader and the Speaker of the House", he said.
Mike Johnson confirmed the House will vote Wednesday on a six-month funding bill connected to controversial "election integrity" legislation that would require proof of citizenship for voter registration. However, with little support from Democrats and not enough GOP support to pass, it's doubtful the move will work. Funding expires on Sept. 30.
Allison Novelo: Republican Allies Boost Long-Shot Candidate Jill Stein, As Democrats Try To Remove Her From Ballots In Battleground States. (CBS News, September 17, 2024)
Jill Stein, now on her third run for president with the Green Party, is seen as a long-shot for the White House and often called a spoiler candidate who pulls votes from the Democratic side.
Though Stein claims her candidacy has a legitimate path to victory without relying on what she calls "war machine" dollars, her campaign has accepted support from Republican allies as she works to secure ballot access in multiple states, including key battleground states like Nevada and Wisconsin, where CBS News polling shows a close race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
Andrew Kaczynski: JD Vance Got A Former Professor To Delete A Blog Post That Vance Wrote In 2012, Attacking GOP Over Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric. (CNN, September 17, 2024)
A week after President Barack Obama won re-election in November 2012, JD Vance, then a law student at Yale, wrote a scathing rebuke of the Republican Party's stance on migrants and minorities, criticizing it for being "openly hostile to non-whites" and for alienating "Blacks, Latinos, [and] the youth."
Four years later, as Vance considered a career in GOP politics, he asked a former college professor to delete the article. That professor, Brad Nelson, taught Vance at Ohio State University while Vance was an undergraduate student. After Vance graduated, Nelson asked him to contribute to a blog he ran for the non-partisan Center for World Conflict and Peace.
Nelson told CNN that, during the 2016 Republican primary, he agreed to delete the article at Vance's request, so that Vance might have an easier time getting a job in Republican politics. However, the article, titled "A Blueprint for the GOP" (2012), remains viewable on the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. "A significant part of Republican immigration policy centers on the possibility of deporting 12-million people (or 'self-deporting' them)", Vance wrote. "Think about it: we conservatives (rightly) mistrust the government to efficiently administer business loans and regulate our food supply, yet we allegedly believe that it can deport millions of unregistered aliens. The notion fails to pass the laugh test. The same can be said for too much of the party's platform."
Twelve years later, as former President Donald Trump's running mate, Vance espouses many of the same anti-immigrant postures that he criticized back in 2012 as a 28-year-old law school student. In recent days, Vance has amplified baseless claims against Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio.
Matthew Chapman: Legal Experts: John Roberts "Moved Mountains" To Help Trump Avoid Jan. 6 Trial. (Raw Story, September 17, 2024)
Chief Justice John Roberts has been exposed, wrote legal observers Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern for Slate. He may pretend to be the deliberate, moderating force on the Supreme Court, but behind the scenes he has become as reactionary as the rest of the court's right wing. This became clear after the court handed down its radical decision giving former President Donald Trump a presumption of immunity for "official acts" in office, reversing all lower judges who considered the matter, all while leaving unclear guidance about how exactly to define an official act, they wrote.
Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern: We Helped John Roberts Construct His Image As A Centrist. We Were So Wrong. (Slate, September 16, 2024)
On Sunday, New York Times reporters Jodi Kantor and Adam Liptak published a blockbuster article about the conservative justices' efforts to shield Donald Trump from any consequences for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. This is what Supreme Court reporting needs to become: less credulous academic translating of a handful of judicial opinions, and more cultivation of inside sources, procuring of confidential memos, and production of massive scoops. More to the point, their piece - about how the three Jan. 6 cases decided last year in favor of Donald J. Trump came together - contains several remarkable news bombshells, including the fact that Justice Samuel Alito had the opinion in the Capitol-assault case, Fischer v. United States, taken away from him by Chief Justice John Roberts; that the liberal justices were working to try to get the majorities to moderate maximalist positions in all three cases; and that Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch would have pushed the immunity case to be decided after the 2024 election.
But the biggest revelation here is that the character John Roberts plays as an affable centrist steward of the court's reputational interests - created largely in the press and played to the hilt by him - is a total fiction. It was Roberts who decided that Trump and Trumpism would prevail in all three insurrection cases and he did not, in this instance, follow in the wake of the court's aggressive conservative maximalists. He WAS the aggressive conservative maximalist. And he created majority opinions in his own image.
[Whee! Read on...]
 Brian Tyler Cohen with Glenn Kirschner: Trump's Attorney Rudy Giuliani Destroys His OWN Case In Court. (11-min. YouTube video; Legal Breakdown, September 16, 2024)
[Trump's is not the only GOP breakdown on display. He's contagious.]
Farron Cousins: Trump's Mental Health Declines Further As He Forgets Kamala's Name During Speech. (11-min. YouTube video; Ring of Fire, September 16, 2024)
Donald Trump held an incoherent rally in California on Friday where he repeatedly slurred the words that he was trying to read off the teleprompter. At one point, he couldn't even pronounce "Kamala" as he tried to say "Comrade Kamala", and ended up trailing off during his fumble. Then he went into a three-minute rant about how the water in California is dead. He didn't make any sense at all, and the crowd could tell.
Ramon Antonio Vargas: "Looks Like Karma To Me!": Hillary Clinton, On Trump's Hush-Money Conviction. (The Guardian/UK, September 16, 2024)
Former first lady, who faced "Lock-her-up!" calls from Trump supporters, says tears welled up in her eyes at his verdict.
Michael Tomasky: Laura Loomer Isn't Trump's Achilles' Heel; She's A Whole Achilles' Leg! (The New Republic, September 16, 2024)
The far-right hatemonger is perfectly symbolic of who Donald Trump is. The Democrats, and the media, cannot relegate her to last week's news.
Remember back in the Spring, when the conventional wisdom was that this Trump campaign was a highly-polished operation? Chris LaCivita and Susie Weil, we were told, were total professionals. They'd be bringing a more traditional sense of discipline to the campaign and to Donald Trump himself. Gone would be those days of 2016-style excesses and own goals. This campaign, and this Trump, was going to be different. Democrats beware.
I have to say, it seemed to be working, for a minute. As long as Trump was running against Joe Biden, everything was basically going according to plan. Then the Democrats switched to Vice President Kamala Harris, and things started going a little haywire. The new candidate was good. She had President Joe Biden's experience and wisdom, and she was young. She was vibrant. She knew how to goad him. She was Black. She was multiracial. She was … a woman.
Suddenly, Trump's vaunted campaign is looking about as professional as the '62 Mets. LaCivita and Weil were able to smother their candidate's true impulses and personality for a while. But, like mold on an old loaf of bread, Trump's personality was bound to take over.
Which brings us to Laura Loomer...
Here's How Kamala Harris (And Everyone Else) Reacted To Donald Trump's "I Hate Taylor Swift!" Post. (photos and more; BuzzFeed, September 16, 2024)
Taylor Swift's endorsement of Kamala Harris seems to have really pissed Donald Trump off.
Well, Kamala Harris' campaign responded to his temper tantrum with their own Taylor Swift-related statement, containing 28 Taylor Swift song titles:
NEW from @KamalaHQ: Trump's Bad Week (Taylor's Version):
Mr. Not-at-all Fine spent his week working through his feelings, spouting conspiracy theories, and whining about his Champagne Problems. Call It What You Want, but it's Nothing New for the Smallest Man Who Ever Lived.
--Sarafina Chitika, September 15, 2024
Some choice lines include:
"Voters know All Too Well how dangerous Trump and his Project 2025 agenda will be if he wins."
"We can make sure The Story of Us is one of progress - and show Donald Trump we are not going Back to December of 2020." and
"Call It What You Want, but it's Nothing New for the Smallest Man Who Ever Lived."
Because this whole thing has (obviously) turned into a meme, here are some of the funniest responses:
--If X were around in 1984, can you imagine Ronald Reagan posting this? No, because it's batsh*t crazy. Trump isn't Republican or conservative, he's the insane guy ranting on a street corner.
--Her crowds don't leave early.
[Yes, there's more.]
John Tufts: Bad Blood, Much? Swifties React After Donald Trump Posts, "I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!" (USA Today, September 16, 2024)
Picture this: It's the weekend, and you're a 78-year-old man running for the highest elected office in the country. National polls suggest there's an almost razor-thin margin of popularity separating you and your opponent, after a debate that didn't exactly go in your favor.
How do you drum up more support? Do you hold another fundraiser? Release a detailed, more-comprehensive plan for healthcare? Or do you pick a fight with arguably the world's most-popular music idol and her legions of devoted fans?
If you're Donald Trump, you write all in caps, "I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!" and let the social-media comments fly where they may. And fly, they did!
[Poor baby! Let's take Taylor's advice, and Dump Trump!]
The Editors: Vote For Kamala Harris To Support Science, Health And The Environment. (Scientific American, September 16, 2024)
Kamala Harris has plans to improve health, boost the economy and mitigate climate change. Donald Trump has threats and a dangerous record.
In the November election, the U.S. faces two futures. In one, the new president offers the country better prospects, relying on science, solid evidence and the willingness to learn from experience. She pushes policies that boost good jobs nationwide by embracing technology and clean energy. She supports education, public health and reproductive rights. She treats the climate crisis as the emergency it is and seeks to mitigate its catastrophic storms, fires and droughts.
In the other future, the new president endangers public health and safety and rejects evidence, preferring instead nonsensical conspiracy fantasies. He ignores the climate crisis in favor of more pollution. He requires that federal officials show personal loyalty to him rather than upholding U.S. laws. He fills positions in federal science and other agencies with unqualified ideologues. He goads people into hate and division, and he inspires extremists at state and local levels to pass laws that disrupt education and make it harder to earn a living.
Only one of these futures will improve the fate of this country and the world. That is why, for only the second time in our magazine's 179-year history, the editors of Scientific American are endorsing a candidate for president. That person is Kamala Harris.
[Thank you, SciAm! Makes me proud to be a scientist!]
Brian Tyler Cohen: Mark Cuban Deals Nightmare Blow To Trump. (44-min. YouTube video; Interviews with Brian Tyler Cohen, September 16, 2024)
Brian interviews Mark Cuban about Trump's debate disaster, Elon Musk's use of Twitter to spread disinformation, and what he's doing with CostPlus Drugs to bring drug prices down.
Aimee Picchi: DJT Stock Got A Short-Lived Boost After Trump Vowed Not To Sell. It Still Faces A Major Headwind. (CBS News, September 16, 2024)
Trump Media & Technology Group's shares got a second wind Friday, when former president Donald Trump pledged to keep his 60% stake in the business. The comments marked Trump's first public disclosure about his plans for his shares, reassuring investors and sending the stock up by 12%.
But today, shares of Trump Media - which trades under the ticker DJT, the same as Trump's initials - gave up some of those gains, slipping 74 cents, or 4%, to $17.23 in early trading. Trump Media, the owner of Truth Social, has plunged 77% since reaching a high of $79.38 in March.
Despite Trump's pledge to hold his stock, the fledgling tech company is continuing to face headwinds, including the September 19 expiration or so-called "lock-up" period that has blocked insiders, including Trump, from selling their shares. Even though Trump has vowed not to sell, the company's other insiders will be able to begin reducing their stakes on Thursday, potentially undermining the stock's price.
Chelsea Bailey: Extra Law Enforcement To Patrol Schools In Springfield, Ohio, After Threats Linked To False Claims About Haitian Immigrants. (CNN, September 16, 2024)
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is deploying the Ohio State Highway Patrol to monitor schools in the city of Springfield after they received 33 bomb threats since late last week, he said at a news conference Monday. Two colleges were moved to virtual learning and two elementary schools were evacuated Monday after receiving separate threats. The threats so far haven't had "any validity at all", DeWine said in a news conference Monday afternoon.
The threats and closures come amid ongoing fallout from baseless allegations former President Donald Trump made during the second presidential debate, that Haitian immigrants in the city are stealing and eating local pets.
Oliver Milman: If Trump And Vance Win The Election, This Is What's At Stake. (The Guardian/UK, September 16, 2024)
A hulking steel plant in Middletown, Ohio is the city's economic heartbeat as well as a keystone origin story of JD Vance, the home-town senator now running to be Donald Trump's vice-president.
Its future, however, may hinge upon $500-Million in funding - from landmark climate legislation that Vance has called a "scam" and is a Trump target for demolition.
In March, Joe Biden's administration announced the U.S.'s largest-ever grant to produce greener steel, enabling the Cleveland-Cliffs facility in Middletown to build one of the largest hydrogen-fuel furnaces in the world, cutting emissions by a million tons a year by ditching the coal that accelerates the climate crisis and befouls the air for nearby locals.
In a blue-collar urban area north of Cincinnati that has long pinned its fortunes upon the vicissitudes of the US steel industry, the investment's promise of a revitalized plant with 170 new jobs and 1,200 temporary construction positions was met with jubilation among residents and unions.
However, this funding from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the $370-Billion bill to turbocharge clean energy that was signed by Biden after narrowly passing Congress via Democratic votes in 2022, has been far less thrilling to Vance, despite his deep personal ties to the Cleveland-Cliffs plant.
The steel mill, dating back to 1899 and now employing about 2,500 people, is foundational to Middletown, helping churn out the first generations of cars and then war-time tanks. Vance's late grandfather was a union worker at the plant, making it the family's "economic savior – the engine that brought them from the hills of Kentucky into America's middle class", Vance wrote in his memoir, "Hillbilly Elegy". But although it grew into a prosperous All-American city built on steel and paper production, Middletown became a place "hemorrhaging jobs and hope" as industries decamped offshore in the 1980s, Vance wrote. He sees little salvation in the IRA - even as, by one estimate, it has already spurred $10-Billion in investment and nearly 14,000 new jobs in Ohio.
When campaigning for the Senate in 2022, Vance said Biden's sweeping climate bill is "dumb, does nothing for the environment and will make us all poorer", and more recently as vice-presidential candidate called the IRA a "green-energy scam that's actually shipped a lot more manufacturing jobs to China".
America needs "a leader who rejects Joe Biden and Kamala Harris's green new scam and fights to bring back our great American factories", Vance said at the Republican convention in July. "We need President Donald J. Trump." Republicans in Congress have repeatedly attempted to gut the IRA, with Project 2025, a conservative blueprint authored by many former Trump officials, demanding its repeal should Republicans regain the White House.
Such plans have major implications for Vance's home town. The Middletown plant's $500-Million grant from the Department of Energy, still not formally handed over, could be halted if Trump prevails in November. The former president recently vowed to "terminate Kamala Harris's green new scam and rescind all of the unspent funds".
Some longtime Middletown residents are bemused by such opposition. "How can you think that saving the lives of people is the wrong thing to do?", said Adrienne Shearer, a small business adviser who spent several decades helping the reinvigoration of Middletown's downtown area, which was hollowed out by economic malaise, off-shored jobs and out-of-town malls. "People thought the plant was in danger of leaving or closing, which would totally destroy the town", she said. "And now people think it's not going anywhere." Shearer, a political independent, said she didn't like Vance's book because it "trashed our community" and that he had shown no alternative vision for his home town. "Maybe people who serve with him in Washington know him, but we don't here in Middletown", she said.
Climate campaigners are even more scathing of Vance. "It's no surprise that he's now threatening to gut a $500-Million investment in U.S. manufacturing in his own home town", said Pete Jones, rapid-response director at Climate Power. "Vance wrote a book about economic hardship in his home town, and now he has 900 new pages from Trump's dangerous Project 2025 agenda - to make the problem worse so that Big Oil can profit."
[This cut from the article is unusually long. But what more would you cut?]
David Goldman: Elon Musk Deletes His Post Questioning The Trump-Assassination Attempt. (CNN, September 16, 2024)
Elon Musk deleted a post this morning, that questioned why former President Donald Trump has faced two apparent assassination attempts in recent months while President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have not encountered any. Musk later claimed the post was a joke.
However, Musk subsequently responded to a similar post, replying with a thinking face emoji to a photo that noted the four presidents who preceded Trump faced no assassination attempts when Trump has apparently encountered two. X did not respond to a request for comment.
The White House called Musk's comments "irresponsible". "As President Biden and Vice President Harris said after yesterday's disturbing news, 'there is no place for political violence or for any violence ever in our country', and 'we all must do our part to ensure that this incident does not lead to more violence'", said White House spokesperson Andrew Bates in a statement. "Violence should only be condemned, never encouraged or joked about."
It's unclear if Musk, who owns X, violated X's terms of service with those posts. He has routinely flouted his platform's rules with few consequences. X said it restricts "engaging in or promoting violent acts", although Musk denied he was calling for violence.
Musk endorsed Trump for president after an assassination attempt in July, and he hosted Trump last month in an interview on X. It's part of a rightward shift for Musk that has gained steam in recent years. Musk, the richest person in the world, decries what he calls progressives' "woke mind virus". And he has warned of America's impending "doom" if Democrats maintain control of the White House.
But Musk's posts aren't just run-of-the-mill political chatter. He has increasingly engaged in conspiracy theories, including the false claim that the Biden administration allows undocumented immigrants to vote in US elections. He has also pushed the boundaries – or blown right past them – by posting fake images and using bigoted language in support of his causes. It's the latest illustration of how few guard-rails exist on the X platform.
See Past Interviews With Suspect In Apparent Trump Assassination Attempt. (1-min. video; CNN, September 16, 2024)
Ryan Routh, the suspect in the apparent assassination attempt of Donald Trump, spoke to international media in 2022 about his decision to visit Ukraine to fight for the country after Russia's invasion.
Dennis Romero: Man In Custody After Trump Golf-Club Incident Was Once Convicted Of Possessing A Machine Gun. (NBC News, Sept. 15, 2024 / Updated Sept. 16, 2024)
The man was identified as Ryan Wesley Routh, 58. Property and court records indicate a long criminal past in North Carolina and that he lived most recently in Hawaii.
Kamala Surges In Republican Strongholds In The Latest Polls. (8-min. YouTube video; Bridge Politics, September 15, 2024)
In this video, we take a look at the latest poll in every state. The outcome is going to shock you!
[These comments seem to overblow the data; we'll check back later.]
Luke Garrett: Vance Defends His Spreading False Claims That Haitian Migrants Are Eating Pets. (NPR, September 15, 2024)
Sen. JD Vance stood by his false claim that Haitian migrants were eating pets in Springfield, Ohio - an unsupported story that former President Donald Trump has also echoed on the debate stage and on social media.
"The American media totally ignored this stuff until Donald Trump and I started talking about cat memes", Sen. Vance said. "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."
[What, he's lying for me?]
Emily Mae Czachor: Donald Trump says, "I Hate Taylor Swift!" (CBS News, September 15, 2024)
Former President Donald Trump took aim at Taylor Swift in a Truth Social post today, declaring his distaste for the superstar after she endorsed his opponent, former Vice President Kamala Harris. "I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!", Trump wrote in the post.
His announcement emerged online less than a week after Swift revealed publicly for the first time her plans to vote for Harris, the Democratic nominee in this year's presidential election. Her endorsement followed the first debate on Sept. 10 between Trump and Harris, which saw the two candidates face off during a televised showdown in Philadelphia that covered issues like abortion, immigration, the economy and foreign policy. "I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election", Swift said in an Instagram post. "I'm voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. I think she 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 also voiced her support for Walz, the Minnesota governor tapped to be Harris' vice presidential running mate, noting how he "has been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a woman's right to her own body for decades."
The artist signed off as "Childless Cat Lady" to end her post, which accompanied a photo of Swift holding a cat, echoing 2021 comments from Trump's running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, that recently surfaced. In a 2021 interview, Vance lamented that the country was being run by "a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives." Vance later said he was being sarcastic.
Swift acknowledged in the post that Trump had recently shared AI-generated images to his Truth Social account that showed women wearing "Swifties for Trump" T-shirts and falsely suggested she had endorsed him. They included a satirical post that claimed fans of Swift were "turning to Trump" after security concerns led to the cancellation of her concerts in Vienna in August. "I accept!", Trump wrote when he posted the false images.
Swift said the incident triggered her "fears around AI, and and the dangers of spreading misinformation." "It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter", she said. "The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth."
Ramon Antonio Vargas: Son Of Suspect Speaks After Apparent Trump Assassination Attempt In Florida. (The Guardian/UK, September 15, 2024)
Oran Routh says dad, accused of targeting ex-president for unknown motivations, was passionate about Ukraine cause.
Luke Garrett and Juliana Kim: Trump Is Safe After Shots Fired In Apparent "Attempted Assassination" In Florida. (NPR, September 15, 2024)
Former President Donald Trump is safe after shots were fired at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Fla., while Trump was golfing there this (Sunday) afternoon. A suspect, identified by local officials as Ryan Wesley Routh, is in custody. The FBI said it is investigating the shooting as an attempted assassination - making it the second time a gunman targeted Trump in just two months.
Kelly Rissman: The Accused Georgia Shooter Case Is "Eerily Similar" To James And Jennifer Crumbley. (photos; The Independent/UK, September 14, 2024)
Both teens were gifted guns and had exhibited warning signs of mental illness before allegedly opening fire at their high schools - a combination that has caused prosecutors to pursue parents' criminal accountability after their child's mass shooting.
This obsession with violence is especially worrisome when paired with access to firearms, the leading cause of death for children and teens. Federal law stipulates that Americans only have to be 18 to purchase shotguns and rifles. However, a Washington Post analysis found that the median age of school shooters is just 16 years old. Perhaps this dichotomy is explained by the fact that 76% of youth school shooters get their firearms from the home, according to Brady United Against Gun Violence. The gun safety group found that 4.6-million U.S. children live in homes with unlocked and loaded firearms.
Brian Tyler Cohen (Inside the Right with Tim Miller): Lifelong Republican Deals FATAL BLOW To Trump. (12-min. YouTube video; September 14, 2024))
‪‪@bulwarkmedia‬'s Tim Miller discusses Trump's disastrous debate performance.
NEW: Wil Darcangelo: Hopeful Thinking: The Theft Of Lies (Sentinel & Enterprise, September 14, 2024)
Lately, I have found myself embroiled in online discussions about politics and racism. This is not typically my way.
My usual method is to comment on unloving posts for only two reasons. Either I feel that the person is in a position to be persuaded toward a more loving thought, or for the purpose of demonstrating kind responses to unkind words for the sake of others. My hope is that the principle of inherent worth and dignity of all people is at the center of my actions.
One thing that struck me though, as I have been dipping my toes into such debates, is that I seem to be battling a tide of misinformation. I feel like I'm constantly counteracting misrepresentations of truth. I'm watching others do the same. It's taking a lot of time looking at someone's ridiculous online claim, and then commenting with factual responses and references for why their claim is untrue, only to be battled against, often with hostility or rudeness. And, of course, our ego wishes us to keep on sparring.
How much time does this steal from us? How much of this time will we never get back? Exactly none of it. This is how lying represents a theft. Those who begin lies are stealing time from those who must later attempt to reset someone toward truth.
The sad part is, once convinced, once painted into a corner where all truth has been precast as a lie, it's almost impossible to dislodge. It's like escaping from a cult.
A cult of lies is very alluring. Until it isn't.
[Lies as theft; this Unitarian minister has caught my attention - and this is just the beginning of his article.]
Igor Bobic: Lawmakers Fear More Jan.6th-Like Violence As Donald Trump Amps Up Election Lies. (Huffington Post, September 14, 2024)
"If for some reason he were to lose, he will contest the validity of the election, just like he did last time", Sen. Mitt Romney said of the former president.
Trump's lies about voter fraud in the last election incited the violent Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, where more than 140 police officers sustained injuries while defending the building. Five people died after the riot, and the attack on Congress caused about $2.7-Billion in damages, according to the Government Accountability Office.
This time around, Trump and his Republican allies are attempting to stir fears about non-citizen voting, something that is illegal and rarely happens. The former president has refused to commit to accepting November's election results, and last month he told supporters the only way he can lose is if the Democrats "cheat". Earlier this week, during a debate with Harris in Philadelphia, Trump reprised his lies about the "stolen" 2020 election.
Justin Rohrlich: "Clearly Chicken, You Weirdo!": People Respond To JD Vance Sharing Video He Claims Shows Migrants Grilling Cats. (8 images; The Independent/UK, September 14, 2024)
The "gotcha" footage posted online by Vance is not the slam dunk he apparently hoped it would be.
The compounding myths, which the leader of notorious neo-Nazi group Blood Tribe gleefully took credit for having helped popularize, were swiftly debunked by, among others, the Springfield mayor, city manager, and police department.
But the claims have not only inflamed existing tensions in Springfield, they have also managed to further traumatize a group of people who fled civil war and ceaseless gang violence for the sleepy Rust Belt town of 58,000.
Andrea Cavallier and James Liddell: Explanation Finally Revealed For The Viral Image Of Man Holding Geese That Fueled GOP's Bizarre Pet-Eating Claims In Ohio. (2.5 images; The Independent/UK, September 14, 2024)
A viral photo of a man carrying two geese in Ohio fueled Donald Trump's wild, now-debunked conspiracy that Haitian migrants are eating pets in the state – but turns out, it was a wild goose chase.
The Ohio Division of Wildlife told TMZ that the man was picking up the two geese that had been hit by a car in Columbus, which is about 45 minutes from Springfield, where Trump had previously claimed that migrants were chowing down on the birds. In order to collect a carcass, people need documentation from a county sheriff or wildlife officer - but this is not required for geese, meaning the man had a right to them. TMZ reported that there is no evidence that the man is Haitian, an immigrant or that he even intended to eat the geese.
At a rally in Tucson, Arizona, this week, Trump dragged geese into his narrative. "A recording of 911 calls show that residents are reporting that the migrants are walking off with the town's geese", Trump said. "They're taking the geese. You know where the geese are? In the park, in the lake. And even walking off with their pets." Trump once again offered no evidence to support his claims.
Josh Marcus: "They're Just Not True!": Springfield Officials Furious As Trump's Migrant Pet-Eating Lie Causes Bomb Threats And School Closures. (The Independent/UK, September 13, 2024))
Racist rumor has roots in Facebook post and neo-Nazi social-media campaign.
Officials in Springfield, Ohio, have pushed back on a racist rumor - amplified by the Trump campaign - that Haitian residents are eating people's pets, as the baseless claims have prompted bomb threats against city buildings and terrified local residents. Local officials said the threat explicitly "used hateful language towards immigrants and Haitians in our community."
Despite the wave of condemnation from Ohio officials, the taken on a life of its own in Springfield, where a bomb threat forced the evacuation of city hall and two schools.
The impact of the conspiracy may be very real, but its roots are based on Internet-fueled hate and speculation. The claims first took off when a member of a local Springfield Facebook group posted claims about Haitian immigrants; she now admits she heard it fourth-hand - from a neighbor who heard it from a friend who heard it from their daughter. Another element came from a photo taken in July, of a man in Columbus, not Springfield, Ohio, holding a dead goose; the individual who took the photo says he regrets the image has been used to demonize migrants.
Ryan Coogan: Trump Has Found A New Way To Contradict Reality. (The Independent, September 13, 2024)
Donald has just ducked out of a second debate against Kamala Harris – presumably because he remembered the trouncing he got during the first round (although he seems to think that Hannibal Lecter is a real person, so that's a coin toss).
His reasoning? Why, because he "clearly" won the first debate, of course, so he doesn't see a need for a second one. You know, the debate where he said that immigrants are roaming the country looking for pets to eat, and talked about executing newborns? Those are all the signs of a slam-dunk victory, right?
The former president's refusal to go toe-to-toe with Kamala again is indicative of a much deeper problem with his campaign strategy.
A debate is supposed to be about trading off competing – but true – information, and using it to construct a sound argument. Trump's idea of a sound argument, however, is saying something that he would like to be true, and then sticking his fingers in his ears and humming The Apprentice theme tune until his opponent gets bored and moves on.
That might have worked for him in 2016, when debate moderators weren't used to the idea of a political candidate brazenly making things up on the spot, but now we're used to his schtick. If he says something untrue, he can be fact-checked and challenged. Of course, he views fact-checking as some kind of conspiracy against him, accusing the ABC moderators of colluding with Kamala to bring him down – but that's just because the idea of somebody actually doing their job is a foreign concept to him.
He actually makes it easy, too. Everything he says is so black and white, that there's no room to misinterpret what he's trying to say or give him the benefit of the doubt. He says the election was rigged, or that he actually secretly won it? No, it wasn't – and no, he didn't. See how easy that was?
According to the Washington Post, Trump told around 30,000 "mis-truths" during his first term. He made 503 false or misleading remarks on one day alone – the day before Americans voted him out of office. Lies are all he has.
That's the thing that scares Trump more than anything. He's been led to believe – partly by a complicit section of the media, partly by his own hubris – that he's somehow above the concept of truth. But the second the truth comes to find him, he runs away scared. He isn't equipped to confront it, he isn't equipped to confront Kamala – and he definitely isn't equipped to confront the task of being president again.
Personally, I hope we do get a rematch. But I doubt we will. If Trump really does want to be president again, the best thing he can do is keep his mouth shut.
Kamala Surges In ALL SWING STATES In The Latest Polling Averages! (8-min. YouTube video; Arkive, September 13, 2024)
Michael Tomasky: Trump And Laura Loomer: Mainstream Media, He's Just Taunting You Now. (The New Republic, September 13, 2024)
He takes a 9/11 "truther" to the 9/11 ceremony. Are we going to start talking frankly now about his mental unfitness?
Imagine with me that Kamala Harris had attended - oh, let's say a Holocaust commemoration ceremony - and she brought, as a member of her entourage, someone known for saying the Holocaust was a hoax. Or that she attended a ceremony marking the anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting - in the company of someone who'd argued, like Alex Jones, that the shootings were faked.
That's what Donald Trump just did by bringing Laura Loomer to Wednesday's September 11 commemoration. It's just a surreal moment. Now, years down the line, the Republican Party standard-bearer comes to New York on 9/11 itself, palling around with someone who called those attacks an "inside job".
You've seen that reference many times now in the last couple of days, but it's worth unpacking the phrase in a paragraph. "Inside job", with respect to 9/11, meant that the U.S. government had advance knowledge of the attacks and let them happen. Or even staged them. In some variants, Israel, naturally, was involved as well. I believe a lot of bad stuff about George W. Bush and Dick Cheney (still!), but I have never believed that. It's loony tunes. But adherence to this zany theory was disturbingly widespread, at first on the far left before it spread to and was taken up by some on the far right. In polls at the time, up to a quarter of respondents, sometimes more, said they believed this silliness.
When I say that Loomer believes lunatic nonsense about the September 11 attacks, I'm not dredging up statements she made 20 years ago to criticize her today. HuffPost reported this week that just last year, Loomer "shared a video on X that said '9/11 was an Inside Job!' and claimed it was somehow related to then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's announcing $2.3-Trillion in 'lost' government funds on Sept. 10, 2001." Loomer's sins hardly end there, of course. She's a racist and a xenophobe and a provocateur. There's a lot more. She's poison.
The fact that Trump took Loomer to the 9/11 event has gotten a lot of coverage. The New York Times has a good piece up today that highlights Trump bringing her to New York and traveling with her more generally. In case you missed it, she was at the debate Tuesday night in Philadelphia. She's a frequent Mar-a-Lago presence. He wanted to give her a campaign job back in the spring, until others objected. Loomer is apparently too crazy for Marjorie Taylor Greene. I didn't know "too crazy for Marjorie Taylor Greene" was possible.
Jon Passantino, Sean Lyngaas and Hadas Gold: Right-Wing Influencers Say They Were Dupes In An Alleged Russian Influence Operation. They're Keeping Their $Millions, For Now. (CNN, September 13, 2024)
The right-wing social media stars who were allegedly paid millions of dollars in a nefarious Russian influence operation to shape public opinion around the 2024 U.S. presidential election are remaining mum.
Last week, the Justice Department alleged that Russian state media producers funneled nearly $10-Million to an unnamed Tennessee-based company, later determined by CNN to be Tenet Media, to create and amplify content that often featured narratives and themes supported by the Kremlin. Tenet Media boasts a slate of high-profile right-wing, pro-Trump commentators including Tim Pool, Dave Rubin, Benny Johnson and several others.
While the indictment doesn't directly name or accuse the influencers of wrongdoing, or state that they knew at the time that the money was part of a Russian influence operation, it alleged two employees of RT, the Russian state media propaganda outlet, paid nearly $10-Million to hire the "talent" and create social media videos promoting its agenda. All of the figures have said they did not know the funds originated with the Kremlin and had no idea they were being employed for the purpose of amplifying pro-Russia narratives. The influencers all say they are "victims", and that the FBI has contacted them for voluntary interviews.
In the wake of the stunning accusation, CNN asked representatives for Pool, Rubin and Johnson whether they would turn over or donate the money they were paid. None of them have publicly detailed the payments they allegedly received as part of the foreign campaign, or responded to CNN requests on the matter. Based on the information revealed in the case so far, the influencers are not obligated to forfeit the money.
In an interview following the indictment, Pool insisted the amount he was paid - $100,000 per video - was "around market value for offers we had already received", and described it as "inconsequential" to his lifestyle. "We've actually never done anything with it", he told conservative host Ben Shapiro. "I would say the overwhelming majority of the money has just not gone anywhere." While Pool noted he had been urged by social-media users to give the money back, he said he was consulting with his legal team on the case.
The secret payments lay bare how susceptible the new media ecosystem is to infiltration, where independent creators operate with few guardrails and little transparency. And while the personalities hired by Tenet regularly attack the traditional news media, the payments reveal the figures' lack of accountability and integrity befitted to traditional journalistic outlets.
Federal prosecutors outlined in a court filing how one of the social media stars, believed to be Rubin, was approached by a Tenet co-founder with an offer of $2-Million per year to make videos for the company. One of the founders later wrote, "It would need to be closer to $5-Million yearly for him to be interested", according to the indictment. Rubin eventually agreed on a contract of a $400,000 monthly fee to create "four weekly videos", along with a $100,000 signing bonus, the indictment said.
While Rubin appeared to be unaware of the origins of the funds, the Justice Department said Tenet's founders, the right-wing personality Lauren Chen and her husband, Liam Donovan, did. Neither Chen nor Donovan are named in the indictment.
A private message between Chen and Donovan in May 2021 read, "So we're billing the Russians from the corporation, right?" Two weeks later, another message said, "Also, the Russians paid. So we're good to bill them for the next month, I guess", the legal filing details.
Two Russian state-media employees, Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, were charged by the Justice Department with money-laundering and violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Chen and Donovan have not been charged; CNN has not been able to reach the couple.
Rubin later said he was a victim of the elaborate scheme, posting on social media: "These allegations clearly show that I and other commentators were the victims of this scheme. I knew absolutely nothing about any of this fraudulent activity. Period."
The Justice Department's investigation into the covert Russian influence operation - and of the Tenet Media founders themselves - could be ongoing, but suggests that prosecutors unsealed the indictment this month to try to blunt the impact of the Russian propaganda on November's U.S. election. The U.S. government was in many ways "caught flat-footed" in 2016 by the covert Russian influence campaign, and U.S. officials are intent on not making the same mistake this year.
NEW: Hafiz Rashid: Alina Habba Quietly Pays To Make A Trump Hush-Money Deal Disappear. (The New Republic, September 12, 2024)
Trump lawyer Alina Habba has settled a Trump hush-money deal with a Bedminster, NJ waitress.
Yuval Noah Harari, on The Beat: MAGA Propaganda Decoded: Obama's Fave Historian Shreds Trump Tricks With Ground-Breaking Scholarship. (54-min. Youtube video; MSNBC, September 12, 2024)
MSNBC's Ari Melber sits down with Yuval Noah Harari (@YuvalNoahHarari), author of just-released "Nexus", for an in-depth interview on a wide range of topics. They dive into discussions on artificial intelligence, Donald Trump, misinformation, the concept of "truth", and much more.
[Highly recommended!]
Hafiz Rashid: Brutal Video Shows Pace Of Trump's Cognitive Decline Between Debates. (The New Republic, September 13, 2024)
A CNN segment revealed the stark difference between 2016 Trump and 2024 Trump.
CNN made a video comparing Donald Trump's debate answers against Hillary Clinton in 2016 and his answers from Tuesday's (Sept. 10) debate with Kamala Harris eight years later, and there's a considerable difference in how the Republican presidential nominee spoke and conducted himself.
The video comparison, aired last night, shows how Trump would stay on topic and give coherent answers in 2016. In contrast, Trump earlier this week went off on tangents, rambling and avoiding specific ideas.
[WHAT CNN link, and from when?]
Freddy Brewster: J.D. Vance's Master Plan For Citizens United 2.0 (The Lever, September 12, 2024)
Vice presidential candidate Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) and other Republicans are spearheading a lawsuit aiming to prompt the Supreme Court to move beyond its landmark Citizens United decision and tear down some of the last remaining rules designed to prevent megadonors' money from influencing public officials. What's more, Vance has ties to one of the appeals judges who agreed with the effort and just helped tee up the case for Supreme Court consideration.
[Get the money out of politics? Then how would the GOP buy politicians?]
David Jackson: Kamala Harris, Donald Trump Meet Again, Shake Hands At 9/11 Memorial Service. (USA Today, September 11, 2024)
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, who had a more awkward handshake just before last night's contentious debate, planned to attend other 9/11 memorial services throughout the day. They started with the ceremony at the site of the Twin Towers that were the first targets of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. As loved ones read out the names of the fallen on 9/11, Harris and President Joe Biden stood on the front row just a few feet away from Trump and running mate JD Vance.
Later in the morning, the candidates are scheduled to attend a service at Shanksville, Pa., the field where a hijacked plane crashed amid a battle between passengers and 9/11 hijackers. Harris and Biden also plan to attend a memorial service at the Pentagon, another target on 9/11.
"Today is a day of solemn remembrance as we mourn the souls we lost in a heinous terrorist attack on September 11, 2001," Harris said in a statement before the ceremonies. "We stand in solidarity with their families and loved ones."
Trump, in a phone interview with Fox News, called 9/11 a "very, very sad, horrible day, horrible day. There's never been anything like it, just a horrible day."
Political tensions remained during the 9/11 ceremony. At one point, a woman yelled at Trump: "Where were you for the twenty years I've been here? Where were you?"
[Away; the same place he was for American union workers on Labor Day.]
Analysis, Key Moments From The Trump-Harris Presidential Debate (Washington Post, September 11, 2024)
Last night's lively debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump touched on the economy, immigration, abortion, democracy and climate change. The nominees clashed over and over, with the vice president baiting the former president into an animated response on the criminal charges he faces.
In a decided change from June's debate between President Joe Biden and Trump, ABC News moderators pushed back against the former president's falsehoods - including his baseless claims that Democrats favor abortion after birth, and the debunked assertion that Haitian immigrants are eating pets in an Ohio town.
Minutes after the debate ended, pop star Taylor Swift announced that she would vote for Harris in an Instagram post that referenced AI-generated images that had circulated, falsely claiming the singer had endorsed Trump.
Kaia Hubbard: Harris Campaign Seeks Second Debate. Trump Says He's "Less Inclined" To Debate Harris Again. (CBS News, September 11, 2024)
Kamala Harris' campaign wasted little time, after last night's first debate between Harris and former President Donald Trump, before calling for another match-up. "Under the bright lights, the American people got to see the choice they will face this fall at the ballot box: between moving forward with Kamala Harris, or going backwards with Trump", Harris campaign chair Jen O'Malley Dillon said in a statement on last night. "That's what they saw tonight and what they should see at a second debate in October. Vice President Harris is ready for a second debate. Is Donald Trump?"
In an appearance on "Fox & Friends" this morning, Trump claimed the debate, hosted by ABC News, was "rigged" against him. He defended his performance against Harris and said that he'd be "less inclined to" debate her a second time "because we had a great night. They lost very badly, the first thing they did is ask for a debate", Trump said. "They always ask for a rematch."
[He's not even lying as well as he used to. But he remains outstanding at projecting his failings onto others.]
NEW: NPR Staff: NPR Fact-Checked The Harris-Trump Presidential Debate. Here's What We Found. (6-min. YouTube video; NPR, September 11, 2024)
NEW: Domenico Montanaro: The Debate Between Harris And Trump Wasn't Close - And Four Other Takeaways. (NPR, September 11, 2024)
Well, that was different from the June 27 debate between President Biden and Donald Trump!
If that June debate was a five-alarm fire for Democrats that eventually forced Biden from the race, after Tuesday's debate between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump's proponents should probably check the temperature in their own house.
What happened - and what could it mean going forward? Here are 5 takeaways:
1. This debate wasn't close.
2. The spotlight should now be on Trump's incoherence and general lack of any serious grasp on policy.
3. Trump was on the defensive and evasive, even on issues that should benefit him - and didn't land much, if anything, that stuck.
4. The moderators fact-checked, unlike in the previous debate.
5. Harris has done everything right - and could still lose.
Rex Huppke: Trump Is 78 And Barely Coherent. Where's Everyone Who Questioned Biden's Age And Fitness? (USA Today, September 10, 2024)
To the pundits and the Republicans who relentlessly decried President Joe Biden's age, "cognitive decline" and "mental acuity" right up to the day he stepped aside in the presidential race, allow me to unspool a recent quote from 78-year-old GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump. He was responding to a question about "what specific piece of legislation" he would advance to make child care more affordable:
"It's a very important issue. But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I'm talking about, that – because, look, child care is child care. It's – couldn't – you know, it's something – you have to have it. In this country, you have to have it. But when you talk about those numbers compared to the kind of numbers that I'm talking about by taxing foreign nations at levels that they're not used to, but they'll get used to it very quickly – and it's not going to stop them from doing business with us but they'll have a very substantial tax when they send product into our country. Those numbers are so much bigger than any numbers that we're talking about, including child care. That – it's going to take care – we're going to have – I – I look forward to having no deficits within a fairly short period of time, coupled with the reductions that I told you about on waste and fraud and all of the other things that are going on in our country."
That's as much as I can quote here, but it went on and continued to make zero sense. Child care is child care? Tariffs are going to make child-care costs go away? There's nothing about legislation in that word-eruption. There are barely any complete sentences.
If Biden, as the Democratic nominee, had gone on a rambling verbal tear like that, GOP lawmakers would be calling for him to be institutionalized, and cable news panels would be discussing how the 25th Amendment works.
But The New York Times' initial report on Trump's babble said this: "In a jumbled answer, he said he would prioritize legislation on the issue but offered no specifics and insisted that his other economic policies, including tariffs, would 'take care' of child care."
Oh, c'mon! A 78-year-old convicted felon running for president rants nonsensically, demonstrating an inability to hold a thought or understand an important issue, and it's deemed "a jumbled answer"?
Trump's bizarre rants get sanitized. Biden got no such special treatment.
[What? MAGA Republicans - and even their incompetent leader - should apply common sense in a fair manner? And, give a straight answer to a straight question? Seriously?
Psst: The article has more to say...]
Rex Huppke: Trump Goes Full-Loon In Debate With Harris. Republicans, You Sure You Want This Guy? (USA Today, September 10, 2024)
And now, a brief message to Republicans in the wake of tonight's presidential debate: HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAAAA! Are you freakin' kidding me? That babbling goon is your standard-bearer? Nice work!
Trump ranted like he was reading from a Facebook screed posted by a conspiracy-addled lunatic. His face twisted in contortions of frustration and rage.
With one smart comment early in the debate, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris shattered any veneer of sanity around Donald Trump, sending him spiraling into his true, babbling, unhinged form. He was often incomprehensible, all anger and grievance, a dunderhead for the ages and a tragic figure the GOP is fully strapped to.
Harris did what, to Trump, is unthinkable. She said, accurately, that people often leave his rallies "out of exhaustion and boredom" because it's always the same schtick.
Nathalie Baptiste: Trump Refuses To Answer Whether He'd Veto A National Abortion Ban. (Huffington Post, September 10, 2024)
Many are eager for Trump to clarify his stance on reproductive rights. Even though he has bragged about getting Roe v. Wade overturned, he seemed to suggest last month that he would support Florida's pro-choice amendment - though shortly after, he said he would vote against it.
The moderators kept pressing the issue, and he kept dodging.
[He's good at that - perhaps from dodging the U.S. military draft when he was young?]
NEW: Sarah McCammon: In Debate, Trump Repeats The False Claim That Democrats "Support Abortion After Birth". (NPR, September 10, 2024)
In today's presidential debate, former President Donald Trump again falsely claimed that Democrats support abortions "after birth" and "executing" babies.
It's an attack line Trump has used repeatedly to paint Democrats as radical on issues of reproductive rights. But as ABC News anchor Linsey Davis mentioned during her real-time fact check, there is no state where it is legal to kill a baby after birth. A report from KFF earlier this year also noted that abortions "after birth" are illegal in every state.
According to the Pew Research Center, the overwhelming majority of abortions - 93% - take place during the first trimester. Pew says only 1% take place after 21 weeks.
Amy B. Wang and Mariana Alfaro: Trump Pushes False Claims About Migrants Eating Dogs In Springfield, Ohio. (Washington Post, September 10, 2024)
On the debate stage tonight, Trump doubled down on baseless and dehumanizing claims pushed by his running mate that immigrants in Springfield, Ohio are stealing and eating pets.
MeidasTouch: Post-Show Analysis Of Kamala Harris Vs. Donald Trump Debate (90-min. YouTube video; MeidasTouch, September 10, 2024)
MeidasTouch presents post-coverage for the first presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
Robert Reich: Tonight's Debate (Substack, September 10, 2024)
To say that Kamala Harris nailed it tonight is an understatement. She knocked it out of the park. She combined civility with firmness. She made Trump look and sound like the blubbering idiot he is.
Tonight's was Harris's first presidential debate. It was Trump's eighth - including his debates with Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020. But Trump was worse than he has ever been. All he did was attack. His only weapon was fear. His only means was lies.
Trump claimed that the American economy under him was better than the economy under Biden and Harris, and that under Harris the economy would be ruined. In fact, under Trump, America lost almost 3-million jobs. And Trump's unforgivable failure, to contain COVID as well as other advanced countries did, required massive government expenditures that fueled inflation.
Biden and Harris, by contrast, have presided over an explosion of job growth while inflation has been tamed.
On the issue of abortion, Trump claimed Democrats want to kill babies after they are born. When questioned about January 6, he charged that Biden and Harris were responsible for the investigations and indictments that targeted him.
Harris, by contrast, answered the questions asked of her - clearly, cogently, powerfully. And she drew sharp contrasts with Trump. But it wasn't so much Trump's shambolic responses that gave Harris the big win tonight. It was her manner, in sharp contrast to his.
[Read the rest of this good analysis, online!]
Entire Presidential Debate: VP Harris Vs. Former President Trump (112-min. YouTube video; ABC News, September 10, 2024)
Tonight, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris met face-to-face for the first time - in Philadelphia for the ABC News presidential debate.
When Is The U.S. 2024 Presidential Debate? How To Watch The Trump, Harris Debate?> (NBC Chicago Staff and The Associated Press, September 9, 2024)
* When Is The 2024 Presidential Debate?:
The presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump takes place tomorrow night at 8 p.m. CT/9 p.m. ET - Tuesday, Sept. 10 - at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.
* How To Watch The Presidential Debate?:
NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt and TODAY co-anchor Savannah Guthrie will anchor a pre-debate prime-time special starting at 8 p.m. ET on NBC, followed by live presentation of the ABC News-hosted one-hour debate beginning at 9 p.m. ET. Holt and Guthrie will continue special coverage for 30 minutes following the debate.
Viewers can watch the debate live on their local NBC station or via the local NBC station's streaming channel, which is available 24/7 and free of charge across nearly every online video platform, including Peacock, YouTube, Samsung TV Plus and the NBC News app on smartphones and smart TVs.
* What Are The Debate Rules?:
[Read them and more, in the online article.]
Melissa Quinn: Republicans Who Have Endorsed Kamala Harris And Spoken Out Against Trump (list; CBS News, September 10, 2024)
As Vice President Kamala Harris heads into tonight's presidential debate with former President Donald Trump, they are locked in a tight race - but she continues to see a growing number of Republicans endorse her ahead of the 2024 election.
Several Republicans endorsed Harris at the Democratic National Convention in August, while a group of more than 200 who worked for former Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, as well as Sen. Mitt Romney and the late Sen. John McCain, signed onto a letter supporting the Democratic nominee.
Former Rep. Liz Cheney has been one of the most vocal Republican critics of Trump, and she announced her intent to vote for Harris during an event at Duke University on Sept. 4. She represented Wyoming in the House for six years, which included two years in GOP leadership as conference chair, before being ousted from the leadership position by pro-Trump Republicans and then defeated by  a Trump-backed challenger in a primary. "I don't believe that we have the luxury of writing in candidates' names, particularly in swing states", Cheney said. "As a conservative, as someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this. And because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris."
Former Vice President Dick Cheney joined his daughter, Liz Cheney, in announcing his plan to vote for Harris in November. Cheney has a long career in Republican politics, having served four presidents. In addition to being vice president to President George W. Bush, Cheney was Secretary of Defense under President George H.W. Bush and White House chief of staff under President Gerald Ford. He represented Wyoming in the House for 10 years. "In our nation's 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump", he said in a statement on Sept. 6. "He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. He can never be trusted with power again. As citizens, we each have a duty to put country above partisanship to defend our Constitution. That is why I will be casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris."
[For even more facts on this critical issue, read the article.]
Ayman Mohyeldin: "The Ramblings Of An Absolute Lunatic!" Trump's Incoherent Behavior On Display For The World To See. (12-min. YouTube video; MSNBC, September 9, 2024) As Vice President Kamala Harris prepares for the upcoming debate, Donald Trump's rambling incoherence is on full display - and his voters are starting to notice. MSNBC's Ayman Mohyeldin speaks with MSNBC Political Analyst Molly Jong-Fast, The Seneca Project CEO Tara Setmayer and The Atlantic's Tom Nichols about Trump's inability to speak coherently and the media's failure in covering his decline.
Aaron Blake: Trump Reiterates: "There Will Be Blood!" (Washington Post, September 9, 2024)
With his "bloody" comment about an immigration crackdown, Trump keeps toying with the idea of righteous violence - even after Jan. 6 and an assassination attempt against him.
Six months ago, Donald Trump presented us all with a Rorschach test by predicting a "bloodbath" if he loses the 2024 election. "Now, if I don't get elected, it's going to be a bloodbath for the whole - that's going to be the least of it", Trump said while discussing the economy and his tariff plan. "It's going to be a bloodbath for the country."
Trump has now invoked the prospect of blood again, even after his own blood was spilled just two months ago. Trump said Saturday in Wisconsin that cracking down on undocumented immigrants would be a "bloody story". He referred to the recent sensational claims about a Venezuelan street gang taking over an apartment complex in a Denver suburb. Police say this has not happened.
As usual, his comments are infused with the kind of suggestiveness that allows plausible deniability. And as usual, the point is less about what he specifically meant than that Trump continues to unmistakably toy with the prospect of righteous violence - something that we well know can inflame his supporters.
Mariana Alfaro: Vance, Republicans Elevate False Claims About Immigrants Eating American Pets. (Washington Post, September 9, 2024)
On Monday, some Republicans - including Donald Trump's running-mate JD Vance - amplified the false and dehumanizing claim that immigrants in Ohio who came into the country during the Biden-Harris administration are injuring and eating Americans' pets. Police say there have been no reports.
Brian Tyler Cohen: Republicans Caught In Bombshell Lie. (8-min. YouTube video; September 9, 2024)
Republicans caught in humiliating fact-check.
NEW: Robert B. Hubbell: Trump Suffers Emotional Break; Media Pretends It Didn't Happen. (Substack, September 9, 2024)
Against all logic, decency, and common sense, the presidential race remains effectively tied (although Kamala Harris has the momentum, which is a good sign with less than 60 days until election day). Sadly, many Americans will vote for Trump because he is unhinged and out of control.
In a world with a functioning press, the media would be sounding the alarm with unremitting urgency. But the media has concluded that it can generate more revenue by keeping the presidential race close. They believe that declaring one candidate to be an unfit megalomaniac at every opportunity would grow tiresome.
So, it is up to us. We must be warriors for the truth. And that means understanding what we have just witnessed over the last two weeks. Yes, it is unpleasant and enervating. We want to look away. That is what Trump wants. He wants us to be weary to the point of numbness and surrender. We cannot let that happen.
As soon as Kamala Harris became the presumptive nominee, Trump began racist and misogynistic attacks unparalleled in the sordid history of American political campaigns. He questioned Kamala Harris's racial identify and accused her of engaging in sexual acts to succeed as a politician. And then it got worse...
NEW: Heather Cox Richardson: Trump's Speech Today Reeked Of Desperation - In A Fantasy World. His Rhetoric Was Apocalyptic And Bloody, In Ways That Raise Huge Red Flags For Scholars Of Fascism. (Letters from an American, September 8, 2024)
Yesterday, Trump ranted at the press, furious that the American legal system had resulted in two jury decisions that he had defamed and sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll. He was so angry that, with his lawyers standing awkwardly behind him, he told reporters: "I'm disappointed in my legal talent, I'll be honest with you."
Today, Trump held a rally in Mosinee, Wisconsin, a small city in the center of the state, where he addressed about 7,000 people. A number of us who have been watching him closely have been saying for a while that when voters actually saw him in this campaign, they would be shocked at how he has deteriorated, and that seems to be true: his meandering and self-indulgent speeches have had attendees leaving early, some of them bewildered. In today's speech, Trump slurred a number of words, referring to Elon Musk as "Leon", for example, and forgetting the name of North Dakota governor Doug Burgum, who was on his short list for a vice-presidential pick.
Today's speech struck me as different from his past performances, distinguished for what sounded like desperation. Trump has always invented his stories from whole cloth, but there used to be some way to tie them to reality. Today that seemed to be gone. He was in a fantasy world, and his rhetoric was apocalyptic. It was also bloody in ways that raise huge red flags for scholars of fascism.
[Heather gets to the heart of it - or the lack thereof.]
Gabe Sanchez: Trump And Vance Go Missing At Key Campaign Moment. (17-min. YouTube video; MeidasTouch, September 8, 2024)
Donald Trump and JD Vance deliberately ignored union workers on Labor Day, while Kamala Harris and Tim Walz were actively campaigning with unions as the clear pro-labor choice this election.
Brian Tyler Cohen: Trump Commits Major Rally Mistake As Panic Sets In. (9-min. YouTube video; No Lie, September 8, 2024)
Trump commits a major mistake at his rally, as panic over Kamala sets in.
David Corn, Our Land: Let's Be Clear: Putin Is Again Trying To Put Trump In The White House. (Mother Jones, September 7, 2024; updated September 9, 2024)
More evidence emerges of Russia's covert assault on American democracy.
I have repeatedly warned that Russian tyrant and war criminal Vladmir Putin intended to mess with the US election to help Donald Trump once again. This week, in a pair of actions, the Justice Department outlined elaborate schemes mounted by covert Moscow operators to influence the 2024 campaign. But in each instance, the feds declined to explicitly state the obvious: The Kremlin efforts have been designed and mounted to aid Trump's bid to regain power.
This is the third American presidential election in a row in which Putin has waged covert information warfare against the United States to help Trump. In 2016, he ordered a hack-and-leak operation and a clandestine social-media campaign to hinder Hillary Clinton and boost Trump. Four years later, Ukraine officials tied to Russian intelligence spread disinformation designed to smear Joe Biden. With Trump and his political allies either dubious about or opposed to US assistance to Ukraine, Putin has more motivation than ever to try to aid his longtime admirer.
In its public statements, the Justice Department avoided a simple declaration: Russia is secretly screwing with the American information ecosystem to assist Trump. Garland wants to keep these cases from appearing political. But they are deeply political. Russia is conniving to put a lying, misogynistic, chaotic, narcissistic, right-wing authoritarian into the White House - and Trump World is once again denying this reality and, thus, abetting a foreign adversary's attack on the United States. There should be immediate congressional investigations and hearings.
This ought to be front-page news for weeks and fundamentally shape the final leg of the campaign. But if the past is any guide, it won't. That means Putin has a shot at winning. Even exposure of his plot by the Justice Department might not be enough to thwart it. If Moscow succeeds, it will be not because of any Russian brilliance but due to American decline and weakness.
NEW: Matthew Chapman: "Ignorant Of Basic Civics": MSNBC's Ari Melber Slams GOP's Key Anti-Harris Talking Point. (Raw Story, September 6, 2024)
Trump loyalists going after Vice President Kamala Harris for being "unqualified" to serve in the Oval Office have no idea what they're talking about, said MSNBC anchor Ari Melber this evening. "The basic MAGA attack here is on experience", said Melber. "And then some of them mix it in with a claim that she was not only inexperienced, but somehow only rising as a kind of inexperienced, unqualified diversity pick. They are empirically wrong. This is false and I'm going to explain why."
"The facts show presidential nominees typically have some experience in elected government", said Melber. "In the modern era you could go to JFK and Reagan. In their first White House runs as nominees, these are the facts: they each had about 13 and 18 years in elective office. For JFK, Congress. For Reagan, governor. ... And voters could see that at the time. Obama had less time in national office and people discussed that in his first run. He was running for president in the first Senate term and had 11 years.
"After that, of course, you have Donald Trump, who had ZERO YEARS in elective office when he ran" - and he actually boasted about this, saying he was coming in as a fresh face to "drain the swamp".
As for Harris? He showed the figures, from her time as an elected district attorney, Attorney General of California, senator, and vice president. "Not only does she have more experience than all of the other presidents as a nominee, but she doubles most of them. She served in elected government positions for 21 YEARS straight and counting." In other words, Harris has more experience in elected office than "Reagan and JFK combined", said Melber - and if you count all government and military experience, Melber continued, that pushes it up to 34 YEARS for Harris.
And, he added, all this comes as Trump has chosen Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) as his running mate, who holds fewer than TWO YEARS of experience in elected office.
Arianna Coghill: Trump Asked To Appeal His Defamation Verdict, Then Spent 40 Minutes Insulting His Victims. Sigh. (Mother Jones, September 6, 2024)
I'm no legal expert, but I've got a sneaky suspicion that if you've just asked a judge to reconsider the verdict in your defamation case, you probably shouldn't repeat similarly defamatory statements during a press conference later that same day.
But, of course, that's precisely what Donald Trump did.
David Corn: GOP Senate Candidate In Nevada Can't Stop Shifting His Position On Abortion. (Mother Jones, September 5, 2024)
In June, Sam Brown, the GOP candidate for US Senate in Nevada and longtime abortion opponent, published an op-ed that said that if he were elected and a national abortion ban came up for the vote in the Senate, he would oppose the measure. This was obviously a move to defuse incumbent Democratic Senator Jacky Rosen's effort to wield the abortion issue against him. Brown's campaign released an accompanying press release that complained, "Jacky Rosen and Nevada Democrats have spent nearly a year lying about Sam Brown's personal position on abortion." With this editorial - in which Brown said, "It's our duty, as a society, to let women know they have options" - Brown was trying to fuzzy up the picture and become less of a target on this front. That was nothing new. A review of his campaign website reveals that over the past year Brown, an Afghanistan war veteran, has steadily shifted how he presents his position.
Robert Reich: What Will Kamala Harris Do About America's Soaring Inequality And Shameful Tax System? (data, including damning graph; Substack, September 5, 2024)
A few Americans at the very top have extraordinary wealth but pay incredibly low rates of income tax. Why? Their hugely-profitable businesses generate very little taxable income. Mostly, they generate capital gains.
Today, Kamala Harris announced that she would increase the capital gains tax to 28%. That's higher than the current rate of 23.8%, but far lower than the 39.6% that Biden had proposed. The move apparently came after pressure from her campaign's biggest donors to back off some of its most-aggressive tax proposals.
In the same speech, Harris rolled out her new plan for an expanded tax break for business startups, including a 10-fold expansion of a tax deduction for new small businesses. She said she would expand the startup-expense deduction for small businesses to $50,000. (Currently, business owners can deduct up to $5,000 in startup expenses - costs they incur for items such as market surveys, advertisements, and salaries for workers in training even before the business officially begins operating.)
Biden would also tax unrealized gains at death for those holding more than $5-Million worth of assets.
Several years ago, multi-billionaire Warren Buffett made a claim that would become famous. He said that he paid a lower tax rate than his secretary, thanks to the many loopholes and deductions that benefit the wealthy. The 400 wealthiest Americans today still pay a lower total-tax rate - spanning federal, state, and local taxes - than any other income group, according to newly-released data.
I'm hoping Harris sticks with Biden on Biden's most-important tax proposal: A 25%-minimum tax on Americans worth more than $100-Million. This 25% tax would apply to a combination of their regular income and their unrealized capital gains. It would raise roughly $500-Billion in tax revenue over a decade, according to the Treasury Department.
Heather Cox Richardson: More Evidence Of Russian Influence On Republicans (Letters From An American, September 5, 2024)
The U.S. government continues to tighten the screws against Russian malign activity. This morning the Department of Justice announced an indictment charging Dimitri Simes for violating U.S. sanctions against Russia. Simes allegedly worked for a sanctioned Russian television station and laundered the money from his work. Simes advised Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.
[tRUmPutin is not the only beneficiary.]
Andy Kroll, ProPublica; Nick Surgey, Documented: Ginni Thomas Privately Praised Group Working Against Supreme Court Reform: "Thank You So, So, So Much!" (ProPublica and Documented, September 4, 2024)
In a call with donors, First Liberty Institute's Kelly Shackelford read the supportive email he said came from Thomas. The leader of the religious-rights group also labeled Justice Elena Kagan "treasonous" for backing a stronger ethics code.
Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, privately heaped praise on a major religious-rights group for fighting efforts to reform the nation's highest court - efforts sparked, in large part, by her husband's ethical lapses.
NEW: Dark Brandon: A Very Strong Case: Why MAGA Voters Are Stupid (6-min. YouTube video cartoon re-mix; September 4, 2024)
In this segment we look back at the political landscape in the United States, focusing on the Republican Party's shift beginning with the Nixon era. It explains how the party, under the guidance of strategist Lee Atwater, began to appeal to disaffected white voters through "racist dog-whistles", leading to a significant voter realignment. The speaker then connects this strategy to the rise of Donald Trump, describing him as having low intelligence but resonating with similarly less-intelligent voters who felt empowered by his simple and direct communication style. The speaker concludes by emphasizing the polarization between low and high-intelligence voters, and the importance of informing undecided or uninformed voters to prevent Trump's rise to dictatorship.
[This cartoon is not for kids! We should have shared it earlier; let's share it later.]
NEW: Michael Cornelison: Alien Nature of Trump (MBCornelison Substack, September 3, 2024)
In an interview with right-wing host Mark Levin on the Fox News Channel last night, Trump complained about the new grand-jury indictment of him for trying to steal the 2020 presidential election. "Whoever heard you get indicted for interfering with a presidential election, where you have every right to do it?", he asked.
More evidence that Trump is from another planet. He cannot imagine how normal people think, and cannot understand that such statements are harmful to himself. It is ironic that Trump tries so hard to win respect by constantly praising himself ("greatest President of all time"). So many MAGA suckers don't get the joke. Scary.
Trump's father taught him to be a predator from age 3, and he has never had another thought. The "mensch" part of his brain is missing.
[As is his heart.]
Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert: A Former Google Product Manager Made An AI-Powered Website To Sift Through Project 2025 So You Don't Have To. (Business Insider, September 1, 2024)
- Project 2025 is an ultra-conservative playbook and policy wish-list for a second Trump presidency.
- The 922-page book outlines policy goals, but its potential impacts aren't easily identifiable.
- A former Google project manager made "25 And Me", an AI-driven website to search for key topics easily.
Project 2025 ("Mandate For Leadership: the Conservative Promise"), a wish list of policy goals for a second Donald Trump presidency written by The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank, has faced increasing scrutiny for advocating for - among other extreme positions - the elimination of the Department of Education and imprisoning creators of pornography.
But the dense playbook, clocking in at 922 pages, is a slog to sift through, making it difficult for average voters to identify what the project report says about issues they care about. Media reports cover some of the most striking proposals - like dismantling entire federal agencies and enshrining Christian values into law - but the playbook touches on everything from environmental regulations to labor laws.
Enter Rajat Paharia, a former Google product manager who believes everyone should see what Project 2025 could mean for them. Paharia created 25 And Me, an AI-powered website that allows viewers to sort by topic and read for themselves what Project 2025 has to say on issues like civil rights, drug prices, and veterans affairs. It took Paharia about three days, with the help of Google Gemini and GitHub Copilot, to create the website. The AI tools helped him identify excerpts in the playbook that touched on various topics and then listed each reference with citations to its source in the book.
[Thank you, Rajat! "25 and Me" is easy, instant, and very useful. Try its link, or access the full 922-page Project 2025 book!]
Brian Tyler Cohen; The Legal Breakdown with Glenn Kirschner: Trump's Attorney Gets Worst News Of His Career. (9-min. YouTube video; September 1, 2024)
Glenn Kirschner discusses Rudy Giuliani's bad legal news.
Brian Tyler Cohen: Trump Screws Himself With Insane Confession. (10-min. YouTube video; August 31, 2024)
Why doesn't someone say out loud that NO ONE willingly has a ninth-month abortion of a healthy fetus?
[Doctors, Democrats and this video do say so: Fewer than 1% of abortions happen later than 30 days.]
VoteVets: VoteVets Has Trump Panicked And On The Run! (2-min. YouTube video; August 30, 2024)
Trump's on the run, panicked as his insults against those who serve catch up with him.
From mocking the wounded to turning military cemeteries into political stunts, he disrespects everything we stand for.
We're making sure no Servicemember EVER has to salute him as Commander-in-Chief again.
[Well said, shown, and documented in 1.6 minutes. Pass it on!]
Robert Reich: Announcing A New Video Series To Spread The Truth About The 2024 Election! (2-min. video; robertreich.substack.com, August 30, 2024)
On my Substack starting Friday, September 6, and each Friday thereafter through Election Day.
Lucas Kunce: "It's Time To Put Our Next Generation First." (lucas.substack.com, August 28, 2024)
If our leaders spent a lot more time investing in the next generation and a lot less time telling them what's good for them, we would all be a lot better off.
[Lucas Kunce is running for U.S. Senate for Missouri. This good message applies everywhere!]
Brian VanDeMark, Professor of History, United States Naval Academy: In A New Era Of Campus Upheaval, The 1970 Kent State Shootings Show The Danger Of Deploying Troops To Crush Legal Protests. (2-min. YouTube video; The Conversation, August 27, 2024)
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has expressed his intention, if elected to a second term, to use the U.S. armed forces to suppress domestic protests. The New York Times reports that Trump's allies are marshaling legal arguments to justify using National Guard or active-duty military troops for crowd control. Moreover, as the Times notes, Trump has asserted that if he returns to the White House, he will dispatch such forces without waiting for state or local officials to request such assistance.
I am a historian who has written several books about the Vietnam War, one of the most divisive episodes in our nation's past. My new book, "Kent State: An American Tragedy", examines an historic clash on May 4, 1970, between anti-war protesters and National Guard troops at Kent State University in Ohio. The confrontation escalated into violence: Troops opened fire on the demonstrators, killing four students and wounding nine others, including one who was paralyzed for life.
In my view, the prospect of dispatching troops in the way that Trump proposes chillingly echoes actions that led up to the Kent State shootings. Some active-duty units, as well as National Guard troops, are trained today to respond to riots and violent protests - but their primary mission is still to fight, kill, and win wars.
Heather Cox Richardson: Republicans Scheme To Discourage Democratic Voting. (Letters From An American, August 26, 2024)
As MAGA Republicans and their plans - especially their assault on reproductive healthcare and the policies outlined in Project 2025 - become increasingly unpopular, Republican-dominated states are ramping up their effort to keep the people they assume will oppose them from voting.
In May 2024 the Brennan Center reported that in at least 28 states, voters this year will face new restrictions that were not in place in the 2020 presidential election. Varying by state, these laws do things like shorten the time for requesting an absentee ballot, make it a crime to deliver another voter's mail-in ballot, require proof of citizenship from voters who share the same name as non-citizens, and so on.
Julianne McShane: Trump's Campaign Doesn't Seem To Want People To Hear Him At The Debate. (Mother Jones, August 26, 2024)
It appears that even the Trump campaign wants the former president to keep quiet. The campaigns are reportedly sparring over microphone rules ahead of the first debate, with the former president's team reportedly requesting muted mics.
Mother Jones illustration; Patrick Semansky/AP; Getty: Close-up of Donald Trump's face with a closed zipper over his mouth.
Eugene Daniels: "Is This Thing On?" Harris And Trump Battle Over Using Hot Mics At Debate. (29-min., 1-min. videos; Politico, August 26, 2024)
With just 15 days left until the scheduled Sept. 10 presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, negotiations between their two campaigns have hit an impasse over whether the candidates' microphones will be muted when it is not their turn to speak, according to four people familiar with the issue.
Yesterday night, Trump openly questioned whether he'll take part in the ABC-hosted event, suggesting the network might be biased, without mentioning anything about the microphone contretemps.
The Harris campaign says: "We have told ABC and other networks seeking to host a possible October debate that we believe both candidates' mics should be live throughout the full broadcast. Our understanding is that Trump's handlers prefer the muted microphone because they don't think their candidate can act presidential for 90 minutes on his own. We suspect Trump's team has not even told their boss about this dispute because it would be too embarrassing to admit they don't think he can handle himself against Vice President Harris without the benefit of a mute button."
[Historically, the microphones have remained live during prior presidential debates.]
Barbara F. Walter: Democracy Needs The Loser. (New Yorker magazine, August 24, 2024)
The observance of defeat, especially in an election, is often all that keeps a state from tipping into violence.
Phillips P. OBrien: Election Update 2: The Democratic Convention Was (Probably) A Success - Though We Can't Judge Its Impact Until After Labor Day. (Phillips's Newsletter, August 23, 2024)
The story of the week - indeed, of the campaign so far - was about the Democratic Convention which just ended a few hours ago with the acceptance speech of Kamala Harris (more about that later). That speech actually started quite slowly, I thought - though it picked up as it went on. And once she started talking about Trump, it had impact. (Someone in particular noticed that and went ballistic.)
This speech capped off what seemed a very successful few days; however, hold your horses before getting too excited. Most conventions feel successful - but then end up having a short-term afterglow, at best. It's because of what they are - a four-day commercial for the party hosting them, with a parade of major figures, excited delegates, mostly-accommodating media, celebrities, etc., almost all of whom agree on what they are doing. Conventions allow the parties to package themselves in the best possible ways and they are also overwhelmingly watched by those who are sympathetic to the party. During the Republican Convention, for instance, Fox had monster ratings and during the Democratic Convention it was the same for MSNBC.
So conventions are by nature the kinds of things that go well and make those who already support a candidate or party feel better about where they stand. That being said, there are signs that the traditional convention bounce is becoming considerably less pronounced in this moment of deep partisan divide. Looking at this interesting chart, we can see how convention bounces have generally declined over the last 40 years.

NEW: Nina Martin: My Lunch With Kamala's Mom. Shyamala Gopalan Harris Died 15 Years Ago. She's Still The Greatest Influence In Her Daughter's Life. (Mother Jones, August 22, 2024)
Shyamala Gopalan Harris did not believe in coddling. Pay her daughters, Kamala and Maya, an allowance for doing chores? "For what? I give you food. I give you rent. If you do the dishes, you should get two dollars? You ate from the damn dishes!" Reward the future vice president of the United States - and possible future president - for getting decent grades? Ridiculous. "What does that tell you? It says, 'You know, I really thought you were stupid. Oh, you surprised Mommy!' No."
When the breast-cancer researcher and single mother had to work in her lab on the weekends, her daughters went with her, like it or not. "I'm not going to get a babysitter", Dr. Harris laughed.
It's been 17 years since I interviewed Kamala Harris' mother, and 15 years since she died from colon cancer at the age of 70. I met her back in 2007, when I was an editor and writer at San Francisco Magazine profiling her daughter - the city's popular district attorney, who was running for reelection. Kamala was also helping her still-largely-unknown friend, the first-term Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, in his race for president. In a city that churned out political superstars - Pelosi, Feinstein, Newsom, Jerry and Willie Brown - Kamala Harris stood out, for all the reasons she has energized previously dispirited Democrats as she hit the campaign trail this summer. She was sharp, empathetic, self-assured, funny. Highly polished but not too slick. The child of immigrants, she looked like the future. Her policies sounded like the future, too - progressive enough for her most liberal constituents, but commonsense enough to appeal to the moderates who also wanted to feel safe.
Everyone told me, if you truly want to understand who Kamala Harris is and how she got that way, you need to talk to her mother. I wrangled a meeting with Dr. Harris, then a researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She arrived at the restaurant off Union Square freshly manicured and coiffed, a ferocious bundle of energy and opinions in a tiny frame. If I wanted to know what made Kamala Harris tick, I could see it in this formidable woman - the same piercing intelligence, the same easy laughter, the same withering side-eye.
During that long-ago lunch, Harris' mother explained why she hauled her two daughters, then still in elementary school, to her lab. "I had to go, we had to go", she said. "And when they got there, I would make them do something" - maybe label test tubes, or help with one of her experiments involving sex hormones and tumors. None of this did much to encourage artsy Kamala's interest in science, though thanks to her mother she can knit, embroider, and crochet. "She painted, she drew, she did all kinds of stuff", her mother recalled. "They couldn't watch TV unless they did something with their hands - even though I controlled the shows as well."
The contradictions of the 2007 Kamala Harris intrigued me: A 42-year-old Black and brown woman from the scruffy Berkeley-Oakland flats, whose political rise was largely financed by rich white Pacific Heights socialites. A die-hard career prosecutor, who often sounded like a social-justice warrior. A wannabe thought leader whose brand was "smart on crime", yet who squandered much of her early political capital by opposing the death penalty for a cop-killer. Harris was also maddeningly elusive, friendly and open, even as she firmly latched the door and pulled down the shades on anything remotely private. All of which left me wondering: Who was this person? How could I distinguish the appealing packaging from the authentic self?
I could ask her mother.
Since our conversation, Shyamala's daughter has been California's attorney general, a U.S. senator, a failed presidential candidate, the vice president, and now the first woman of color to be nominated by a major political party for president. Throughout, she has often referred to her mother as her greatest influence. Shyamala and her aphorisms have become part of the Harris mystique - consider the famous coconut story. Harris was delivering remarks at a White House swearing-in ceremony for Hispanic leaders in May 2023 when she veered into one of those earnest tangents that I remember from her San Francisco days, reaching into her trove of goofy-momisms and pulling out a zinger. "My mother would give us a hard time sometimes, and she would say to us, 'I don't know what's wrong with you young people", Harris recounted with a laugh. "You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?'"
I'm not sure what the vice president was talking about, though it had something to do with communities and context. I do know that it sounded exactly like something her mother would say. What I heard was love and yearning, a daughter honoring the person who, perhaps more than anyone else, helped shape her into what she has become, but who wasn't there to see how it had all turned out. After Harris secured the presidential nomination, I started going through my computer files and came upon a transcript of my conversation with her mother. In rereading it, I realized that now, when millions of Americans may have the same questions I had all those years ago, revisiting my visit with Shyamala might provide some meaningful clues.
Shyamala Gopalan was raised in a progressive Brahmin family in southeast India in which everyone was expected to earn an advanced degree and have a high-achieving career in public service. Her father, once part of the Indian movement to gain independence, was a civil servant and diplomat. Her mother, betrothed at age 12, became a fierce feminist, sometimes taking to the streets with a bullhorn to talk to poor women about accessing birth control, Kamala later wrote. Having children whose professional lives were not focused on making money was a point of pride for Shyamala's father. "Teachers, doctors, lawyers - these are supposed to be service professions", Dr. Harris told me. "When you make money on people who require legal and medical help, you are taking advantage of the very vulnerable. That's tacky."
Coddling was out of the question. In 1958, after graduating from college in Delhi at 19, Shyamala headed to the University of California at Berkeley to earn her doctorate in nutrition and endocrinology. "My father just put me on a plane. There was not a soul I knew in the entire place. My family has done that with everybody - my sister, my brother, it was all normal." After she completed her studies, the assumption was that she'd return to an arranged marriage in India.
But as Berkeley became the center of the Free Speech and anti–Vietnam War movements, that changed. Shyamala fell in love with a fellow grad student and activist, Jamaican-born Donald Harris, who eventually became an economics professor at Stanford. The birth of their daughters - Kamala in 1964, Maya in 1967 - did not hinder Shyamala's studies. She earned her PhD the same year Kamala was born - and was working in her lab when her water broke. Should a political rally demand their attention, she and Harris strapped the girls into their strollers and took them along. In her 2018 book The Truths We Hold, Kamala tells the story of when she was a fussy toddler and her mother tried to soothe her. "What do you want?" Shyamala asked. "Fweedom!!!". Kamala supposedly replied.
After the couple's 1971 divorce, Shyamala and the girls could have settled into one of the area's vibrant South-Asian enclaves. Instead, they gravitated to predominantly-Black neighborhoods in Berkeley and Oakland. "I raised them in an African-American community, for a very special reason", Shyamala told me: racism. "It doesn't make a damn bit of difference if your color comes from India or African-Americans, because this country is racist based on color." Her children's Indian identity was secure. Rooting them in the Bay Area's Black community was an act of pride and protection, connecting them to the civil-rights movement's rich history but also schooling them in "what they need to know…to maneuver" [in this country]. She added, "I'm the one who told them to do all that."
Shyamala would not have been at all surprised by Donald Trump's attacks on her daughter's racial identity - he was exactly the kind of person she was teaching her children to stand up to - or by Harris' deft dismissals of someone she considered beneath contempt. "If you don't define yourself, people will try to define you", Shyamala told me. "One of the first rules I taught my children is, don't let ANYBODY tell you who you are. YOU tell THEM who you are."   
Thanks to their far-flung extended family, her girls had many opportunities to escape the stultifying American attitudes towards race and gender. "When Kamala was in first grade", Shyamala recalled, "one of her teachers said to me, 'You know, your child has a great imagination. Every time we talk about someplace in the world she says, Oh, I've been there.'" Shyamala quickly set the teacher straight: "'Well, she has been there!' India, England, the Caribbean, Africa - she had been there." In their travels, and in the examples of the matriarchs in their own family, Kamala and her sister saw something that, in America of the 1960s and '70s, was relatively rare: women wielding power.
Another Shyamala life lesson: Don't just sit on the sidelines and complain, and definitely don't expect anyone to come to your rescue. In a 2007 interview for my profile, Harris told me that from the time she was little, "I'd come home with a problem, 'Oh, Mommy, this happened, that happened.'” Instead of consoling her, “my mother's first response was always, 'What did you do?'" The young Kamala hated this. "You're not coming to my defense! I want a mother to come to my defense!" Later, she felt empowered. "If you can see where you fit into a problem, you can figure out where you could fit into a solution", Harris told me. Perhaps as a result, she said, "I love problems, because they're an opportunity to fix something. There's nothing more gratifying.”
When I shared what her daughter had said, Dr. Harris offered a slightly different spin. "I wanted to know the situation. Always", she confirmed. "But I'm not going to put on a Band-Aid when I don't even know what the problem is - because it could be a problem for a Band-Aid, or it could be a problem for a [bigger] treatment." And lest I missed her deeper motivation, she added, "I also think that it is patronizing, from a mother's point of view, to under-estimate the intelligence and the resilience of children."
Dr. Harris brought the same tough love to the many students she mentored over the years. "It's a very simple rule: You would not be in my lab unless I thought you were good. Because I don't believe in charity." She believed they could succeed at whatever she threw at them, so they usually did. But not always. "My bottom line is just do it, and if you fall, I'll pick you up. Because when else are you going to have this opportunity?" She could not abide young people being ruled by their laziness or insecurity. "I'm not doing this because I'm being given Millions of dollars to do this. It's my time. And because my time is worth a lot of money, and I'm putting that time into you, you got to understand how good I think you are!" This, by the way, is the same hard-ass attitude her daughter has displayed as a boss and mentor - one of the reasons she's sometimes been called "difficult" to work with. (Her mother's description was "really strict".) When it came to their expectations of the people around them, Shyamala said, they both wanted "the good stuff".
Around 1976, Dr. Harris got a job at a research hospital at McGill University and moved the girls, then 12 and 9, to Montreal. Kamala hated being uprooted, but eventually she made some good friends. One of the recurring stories she tells is about what happened when she discovered that one of them was being molested by her father. "I said, 'You have to come live with us.' My mother said, 'Absolutely.'"
Kamala had long known she wanted to be a lawyer like her idol, Thurgood Marshall, attending Howard University like he had. Given her family's progressive world view, the assumption was that her focus would be civil rights, perhaps as a defense attorney. (Years later, her sister and close adviser Maya Harris headed the Northern California office of the ACLU.) But after returning to the Bay Area for law school, Kamala surprised her mother by announcing she wanted to become a prosecutor and champion victims like her high-school friend. "She told me, 'If you've not been unjustly prosecuted, you don't need a very hot-shot defense lawyer, do you? That is only necessary when the prosecutor doesn't do their job.'" Kamala insisted she would be a different kind of prosecutor - one who understood that "a criminal is much more than the crime he or she commits", Dr. Harris said. "Crime in a society doesn't occur in a vacuum. Therefore you have to integrate law enforcement in the context of the society." When you lose sight of the context, she said, "you lose sight of humanity."
***
Then she launched into a story—another entry in the Kamala canon—about her daughter's first job in the Alameda County DA's office, which includes Oakland. An innocent bystander, a woman with kids, had been rounded up during a drug bust. If the woman didn't get out that day, she'd be stuck in jail all weekend. Harris spent the afternoon looking for someone to approve the woman's release, finally plunking herself down in a courtroom until the judge relented and signed the necessary paperwork. As Shyamala recalled it, Kamala was particularly distraught by the potential impact on the woman's kids. “Because they are the future,” Shyamala said. “You don't destroy them.”

    “And people here think it is such a big deal that they're going to nominate a woman?Please! I'm supposed to be impressed by that? No, I'm not.”

In 2007, campaign season was already in full swing and the Democratic frontrunner was Hillary Clinton. Shyamala didn't have much to say about the presidential race, other than to grumble that the idea of a woman leading the ticket was hardly worth the hoopla. India's Indira Gandhi had served as prime minister for almost 15 years. What about Margaret Thatcher? “And people here think it is such a big deal that they're going to nominate a woman?” Dr. Harris said dismissively. “Please! I'm supposed to be impressed by that? No, I'm not.” As for Obama, who'd visited the Bay Area to fundraise with Kamala, “I didn't spend that much time with him,” Shyamala told me. “He's a great guy, but I don't know him enough. But on my limited exposure to him, there is nothing about him that offends me.” If that seemed like faint praise—well, that's who she was. “Anybody will tell you, I am not that easily impressed about anything.”

And now, former Secretary of State Clinton, and former President Obama, have given soaring speeches at the Democratic National Convention in praise of Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential standard bearer. In November, Shyamala Harris's oldest daughter could become this country's first woman president.

In our long-ago conversation, it didn't occur to me to ask Dr. Harris about the very American myth that anyone can grow up to be president. But it doesn't sound like something she would have believed. Certainly she never pushed her daughters in any particular direction, with any particular goal. “To some extent, I believe that life takes you,” she told me, waxing philosophical. “You let life take you without putting up enormous resistance.”

All Shyamala Harris wanted to do was to give her girls the emotional tools—toughness and discipline and a deep-down belief in themselves that came from knowing they were truly loved—to take on whatever life threw at them. In that, she seems to have succeeded. “What my children tend to do, I have noticed, is when they see a challenge in front of them and they feel they can take it, they will go for it,” she said proudly. “Because [if] you're affirmed in that manner, you think, 'I'm not going to be afraid…. I can do this.'”

Susan Milligan: I Predicted Chaos For The Democrats. I Was Gloriously Wrong. (The New Republic, August 22, 2024)
The Democrats' long history of infighting led me to believe that Biden shouldn't drop out of the race. Instead, the party is united like it hasn't been for ages!
Kate Aronoff: The Climate Message Harris Should Embrace: Fossil Fuels Are A Scam. (The New Republic, August 22, 2024)
Democrats seem to be struggling to identify a winning narrative on climate policy. Maybe they should try this one.
Michael Tomasky: The Democrats Are Destroying The Republicans At Their Own Game. (The New Republic, August 22, 2024)
The GOP has long claimed the concept of freedom. But Kamala Harris and Tim Walz just ripped that football out of their hands.
Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling: Tim Walz Torches Republicans' "Weird" Project 2025 in DNC Speech. (The New Republic, August 22, 2024)
Democratic vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz's speech at the Democratic National Convention yesterday espoused hope, urging middle-class America to peel control of the government back from the hands of MAGA Republicans. But the uplifting messaging didn't stop short of chopping down Donald Trump and J.D. Vance's reported plans for a second term. "Their Project 2025 will make things much, much harder for people who are just trying to live their lives", Walz said. "They spend a lot of time pretending they know nothing about this. But look, I've coached high-school football long enough to know, and trust me on this, when somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they're gonna use it."
Svante Myrick: MAGAs Vandalize Victoria Cassinova's "FREEDOM: Kamala Harris" Art. (People For the American Way, August 22, 2024)
They even had the nerve to livestream their defacement of the artwork to supporters in real-time – describing the artwork as "propaganda" – and then pose for pictures in front of their handiwork.
Anyone can destroy. It takes artists to create. I've had enough of creepy authoritarians trying to censor art, ban books, and steal our joy. We are going to put Victoria Cassinova's beautiful portrait back up. We are going to post it on billboards and murals all over the country.
Greg Sargent: Trump's Angry New Rants About The Obamas Betray A Deeper MAGA Fear. (The New Republic, August 22, 2024)
As Trump seethes over Barack and Michelle Obama and the Democratic convention, a polling analyst discusses new data showing the anti-MAGA coalition coming together - the thing Trump fears most.
Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling: Trump Launches Antisemitic Attack On Josh Shapiro Over DNC Speech. (The New Republic, August 22, 2024)
Donald Trump went after Shapiro and Jewish Democratic voters.
Edith Olmsted: Trump Goes On Bonkers Five-Minute Rant Over A Simple Question. (The New Republic, August 22, 2024)
Donald Trump melted down when asked about Tim Walz and Project 2025.
NEW: PoliticsJOE: Donald Trump Is Getting Desperate. (1-min. YouTube spoof video from the UK, August 21, 2024)
Now the DNC is going well, so Donald Trump's mind is racing over the prospect of losing a second presidential race.
NEW: Caroline Vakil: Anderson Cooper: Michelle Obama Delivered "Most Powerful Political Speech I've Ever Heard." (The Hill, August 21, 2024)
CNN anchor Anderson Cooper lauded former first lady Michelle Obama's speech during the second night of the Democratic National Convention. "I think Michelle Obama's speech was probably the most effective, powerful political speech I've ever heard. It was rather remarkable", Cooper said.
Obama's speech, which was scheduled as the second-to-last speech in Chicago on Tuesday night, received high praise. She used her remarks to praise Vice President Harris and take jabs - implicit and explicit - at former President Trump, including mocking his recent "Black jobs" remark.
Her speech was also used as a call to action for Democrats, as she led them in chants of "Do something!" "It's up to us to remember what Kamala's mother told her: "Don't just sit around and complain; do something!" "So if they lie about her, and they will, we've got to…" she continued, chanting along with the crowd, "Do something!"
NEW: Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling: Trump's Latest Scheme To Beat Harris May Have Crossed Legal Lines. (The New Republic, August 20, 2024)
Donald Trump is reportedly advising Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which would be a violation of the Logan Act.
Obamas To Headline Day 2 Of Democratic National Convention. (CNN, August 20, 2024)
Brian Tyler Cohen: Trump LOSES HIS MIND After His OWN Crowd Bails On Him. (7-min. YouTube video; BTC, August 19, 2024)
Stephen Colbert: DNC Night 1: Welcome To Chicago | Joe Biden Appreciation Night | Kamala's Surprise (14-min. YouTube video; The Late Show, August 20, 2024)
Stephen Colbert goes LIVE from Chicago's Auditorium Theatre following the first night of the Democratic National Convention, where VP Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance and President Joe Biden was honored for his half-century of service to the country.
Sahil Kapur: Harris Is Rolling Out Her Agenda. She'll Need A Democratic Congress To Pass It. (NBC News, August 20, 2024)
Democrats could pass major parts of her agenda with narrow majorities. But Republicans are telegraphing that her plans would be dead on arrival if they're in charge.
Sahil Kapur: Chuck Schumer Outlines 2025 Agenda If Democrats Sweep, Eying Filibuster Changes. (NBC News, August 20, 2024)
Schumer said he expects party consensus on piercing the 60-vote rule for voting rights bills. Abortion is also on his radar. And he outlined budget priorities if Harris wins.
David Corn: Donald Trump Is Now A Summer Rerun. (Our  Land, August 17, 2024)
In 1979, Alan Alda wrote and starred in a film called The Seduction of Joe Tynan. It was the story of a young, dynamic senator who harbors presidential ambitions, finds himself in a pickle when the much older and more powerful Sen. Birney (Melvyn Douglas) pressures him to support a Supreme Court nominee with a racist past. I don't recall much of the movie, but I have a strong recollection of one powerful and painful scene: The elderly Birney, who has been covering up signs of dementia, is chairing an important committee hearing, and he unintentionally starts speaking French, revealing his cognitive decline.
Throughout the 2024 campaign, while many of us were holding our breath regarding President Joe Biden, I wondered if an event like that would strike the politician who once seemed the model for Alda's character. Biden's debate with Donald Trump was not quite this. But it did show that he was not up to the task of mano-a-mano combat with the demagogue who tried to destroy American democracy.
Kamala Harris's Vision For A Country Where We All Can Thrive (Indivisible, August 16, 2024)
Over the past few days, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have held campaign events to detail their economic agendas.
At least, that's what Trump's handlers said he was going to discuss. But Trump, not one for policy details, mumbled a few lines about affordability against the backdrop of his $350K-to-join country club, followed by 80 minutes of incoherent ranting.
Vice President Harris, on the other hand, held a rally with Joe Biden to announce new price limits on 10 life-saving drugs that will help save Medicare billions of dollars and lower out-of-pocket costs for patients. Then, she traveled to North Carolina today to unveil an historic, sweeping economic plan to take on big corporations, lower costs for everyday people, and build an economy that works for all of us.
Harris has a record and vision to run on. Trump has the same old lies, empty promises, and failed policies.
[Read this good article to fill in many details.]
Heather Cox Richardson: Republicans - And Project 2025 - Oppose Affordable Health Care. (Letters From An American, August 15, 2024)
In 2021, a study by the RAND Corporation found that drug prices averaged 2.56 times higher in the U.S. than in 32 other countries. For name-brand drugs, U.S. prices were 3.44 times those in comparable nations. Almost exactly two years ago, on August 16, 2022, President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law. Among other things, that law permitted Medicare to negotiate drug prices, a provision about 83% of voters supported.
Republicans opposed the measure, siding with drug company executives who insist that high prices are necessary to create an incentive for drug companies to innovate, as their investment in research and development depends on the revenue they expect from new drugs. Ultimately, not a single Republican voted for the Inflation Reduction Act itself, and Vice President Kamala Harris cast the tie-breaking vote that gave the act the votes to go to the president's desk.
"Personnel is policy", Project 2025's authors say, and, if elected, Trump has vowed to have his own loyalists take over the United States government. But Americans largely oppose Project 2025 and the Trump agenda, even in its vague state. In his appearance in Maryland today, Biden mocked Trump and added: "You may have heard about the MAGA Republican Project 2025 plan. They want to repeal Medicare's power to negotiate drug prices, let Big Pharma get back to charging whatever they want. Let me tell ya what our Project 2025 is - beat the hell out of 'em!"
[There's more; a LOT more, over too many years.]
Ben Meiselas: Trump Goes Totally Nuts As His Entire Life Collapses. (20-min. video; MeidasTouch, August 15, 2024)
MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Donald Trump losing his mind as his campaign collapses and his entire life comes crashing down, while VP Harris and Governor Walz soar to new heights in the election.
[Well-documented! See tRUmPutin's abusive attempts to project his own many failings onto his opposition. View and share the short and damning anti-Trump commercial that begins at 5:13 on this video!
 I'll add a few thoughts from the many Comments others added to this video:
 a) Trump's emails are creepy and disturbing, clearly targeting mentally-vulnerable people. Disgusting!
 b) No already-convicted rapist/grifter/cheater/liar should be allowed to run for any public office in America.
 c) Our White House is not a haven for convicted felons, trying to avoid prison.
 d) Narcissisim: The only disorder where everybody around the patient gets treatment, instead of the patient.
 e) It's up to each couple whether or not they choose to have kids, just like it was up to my spouse and me.
 f) These constant begging messages from Trump are damaging America's highly-respected position in the world. It is disgraceful, disrespectful and unforgivable! How does anyone still follow this lunatic? VP Harris, please don't rest until you win!
 g) "Make America Great Again"? America became great, the day we fired Donald Trump!
 h) Trump deserves exactly what he gets. Hundreds of thousands of people died from COVID. And what did he do to help or console? Nothing. He went golfing while people were dying. Does this sound normal?
 i) This is nothing! Wait until he's found guilty for all of his crimes!
 j) He's not just going nuts now. He's always been that way.
 k) How dare the Republican Party permit Trump to continue! The World can see his cognitive decline. Time to retire! Think of your country, not what's left of your party!
 l) Daffy Don-old doesn't deserve our attention. Vote Harris!
 m) Convicted felons can't drive school buses, but they can become President of the USA? Seriously?
 n) Trump and his wives used outside help to bring up their own children. Yet, he wants to force other women to have unwanted babies!?
 o) JD Vance, your children are your responsibility. If you can't care for them, then don't have them. It's called family planning.
 p) How so many people can still support these so-called Republicans is completely weird.
As I said, just a few of the many Comments. Don't forget to enjoy and share that anti-Trump commercial!]
Andy Greenberg: A Single Iranian Hacker Group Targeted Both Presidential Campaigns, Google Says. (Wired, August 14, 2024)
APT42, which is believed to work for Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, targeted about a dozen people associated with the Trump and Biden (now Harris) campaigns this Spring, according to Google's Threat Analysis Group.
Desi Lydic: Project 2025 Leaks Reveal Trump Connection, While He Continues To Play Dumb. (10-min. YouTube video; The Daily Show, August 14, 2024)
Desi Lydic watches the leaked Project 2025 training videos and discovers the secret right-wing plan for transforming government, undoing climate rules, and eliminating all pronouns from the English language. Plus, the people who made them are a little weird and have close ties to Donald Trump, despite his denials. Featuring an exclusive Daily Show Project 2025 video made just for Trump.
The Reidout: "Utter Desperation": Trump's Expected Coup Plot To Steal The Election (12-min. YouTube video; MSNBC, August 13, 2024)
Donald Trump's possible plan to steal the 2024 presidential election is coming into focus, experts say. Joy Reid and her panel discuss.
Desi Lydic: X/Twitter Glitches Out For Elon's Interview And So Does Trump. (7-min. YouTube video; The Daily Show, August 13, 2024) Desi Lydic tackles Donald Trump's glitchy interview with Elon Musk on X, in which a slurring Trump announced plans to close the Department of Education, played '90s pop-culture trivia with Vladimir Putin, and revealed his new celebrity crush.
[She's funny - and dead accurate!]
Stephen Colbert: Musk & Trump's Livestream Fail, Trump Flies Around On Epstein's Plane. (The Late Show, August 13, 2024)
Donald Trump slurred his words throughout his disastrous X Spaces livestream with Elon Musk, and his team is in panic mode after it was revealed that the former president has been renting a plane that once belonged to Jeffrey Epstein.
CNN: Analysts Break Down Fallout Of Trump's 2-Hour X Interview With Musk. (25-min. YouTube video; CNN, August 13, 2024)
Republican strategist Lauren Tomlinson and CNN political commentator S.E. Cupp discuss Trump's decision of turning to X as a campaign strategy.
Anderson Cooper:  "He's So Disoriented!": Maggie Haberman On What Has Left Trump Susceptible To Being Manipulated. (10-min. YouTube video; CNN, August 13, 2024)
New York Times reporter and CNN senior political analyst Maggie Haberman joins CNN's Anderson Cooper to discuss former President Donald Trump's embrace of conspiracies from the Internet.
Seth Meyers: Trump Made At Least 20 False Claims In X Interview With Elon Musk. (15-min. YouTube video; Late Night with Seth Meyers, August 13, 2024)
NEW: Isabela Dias: Trump May Demonize Migration From Venezuela, But He Helped Fuel It. (Mother Jones, August 13, 2024)
How the once-richest nation in South America suffered the biggest non-war economic collapse in modern history.
A Closer Look: Seth Meyers Catches Up On The Worst Three Weeks Of Donald Trump's Campaign. (16-min. YouTube video; Late Night with Seth Meyers, August 12, 2024)
Seth takes a closer look at Joe Biden dropping out of the presidential race, Trump's reaction to Kamala Harris securing enough delegates to become the Democratic nominee, and more.
[Seth's 1-min. opening summary is a hilarious version of serious news.]
Michael Mechanic: Journalists (And Propagandists) Tossed Softballs. This Candidate Warrants Hardballs. 22 Questions Reporters Should Have Asked At Trump's Mar-a-Lago Press Conference (Mother Jones, August 12, 2024)
Have you seen any of those clips from Donald Trump's rambling press conference this past Thursday? If not, count yourself lucky. Standing at a Mar-a-Lago podium, Trump did what he always does: equivocated, meandered among subjects, spoke in half-sentences full of non-sequiturs, and lied relentlessly. Challenging questions were in short supply - a media fail. Then again, maybe just showing up was the bigger fail, given Trump's inability to engage honestly.
But one has to try. Calling Trump out is our professional responsibility. The women who grilled him onstage at the National Association of Black Journalists conference - Harris Faulkner, Kadia Goba, and Rachel Scott - set a good example.
Apparently not enough of the Mar-a-Lago journalists got the memo. Their questions weren't mic'd, so they were barely audible in the video. But I cranked up the volume and listened carefully, transcribing as accurately as I could. Trump took roughly 40 questions. Most were uncritical softballs.
There was a smattering of policy questions - which is fine, but lightweight. Watch the FULL video for the questions and Trump's answers.
Only a handful of questions were at all confrontational. Here are 22 questions (I could easily come up with 22 more) that journalists should be asking this candidate, or at least asking of him. Granted, it might be the last time Trump ever took a question from you, but it'd be worth it.
Hard Question 1: Partisan divisions
A Pew analysis shows voters are about-evenly split in favor of Democrats and Republicans. Yet you've called Democrats "treasonous", "un-American", "crazy", "loco", "rage-filled", and "the party of crime". You retweeted a video in which a supporter said, "The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat." You regularly use "us vs. them" rhetoric. Why should voters support a candidate who seeks to divide Americans?
[Right on (the griddle!) For 21 more good examples, click and read the entire article.]
Julianne McShane: Did You Catch Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) On TV Yesterday? It Was Hard To Miss Him! (Mother Jones Daily Newsletter, August 12, 2024)
Trump's running-mate delivered a Sunday-morning media blitz, sitting for interviews that aired on ABC, CBS, and CNN. The goal, it seemed, was to clean up the mess he had made with his past comments on "childless cat-ladies" and abortion (among other topics), that seem to be part of why the Democrats' branding of him as "weird" works. 
Unfortunately for Trump and Vance, it's questionable whether the aspiring VP's Sunday screen-time actually helped the Republicans' cause. That's because his comments were a combination of false, chilling, and (you guessed it!) weird.
[There's more. Click for it. Then, click for Julianne's full report. Psst: There's more. Lots more.]
Matt Stoller: Monopoly Round-Up: The 2024 CNBC Shadow Campaign To Fire Lina Khan (Big, August 12, 2024)
Lina Khan is the symbol of a new-way relationship between the public and big business. On CNBC, she's the most important candidate on the ticket. I want to focus on the debates happening every day on CNBC and in the business press, over whether Kamala Harris should remove Biden anti-trust enforcers if she wins.
Daniel Strain: Those With The Biggest Biases Choose First, According To New Math Study. (Phys.org, August 12, 2024)
In just a few months, voters across America will head to the polls to decide who will be the next U.S. president. A new study draws on mathematics to break down how humans make decisions like this one. The researchers developed mathematical tools known as models to simulate the deliberation process of groups of people with various biases. They found that decision-makers with strong, initial biases were typically the first ones to make a choice. "If I want good-quality feedback, maybe I should look to people who are a little bit more deliberate in their decision-making", said Kilpatrick, a co-author of the new study. "I know they've taken their due diligence in deciding."
The researchers, led by Samatha Linn of the University of Utah, published their findings August 12 in the journal Physical Review E.
Eric B. Larson and Laura Gitlin: Dementia Risk Factors Identified In New Global Report Are All Preventable. Addressing Them Could Reduce Dementia Rates By 45%. (The Conversation, August 12, 2024)
Nearly half of all dementia cases could be delayed or prevented altogether by addressing 14 possible risk factors, including vision loss and high cholesterol. That is the key finding of a new study that we and our colleagues published in the journal The Lancet.
Dementia, a rapidly-increasing global challenge, affects an estimated 57-million worldwide, and this number is expected to increase to 153-million by 2050 worldwide. Although the prevalence of dementia is on the decline in high-income countries, it continues to increase in low- and middle-income countries.
Robert Reich: The Trump Crack-up; His Fragile Ego Can't Take It. (Substack, August 12, 2024)
As the Harris-Walz team soars (polls are already showing Kamala taking the lead), Trump is cracking up. His ego can't take it. He is freaking out that his opponent - a Black woman - has more energy and momentum behind her than he has.
Last Thursday, after ten days of Kamala in the limelight, Trump was so desperate for attention that he held a news conference that provided no news.
NEW: NY Supreme Court Removes RFK Jr. From Ballot Due To Fraudulent Petitions. (MoveOn. August 12, 2024)
NY Decision Could Have Ramifications In Even More States Where RFK Jr. Used False Addresses.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In response to the New York Supreme Court's decision to remove Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from the ballot for turning in fraudulent petitions that relied on a false address, MoveOn Political Action spokesperson Britt Jacovich issued the following statement:
"The courts are recognizing what voters are catching onto: RFK Jr. is a fraud. He knows he'll never have a chance to win, but he and his MAGA donors are attempting to mislead voters to sway the election to Trump."
Background:
- RFK Jr.'s campaign is supported by Trump's largest donor, in order to siphon support away from Vice President Harris and hand the White House back to Trump. Racist billionaire Timothy Mellon contributed $20-Million to RFK Jr.'s Super PAC.
- RFK Jr. is a dangerous conspiracy theorist who has supported a 15-week abortion ban, and doesn't believe we need any more gun safety measures to protect our communities.
- RFK Jr. is running a failing campaign and needs to buy his way onto the ballot. He chose multi-millionaire Nicole Shanahan as his VP; she's an anti-IVF conspiracy theorist who has donated millions to a Super PAC supporting Kennedy Jr.
- RFK Jr. has relied on desperate and deceptive measures to gain ballot access.
- In Delaware, RFK Jr. is working with the Independent Party of Delaware (IPD), which has known ties to extremist, right-wing individuals. Its vice chairman, Phil Dyer, attended the riot at the Capitol on January 6 and recently called for another.
- RFK Jr. is also working with the Natural Law Party of Michigan, which nominated him at a two-person convention led by a part-time magician, while leaders from the same party's Florida branch called RFK Jr.'s campaign "scammers".
- Trump allies have publicly stated they are plotting to spoil the election against the Harris ticket by backing third-party candidates, including RFK Jr., Stein, and West.
[Thank you, New York Supreme Court!! Lock Him THEM Up! The Kennedy family. our USA - and its reputation abroad - deserve better.]
Randy Rainbow: "The Lawyer Or The Conman", A Randy Rainbow Song Parody (Ground News; 6-min. YouTube video, August 12, 2024)
Parody of "The Farmer and the Cowman" from "Oklahoma!" (Music by Richard Rodgers & Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II); Parody Lyrics by Randy Rainbow.
[Weird! And I don't only mean Randy. Hilariously serious!
Warning for those suffering from MAGAmania: Do NOT press the PLAY button! (tRUmPutin, you've been warned!)]
Tamara Keith, Deepa Shivaram and Jordan-Marie Smith: Harris And Walz Reintroduce Joy To Democrats In Their First Week On The Campaign Trail. (4-min. podcast;, NPR, All Things Considered; August 11, 2024)
It's been a long time since Democratic voters associated politics with joy. This week, from one swing state to the next, Vice President Harris and her new running mate, Tim Walz, barnstormed joyfully, lifted by the cheers of the largest rally crowds of their campaign.
There were 12,000 supporters in Eau Claire, Wis., and also in Las Vegas; an estimated 14,000, including the overflow room, in Philadelphia; about 15,000 in Phoenix; and a similar number spilling out of an aircraft hangar at the Detroit airport where that rally took place.
The campaign has also boasted of a $36-Million influx in donations in the 24 hours after Walz joined the ticket, and another $12-Million-plus from a fundraiser slated for later, on Sunday in San Francisco.
There has been a dramatic mood shift both among Democratic voters and in the campaign messaging since President Biden stepped aside and endorsed Harris. But even the new candidates admit there is much work to do before November.
Robert Reich: The Seismic Vibe Shift (Move On, August 11, 2024)
For decades, I've argued that the consolidation of great wealth in the hands of a few undermines our democracy. Wealth is most dangerous when transformed into political power.
Elon Musk is the poster child for this concern. One way Musk is transforming his gargantuan wealth into political power is by committing huge gobs of cash - possibly as much as $45-Million a month - to a new pro-Trump Super PAC founded and funded by other tech oligarchs.
Musk also is transforming his wealth into political power by posting pro-Trump, anti-Kamala Harris messages to his 189-million followers on X, formerly known as Twitter. The reason Musk has 189-million followers is that he owns X. He can adjust its algorithm to give his tweets maximum exposure and effectively buy and capture huge numbers of X users.
Trump is obviously delighted with Musk. They are two rich and famous narcissists who crave attention, lie through their teeth, enjoy provoking critics, hate labor unions, refuse to be held accountable for anything, and have utter contempt for democracy.
Toward the end of America's first Gilded Age, Louis Brandeis, the eminent American jurist, said: "We must make our choice. We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both."
David Corn: Election 2024: Happy Tribe Vs. Angry Tribe (Our Land, August 10, 2024)
Vance, who once positioned himself as a reasonable center-right public intellectual who slammed Trump (as "heroin" for aggrieved Americans) but respected his voters, has been eager to join Trump's hate-a-thon. Campaigning in Atlanta a week ago, he lambasted the Democrats: "They couldn't beat him politically, so they tried to bankrupt him. They failed at that, so they tried to impeach him. They failed at that, so they tried to put him in prison. They even tried to kill him." The Democrats did not try to kill Trump. There is no evidence the would-be assassin who shot at Trump at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, was motivated by politics. Yet here was Vance cavalierly making this claim to diabolize the Democrats.
Much of politics is us-versus-them. But for Trump and Vance, the line between us and them is fixed, and those on the other side are heinous and malicious. They are a pernicious threat. They deserve no quarter. (Elon Musk idiotically called Harris a "communist" this past week.) And in this Manichean depiction of American politics, fury is justified. If you think the Dems, the libs, the elites, antifa, BLM, and woke corporations are all scheming together to devastate the United States, rage and resentment are appropriate, and there ought to be no compromise with these traitors.
Harris and Walz are more inviting. Join us to work together to strengthen America, they say, and we can bolster freedom, opportunity, and security for all. Yes, to do so means beating back Trump and the forces of MAGA that threaten the rights and economic well-being of many Americans. But let's do this with a positive spirit.
So there is a stark choice between these two teams: angry and happy. Which side do you want to be on? The change in the Democratic ticket makes this delineation clear. Not every voter will approach the decision this way. But the election now poses the question: What tribe do you want to be part of? The one that emphasizes acrimony and rancor and sees America as a dark place on the precipice of collapse? Or the one that promotes joy in politics and celebrates a communal spirit? How one answers this question might have much to do with how he or she views the world and their place in it. That is, psychological factors.
There is much that will go into determining who wins this titanic face-off in November. In the past few days, the Trump-Vance camp has tried to Swift-Boat Walz by challenging his account of his military service - which is quite rich given that Trump escaped the Vietnam draft with the cooked-up excuse of bone spurs and that Vance's overseas tour as a Marine was as a public-affairs specialist. (Remember, Chris LaCivita, the co-manager of the Trump campaign, ran the defamatory Swift-Boat crusade against John Kerry in 2004.) And there's no doubt that Trump and his allies will spend hundreds of millions of dollars to hurl tons of mud at Harris and Walz, hoping that something - be it true or false - sticks.
Yet one basic current in this campaign - which could determine the future of American democracy - is how it feels to be on either side. Do you want to be with the gang fueled by animosity and resentment, or the squad that exudes delight and cooperation?
Joe Biden was right: The 2020 election was a battle for the soul of the nation. So has been the 2024 election, but his age-related issues and the persistence of high prices made that a tough sell while he was the Democrats' meh nominee in a meh-versus-meh race. The Harris switcheroo returns the contest to this elemental choice, but the way she has burst out of the chute and her saddling up with America's Dad render the contest something else as well: a referendum on America's psyche. Abby Vesoulis: As Harris Leans Into Good Vibes, Trump Keeps Pitching Doom. Polls Show Joyful Democrats Gaining In Critical Swing States As The Ex-President Doubles Down On Mean. (Mother Jones, August 10, 2024)
Under President Joe Biden's steerage, the Democrats' 2024 messaging was centered on former president Donald Trump's threat to our governing system: a well-supported and somber allegation, but not a new one after eight years. In contrast, Harris has attempted to play up joy at her rallies, by taking time to idealize a happy and well-functioning democracy.
New data suggest the tone reversal is paying off: Harris leads Trump in three critical swing states, according to fresh polling from the New York Times and Siena College. In Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, likely voters prefer Harris to Trump, 50-46 percent; when Biden led the ticket, similar polls were tied or showed a slight Trump advantage.
As Harris and Walz - a former football coach, educator, and congressman - campaign for a future in which forming labor unions, retiring, buying homes, and obtaining health care are all easier, the New York Times reported in an in-depth article today that Trump is, well, being Trump: Obsessing over his deceitful claim that Democrats are hijacking elections; doubling-down on his earlier comments that Harris, who is Black, has only recently decided to be Black for political gain ("I think I was right", Trump reportedly said privately); and instructing aides to bombard one of his wealthiest donors with a deluge of angry text messages.
Abby Vesoulis: Trump's Helicopter Jumble Is Only His Latest Mix-Up. The Ex-President's "Very Very Large Brain" Misfires. Again. (Mother Jones, August 10, 2024)
On Thursday, while attacking Vice President Kamala Harris during a meandering Mar-a-Lago press conference, the former president shared an anecdote about almost meeting his maker during a turbulent helicopter ride with her ex-boyfriend, former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown. "I know Willie Brown very well. In fact, I went down in a helicopter with him. We thought, 'Maybe this is the end.' We were in a helicopter going to a certain location together, and there was an emergency landing. This was not a pleasant landing. And Willie, he was a little concerned", Trump claimed, adding that during their interaction Brown had told him "terrible things" about Harris.
It wouldn't be the first time he's gotten jumbled. But Brown, who dated Harris in the mid-1990s and is now 90 years old, soon refuted Trump's account, denying he ever shared a helicopter with Trump. "If I almost went down in a helicopter with anybody, you would have heard about it!", Brown told the New York Times.
Instead, the paper suggestively reported that Trump did share a helicopter with a prominent California politician named Brown - but not that one - when he flew alongside former California governor Jerry Brown to survey wildfire damage in 2018. A spokesperson for Jerry Brown clarified there had been "no emergency landing and no discussion of Kamala Harris."
Still, Trump doubled down, insisting that despite Willie Brown's recollection to the contrary, the two had shared a nervy helicopter flight. He even suggested he might sue the newspaper over its reporting on the issue.
But later in the day, Nate Holden - a political figure from the Los Angeles area who, like Brown, is African American - stepped forward to explain that he and Trump had shared such a flight around 1990, when the two were discussing a Southern California real estate project. Trump has yet to comment on Holden's explanation.
At last month's Republican National Convention, the 78-year-old Trump became the country's oldest-ever major-party presidential nominee. While Trump regularly brags about his mental acuity, it wouldn't be the first time he's gotten jumbled. Here are three past highlights...
Weekly Spoiler Roundup: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Weird, Struggling Campaign (Move On, August 9, 2024)
As Vice President Kamala Harris and running mate Tim Walz consolidate support, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s campaign continues to flounder as more weird and disqualifying details from his past come to light.
This week, an explosive piece from The New Yorker revealed that, for 10 years, RFK Jr. covered up placing a dead bear cub in Central Park to make it seem as though a cyclist ran over the bear. The incident triggered an investigation by the NYPD at the time. When asked about the bear incident, RFK Jr. said, "Maybe that's where I got my brain worm." Several city officials are now calling on RFK Jr. to reimburse the city. No wonder his own supporters are starting to ditch him.
Meanwhile, RFK Jr.'s campaign manager spilled the beans on his far-fetched, anti-democratic plot to bypass voters and use a contingent election to swing the election to Trump, taking a page from the failed efforts of No Labels earlier this year.
Ian Ward: We Mapped JD Vance's Inner Circle. (Politico, August 9, 2024)
JD Vance has fashioned himself in the mold of Donald Trump. But his political outlook is a little more complicated than that. With his background in Silicon Valley, his connection to conservative intellectuals on the New Right, and his MAGA allies, Vance doesn't have an inner circle - he has multiple inner circles.
Politico's Ian Ward set out to chart the overlapping influences on Vance, from the operatives and donors to the staffers and thought leaders shaping him as a politician. "What happens when Middletown meets Mar-a-Lago?", he writes. We're about to find out.
Julianne McShane: Election Disinformation From Elon Musk Is Drawing Billions Of Views On X. (Mother Jones, August 8, 2024)
A new report reveals the vast reach of anti-immigrant and anti-Harris disinformation shared by the Trump-backing mogul.
Elon Musk is not just the Trump-supporting owner of the social-media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. It turns out he is also one of the platform's biggest peddlers of election-related disinformation, according to a new report published today by the Center for Countering Digital Hate.
[Once again, money is not wealth.]
Robert Reich: Why Isn't The Media Reporting On Trump's Increasing Dementia? Today's News Conference Should At Least Spur A Serious Inquiry (Substack, August 8, 2024)
Today, Trump held an hour-long news conference in the main room at Mar-a-Lago. He insulted Kamala Harris's intelligence, lied about the state of the U.S. economy, and claimed the country would be in mortal danger if he didn't win the election.
In other words, the usual Trump torrent of lies and insults. But what got my attention was his description of his departure from the White House as a "peaceful" transfer of power, his insistence that the group that mounted the assault on the Capitol was relatively small, and his boast that attendance at his January 6 rally preceding the assault was larger than the crowd Martin Luther King Jr. drew on the national mall for his "I have a Dream" speech: "If you look at Martin Luther King, when he did his speech, his great speech, and you look at ours - same real estate, same everything, same number of people, if not - we had more."
Friends, these are not the statements of a sane person. Trump is showing growing signs of dementia.
Brian Tyler Cohen and Marc Elias: Bombshell: Attorney Takes On Trump Over Vile New Georgia Election Rule. (12-min. YouTube video; Democracy Watch, August 7, 2024)
Democracy Watch episode 164: Marc Elias discusses Trump pushing for a dangerous new election rule in Georgia.
Heather Cox Richardson: Today Vice President Kamala Harris Named Her Choice For Her Vice-Presidential Running Mate: Governor Tim Walz Of Minnesota. (Letters From An American, August 6, 2024)
Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota grew up in rural Nebraska. He enlisted in the Army National Guard when he was 17 and served for 24 years, retiring in 2005 as a command sergeant major, making him the highest-ranking enlisted soldier ever to serve in Congress.
While MAGA Republicans are already trying to define Walz as "far left", his votes in Congress put him pretty squarely in the middle. His work with Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan to expand technology production and infrastructure funding in the state was rewarded in 2023, when Minnesota knocked Texas out of the top five states for business. The CNBC rating looked at 86 indicators in 10 categories, including the workforce, infrastructure, health, and business friendliness.
Walz is also a symbol of an important resetting of the Democratic Party. He has been unapologetic about his popular programs. On Sunday, July 28, when CNN's Jake Tapper listed some of Walz's policies and asked if they made Walz vulnerable to Trump calling him a "big government liberal", Walz joked that he was, indeed, a "monster". "Kids are eating and having full bellies so they can go learn, and women are making their own health care decisions, and we're a top five business state, and we also rank in the top three of happiness…. The fact of the matter is [where Democratic policies are implemented], quality of life is higher, the economies are better…educational attainment is better. So yeah, my kids are going to eat here, and you're going to have a chance to go to college, and you're going to have an opportunity to live where we're working on reducing carbon emissions. Oh, and by the way, you're going to have personal incomes that are higher, and you're going to have health insurance. So if that's where they want to label me, I'm more than happy to take the label."
Right-wing reactionary politicians have claimed to represent ordinary Americans since the time of the passage of the Voting Rights Act - on August 6, 1965, exactly 59 years ago today - by insisting that a government that works for communities is a "socialist" plan to elevate undeserving women and racial, ethnic, and gender minorities at the expense of hardworking white men. Historically, though, rural America has quite often been the heart of the country's progressive politics, and the Midwest has had a central place in that progressivism. Walz reintegrates that history with today's Democratic Party.
That reintegration has left the Republicans flatfooted. Trump and J.D. Vance expected to continue their posturing as "champions of the common man", but on that front the credentials of a New York real estate developer who inherited millions of dollars and of a Yale-educated venture capitalist pale next to a Nebraska-born schoolteacher. Bryan Metzger, politics reporter at Business Insider, pointed out that J.D. Vance tried to hit Walz as a "San Francisco-style liberal", but while Vance lived in San Francisco as a venture capitalist between 2013 and 2017, Walz went to San Francisco for the first time just last month.
Sal Gentile summed up Walz's progressive politics and community vibe when he wrote on social media: "Tim Walz will expand free school lunches, raise the minimum wage, make it easier to unionize, fix your [carburetor], replace the old wiring in your basement, spray that wasp's nest under the deck, install a new spring for your garage door and put a new chain on your lawnmower."
[We're placing our order for that "New Spring", in more ways than one! :-) Read and share the entire article; Heather wraps it up ever so nicely, and - unlike those Republican pretenders - provides links to back up what she says.]
Brian Tyler Cohen: OMG: Trump Completely Melts Down Over Tim Walz As VP! (10-min. YouTube video;
August 6, 2024)
[Excellent overview. It also received almost 4,000 comments in first 2 hours; many are worth reading.]
Stephen Colbert: Trump Furious After Stephen Colbert Exposes Him With A Single Word! (12-min. YouTube video; Political Gangster, August 6, 2024)
Is this the end of Trump's political career? Or just the beginning of a new chapter? Stephen Colbert takes us on a wild ride through the rise, fall, and potential rebirth of Donald Trump's public persona. From real estate mogul to President to convicted criminal, Trump's journey has been anything but ordinary.
LIVE: Major Speeches: Josh Shapiro And Kamala Harris Introduce Tim Walz As VP Pick At Philadelphia Rally. (21-min. and 54-min. YouTube videos; Associated Press, August 6, 2024)
Vice President Kamala Harris introduced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate at a campaign event at Temple University in Philadelphia.
[Three great speeches - in full, and with transcripts!]
Ben Meiselas: Trump Instantly Freaks Out Over Kamala VP Pick, Tim Walz. (13-min. YouTube video; MeidasTouch, August 6, 2024)
MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Donald Trump's reaction to VP Kamala Harris selecting Governor Tim Walz as her running mate.
Tommy Christopher: Ex-SNL Star Cecily Strong Does Blistering Trump-Vance Barrage On "Comics For Kamala Harris" Video. (5-min. video; Mediaite, August 6th, 2024)
Saturday Night Live alum Cecily Strong did a brutal set roasting former President Donald Trump and his running mate Sen. JD Vance (R-OH; "Judy Vance") on a "Comics for Kamala Harris" fund-raising Zoom call.
[What goes around, comes around. The  show immediately raised over $500K. See the text article for more of its jokes.]
Vance: "Harris Picking Walz 'Highlights How Radical' They Are." (1-min. video; NBC News, August 6, 2024)
[Hmm. Has Trump been coaching his would-be VP? See Trump's "unleash HELL On EARTH" baloney, below.]
Adam Nichols: "Loser's strategy": Key Fox-News Ally Blasts Recent Trump Decisions. (Raw Story, August 6, 2024)
A Fox News ally of Donald Trump's called out his latest campaign moves as a "loser's strategy" on her show yesterday. Laura Ingraham made the comments while speaking with Victor Davis Hanson, a senior fellow at the right-wing think tank The Hoover Institution. They'd been discussing Trump's weekend appearance in Atlanta at which he made attacks on popular Republican Gov. Brian Kemp - comments many have said damaged his election chances in Georgia.
[Trump can convince even Fox News to turn on him?]
Dan Ladden-Hall: Trump's New Attack On "Kamabla" Harris Is Literally Gibberish. (Daily Beast, August 6, 2024)
Here we go again! After going after her racial identity, Trump has now taken to deliberately misspelling her name.
[A typical childish Trump attack: Make up stupid kid stuff about "the enemy" and go public with it. Like, say, "tRUmPutin" - but not that clever.]
Jacob Kornbluh: What Tim Walz VP Pick Means For American Jews And Israel (The Forward, August 6, 2024)
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, the runner-up for the position, faced backlash over his Israel positions.
Mini Racker: Kamala Harris Picks Minnesota Governor Tim Walz For VP Running Mate. (Daily Beast, August 6, 2024)
Walz was the dark-horse finalist who Donald Trump declared today will "unleash HELL ON EARTH".
[A typical childish Trump attack: Accuse "the enemy" of Trump's own failings. Or, in this case, his own running-mate's failings?]
Laura Fay and Tom Dougherty: Why Kamala Harris Picked Pennsylvania For Her First Campaign Rally With VP Running-Mate Tim Walz (CBS News, August 6, 2024)
Vice President Kamala Harris will hold her first campaign rally with her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, by her side tonight in Philadelphia - the rally starts at 5 p.m. Harris named Walz as her vice presidential pick this morning. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who was reportedly among the top two finalists for the job, is scheduled to speak at the rally in Philadelphia before Harris takes the stage.
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump's running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, is slated to appear in Philadelphia at noon today.
Sam Brodey and Jim Puzzanghera: Kamala Harris Selects Minnesota Governor Tim Walz As Running Mate. (Boston Globe, August 6, 2024)
Vice President Kamala Harris has made her first major decision as the Democratic presidential nominee: selecting Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota, an experienced politician with a record of progressive governance, as her 2024 running mate. "As a governor, a coach, a teacher, and a veteran, he's delivered for working families like his", Harris said this morning. "It's great to have him on the team!"
In tapping Walz, who was considered a dark-horse contender, Harris passed over higher-profile Democrats such as Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona. Walz will quickly get a national introduction. He is set to appear with Harris at a rally tonight in Philadelphia, kicking off a multi-day nationwide tour of the key swing states. After President Joe Biden's withdrawal from the race, Walz's stock rose quickly thanks in part to his knack for memorable messaging - notably his branding of Donald Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance as "weird", which quickly became adopted by many other Democrats.
Will Tim Walz help Kamala Harris win the election?
[The second half of this article offers a good analysis - with a good prognosis for the U.S.A. and the world!]
Melissa Quinn: DNC Virtual Roll Call Vote Ends With Kamala Harris Receiving 99% Of Delegate Votes. Here Are The Full Results. (CBS News, August 6, 2024)
Harris' nomination in the roll call vote caps a whirlwind two weeks for the vice president, who launched her campaign after President Biden bowed out of the presidential race on July 21. The roll call solidifies the general election match-up of Harris versus Trump, who received the Republican presidential nomination during the party's convention last month. While the GOP spent its four-day gathering in Milwaukee lambasting Mr. Biden for his policies and taking aim at his age, the party has had to quickly pivot to refocusing its efforts on Harris.
The vice president announced her candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination on the heels of Mr. Biden's decision to end his reelection bid. She swiftly received the president's endorsement and support from all Democratic leaders, including party elders and its rising stars.
Eric Tucker: Pakistani Man With Ties To Iran Is Charged In Plot To Carry Out Political Assassinations On U.S. Soil. (AP News, August 6, 2024)
A Pakistani man alleged to have ties to Iran has been charged in a plot to carry out political assassinations on U.S. soil, the Justice Department said today in disclosing what officials say is the latest murder-for-hire plot to target American public figures. Asif Merchant traveled to New York in April for the purpose of hiring hitmen, even paying a $5,000 advance to two would-be assassins who were actually undercover law-enforcement officers. He was arrested on July 12 before he could leave the U.S., and the plot was foiled by the FBI.
[Was it foiled? The sniper attack that bloodied Trump's ear was on the very next day.]
Dan Ladden-Hall: Elon Musk's Daughter Tears Into Her "Serial Adulterer" Dad: "Not A Family Man". (Daily Beast, August 6, 2024)
"ABSOLUTELY PATHETIC!" Vivian Jenna Wilson claimed her father "won't stop #### lying" about his children.
William Gavin: Elon Musk Takes OpenAI And Sam Altman To Court Over "Shakespearean" Levels Of Deception. (Quartz, August 5, 2024)
Elon Musk is taking OpenAI and Sam Altman to court, accusing both the man and the startup of breaching contracts and violating a federal law against racketeering.
The Tesla CEO filed the lawsuit today, his second against the artificial-intelligence startup he helped create. An earlier suit accused the company of unfair business practices, breaching its fiduciary duty, and asked that it be ordered to make its research public. In June, he dropped the lawsuit after taking potshots at OpenAI-collaborator Apple.
Now, Musk is back again - and he's not pulling any punches.
Kanishka Singh and Chandni Shah: Five U.S. States Push Elon Musk To Fix AI Chatbot Election Misinformation. (Reuters, August 5, 2024)
Social media platforms, including X, have been under scrutiny for years over the spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories, including false information about elections and vaccines. There has been growing concern in Washington that AI-generated content could mislead voters in the November presidential and congressional elections.
Since Musk bought the platform formerly called Twitter in 2022, civil-rights groups have raised concerns over a rise in hate speech and misinformation due to reduced content moderation.
Musk, who last month endorsed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, himself has been accused of spreading misinformation. For example, he has said, without evidence, that Democrats are allowing migrants to cross the southern border so that they can vote in federal elections, even though they are ineligible to do so.
NEW: Clare Malone: What Does Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Actually Want? (The New Yorker, August 5, 2024)
The third-party Presidential candidate has a troubled past, a shambolic campaign, and some surprisingly good poll numbers.
In April, 2023, Kennedy announced that he would be running for the Democratic nomination. That October, after it became clear that Kennedy wouldn't be competitive in the Democratic primary, he declared his intention to run as an independent. "The Democrats are frightened that I'm going to spoil the election for President Biden, and the Republicans are frightened that I'm going to spoil it for Trump", Kennedy said. "The truth is - they're both right. My intention is to spoil it for both of them."
Nationally, Kennedy's polling numbers are hovering around 5% of the vote, and he has shown particular strength among young and Latino voters. In the battleground states of Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, and Wisconsin, all of which Biden narrowly won in 2020, Kennedy's presence carries the distinct possibility of swinging the race. "He can have an impact in any of these states, because you're looking at ten thousand to twenty thousand votes", Spencer Kimball, the director of Emerson College Polling, told me. Kennedy's approval ratings tend to be higher among Republicans, but Timothy Mellon, a billionaire who backs Trump, has given twenty-five million dollars to a Kennedy-affiliated super PAC - a suggestion that, in some circles at least, the Kennedy campaign has been seen as a potential spoiler for Democrats.
Kennedy's family members have been nearly unanimous in opposing his campaign. Last fall, four of his siblings released a statement calling his run "perilous for our country". In private, some have bristled at what they see as a flagrant misuse of the family's legacy.
Michael Daly: Trump's Appearance With Mini-Me Streamer Adin Ross Was Deeply Weird. (Daily Beast, August 5, 2024)
Adin Ross' guests have included white-nationalist Nick Fuentes, accused human-trafficker Andrew Tate, and now Donald Trump. From Trump's opulent Mar-a-Lago, Ross said "There's a lot of people that are first-time voters watching today. And I want to make it very clear to everybody that you're a human being."
[Never too late to try?]
A typical childish Trump attack: "Stay in the spotlight; if you can't get good publicity, get bad publicity." Which is one of Trump's greater talents.]
Julia Frankel: UN Fires Additional Staffers After Probe Finds Potential Involvement In Oct. 7 Attack On Israel. (AP News, August 5, 2024)
The United Nations said today that it has fired additional staff members from its agency for Palestinian refugees after an internal investigation found they may have been involved in the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack against Israel. The U.N. secretary-general's office announced the move in a brief statement to journalists. Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for the secretary-general, did not elaborate on the UNRWA staffers' likely role in the attack or on the evidence that prompted its decision.
UNRWA previously fired 12 staffers and put seven staffers on administrative leave without pay over the claims. The group of nine staffers the U.N. announced it had fired today includes some from each group. The U.N. did not clarify how many have now been fired from the agency in total.
The U.N.'s internal watchdog has been investigating the agency since Israel in January accused 12 UNRWA staffers of being involved in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, in which militants killed 1,200 people and abducted some 250 others.
Ben Meiselas and Harry Litman (Talking Feds): Trump Panics As DC Federal Case Suddenly Reboots. (12-min. YouTube video; MeidasTouch, August 4, 2024)
MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Donald Trump learning the bad news that the Washington DC federal criminal case against him has resumed for further proceedings.
Brian Tyler Cohen and FTC chair Lina Khan: Secret Weapon Against Trump Corruption Revealed. (20-min. YouTube video; Interviews with Brian Tyler Cohen, August 4, 2024)
Brian interviews FTC chair Lina Khan about the ways the FTC is protecting consumers.
Catherine Bennett: We Know Trump Is Weird. It's Time For The Democrats To Get Creative With The Insults. (3-min. video; The Guardian, August 4, 2024)
By all means identify Trump as a felon – as a corrupt, authoritarian, sinister, lecherous, amoral, divisive, untrustworthy, cognitively-struggling, nepotistic, anti-democratic, ignorant, gross ally of murderous dictators – but don't call him weird. It's mean. A piece in the LA Times was headlined: "With a single word – 'weird' – Democrats may have found Republicans' kryptonite."
John Iadarola: Top Psychologist Sounds Alarm On Trump's Dangerous Diagnosis. (8-min. YouTube video; The Young Turks, August 3, 2024)
Top psychologists, such as Dr. Greenwood, have revealed Donald Trump to match with the majority of characteristics needed to diagnosis him as a psychopath. John Iadarola and Dr. Greenwood break it down on The Damage Report.
[Good video; also, good article with good links.]
Tim Miller: Voters Disgusted By Trump's Unhinged, Most Bizarre Speech Ever, Tonight In Georgia! (15-min. video; The Bulwark, August 3, 2024)
Tim Miller breaks down Trump's insane speech tonight in Georgia.
Ben Meiselas: Trump Loses It Over Empty Seats At Awful Atlanta Speech. (15-min. YouTube video; MeidasTouch, August 3, 2024)
Ben Meiselas reports Donald Trump's disastrous speech in Atlanta, Georgia as Vice President Kamala Harris surges ahead in the polls.
Brian Tyler Cohen: Trump Snaps, Fully Bails On Debate With Kamala In Unhinged Rant. (8-min. YouTube video; August 3, 2024)
[Trump agreed to a first campaign debate with Biden, September 10 on ABC News. When Biden backed Harris instead, many predicted Trump would chicken out but he said he looked forward to debating her, "Any place, any time." Yesterday, he decided he'd rather chicken out - as well-analyzed by Brian Tyler Cohen.]
Ben Meiselas: Trump Loses All Control As Kamala Strikes Back Fast! (18-min. YouTube video; MeidasTouch, August 3, 2024)
MeidasTouch host  reports on Donald Trump's descent into madness over the rise in popularity of VP Kamala Harris.
Alex Wagner and Carol Leonnig: "Revelatory Bombshell": Secret Probe Of Trump And Suspicious Egypt Money Was Shut Down By Barr's DOJ: WaPo (12-min. YouTube video; MSNBC, August 3, 2024)
Carol Leonnig, national investigative reporter for the Washington Post, talks with Alex Wagner about her blockbuster reporting on a secret investigation into Donald Trump's relationship with Egypt, and questions about 10-Million dollars in cash that were left unanswered by the Justice Department under Bill Barr.
NEW: Peter Charalambous: Judge Tanya Chutkan Denies Trump's Effort To Dismiss DC Case Over Selective-Prosecution Claim. (ABC News, August 3, 2024)
Earlier in the day, the judge set an Aug. 16 hearing date for the case.
Brian Tyler Cohen and Glenn Kirschner: Breaking: Legal Update Causes Major Problem For Trump. (11-min. YouTube video - view at least the first 4 minutes!; The Legal Breakdown episode 346, August 2, 2024)
Glenn Kirshner explains that Trump's DC case is going back to Judge Chutkan, who will expedite breaking the SCOTUS-imposed silence about Trump's crimes: "Buckle up, because in the coming weeks and probably the next couple of months we're going to be learning a whole lot more about the crimes of Donald Trump - AND the many Republican witnesses who provided the incriminating evidence."
Veteran Slams Trump: "NASCAR Drivers And Coaches As Generals?" More Proof That He's Unfit For Office! (1-min. YouTube video; VoteVets, August 1, 2024)
Brian Tyler Cohen: Trump Loses Big Endorsement On National TV. (9-min. YouTube video; July 31, 2024)
Trump family member abandons Donald Trump on national TV.
Brian Tyler Cohen: Trump Destroys His Campaign With Stunning Outburst, On-Stage In Chicago. (July 31, 2024)
Trump CRUMBLES on stage in campaign-DESTROYING interview.
Ben Meiselas: Trump Has 1AM Meltdown Over Devastating Polls. (17-min. YouTube video; MeidasTouch, July 31, 2024)
MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Donald Trump exploding with fear and rage at 1 AM - as VP Kamala Harris continues to soar in the polls.
[With some choice video clips, catching Trump in too many acts.]
Gabe Sanchez: Trump Campaign Collapsing As Kamala Crushes Him. (14-min. YouTube video; What Was That?, July 31, 2024)
Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign raised $200-Million and gained 170,000 volunteers in its first week, freaking out Trump and Republicans.
[Gabe writes off Vance, as well!]
Greg Sargent and Jill Lawrence: GOPers Finally Admit It: J.D. Vance's Weirdness Is A Fiasco For Trump. (New Republic, July 30, 2024)
According to a new report, many allies of Donald Trump and other Republicans are now sharply second-guessing his choice of J.D. Vance as running mate - and Vance's bizarre public moments are driving the panic. Will Vance enable Democrats to make a strong case against MAGA-style culture-warring - one built on demonstrating just how deranged and off-putting to most Americans it has truly become? We chatted with veteran reporter Jill Lawrence, who has a new piece for The Bulwark on Vance's terrible rollout, about how the sheer, unchecked weirdness of the Trump-Vance ticket has suddenly become a big campaign issue - and how Democrats can exploit it. Listen to this episode here.
Jill Lawrence: Suddenly, The Election Is About Weird Vs. Normal. (The Bulwark, July 29, 2024)
Existential dread isn't saving democracy. Maybe making the campaign a referendum on weirdness will work:
DONALD TRUMP IS "old and quite weird". He is "someone you wouldn't want to sit near at a restaurant". JD Vance is "a creep". He would empower states to track women's menstrual cycles and federal authorities to block them from crossing state lines for abortion care. This pair is bizarre. Just plain strange.
Behold the Harris for President campaign's increasingly-favored line of attack on the Republican ticket, an approach credited to both Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Vice President Kamala Harris herself.
NEW: Homicide Rate: U.S. Vs. Europe (Visual Capitalist, July 28, 2024)
This graphic shows the homicide rates for the U.S., UK, and Europe, based on data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes, CNN, and Our World in Data.
The European dataset includes 47 countries and territories as classified by the United Nations, including the UK. Note that data for some places may be unavailable for certain years.
Europe's homicide rate has fallen dramatically. While the United States has lower homicide rates than most developing and undeveloped countries globally, it still has a higher homicide rate than Europe as a whole. The overall homicide rate in Europe dropped from 7.8 per 100,000 people in 2000 to 2.4 per 100,000 people in 2020. Meanwhile, the U.S. rate rose from 5.5 to 6.4.
Sharon Zhang: Sanders Rebukes Billionaire Effort To Get Harris To Dump Anti-Trust Champion Lina Khan. (Truthout, July 26, 2024)
Major Wall Street donors have mounted a push to oust the FTC chair over her crackdowns on corporate power.
[Contrary to Trump's "vision", democracy is NOT for sale - any more.]
Chris Walker: FBI Director Tells Congress Agency Is Unsure If Bullet Actually Hit Trump. (Truthout, July 25, 2024)
Trump has yet to release an official health assessment to the public since the attempt on his life nearly two weeks ago.
Max Zahn: Potential VP-Pick Mark Kelly Backs Pro-Labor Legislation After Unions Voice Concern. (ABC News, July 24, 2024)
Sen. Mark Kelly, a potential vice presidential contender, said on Wednesday that he would vote in support of the PRO Act, a major labor reform measure. "I would vote for it today", the Arizona senator said.
The remarks came a day after ABC News reported concern among labor unions about the Arizona senator as a potential running mate for Vice President Kamala Harris, due to his unwillingness to back the pro-labor legislation.
Robert McCoy: J.D. Vance Is in Serious Trouble, After Damning Project 2025 Book Foreword. (The New Republic, July 24, 2024)
Donald Trump's running mate can't claim he knew nothing about the extremist Project 2025 after this. As Trump desperately tries to separate his campaign from Project 2025, users on X have noted one big problem: J.D. Vance wrote the foreword to a forthcoming book by the plan's lead author, Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts.
On the Amazon page for Dawn's Early Light, the subtitle reads, "Taking Back Washington To Save America", but an archived version of the page from June 19 indicates it was initially "Burning Down Washington To Save America". Inflammatory language in the blurb has also apparently been tamped down. A sentence on the archived page that says the book "blazes a warpath for the American people to take back their country" now says it "blazes a promising path". Another fiery sentence on the archived page read, "Just as a controlled burn preserves the longevity of a forest, conservatives need to burn down these institutions [the FBI, The New York Times, the Department of Education, etc.] if we're to preserve the American Way of life." It now says that those institutions "need to be dissolved if the American way of life is to be passed down to future generations."
These changes, while slight, perhaps indicate a hope to dispel the emerging public perception that Project 2025 would wreak havoc on the country. Trump, undoubtedly aware of the plan's growing unpopularity, has claimed, "I know nothing about Project 2025" and that "some of the things they're saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal." But it will certainly be harder for the Republican ticket to distance itself from the Heritage Foundation manifesto, come publication day in September.
The Daily Blast with Greg Sargent: J.D. Vance's Shocker Quote On Trump And Sexual Assault Unmasks MAGA. (21-min. podcast; The New Republic, July 24, 2024)
As old Vance criticism of Trump surfaces, a leading tech writer explains how Vance evolved from a clear-eyed Trump critic, to a MAGA disciple in thrall to a radical techno-authoritarian vision.
This week we learned that Donald Trump's running mate, J.D. Vance, repeatedly suggested in 2016 that he believed Trump committed sexual assault. Vance has since softened his views, but this saga captures the essential Vance: He knows exactly what he has now attached himself to, but sees Trump as a vehicle to accomplish some truly radical societal transformations. We talked to tech writer Gil Duran, author of a good piece in The New Republic tracing the "techno-authoritarian" worldview driving Vance, about what his evolution from clear-eyed Trump critic to full MAGA devotee says about today's red-pilled Right - and about our politics more broadly. Listen to this episode here.
Soo Rin Kim: Trump Campaign Wants FEC To Block Harris From Accessing Biden's Campaign Money. (ABC News, July 24, 2024)
The Trump campaign has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission claiming that Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign cannot take over President Joe Biden's campaign's money, calling it a violation of campaign-finance contribution limit. "Kamala Harris is seeking to perpetrate a $91.5-Million heist of Joe Biden's leftover campaign cash - a brazen money grab that would constitute the single largest excessive contribution and biggest violation in the history of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended", the complaint filed today claims. The complaint, written by Trump campaign's attorney David Warrington and targeting Harris, Biden, the Biden campaign (now the Harris campaign), and its treasurer, Keana Spencer, argues that the Biden campaign is "flagrantly violating the Act by making and receiving an excessive contribution of nearly one-hundred-million dollars" to the Harris campaign.
In response to the complaint, Harris campaign spokesperson Charles Kretchmer Lutvak wrote in a statement, "Republicans may be jealous that Democrats are energized to defeat Donald Trump and his MAGA allies, but baseless legal claims – like the ones they've made for years to try to suppress votes and steal elections – will only distract them while we sign up volunteers, talk to voters, and win this election."
[More details in the article... The GOP - which intends to overthrow the U.S. Constitution, and likes tRUmPutin accepting money from Putin, Musk and others (they were pleased to accept $41-Million per month from trillionaire Musk, until he withdrew the offer as Tesla cars became less-profitable) - is so desperate that it wants to keep honest Biden-Harris campaign money from use? This is another good sign!]
Julia Métraux: According To His Nephew, Trump Said Some Disabled People "Should Just Die". (Mother Jones, July 24, 2024)
When his uncle Donald became president, Fred Trump III - whose son William, due to a rare genetic mutation, has seizures and an intellectual disability - saw an opportunity to advocate for disability rights. In a Time excerpt of his forthcoming book, All in the Family, Fred Trump revealed a disturbing conversation with the then-president following a White House meeting in which he discussed how expensive caring for people with complex disabilities can be. Donald Trump said of some disabled people, his nephew recounted, "The shape they're in, all the expenses, maybe those kinds of people should just die."
Jonathan Cohn: Donald Trump Says He "Absolutely" Wants To Debate Kamala Harris. (HuffPost, July 23, 2024)
Former President Donald Trump said today that he wants to debate Vice President Kamala Harris and "would be willing to do more than one debate."
"Oh, yes, absolutely, I'd want to!", Trump said in response to a question about whether he'd debate Harris. "I think it's important. I'm not thrilled about ABC because they're truly fake news. I watched last night. They're actually trying to make a hero out of Joe Biden when he was the worst president in history, and they were doing things like, 'Kamala, what a wonderful thing it is that she is running.'"
During the call, Trump invoked a familiar litany of complaints - some true, some not - about the surge in crossings at the nation's southern border, the Biden administration's response and Harris' role in shaping that response.
The Trump campaign had originally agreed to a pair of debates with Biden when the president was still running. A second debate is currently scheduled to take place on Sept. 10, hosted by ABC News.
Trump reiterated complaints that ABC is "fake news" on his call. Following Biden's announcement on Sunday, Trump also wrote on his Truth Social that "Now that Joe has, not surprisingly, has quit the race, I think the Debate, with whomever the Radical Left Democrats choose, should be held on FoxNews, rather than very-biased ABC".
["FoxNews, instead of the very-biased ABC"? Who could make up these claims - but Trump? The same Trump who was trying to avoid debates with Harris (see Brian Tyler Cohen on July 21).]
Chris Walker: Trump Is "Scrambling", Following Harris' Rise to Dem-Nominee Status. (Truthout, July 23, 2024)
Harris has secured backing from enough delegates to be considered the presumptive Democratic nominee in the 2024 election, and fares better in polling against GOP contender Donald Trump than President Joe Biden did.
Whether due to the polling, Harris's massive fund-raising haul this week, or other factors, Trump and his campaign team appear to be frantic in wake of the announcement that Harris will be his main opponent in the race.
NEW (moved next to Chris Walker's article on Vance): Rachel Maddow: The Real Reason JD Vance Was Chosen To Be Trump's Running Mate (11-min. YouTube video; MSNBC, July 17, 2024)
Rachel Maddow reviews the remarkably-sparse qualifications J.D. Vance offers both as a campaign partner and as a potential vice president (and even a senator), and points out Vance's interest in changing the American system of government, which is the qualification that most appealed to Donald Trump (6 days ago, back when he was confident of a win).
[NOW we better understand why Biden decided to resign - to save our country. Thank you, Rachel, for sleuthing out the Vance mystery and sharing!]
Chris Walker: Voters Don't Know Much About Vance, But They Dislike Many of His Past Statements. (Truthout, July 23, 2024)
Although he's a member of the U.S. Senate, Vance is a relative unknown even among voters of his own political party. But voters tend to sour on him quickly when presented with more information about his past statements. Vance has tried to conceal some of his more-controversial views since becoming Trump's vice-presidential nominee.
Dan Mangan: Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle Resigns Over Trump-Shooting Outrage. (CNBC News, July 23, 2024)
U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned amid outrage over her agency's failure to prevent Thomas Crooks' attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally. Cheatle's resignation came a day after a House committee hearing blasted her for the Secret Service's actions leading up to Trump's July 13 rally in Butler Township, Pennsylvania.
The criticism of Cheatle centers on the Secret Service's failure to secure a roof that Crooks used as a sniper's post to shoot at Trump and rally attendees, among other lapses. The building whose roof Crooks positioned himself on is about 150 yards from the stage where Trump was speaking, and had a clear line of sight and fire to that stage. The Secret Service did not extend its security perimeter for the rally to include the complex that included that building, instead leaving it up to local law-enforcement officials to secure that area.
President Joe Biden said he planned to appoint a new director soon.
Chuck Todd: VP Kamala Harris Shows What "Simple Basic Messaging" Can Do For A Campaign. (19-min. YouTube video; NBC News, July 23, 2024)
Vice President Kamala Harris holds her first campaign rally in battleground Wisconsin. Chuck Todd, Kelly O'Donnell, Yamiche Alcindor and Shaquille Brewster discuss what's to come for the presidential campaign.
Yasmin Vossoughian: How Social Media Is Turning The Harris Campaign Into An Internet Meme (4-mn. video; NBC News, July 22, 2024)
Within 24 hours of Kamala Harris' announcement on running for president, social media was flooded with memes and reactions. NBC News brings all the latest online sensations to Harris' candidacy.
Steve Colbert: Saluting President Biden; The Veepstakes Begins. (12-min. YouTube video; The Late Show, July 22, 2024)
[This one's a keeper!]
NEW (and posted here, on purpose): A.I. David Attenborough "mocumentary": The MAGA Morons Of America (12-min. YouTube video; Right Plight, June 28, 2024)
This A.I. David Attenborough is 100% fake, and every video on this channel is created with the intention of being comedic and/or educational. If you're not someone who prefers this type of humor, we simply ask that you move on and allow others to enjoy it freely.
[As David Corn points out (below), Trump "relentlessly decried America as a decaying 'third-world nation' that people around the world are laughing at." But as this "mocumentary" says sarcastically, they're laughing at Trump and his MAGA devotees.]
NEW (and 3 months later, on purpose): Dan P. McAdams: "The Mass Psychology Of Trumpism" (14-min. YouTube cartoon; New Lines Magazine, March 28, 2024)
What explains Donald Trump's enduring appeal among his supporters? What drives the intense emotional connection that his most passionate followers feel with the former - and possibly next - president? This question has flummoxed and bedeviled pundits, political scientists, journalists, historians and other observers for the last decade, leading many to the realization that the normal categories of political analysis fall short when it comes to this phenomenon.
In this video essay, the psychologist Dan McAdams ventures a theory: In the minds of Trump's most ardent supporters, he is both more and less than a person. "In the eyes of his supporters, Trump possesses extraordinary powers that are wielded for good and against evil", McAdams observes. "Who cares if he is flawed? So what if he lacks certain distinctively human qualities? What does it matter that he is rude, authoritarian or even a criminal?"
To explain this apparent paradox, McAdams draws on the research for his book, "The Strange Case of Donald J. Trump: A Psychological Reckoning" (2020). McAdams, the Henry Wade Rogers professor of psychology and professor of human development and social policy at Northwestern University, is a pioneering scholar in the field of "narrative-identity theory", or the life-story model of human identity. His other books include "The Redemptive Self: Stories Americans Live By" (2006).
This video essay is written and narrated by Dan McAdams. It is drawn from McAdams' New Lines Magazine article, "The Mass Psychology of Trumpism".
Maya Wiley, Tim Miller, and Reverend Al Sharpton join MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace: "Trump is going to have a real fight": Discussion of VP Harris' first speech after Biden drops out. (10-min. YouTube video; MSNBC, July 22, 2024)
Vice President Kamala Harris spoke for the first time after President Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race.
[After you hear her speech (below), you may further appreciate these comments.]
Michael Moore: A New Hope (a clearer 10-min. video of same Harris speech, July 22, 2024)
On Monday, July 22, 2024, one day after President Biden bravely ended his re-election run for a second term and endorsed his vice president as his replacement, Vice President Kamala Harris paid her first visit to the "Harris for President" campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, to meet the campaign staff and make a few remarks.
With only 106 days left until the general election on November 5th, and no time to waste, with a nation on edge over what may be the biggest threat ever to our Democracy with the Republican nominee, Donald Trump, still seething over his removal of office by voters in 2020, having vowed to seek revenge and, if elected, "be a dictator on Day One", she stepped up to the podium. And delivered.
It is my hope that every one of you will take 10 short minutes and watch what I think is one of the best political speeches I've witnessed in my lifetime. Powerful. Real. Laser-focused and uplifting. Exactly what we need.
And for all of you who have been in a deep despair, get ready to be jolted off your sofa.
See VP Harris Slam "Fraudster" Trump In Her First Speech At Campaign Headquarters. (19-min. YouTube video; MSNBC, July 22, 2024)
Vice President Kamala Harris delivers strong contrast to Trump, while President Joe Biden is phoned in, to campaign staff in Wilmington, Delaware.
[Prediction, after her first speech: Trump will try hard to weasel out of a debate!]
Brian Tyler Cohen: Trump Accidentally Reveals FATAL Campaign Vulnerability. (11-min. YouTube video; No Lie, July 22, 2024)
Trump exposes his biggest vulnerability for Democrats to capitalize on, the Project 2025 recipe for autocracy that's what he's all about, and from which he's now trying to distance himself.
Sasha Abramsky: Republicans Claim Harris Can't Beat Trump - Don't Believe Them. (Truthout, July 22, 2024)
Hours after President Joe Biden announced that he would not seek reelection, Donald Trump declared that he believed Vice President Kamala Harris, the most likely Democratic nominee, would be easier to beat in November than Biden. The Republican Party immediately kicked into gear, denouncing Harris as "enabler-in-chief" to a floundering Biden and decrying her role in what the party continues to label an immigration "crisis".
Don't believe Trump's bluster for a minute. Harris has the potential to be a far more formidable opponent than Biden. First off, Trump's supposed strength is more a product of Biden's weakness than of a sudden love-fest a majority of Americans are having with the impeached, found-liable-for-sexual-assault MAGA leader. Put simply, there is no love-fest. This became even more evident after he was shot by a sniper in Pennsylvania - a situation which has, historically, seen the surviving political figure benefit from a surge of popular good will. Reagan's approval ratings, after he was shot, climbed to nearly 70%. But polls after Trump's shooting showed that he still only had a 40% approval rating, with a majority of Americans continuing to disapprove.
Alex Isenstadt: Trump Campaign Began Preparing For Biden Exit In May, Confidential Memo Shows. (Politico, July 22, 2024)
Exactly one month before Joe Biden's disastrous debate performance, a Donald Trump campaign staffer distributed a document to top Trump campaign aides. The subject line: "Nominating An Alternative Democratic Presidential Candidate".
Trevor Hunnicutt, Nandita Bose and Jeff Mason: Harris Quickly Consolidates Democratic Backing For Her White-House Run. (Reuters, July 22, 2024)
Summary:
- Her campaign aims to wrap up majority support by Wednesday night.
- Potential challengers line up behind her.
- Trump campaign launches critique of Harris' record.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris swiftly consolidated Democratic support for her presidential bid today, securing commitments from hundreds of convention delegates, announcing a massive fund-raising haul and earning endorsements from top party figures after President Joe Biden abruptly left the race.
Melissa Quinn, Kathryn Watson, Caitlin Yilek: Live Updates: Kamala Harris' Bid For President Draws Growing Support After Joe Biden Drops Out Of 2024 Race. (CBS News, July 22, 2024)
Democrats on Monday moved to consolidate behind Vice President Kamala Harris for the party's nomination, capping off a dramatic 24 hours since President Biden made the shocking announcement that he would be dropping out of the 2024 race and then backed Harris for the nomination.
Harris made her first public remarks since the announcement at the White House on Monday at an event honoring college athletes. She said she is "deeply, deeply grateful" to Mr. Biden for his "service to his nation" and said his legacy is "unmatched in modern history".
Today, House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, still one of the most powerful Democrats in Washington, also endorsed Kamala Harris, the 59-year-old former senator and state attorney general from California, as have many who had been considered top rivals for the nomination, including Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and current Speaker Hakeem Jeffries have not yet endorsed her, but they jointly announced: "Vice President Kamala Harris is off to a great start with her promise to pursue the presidential nomination in a manner consistent with the grassroots and transparent process set forth by the Democratic National Committee. She is rapidly picking up support from grassroots delegates from one end of the country to the other."
Bethany Irvine: Harris' Big-Donor Money Bomb (Politico, July 22, 2024)
Future Forward, the flagship super-PAC blessed by President Joe Biden, received $150-Million in new commitments from major Democratic donors in the past 24 hours - since the president announced he would step aside from the race.
The fund-raising boon gives VP Kamala Harris, Biden's endorsed successor, an enormous boost as the Democratic Party re-orients to a new nominee. Future Forward already had $122-Million in cash on hand as of the end of June, according to Federal Elections Commission filings.
Jessica Piper and Hailey Fuchs: Kamala Harris Takes Over War Chest As Biden Campaign Becomes "Harris For President". (Politico, July 21, 2024)
Kamala Harris is inheriting the tens of millions of dollars that filled Joe Biden's campaign coffers. Because the money was raised for both Biden and Harris, she can use it for what is now her campaign for the presidency.
Biden's presidential campaign formally renamed itself "Harris for President", according to paperwork filed with the Federal Election Commission within hours of Biden's announcement. The change heralds the transformation of Biden's campaign into an operation to support the current vice president's candidacy, as Harris assumes control over its funds. As of the end of June, the campaign reported having $95-Million.
Biden's decision to drop out set off a scramble in the party's fundraising apparatus to support Harris. The campaign quickly moved to call for donations to Harris' campaign. Allies for Harris were rallying donors and preparing to support her, including by collecting donation pledges, even before Biden dropped out of the race. One women's organization had already been working to ensure that messaging was ready to support Harris as a presidential contender.
Brian Tyler Cohen: PANIC: Republicans MELT DOWN On National TV Over Kamala Harris. (8-min. YouTube video; July 21, 2024)
[Can Harris beat Trump? Watch BTC dissect a suddenly-deflated Republican campaign.]
Caitlyn Kelleher: "Thank You For Your Service, Mr. President. Now Let's WIN!": Massachusetts Reacts To President Biden's Withdrawal From Race (Patriot-Ledger, July 21, 2024)
Massachusetts' Democratic political leadership has started to react, after President Joe Biden today announced he was no longer running for re-election.
Biden's announcement came after weeks of turmoil for the Biden-Harris campaign. Many within his party began to call on him to withdraw after the president's poor performance at the June debate against former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for the president. The president is 81 years old and has held elected office for 50 years, including on a Delaware county council, U.S. senator, and vice president.
Here are the reactions of the Massachusetts congressional delegation and Gov. Maura Healey.
Brian Tyler Cohen: BREAKING: Trump PANICS, starts to BACK OUT of debate with KAMALA. (9-min. YouTube video; July 21, 2024)
Read President Biden's Full Letter Announcing The End Of His 2024 Re-Election Bid. (PBS News, July 21, 2024)
President Joe Biden announced he's dropping out of the 2024 presidential race, following mounting calls from Democrats in recent weeks. The president faced pressure to exit the race amid concerns about his age and ability to win in November, after his disastrous debate performance against former President Donald Trump in Atlanta last month.
"It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President", Biden said in a letter released today. "And while it has been my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term."
Delegates are set to vote for their nominee in a virtual roll call on August 7, weeks before the Democratic National Convention begins on Aug. 19 in Chicago. In a social-media post following his initial letter, Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his replacement at the top of the Democratic ticket.
[Click the link to read our president's full letter - a memorable letter from a great man!]
NEW: Zack Beauchamp: This is bigger than Joe Biden. (Vox, July 21, 2024)
The president's decision to withdraw from the 2024 race is a jolt to our ailing democracy.
By dropping out of the 2024 race, President Joe Biden did what we all want our politicians to do: He put his country over his career. Knowing that his party had lost faith in his capacity to beat Donald Trump and that a second Trump term would threaten democracy itself, he chose to do the right thing and step aside.
Sasha Abramsky: The Staggering Nihilism Of The GOP's Climate Policy Was On Display This Week. (Truthout, July 21, 2024)
The Republican Party platform unveiled this week says - in all caps, of course - that "We will DRILL, BABY, DRILL!"
Three months before this week's Republican National Convention (RNC) opened in Milwaukee, Donald Trump met with oil executives to shake them down for a huge influx of cash. In exchange for them giving his campaign $1-Billion, he said, he would dismantle Joe Biden's Green agenda and roll back an array of environmental regulations.
Trump's rather shameless request, and his promise, were in keeping with the long-standing GOP head-in-the-sand approach to climate change and to environmental policies that in any way, shape or form limit the oil and gas industries' ability to maximize production and profits. To be clear, while Trump is in many ways a disrupter, when it comes to climate change policies, he's simply following a decades-old GOP approach, pushed at least as avidly by George H. W. Bush, and then George W. Bush and his Texas oil cronies, as by Trump himself.
If Trump returns to power, there's every indication the incoming administration will be at least as hostile to environmental policies and to efforts to tackle global warming as was his previous presidency. And it will be doing so during a crucial final window of years leading up to 2030 that climate scientists believe humans have in order to contain the worst impacts of the climate crisis.
Project 2025's Mandate for Leadership, the 900-plus page Heritage Foundation-inspired policy blueprint for an incoming Trump administration, advocates a massive paring-back of the powers of the Environmental Protection Agency; a virtual end to government monitoring of global temperature changes; an acceleration of permitting for natural-gas and oil-drilling ventures; and a removal of all climate-change goals from government services, ranging from how cities are zoned to what materials are used in public construction projects. The blueprint envisions a complete cut off of tax subsidies and rebates for electric vehicles, a rollback of wind farm investments, and a reversal of Pentagon planning around climate change. As Bill McKibben recently wrote in The Nation, "If Trump wins - well, consider the US an Exxon station, open 24 hours a day." The U.K.-based Carbon Brief has estimated that Trump's plans would result in a staggering 4-billion tons of additional CO2 being spewed into the Earth's atmosphere by 2030.
[This is pre-contemplated mass murder of people, other animals and more. What is the appropriate prison term for such criminals?]
1980s: How Donald Trump Created Donald Trump (5-min. video; NBC News, July 6, 2016)
Even though Trump sometimes seems like he's sometimes shooting from the hip on the campaign trail, it's all part of a persona he refined back in the '80s.
[This 8-year-old NBC-special has lessons for this year's presidential race.]
Steve Colbert: RNC Night 4: GOP Wants Voters To Forget; Hulk Hogan Turns RNC Into WWE; Matt Gaetz's Face. (15-min. video; The Late Show, July 19, 2024)
Donald Trump accepted his party's nomination on the final night of the Republican National Convention, following a rowdy speech from Hulk Hogan and a performance by Kid Rock. Meanwhile, viewers continued to be puzzled by the drastic change in Rep. Matt Gaetz's appearance.
Sen. Bernie Sanders: "Nobody In America Should Be Voting For Trump." (7-min. video; The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, July 19, 2024)
The senior Senator from Vermont tells Stephen that former president Trump's climate-change denial is chief among many reasons to vote for someone else in the 2024 election.
Late Night with Seth Meyers: RNC Speakers Lie About Trump's Record; Tucker Carlson Pushed for Vance to Be VP. (10-min. YouTube video; A Closer Look, July 18, 2024)
Seth takes a closer look at Trump accepting the Republican nomination for president - after a week in which his running mate J.D. Vance and the GOP lied brazenly about his track record as president.
Sen. Bernie Sanders: Battling Wealth Inequality Should Be A Core Democratic-Party Priority. (4-min. video; The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, July 19, 2024)
Vermont's senior Senator backs Biden and argues that, regardless of who wins in November, Democrats need to reinvent the party to focus on battling poverty and inequality.
Robert Reich: 10 Economic Myths Debunked #8: The Job-Creation Hoax (2-min. video; Debunking Economic Myths, July 19, 2024)
I'm so tired of people pretending the rich are "job creators". Here's who's really creating jobs.
At Republican National Convention: Trump's Acceptance Speech (1-hour pre-speech talk by Robert Reich and Heather Lofthouse, then 110-min. Trump speech w/occasional remarks by them; YouTube, July 18th, 2024)
Robert Reich (the day before): "As Trump becomes the first convicted felon to accept the GOP's presidential nomination, Heather Lofthouse and I will offer real-time commentary and fact-checking."
[If you have to view Trump's Acceptance Speech (I did, live, until 1AM), this is a best way to do so! My take? Trump is attempting to be "Plastic Jesus".]
NEW: How Corrupt Is SCOTUS? The History Of SCOTUS Corruption And What We Can Do About It (Move On, July 18, 2024)
Seven out of 10 Americans think the Supreme Court operates based on ideology, rather than being fair and impartial. We've seen reports of justices accepting luxury gifts and vacations worth millions of dollars. Supreme Court justices are not above the law, and we can help hold the Supreme Court accountable. We spoke with Alex Aronson, founder of Court Accountability, who researches corruption within the Supreme Court.
Once again, it's an unprecedented time in the U.S., and SCOTUS is playing a major role in what we're seeing. How did the Supreme Court become corrupt? According to Alex, the Supreme Court didn't start becoming corrupt recently; it's been an intentional process for more than 70 years.
As Alex says, "The Supreme Court that we have today, this durably-entrenched 6-to-3 extreme Supreme Court, is the product of a 70-year special-interest campaign that really got off the ground in the backlash to racial integration and Brown v. Board of Education in the 1950s. It was further fueled in the '70s by fossil-fuel interests and corporate billionaires who realized that the courts could be a powerful vehicle for the advancement of their corporatist agenda. And then, of course, the galvanization of the religious right around the goal of overturning Roe v. Wade."
We've seen how profits and corporations influence politics. We're seeing life-saving laws being overturned and new and scary precedents being set. As Alex states, "What these judges were put there to do and what we've seen them do is not just advance the substantive agenda of these billionaires and [religious] extremists, but also clamp down the levers of democracy."
These are not new practices for the Supreme Court or corporations - but in recent years and with unprecedented rulings, it feels more dire and dangerous. We now know the extent of gifts Supreme Court justices receive from wealthy political donors. Justice Alito has received luxurious resort vacations from GOP donors, while Justice Thomas has accepted gifts and vacations worth more than $4 million over his career.
Chris Walker: J.D. Vance's RNC Speech Rewrites History, Downplays His Anti-Abortion Views. (Truthout, July 18, 2024)
Last evening, Ohio Republican Sen. J.D. Vance addressed a crowd of Republicans at his party's national convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, giving his first formal speech as the vice-presidential nominee running alongside former President Donald Trump.
Noticeably - and perhaps strategically - absent from Vance's speech at the convention was any mention of his anti-abortion and Christian-nationalist views.
The evening was officially billed as being about foreign policy, but Vance, having just been nominated as Trump's running-mate earlier this week, spoke on myriad issues. Many of his claims, mostly targeting the Biden administration, were misleading or blatantly false, while other statements tread a thin line.
At one point in his speech, Vance peddled the false, anti-immigrant talking point that undocumented people are driving up housing costs, prompting the RNC audience to erupt into chants of "Send them back!"; at another, he praised his spouse's parents, who immigrated to the U.S. decades ago.
In a short aside during his speech, Vance encouraged unsafe gun practices, celebrating how his grandmother stored loaded weapons in unlocked places throughout her home. (Notably, unintentional firearm fatality is a leading cause of death among children in the U.S.)
Vance also used his speech to rewrite history, claiming that Trump had opposed the war in Iraq while Biden had supported it. In fact, both Biden and Trump had openly stated their support for the war when it began, shifting their stance only after public opinion turned against the occupation years later.
Vance's extremist stance on abortion was markedly absent from his speech, despite his repeated calls for a federal abortion ban when he was running for senator in 2022.
"I certainly would like abortion to be illegal nationally", Vance said in a radio interview at the time, adding that he could understand the far-right argument that such a ban was needed in order to deny residents of states with severe abortion restrictions the ability to cross state lines to obtain the procedure.
Like other Republicans - including Donald Trump - Vance appears to be strategically concealing his anti-abortion agenda because it is unpopular with the American public. Indeed, his website, where he once called for "eliminating abortion" completely, appears to have been wiped from the Internet.
Overall, Vance's speech played up his working-class childhood while ignoring his ties to billionaires like Peter Thiel, who has backed Vance financially for years in both the private sector and in his run for the Senate. Vance also tampered down his ordinarily over-the-top MAGA-esque rhetoric, and probably for good reason: Most of the U.S. public currently knows very little about him, and revealing the "real" J.D. Vance may give voters the impression that he is a carbon copy of Donald Trump. Indeed, while recent polling shows that more voters have a negative view of the GOP vice presidential candidate than a positive one, a poll yesterday found that only 24% of registered voters have a favorable view of him, while 35% see him in a negative light. Nearly half of voters (48%) said they didn't know enough to form an opinion.
Vance's speech largely succeeded in concealing who he is from the American public, political pundits noted. "He put a very friendly face on a pretty disturbing agenda", said CNN's Van Jones.
Geoff Dembicki: U.S. Oil Company Ran 1977 Article Predicting Climate Crisis Could Cause Starvation. (The Guardian, July 18, 2024) The corporate predecessor to America's largest refiner of oil, Marathon Petroleum, wrote nearly 50 years ago that global temperature rise, potentially linked to "industrial expansion", could one day cause "widespread starvation and other social and economic calamities".
This decades-old description of climate breakdown is from a 1977 issue of the magazine Marathon World and is attributed in the article by an unnamed author to several experts including a scientist working for a top U.S. agency. "Although climatologists disagree on the underlying reasons, many see a future climate of greater variability, bringing with it areas of extreme drought", said the magazine, published by Marathon Oil Company, which later split into Marathon Petroleum as well as the exploration and production company Marathon Oil.
Marathon Petroleum is among several oil and gas companies – including Exxon, Shell and BP – currently being sued by Honolulu (City and County of Honolulu v. Sunoco et al) for allegedly engaging in a coordinated communications effort "to conceal and deny their own knowledge" of catastrophic climate impacts caused by burning their fossil-fuel products. That lawsuit alleges that Marathon knew of the dangers of global temperature-rise long before the general public, due to its membership in the American Petroleum Institute, which began studying the link between fossil fuels and global heating decades ago.
This newly-surfaced article shows the company also was undertaking efforts on its own to stay up to date on the latest climate science and the threats a more volatile climate could pose to humankind. Entitled "World Weather Watch", the article summarizes the debate, quoting J. Murray Mitchell of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a federal U.S. government scientist who during the 1970s warned that industrial carbon dioxide emissions could melt the polar ice caps and pose threats to human civilization. "The climate is not going to get better, only worse. Over the long haul, we are going to have to brace ourselves for the prospect of a lot of poor harvests", Mitchell said in the piece. Marathon World cited research from Mitchell and other climate scientists showing that "industrial expansion during the last century may be affecting the weather through carbon-dioxide pollution."
The magazine article suggests potential implications for the company from a more extreme climate.
Given these enormous risks, the company periodical explains, "many climatologists feel it is imperative to apply present scientific technology so that predictions of Earth's changeable environment might prevent widespread starvation and other social and economic calamities." Though warnings like this were becoming more widespread in the scientific literature of the time, it would be more than a decade before global heating gained mainstream attention in 1988 following NASA scientist James Hansen's testimony to Congress and the establishment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
"I'm not surprised that Marathon would have documents that shed light on its awareness" of climate change, said Bryant Sewell, senior research analyst at the shareholder advocacy group Majority Action. "Whether it's Marathon, Exxon or electric utilities, we have seen a long-standing strategy from these companies of climate denial, disinformation and delay."
Marathon Petroleum was spun off from Marathon Oil as a stand-alone refining company in 2011. It didn't respond to questions from the Guardian. Nor did Marathon Oil, which was recently acquired by ConocoPhillips.
Marathon Petroleum currently operates the largest refining system in the U.S., including more than 6,000 gas stations across the country. Last year it reported a net income of nearly $10-Billion. The company has previously obstructed federal climate action, including reportedly working quietly with a network of conservative policy groups under President Donald Trump to fight against federal fuel economy standards that would lessen the greenhouse gases released by cars and trucks.
Joanne M. Pierce: What The Catholic Church Says About Political Violence And The Need To Forgive – Even Would-Be Assassins. (The Conversation, July 18, 2024)
Following the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, the Vatican released a statement on July 14, 2024, condemning the violence. The attack, it said, "wounds people and democracy, causing suffering and death."
 Other Catholic leaders also expressed concern over the political violence.
Archbishop Timothy Broglio, for example, president of the U.S. bishops' conference, said in a statement, "Together with my brother bishops, we condemn political violence, and we offer our prayers for President Trump, and those who were killed or injured. He also called for an end to "political violence", which he noted was "never a solution to political disagreements."
This assassination attempt comes at a time of violence and war around the world. The conflict in Ukraine has been going on more than two years after Russia invaded, and the war in Gaza, prompted by a Hamas terrorist attack on Israeli civilians, has continued for months.
As a specialist in medieval Christianity, I know that Catholic views on the morality of killing have evolved over time. And while Christianity eventually came to defend the idea of warfare for self-defense and the common good, it has also emphasized the value of forgiveness of enemies.
[A good introduction to the history of Catholic thinking re violence (yes, including The Crusades). But what is the current Catholic position on the popular Republican plan to make the U.S.A. a Christian nation?]
Alexandria Jacobson and Dave Levinthal: Associated Press Issues Warning About Iconic Trump Assassination-Attempt Photo. (photos; Raw Story, July 17, 2024)
An already-iconic image of Donald Trump's bloodied face and pumped fist - immediately after a failed assassination attempt on Saturday - can be seen on tote bags, T-shirts, trading cards and other merchandise for sale across the Internet.
Versions of that image belong to the news organizations whose photojournalists captured the moment, including Evan Vucci of the Associated Press, Anna Moneymaker of Getty and Doug Mills of The New York Times. Yet, those selling merchandise with the image or using it for fundraising - including the former president's re-election campaign - often fail to credit the photographers or get permission to use the images for commercial purposes.
Mark Alesia: Many Protest The Republican National Convention. (photos; Raw Story, July 17, 2024)
MILWAUKEE - The Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, which officially began Monday and runs through Thursday evening, has attracted all manner of jokers, agitators and cranks.
Across the street from the clowns, six video trucks were parked next to each other, all showing a parody of Trump's campaign logo. "Dictator on day one", it said, referring to Trump's comments in December that he wouldn't be a dictator "except for Day One".
A truck, sponsored by People for the American Way, reminds people what Republican vice-presidential candidate J.D. Vance once said about Donald Trump: "Reprehensible".
A Spanish-language protest truck says,
"Wisconsin, it's time to reject Trump's agenda:
- Prohibit access to abortion and contraceptives at the national level.
- Separate thousands of families through mass deportations.
- Raise taxes on working communities and exempt the rich from taxes."
Numerous other kinds of protests - many with a humorous edge - dot the streets of downtown Milwaukee.
Mark Alesia: Donald Trump Is A Clown, According To Clowns. (photos, website; Raw Story, July 17, 2024)
MILWAUKEE - Just outside the security perimeter of the Republican National Convention, across the river from where thousands gathered in support of Donald Trump for president, a gaggle of clowns held court. They were older clowns, honking horns and proudly displaying their homemade clown cart, featuring circus music and a papier-mâché Trump head adorned with a red tie. "The Republican party is a clown act, so why not play to that", said Steve May from Washington state, one of the clowns.
They even have an anti-Trump clown website. "We are Democracy-loving Americans, dressed as clowns, to encourage you to join us in keeping clowns and puppets out of elected office in the United States", the website says. "Elect a clown, expect a circus!"
Brittany Gibson: Meanwhile, Down The Street... (Politico, July 17, 2024)
MILWAUKEE - At an off-campus event for the "politically homeless" and anti-Trump Republicans, former RNC Chair Michael Steele advocated for voting for President Joe Biden - despite ANY concerns about his health. "Joe Biden got Covid today. Oh my God, here we go", Steele said. "But you know what? Joe Biden could be in his underwear sitting in the corner drooling with Covid, and I'd still vote for him!"
Aamer Madhani: President Joe Biden Tests Positive For COVID-19 While Campaigning In Las Vegas, Has "Mild Symptoms". (1-min. video; Associated Press, July 17, 2024)
President Joe Biden tested positive for COVID-19 while traveling Wednesday in Las Vegas and is experiencing "mild symptoms" including "general malaise" from the infection, the White House said.  Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden will fly to his home in Delaware, where he will "self-isolate and will continue to carry out all of his duties fully during that time."
Dr. Kevin O'Connor, the president's physician, said in a note that Biden, 81, "presented this afternoon with upper respiratory symptoms, to include rhinorhea (runny nose) and non-productive cough, with general malaise." After the positive COVID-19 test, Biden was prescribed the antiviral drug Paxlovid and has taken his first dose, O'Connor said.
Biden was slated to speak at the UnidosUS event in Las Vegas Wednesday afternoon, as part of an effort to rally Hispanic voters ahead of the November election. Instead, he departed for the airport to fly to Delaware, where he had already been planning to spend a long weekend at his home in Rehoboth Beach.
[Get well soon, Joe!]
Nicholas Riccardi and Jill Colvin: Trump Has Given No Official Info About His Medical Care For Days Since An Assassination Attempt. (Associated Press, July 17, 2024)
MILWAUKEE — Four days after a gunman's attempt to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally, the public is still in the dark over the extent of his injuries, what treatment the Republican presidential nominee received in the hospital, and whether there may be any long-term effects on his health.
Trump's campaign has refused to discuss his condition, release a medical report or records, or make the doctors who treated him available, leaving information to dribble out from Trump, his friends and family.
The first word on Trump's condition came about half an hour after shots rang out and Trump dropped to the ground after reaching for his ear and then pumped his fist defiantly to the crowd with blood streaming down his face. The campaign issued a statement saying he was "fine" and "being checked out at a local medical facility". "More details will follow", his spokesperson said.
It wasn't until 8:42 p.m., however, that Trump told the public he had been struck by a bullet, as opposed to shrapnel or debris. In a post on his social media network, Trump wrote that he was "shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part" of his right ear.
Presidents and major-party candidates have long had to balance their right to doctor-patient confidentiality with the public's expectations that they demonstrate they are healthy enough to serve, particularly when questions arise about their readiness. Trump, for example, has long pressed President Joe Biden to take a cognitive test as the Democrat faces doubts after his stumbling performance in last month's debate.
After a would-be assassin shot and gravely wounded President Ronald Reagan in 1981, the Washington, D.C., hospital where he was treated gave regular, detailed public updates about his condition and treatment.
Trump has appeared at the Republican National Convention the past three days with a bandage over his right ear. But there has been no further word since Saturday from Trump's campaign or other officials on his condition or treatment. Instead, it has been allies and family members sharing news.
The lack of information continues a pattern for Trump, who has released minimal medical information throughout his political career. When he first ran in 2016, Trump declined to release full medical records, and instead released a note from his doctor that declared Trump would be "the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency". Dr. Harold Bornstein later revealed that the glowing, four-paragraph assessment was written in 5 minutes, while a car sent by Trump to collect it waited outside.
When Trump was infected with the coronavirus in the midst of his 2020 re-election campaign, his doctors and aides tried to downplay the severity of his condition and withheld information about how sick he was and key details of his treatment. Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows wrote in his book that Trump's blood oxygen dropped to a "dangerously low level" and that there were concerns that Trump would not be able to walk on his own if he had waited longer to be transported to Walter Reed for treatment.
Michael Biesecker, Martha Bellisle, Jim Mustian and Peter Smith: Three Days After Attempted Assassination, Trump Shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks Remains An Elusive Enigma. (AP News, July 17, 2024)
After three days, an enigmatic portrait emerged of the 20-year-old man who came close to killing former President Donald Trump with a high-velocity bullet: He was an intelligent loner with few friends, an apparently-thin social-media footprint, and no hints of strong political beliefs that would suggest a motive for an attempted assassination.
Even after the FBI cracked into Thomas Matthew Crooks' cellphone, scoured his computer, home and car, and interviewed more than 100 people, the mystery of why he opened fire on Trump's rally Saturday, wounding the GOP nominee, remained as elusive as the moment it happened.
Jonathan Martin: "Scared to Death": GOP Security Hawks Slam Vance Selection. (1-min. videos, "CPAC 2024: Vance Pushes To Deprioritize Ukraine"; Politico, July 17, 2024)
By choosing the Ukraine-skeptic Ohio senator, Trump accelerates his party's rejection of its Reaganite roots. Former President Donald Trump didn't just select a running mate here. He doused political kerosene on the raging Republican fire over foreign policy. By tapping the 39-year-old Sen. J.D. Vance, one of the party's leading national-security doves, Trump strengthened the hand of the isolationist forces eager to undo the hawkish GOP consensus that has endured since the Reagan era.
Should Trump prevail in November, the non-interventionists will have one of their most articulate advocates at Trump's side. What worries the hawks is that Vance may also be the last adviser in the former president's ear.
While toeing the party line and praising Vance in their public comments, in private the interventionists ranged from horrified to merely alarmed that one of the loudest critics of aiding Ukraine could soon be first in line for the presidency.
The loudest voice for maintaining the party's traditional posture on national security also happens to be a talented Republican in-fighter, but outgoing Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell has little direct influence with Trump. McConnell (R-Ky.) has been boasting in recent weeks about how his faction was on the march, citing the strong Senate majority for Ukraine aid, Speaker Mike Johnson's hawkish turn on the issue and how every congressional Republican supporting the package emerged unscathed through the primary season.
Yet he had little to say about the Vance pick, only raising an eyebrow when I asked him about it immediately after it became public and declining to speak any further. For all his dedication to the Reaganite cause, McConnell is a party man first and was unwilling to distract from the unity of the week.
[Trump owes Putin. By abandoning The Ukraine, Trump "ends the war" - that is, does for Putin what Putin can't do for himself. A vote for Trump is a vote for Putin - and a sabotage of Ukraine's hard-fought-for freedom.]
NEW: Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck: JD Vance, Trump's VP Pick, Once Called Him A "Moral Disaster", And Possibly "America's Hitler". (CNN, July 16, 2024)
Donald Trump's vice-presidential pick, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, was once a fervent critic of the former president. In private messages, he wondered ahead of Trump's election whether he was "America's Hitler" and in 2017 said the then-president was a "moral disaster". In public, he agreed Trump was a "total fraud" who didn't care about regular people, and called him "reprehensible". "I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon, who wouldn't be that bad (and might even prove useful), or that he's America's Hitler", Vance wrote in a message to a friend in 2016. "How's that for discouraging?"
In 2016 and 2017, Vance, then best-known for penning the best-selling book "Hillbilly Elegy", said Trump was "cultural heroin" and "just another opioid" for Middle America. He told CNN ahead of the 2016 election that he was "definitely not" voting for Trump, and he also contemplated voting for Hillary Clinton. (He ultimately said he planned to vote for independent candidate Evan McMullin.)
"Fellow Christians, everyone is watching us when we apologize for this man. Lord help us!", he tweeted after the "Access Hollywood" tape was published in 2016.
Vance also liked tweets that said Trump committed "serial sexual assault", called him "one of USA's most hated, villainous, douchey celebs", and harshly criticized Trump's response to the deadly 2017 White Nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. "There is no moral equivalence between the anti-racist protestors in Charlottesville and the killer (and his ilk)", Vance wrote in a deleted tweet. Zack Beauchamp: The Dark Worldview Of Vance, Trump's Choice For Vice President, Explained. What J.D. Vance Really Believes (Vox, July 15, 2024)
I met Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), Donald Trump's new choice for vice president, in the summer of 2022. I was covering a conservative conference in Israel, and Vance was the surprise VIP attraction. We chatted for a bit about the connections between right-wing movements across the world, and what American conservatives could learn from foreign peers. He was friendly, thoughtful, and smart - much smarter than the average politician I've interviewed.
Yet his worldview is fundamentally incompatible with the basic principles of American democracy.
- Vance has said that, had he been vice president in 2020, he would have carried out Trump's scheme for the vice president to overturn the election results.
- He has fund-raised for January 6 rioters.
- He once called on the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into a Washington Post columnist who penned a critical piece about Trump.
- After last week's assassination attempt on Trump, he attempted to whitewash his radicalism by blaming the shooting on Democrats' rhetoric about democracy - without an iota of evidence.
This worldview translates into a very aggressive agenda for a second Trump presidency. In a podcast interview, Vance said that Trump should "fire every single mid-level bureaucrat" in the U.S. government and "replace them with our people." If the courts attempt to stop this, Vance says, Trump should simply ignore the law. "You stand before the country, like Andrew Jackson did, and say the chief justice has made his ruling, now let him enforce it", he declares.
The President Jackson quote is likely apocryphal, but the history is real. Vance is referring to an 1832 case, Worcester v. Georgia, in which the Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. government needed to respect Native legal rights to land ownership. Jackson ignored the ruling, and continued a policy of allowing whites to take what belonged to Natives. The end result was the ethnic cleansing of about 60,000 Natives - an event we now call "The Trail of Tears". For most Americans, this history is a deep source of shame: an authoritarian president trampling on the rule of law to commit atrocities. For Vance, it is a well of inspiration.
J.D. Vance is a man who believes that the current government is so corrupt that radical, even authoritarian steps, are justified in response. He sees himself as the avatar of America's virtuous people, whose political enemies are interlopers scarcely worthy of respect. He is a man of the law who believes the president is above it.
[This is a portion of that accurate critique of Trump's new pick for his running-mate; click its link for the entire article, the best one we've read. Read it and share it!
(BTW, Jill's father wrote "The Long Death; The Last Days Of The Plains Indians"  (1964), still one of the best books about that bloody stain on U.S. history - including"The Trail Of Tears" and so much more.)]
NEW: Alison Main and Eric Bradner: Trump Selected Ohio Sen. JD Vance, A Critic Turned Ally, As Running Mate After Last-Minute Push From Son. (CNN, July 15, 2024)
Ahead of Trump's selection of Vance, the Ohio senator's supporters, including Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. and conservative media figure Tucker Carlson, had argued that Vance has the strongest relationship with Trump of a group of finalists that also included Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, and would be the most loyal selection, multiple sources familiar with the discussions said.
They made the case that Vance can appeal to working-class voters viewed as essential to winning the key battleground states in November, given his upbringing in a poor Rust Belt town in Ohio. They also pointed to his wife, Usha Chilukuri - the child of Indian immigrants - as being someone who could appeal to minority voters, the sources said.
Julianne McShane: J.D. Vance Went From Calling Trump "Hitler" To Being His VP pick. (Mother Jones, July 15, 2024)
It's been a wild weekend. The attempted assassination of former President Trump - which also left a spectator killed and two others critically injured - rocked the nation. There were bipartisan condemnations of the shooting and calls for answers from the Secret Service about the circumstances that made the attempt possible. There were also, unfortunately, conspiracy theories floated by many - including Republicans who baselessly blamed President Biden and the Democrats for the shooting, even with little information on the shooter available. (It later emerged that the shooter was a registered Republican who appears to have donated $15 to a progressive political organization in January 2021.)
And one of the Republicans spreading that lie - Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) - has just been named as Trump's choice for vice president. Yes...really.
- On Saturday, Vance posted on X (ex-Twitter): "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." (Again, at the time Vance posted that, there was very little information about the shooter.)
As my colleagues and I have written, this is not the first time Vance has made incendiary - and baseless - statements:
- He has repeated a series of disproven election lies.
- He has called on journalists to be investigated; and...
- He once called Trump "America's Hitler".
As my colleague Inae Oh writes, about Vance's evolution from making that comment to becoming an anointed leader of the MAGA movement: "Whatever prompted the change, as of Monday, the altered Vance appears to have successfully turned himself into a vice presidential candidate."
[This good article also contains good links.]
NEW: Jake Johnson: World's Richest Man, Other Billionaires Rally Around Trump After Assassination Attempt. (Common Dreams, July 15, 2024)
Elon Musk, Bill Ackman, and David Sacks spoke out in support of the presumptive Republican nominee, who helped make billionaires $3.2-Trillion richer during and since his first White House term.
Several prominent billionaires - including the richest man on Earth - took to social media over the weekend to endorse presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, shortly after a 20-year-old gunman attempted to assassinate the former president at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to the social media platform that he owns to declare, "I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery." The endorsement came days after reports that Musk donated to a pro-Trump super PAC and just ahead of the start of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. Musk also suggested that the Secret Service's failure to detect and stop the gunman before he opened fire may have been "deliberate" - a post that was viewed 87-million times. An analyst said that Musk's endorsement of Trump garnered "the most engagement of any post on X related to the attempted assassination". Between December 2017 and September 2023, according to a recent analysis by the progressive advocacy group Americans for Tax Fairness, Musk saw his net worth rise from $20.4-Billion to nearly $270-Billion—a 1,222.8% increase.
Hours after Musk's endorsement post went live, billionaire hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman announced his decision to formally back Trump's bid for a second term in the White House, four years after the former president attempted to overturn President Joe Biden's 2020 victory and sparked a violent assault on the U.S. Capitol. Ackman, who has historically supported Democrats, wrote in a lengthy X post that he had privately decided to endorse Trump "some time ago".
Another billionaire, venture capitalist David Sacks, reiterated his support for Trump over the weekend after formally endorsing the former president last month and hosting a $300,000-per-person fundraiser for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Sacks, who declared following the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection that Trump had "disqualified himself from being a candidate at the national level again", called the former president a "hero" on Sunday and gushed that he has "risked everything for this country."
The trio joins at least a dozen other billionaires backing Trump, who postures as a populist ally of the working class while supporting policies that overwhelmingly benefit the ultra-rich. Billionaires got $1-Trillion richer during Trump's first term and have seen their wealth soar by $2.2-Trillion since the passage of the Trump-GOP tax cuts in 2017.
[They have to support Trump. That's $3.2-Trillion more that Trump shifted to them from the needy.]
Rebecca Morin: Melania Trump Issues Powerful Statement After Assassination Attempt. (USA Today, July 14, 2024)
Former First Lady Melania Trump today called on Americans to "ascend above the hate, the vitriol, and the simple-minded ideas that ignite violence", after an assassination attempt on her husband, former President Donald Trump.
[Well said, Melania! If only your husband would listen.]
Jill Colvin: In New Post After His Apparent Assassination Attempt, Donald Trump Calls For Unity. (APNews, July 14, 2024)
In the post on his social media network, the former president also thanked "everyone for your thoughts and prayers yesterday, as it was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening. We will FEAR NOT, but instead remain resilient in our Faith and Defiant in the face of Wickedness". Trump also said, "In this moment, it is more important than ever that we stand United, and show our True Character as Americans, remaining Strong and Determined, and not allowing Evil to Win."
Helen Santoro, Lucy Dean Stockton, David Sirota and Joel Warner: Pennsylvania GOP Fought A Ban On The Gun Used In Trump Shooting. (The Lever, July 14, 2024)
Months before the assassination attempt, Pennsylvania lawmakers tabled legislation to outlaw the kind of rifle allegedly used in the attack.
In January, a Democratic-controlled Pennsylvania House committee passed a bill banning the sale of assault weapons - against the unanimous opposition of Republicans on the panel. That legislation, however, was then tabled in the Pennsylvania assembly, facing stiff opposition from the state's Republican lawmakers and the National Rifle Association.
When Republican state lawmakers in Pennsylvania opposed the assault weapons ban legislation earlier this year, they cited Constitutional concerns as one of their reasons. Yet, even as the GOP made that legal argument, the Trump-packed U.S. Supreme Court (the final arbiter on Constitutional interpretation) was simultaneously allowing a similar ban to continue in a neighboring state.
What's more: In Pennsylvania, the minimum age for purchasing a semi-automatic rifle (like the AR-15 that was apparently used in the attempted assassination of Trump) is 18 years old - while the age requirement for purchasing a handgun is 21.
"If we had banned assault weapons, this might have ended differently", said a Pennsylvania lawmaker who asked for anonymity, citing safety concerns. "Whether or not you support Donald Trump is irrelevant in this conversation."
Trump's Shift On Assault Weapons:
1. Before his first presidential run, Trump wrote: "I support the ban on assault weapons and I also support a slightly-longer waiting period to purchase a gun."
2. However, as president, he and his party did not push to reinstate the nationwide ban on civilian use of certain semi-automatic weapons. Additionally, when an assault weapons ban passed the Democratic-controlled U.S. House in 2022, eight of Pennsylvania's Republican representatives voted against it, and the Senate GOP refused to allow it to come to a vote.
3. Earlier this year, Trump assured the NRA that "no one will lay a finger on your firearms" if he is elected president in 2024.
[This is how liars buy votes. USA for sale!]
 Trevor Hughes: Nursing Aide Turned Sniper: Thomas Crooks' Mysterious Plot To Kill Trump. (1-min. video, photos; USA Today; July 14, 2024)
Authorities say they are examining Crooks' phone, social media and online activity for motivation. They said he carried no identification and his body had to be identified via DNA and biometric confirmation.
Although no possible motive has yet been released, Crooks nevertheless embodies the achingly familiar profile of an American mass shooter: a young white man, isolated from peers and armed with a high-powered rifle. His attack was one of at least 59 shootings in the United States on Saturday, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
Michael Biesecker: The Political Leanings Of The Man The FBI Identified As The Shooter Were Not Immediately Clear. (APNews, July 14, 2024)
Records show Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, was registered as a Republican voter in Pennsylvania, but federal campaign finance reports also show he gave $15 to a progressive political action committee on Jan. 20, 2021, the day President Joe Biden was sworn in to office.
Charles Capel: Trump Rally Suspect Had Explosive Devices in His Car: WSJ (Bloomberg, July 14, 2024)
The man officials say tried to assassinate Donald Trump had explosive devices in his car, say reports citing people familiar with the matter. The car was parked near the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, the people told the WSJ. Police received multiple reports of suspicious packages near the shooter's location.
Brad Reed: Early Claims That Trump Was Hit By Glass Fragments Now Undermined By New York Times Photos. (Where is Raw Story's 3-min. video, posted yesterday?; Raw Story, July 14, 2024)
Yesterday, law enforcement officials claimed to two different sources that former President Donald Trump was not grazed by a bullet but rather by glass shards. The officials in question told both Newsmax's Alex Salvi and Axios' Juliegrace Brufke that Trump was hit by glass shards that may have erupted from the shattering of a teleprompter that was hit by gunfire. Brufke appears to have removed the tweet with the initial claim.
Trump himself later said in a post to Truth Social that his ear was hit by a bullet. And a photograph by New York Times reporter Doug Mills appears to show the bullet. Two other photos Mills took showed Trump being hit in the right ear by the bullet. That photo is available at this link.
The Secret Service did not immediately confirm Trump had been hit by a bullet.
Speaking to the Times, retired FBI special agent Michael Harrigan, a 22-year veteran of the bureau, commented on the photos. "It absolutely could be showing the displacement of air due to a projectile", Harrigan said in an interview after reviewing Mills' images. "The angle seems a bit low to have passed through his ear, but not impossible if the gunman fired multiple rounds."
Earlier on Saturday, law enforcement sources confirmed that the person suspected of firing a weapon at a Pennsylvania Trump rally had been killed, as had at least one person in the crowd.
Videos showed Trump grabbing his neck after apparent gunshots had been fired before Secret Service agents pulled him to the ground. They then took him away in an armored vehicle to a hospital where he was treated for injuries.
Lovebscott: Not So Fast: Donald Trump Was Hit By Glass From Shattered Teleprompter, Not A Bullet - According To Sources. (MSN News, re Brad Reed's Raw Story post of July 13, 2024)
Law enforcement officials have claimed to two different sources that former President Donald Trump was not grazed by a bullet, but rather by glass shards. The officials in question told both Newsmax's Alex Salvi and Axios' Juliegrace Brufke that Trump was hit by glass shards that may have erupted from the shattering of a teleprompter that was hit by gunfire.
Trump himself later said in a post to Truth Social that his ear was hit by a bullet. Videos showed Trump grabbing his neck after apparent gunshots had been fired before Secret Service agents pulled him to the ground. They then took him away in an armored vehicle to a hospital where he was treated for injuries.
Earlier on Saturday, law enforcement sources confirmed that the person suspected of firing a weapon at a Pennsylvania Trump rally had been killed, as had at least one person in the crowd. The identity of the shooting suspect has not yet been released.
[But see correction article, above.]
Zeke Miller: Biden: "I Have An Opinion, But I Don't Have Any Facts." (AP News, July 13, 2024)
Biden says he is waiting for additional information before formally calling the attack an attempted assassination on the former president. "I have an opinion, but I don't have any facts", he told reporters, pledging to provide updates as he learns more.
Julianne McShane: Condemnation Pours Out After Trump-Rally Shooting. So Do Heated Allegations. Prominent Republicans Rushed To Tie The Shooting To Biden - And Issued Threats Of Their Own.
(Mother Jones, July 13, 2024)
Officials on both sides of the aisle expressed shock, condolences, and condemnation after an attack at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania left the former president bloodied and at least one spectator dead, according to a statement from the Secret Service. The alleged shooter was also reportedly killed, and two spectators were critically injured, officials said.
Top Democrats - including President Joe Biden, former President Barack Obama, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), and Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) - condemned the violence. The Biden campaign also told reporters they were pausing communications and would pull down television ads in light of the apparent attack. Former President George W. Bush also said in a statement that he is "grateful that President Trump is safe following the cowardly attack on his life" and commended the Secret Service for their quick response.
Meanwhile, the immediate information void in the aftermath was flooded with social media posts that capitalized on the country's deep political division and disarray during a contentious presidential campaign. A tweet that read "staged ass shooting", a conspiracy theory, attracted 2-million views and "staged" began trending, while prominent Republicans began accusing President Biden and Democrats of causing the attack due to their anti-Trump rhetoric - and, in doing so, issued threats of their own. All of that is despite the fact that no information has been released on the shooter's identity as of this evening - which even Trump acknowledged in his first statement after the shooting.
Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) claimed in a post on X that the local district attorney "should immediately file charges against Joseph R. Biden for inciting an assassination"; in another post, he claimed, "Joe Biden sent the orders."
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) claimed, without evidence, "The Democrats and the media are to blame for every drop of blood spilled today. President Trump said 'FIGHT', SO WE WILL!!"
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), in a joint statement with former U.S. National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien, called for Biden to "immediately order that all federal criminal charges against President Trump be dropped, and to ask the governors of New York and Georgia to do the same", which they claimed "would help heal wounds and allow all Americans to take a deep breath and reflect on how we got here."
Trump, for his part, said in a statement posted to Truth Social: "It is incredible that such an act can take place in our Country." Recounting the shooting itself, Trump said: "I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear. I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin. Much bleeding took place, so I realized then what was happening."
Tagtik: Putin's Barbaric Message To The World (MSNBC, July 13, 2024)
The Russian attack on the hospitals in Kiev was precisely calculated. The Kremlin deliberately targeted the children's hospital: a deliberate war crime. To the West, Putin crosses all borders: hitting children with a missile while presiding over the UN Security Council. It is hard to imagine a clearer desecration of the international security system.
[Let's see what Trump has to say about his friend, Putin.]
David Corn: The Media Still Hasn't Learned The Lessons Of 2016. (Our Land, July 13, 2024)
It looks as if 2024 is turning into 2016. That is, in terms of media coverage. In recent days, we've seen the political press engage in a feeding frenzy following Joe Biden's meltdown at the first presidential debate. There has been story after story about his age and mental acuity and the discussions (public and private) among Democrats as to whether he should be (or could be) replaced as the party's presidential nominee.
Coverage of all this is entirely legitimate. Biden's debate performance prompted important concerns. (Was this a one-off or a sign of a condition that could manifest itself again and perhaps doom the effort to keep Donald Trump from returning to the White House?) Moreover, the squabbling among Democrats is catnip for reporters and pundits, especially when the possibility of an open convention looms. But this episode illustrates what often is wrong with the media: proportionality.
Biden's age and the Democratic circular firing squad have generated far more ink (as we used to say before the digital age) than any of Trump's miscues or the GOP's Dear Leader-ish loyalty to an inveterate liar and convicted felon who expresses deeply-authoritarian yearnings. Trump endorses a call for military tribunals for his enemy, and it's not on the front page of the New York Times. Republican leaders are not pressed by reporters to comment on this outrageous statement. The same happens when Trump urges suspending the Constitution so he could be reinstated as president. His promise to pardon the violent January 6 insurrectionists does not cause much of the media to question his fitness for office or to relentlessly press Republicans to address his tacit endorsement of violence. When Trump praises a fictitious serial killer (Hannibal Lecter) during a campaign rally, it's a nothing-burger for much of the press. Ditto when he rambles on about windmills, toilets, sharks, washing machines, electric boats, or whatever at rallies where QAnon music is played. His verbal missteps - often he cannot deliver a coherent paragraph - don't generate headlines or in-depth stories full of speculation about his cognitive abilities. He gets a pass. It's just Trump being Trump. And Biden's fans are right to be pissed off by the imbalance.
[Agreed! Hopefully, the NYT will be rebalancing its news; see its July 11th article, below.]
NEW: Andy Kroll and Nick Surgey: Inside Ziklag, The Secret Organization Of Wealthy Christians Trying To Sway The Election And Change The Country. (ProPublica and Documented, July 13, 2024)
A network of ultra-wealthy Christian donors is spending nearly $12-Million to mobilize Republican-leaning voters and purge more than a million people from the rolls in key swing states, aiming to tilt the 2024 election in favor of former-president Donald Trump.
These previously unreported plans are the work of a group named Ziklag, a little-known charity whose donors have included some of the wealthiest conservative Christian families in the nation, including the billionaire Uihlein family, who made a fortune in office supplies, the Greens, who run Hobby Lobby, and the Wallers, who own the Jockey apparel corporation. Recipients of Ziklag's largesse include Alliance Defending Freedom, which is the Christian legal group that led the overturning of Roe v. Wade, plus the national pro-Trump group Turning Point USA and a constellation of right-of-center advocacy groups.
President Biden Targets Project 2025, Ties It To Trump At Rousing Detroit Rally. (CBS News and Associated Press, July 13, 2024)
President Biden targeted the expansive far-right-policy agenda known as Project 2025 in a rousing campaign stop in Detroit on Friday night, as he sought to quell calls that he withdraw from the presidential election. The president lambasted the multi-pronged initiative that was crafted by conservative think tanks, claiming it is "run and paid by Trump people, his top policy people. It's a blueprint for a second Trump term that every American should read and understand."
Former President Donald Trump, who is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, and his campaign have worked to distance themselves from Project 2025. Trump has gone as far as to call some of the proposals "abysmal." "I know nothing about Project 2025. I have not seen it, have no idea who is in charge of it, and, unlike our very-well-received Republican Platform, had nothing to do with it", he wrote on social media on Thursday. "The Radical Left Democrats are having a field day, however, trying to hook me into whatever policies are stated or said."
Yesterday, Mr. Biden accused his opponent of trying to run from the plan "just like he's trying to distance himself from overturning Roe vs. Wade, because he knows how toxic it is. But we're not gonna let that happen."
Arjun Singh: How DNC Delegates Could Oust Biden (32-min. podcast; The Lever, July 12, 2024)
Biden could be forced off the ticket at the Democratic convention, but wealthy donors and corporate lobbyists might hijack the process.
Should he stay or should he go? President Joe Biden's decision to remain in the presidential race has consequences for hundreds of millions of people - and it has at least one Democratic National Committee member and convention delegate inquiring whether the party can force him off the ticket. But if Biden's out, corporate lobbyists who've embedded themselves into the party could help select the new nominee.
Arjun Singh speaks with The American Prospect Executive Editor David Dayen, Jacobin staff writer Branko Marcetic, and Sludge co-founder David Moore, to unpack the divide fracturing the Democratic Party and look at how corporate power is woven into the fabric of the party's convention, to be held in Chicago from August 19 to 22.
The NYT Editorial Board: Donald Trump Is Unfit To Lead. (a long read, with long links - and worth it; New York Times, July 11, 2024)
Next week, for the third time in eight years, Donald Trump will be nominated as the Republican Party's candidate for president of the United States. A once great political party now serves the interests of one man, a man as demonstrably unsuited for the office of president as any to run in the long history of the Republic, a man whose values, temperament, ideas and language are directly opposed to so much of what has made this country great.
It is a chilling choice against this national moment. For more than two decades, large majorities of Americans have said they are dissatisfied with the direction of the country, and the post-Covid era of stubborn inflation, high interest rates, social division and political stagnation has left many voters even more frustrated and despondent.
The Republican Party once pursued electoral power in service to solutions for such problems, to building "the shining city on a hill", as Ronald Reagan liked to say. Its vision of the United States - embodied in principled public servants like George H.W. Bush, John McCain and Mitt Romney - was rooted in the values of freedom, sacrifice, individual responsibility and the common good. The party's conception of those values was reflected in its longstanding conservative policy agenda, and today many Republicans set aside their concerns about Mr. Trump because of his positions on immigration, trade and taxes.
But the stakes of this election are not fundamentally about policy disagreements. The stakes are more foundational: what qualities matter most in America's president and commander-in-chief. Mr. Trump has shown a character unworthy of the responsibilities of the presidency. He has demonstrated an utter lack of respect for the Constitution, the rule of law and the American people. Instead of a cogent vision for the country's future, Mr. Trump is animated by a thirst for political power: to use the levers of government to advance his interests, satisfy his impulses and exact retribution against those who he thinks have wronged him. He is, quite simply, unfit to lead.
The Democrats are rightly engaged in their own debate about whether President Biden is the right person to carry the party's nomination into the election, given widespread concerns among voters about his age-related fitness. This debate is so intense because of legitimate concerns that Mr. Trump may present a danger to the country, its strength, security and national character - and that a compelling Democratic alternative is the only thing that would prevent his return to power. It is a national tragedy that the Republicans have failed to have a similar debate about the manifest moral and temperamental unfitness of their standard-bearer, instead setting aside their longstanding values, closing ranks and choosing to overlook what those who worked most closely with the former president have described as his systematic dishonesty, corruption, cruelty and incompetence.
That task now falls to the American people. We urge voters to see the dangers of a second Trump term clearly and to reject it. The stakes and significance of the presidency demand a person who has essential qualities and values to earn our trust, and on each one, Donald Trump fails.
[Thanks to Mike Cornelison and Ellen Rice for including us - as we are including you. The NYT Editorial Board, at least/last, is taking a clear stand. See this message online, where you can click on its attachments.]
Stephen Colbert: Project 2025 Is Trump's Blueprint For A Radical Conservative Takeover Of The U.S. Government. (6-min. video; The Late Show, July 11, 2024)
Donald Trump claims to know nothing about Project 2025 - but the truth is that over 200 of his former staffers are laying plans for a far-right takeover of the entire federal bureaucracy should the GOP candidate win in November.
Jacob L. Nelson: Why Are Journalists Obsessed With Biden's Age? It's Because They've Finally Found An Interesting Election Story. (The Conversation, July 10, 2024)
Since President Joe Biden's disastrous presidential debate on June 27, 2024, election news coverage has focused on one question: Will he remain in the race? This focus has been apparent to even the most casual of news consumers. Journalist Jennifer Schulze observed that, as of the morning of July 5, the New York Times had published nearly 200 pieces on Biden's debate performance, comprising 142 news articles and 50 opinion pieces.
In comparison, the historian Heather Cox Richardson wrote that Trump was covered in only 92 stories during that same period. "Although Trump has frequently slurred his words or trailed off while speaking and repeatedly fell asleep at his own criminal trial, none of the pieces mentioned Trump's mental fitness."
As the flood of reporting continues on whether or not Biden will or should remain as the Democratic Party's presidential nominee, members of the public have been asking a different question: How did all the journalists get on the same page so quickly?
Mike Heuer: Cohen Takes Trump Retaliation Claims To The Supreme Court. (United Press International/UPI, July 10, 2024)
Former attorney Michael Cohen on Wednesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review his retaliation claim against former President Donald Trump. A panel with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals recently denied Cohen's legal claim seeking to hold Trump accountable for Cohen's imprisonment in 2018.
Cohen had pleaded guilty to violating federal campaign-finance laws and other offenses. A federal judge sentenced Cohen to three years in prison, but he was released during the COVID-19 pandemic and transferred to home confinement. Cohen says one of the conditions for his release was to refrain from criticizing Trump. When Cohen questioned the legality of the condition, he was thrown back in prison and placed in solitary confinement.
U.S. District Court for New York's Southern District Judge Alvin Hellerstein ruled Cohen was put back in prison for trying to speak and publish a book critical of Trump, and ordered his permanent release from federal prison. Cohen sued Trump and several federal officials for retaliation, but the lower federal courts denied his claims.
Cohen filed his appeal with the Supreme Court, and told The Hill he is trying to stop other U.S. citizens from "being imprisoned because they refuse to waive their First Amendment right or because they express criticism." In Cohen's writ-of-certiorari filing Wednesday, his attorney, Jon-Michael Daughter, says Trump and others sought to "silence one of the President's most vociferous and prominent public critics" by putting him back in federal prison. The Supreme Court typically declines to hear such cases.
Cohen recently testified against Trump in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's case that accused Trump of 34 felony violations related to paying former porn star Stormy Daniels and having her sign a non-disclosure agreement in 2016. A Manhattan jury found Trump guilty on all counts, but the former president and presumptive GOP nominee is appealing the case and its verdict.
Brian Tyler Cohen and Glenn Kirschner: Clarence Thomas Caught Trying To Protect HIMSELF From Investigation. (13-min. YouTube video; The Legal Breakdown, July 10, 2024)
Sharon Zhang: AOC Files To Impeach Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito. (Truthout,
July 10, 2024)
Today, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) filed articles of impeachment against Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, in the boldest move yet to resolve the Court's "unchecked corruption crisis" as it radically reshapes the U.S. government in the image of the conservative justices' right-wing allies. Ocasio-Cortez said that the two justices' transgressions represent "one of the clearest cases for which the tool of impeachment was designed" and must be reined in for the sake of U.S. democracy.
"Justice Thomas and Alito's repeated failure over decades to disclose that they received millions of dollars in gifts from individuals with business before the court is explicitly against the law. And their refusal to recuse from the specific matters and cases before the court in which their benefactors and spouses are implicated represents nothing less than a constitutional crisis", Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement. "These failures alone would amount to a deep transgression worthy of standard removal in any lower court, and would disqualify any nominee to the highest court from confirmation in the first place", she continued. "Congress has a legal, moral, and democratic obligation to impeach."
The lawmaker filed three articles against Thomas and two against Alito, levying charges against both of refusing to recuse from cases that represented conflicts of interest for the justices as well as failing to disclose gifts they have received from special-interest donors over their decades on the bench.
[Also see, "Chris Walker: 7 In 10 Americans Want SCOTUS To Be Subject To Investigation Over Ethics Issues, "Casey Decker: Yes, There Is A Federal Recusal Law For Supreme Court Justices" and "Sharon Zhang: Schumer Hints At Bill", all below.]
Sharon Zhang: Schumer Hints At Bill To Carve Trump's Jan. 6 Acts Out Of Presidential Immunity. (Truthout, July 9, 2024)
Schumer condemned the Supreme Court decision that "has effectively placed a crown on Donald Trump's head."
Steven Caplan: Unregulated Online Political Ads Pose A Threat To Democracy. (The Conversation, July 9, 2024)
Think back to the last time you scrolled through your social-media feed and encountered a political ad that perfectly aligned with your views – or perhaps one that outraged you. Could you tell if it was from a legitimate campaign, a shadowy political action committee or even a foreign entity? Could you discern who paid for the ad? Chances are you couldn't.
While television and radio political ads have been subject to strict disclosure requirements for decades, their online counterparts exist in a regulatory vacuum. Social-media giants like Facebook, X (ex-Twitter) and Instagram have become central battlegrounds for political campaigns. Yet they operate without the transparency mandated for traditional broadcast media. This allows advertisers to use sophisticated micro-targeting to tailor messages to voters, often exploiting detailed personal data.
Welcome to the unregulated Wild West of online political advertising, where transparency is scarce and accountability is lacking. With the 2024 U.S. presidential election in full swing, this digital frontier poses an unprecedented threat to the integrity of American democracy.
Robert Tait: Republicans Call Trump's Move To Distance Himself From Project 2025 "Preposterous". (The Guardian, July 8, 2024)
Trump's claim to "know nothing" about the radical right-wing plan recognizes that it could sink his campaign, ex-Pence adviser says.
Donald Trump's "preposterous" efforts to disavow Project 2025, a right-wing blueprint for a radical takeover of the US government if the former president is re-elected in November, have been derided by former Republican figures.
The Project 2025 plan includes calls for replacing civil servants with Trump loyalists, eliminating the education department, putting the justice department under the president's thumb and banning the abortion pill. Democrats have made concerted efforts to say the 900-plus page document from the conservative Heritage Foundation thinktank would be representative of a second Trump presidency.
But although it was written by former members of Trump's first administration, and he regularly echoes its policies in his speeches, last week Trump tried to disown the initiative. Posting on his Truth Social website, the presumptive Republican nominee claimed to "know nothing about Project 2025" and have "no idea who is behind it".
[Should we believe Trump's statements, or his actions? Or, should we believe Trump, or The Guardian? Either way, it's a slam-dunk.]
Brian Tyler Cohen: Trump Drops The ULTIMATE Humiliation On His OWN Supporters. (10-min. YouTube video; July 8, 2024)
OMG! Trump commercial makes fools of his OWN fans!
Craig Silverman: By Not Investigating The Underlying Weakness In Microsoft Software That Was Key To The SolarWinds Hack, The Cyber Safety Review Board Missed An Opportunity To Prevent Future Attacks, Experts Say. (ProPublica, July 8, 2024)
(Series: Zero Trust: Inside Microsoft's Cybersecurity Failures - Investigating how the world's largest software provider handles the security of its own ubiquitous products.)
After Russian intelligence launched one of the most-devastating cyber-espionage attacks in history against U.S. government agencies, the Biden administration set up a new board and tasked it to figure out what happened - and to tell the public.
Russian state hackers had infiltrated SolarWinds, an American software company that serves the U.S. government and thousands of American companies. The intruders used malicious code and a flaw in a Microsoft product to steal intelligence from the National Nuclear Security Administration, National Institutes of Health and the Treasury Department in what Microsoft President Brad Smith called "the largest and most sophisticated attack the world has ever seen."
President Biden issued an executive order establishing the Cyber Safety Review Board in May 2021, and ordered it to start work by reviewing the SolarWinds attack. But for reasons that experts say remain unclear, that never happened. Nor did the board probe SolarWinds for its second report.
For its third report, the board investigated a separate 2023 attack, in which Chinese state hackers exploited an array of Microsoft security shortcomings to access the email inboxes of top federal officials.
A full, public accounting of what happened in the Solar Winds case would have been devastating to Microsoft. ProPublica recently revealed that Microsoft had long known about - but refused to address or report - a flaw used in the hack. The tech company's failure to act reflected a corporate culture that prioritized profit over security and left the U.S. government vulnerable, a whistleblower said.
Heather Cox Richardson: Political Technology, Russian Disinformation, And Far-Right Leaders Echoing That Disinformation (Letters from an American, July 7, 2024)
The most notable event from the day is that in a stunning upset, French voters have rejected members of Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally party in legislative elections. Le Pen has said her policies are the same ones advanced by Russian president Vladimir Putin and former U.S. president Trump. After the first round of votes, National Rally candidates appeared to be comfortably ahead, but left-wing and centrist candidates combined forces to prevent splitting the vote, and voters then flooded the polls to elect the candidates that coalition fielded.
On Thursday, elections in the United Kingdom saw a landslide victory for the center-left Labour Party for the first time in 14 years. Lauren Frayer and Fatima Al-Kassab of NPR noted that it was the worst defeat for the Conservatives in their almost 200-year history.
There are always many factors that go into any election, but these results at least raise the question of whether western politicians are finding effective ways to counter the techniques of Russian disinformation. France has been flooded with Russian disinformation trying to create divisions in society as Putin seeks to break European support for Ukraine. Russia openly supports Le Pen.
The U.K. also has been similarly flooded with Russian disinformation for years now. Russian trolls lie on social media websites and populate the comments sections of popular websites both to end support for Ukraine and to exploit wedge issues to split people apart.
These efforts were part of what Russian political theorists called "political technology": the construction of a virtual political reality through modern media. Political theorists developed several techniques in this approach to politics: blackmailing opponents, abusing state power to help favored candidates, sponsoring "double" candidates with names similar to those of opponents in order to confuse voters on the other side and thus open the way for their own candidates, creating false parties to split the opposition, and, finally, creating a false narrative around an election or other event in order to control public debate. These techniques perverted democracy, turning it from the concept of voters choosing their leaders into the concept of voters rubber-stamping the leaders they had been manipulated into backing.
[Heather analyzes the evils of Putin-sourced political technology, and the awakening to it that can spread from Europe to the USA.]
Michael Moore: We Are Asking The Wrong Question About Joe Biden On This Fourth of July. (Substack, July 4, 2024)
We are asking the wrong question when we ask, "What are we going to do about Joe?" Maybe we should be asking what are we going to do about ourselves - and what can we do to get him some help?
Rex Huppke: Calls To Replace Biden Vs. Silence On Trump? America Has Lost Its Political Mind. (USA Today, July 1, 2024)
We can't function in a society that holds a normal politician like Biden to a far-higher standard than an abnormal politician like Trump.
President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders: Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly Must Stop Ripping Off Americans With High Drug Prices. (1-min. video; USA Today, July 2, 2024)
If Novo Nordisk and other pharmaceutical companies refuse to substantially lower prescription drug prices in our country and end their greed, we will do everything within our power to end it for them.
[Two good Americans fighting FOR Americans, NOT for drug companies!]
David Corn: "The President Is Now A King." The Most Blistering Lines From Dissents In The Trump Immunity Case: "Orders the Navy's Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune." (Mother Jones, July 1, 2024)
In response to the Supreme Court's momentous decision, ruling that presidents are immune from criminal prosecution for "official" acts, Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson issued blistering dissents. They blasted the reasoning of the six conservative justices who essentially created a new power for presidents. Each contended this decision poses a fundamental threat to American democracy and the rule of law.
This is how Sotomayor put it: "The President of the United States is the most-powerful person in the country, and possibly the world. When he uses his official powers in any way, under the majority's reasoning, he now will be insulated from criminal prosecution. Orders the Navy's Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military dissenting coup to hold onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune. Let the President violate the law, let him exploit the trappings of his office for personal gain, let him use his official power for evil ends. Because if he knew that he may one day face liability for breaking the law, he might not be as bold and fearless as we would like him to be. That is the majority's message today."
Jackson made a similar and distressing point: "Thus, even a hypothetical President who admits to having ordered the assassinations of his political rivals or critics, or one who indisputably instigates an unsuccessful coup, has a fair shot at getting immunity under the majority's new Presidential-accountability model."
They each argued that the conservatives, led by Chief Justice John Roberts, had elevated the presidency to something akin to royalty. Sotomayor wrote: "The relationship between the President and the people he serves has shifted irrevocably. In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law."
[The other justices on this Trump-stacked Supreme Court are NOT representing the American people! Can they declare themselves immune? Or, would Trump have to do that?]
NEW: Casey Decker: Yes, There Is A Federal Recusal Law For Supreme Court Justices. (3-min. video; 11 Alive, updated July 1, 2024)
Today, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3, that a president has absolute immunity for official acts but no immunity for unofficial acts. The justices ordered lower courts to figure out precisely how to apply the decision to former President Donald Trump's case on his plotting to overturn the 2020 election results. The outcome likely means additional delays before Trump could face trial in the case brought by special counsel Jack Smith.
A few days earlier, on June 28, the Supreme Court issued another ruling that makes it harder to charge Capitol riot defendants with obstruction. The justices ruled 6-3 that the charge of obstructing an official proceeding must include proof that defendants tried to tamper with or destroy documents. Only some of the people who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 fall into that category.
Some people have argued that two of the justices – Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito – should not have been involved in the cases at all, and should have recused themselves. Supreme Court justices are required to sit out cases where they may appear impartial, and often do. But it's unclear whether they can be forced to.
Ian Millhiser: The Supreme Court's Disastrous Trump-Immunity Decision, Explained (Vox, July 1, 2024)
The Court's six Republicans handed down a decision on Monday that gives Donald Trump such sweeping immunity from prosecution that there are unlikely to be any legal checks on his behavior if he returns to the White House. The Court's three Democrats dissented.
Trump v. United States is an astonishing opinion. It holds that presidents have broad immunity from criminal prosecution - essentially, a license to commit crimes - so long as they use the official powers of their office to do so. The Court's Trump-immunity decision is a blueprint for dictatorship.
[Test: Which 3 Supreme-Court justices voted for America? Which 6 voted for the money?]
Alex S. Vitale: Biden Offered No Alternative To Trump's Pro-Policing Authoritarianism In Debate. (Truthout, June 29, 2024)
Biden did not put forth a progressive or convincing counterweight to Trump's xenophobic and authoritarian tirades.
David Corn: Why Biden's Debate Failure Cannot Be Ignored (Our Land, June 29, 2024)
I wish that every voter who watched the debate focused only on what the candidates said, not how they said it. If that were how our world works, Biden's reality-based comments about his record and Trump's stint in the White House would have triumphed over Trump's repeated falsehoods and far-right extremism. Alas, we don't live in such a universe. A candidate's performance tends to trump content. Biden cannot escape that.
Clearly, many voters have concerns about Biden's age. It doesn't matter whether that's the right approach to this election. Many of us see his longevity as far less important than Trump's efforts to destroy American democracy, which included the promotion of his Big Lie, an attempted coup, and the incitement of violence. Yet no one should be blind to the fact that a significant slice of voters doesn't agree with our perspective and that Biden, in all likelihood, needs to win over some voters for whom his age is a consideration. Ignoring this reality - making excuses for Biden (he had a cold!), assailing the media for fixating on his performance, circling the wagons - does not help the crucial endeavor of preventing a Trump restoration.
I'm not sure what ought to come next for Biden and the Democrats. Were he to leave the race, a mess would probably ensue. Vice President Kamala Harris presumably would seek the nomination. Would she fare better against Trump than Biden in the swing states that will decide our future? That's an open question. And there are yet no signs Biden is considering an exit - and no signs of a concerted Democratic push to shove him aside.
We're in unchartered waters. A would-be autocrat with an authoritarian agenda whose mishandling of a pandemic led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands is close to returning to the White House, and the man whose mission is to thwart that has just confirmed for some voters that he is too old to be re-elected. How to get out of this? Like you and others who care about preserving American democracy, I will be thinking hard about the path forward.
Jennifer Peltz and Darlene Superville: Biden Rallies For LGBTQ+ Rights As He Looks To Shake Off An Uneven Debate Performance. (11-min. video; PBS, June 28, 2024)
President Joe Biden courted LGBTQ+ voters with two New York events today and warned about Donald Trump returning to the White House, as he looked to shake off a widely-panned debate performance. Biden inaugurated a visitor center at the Stonewall National Monument with pop legend Elton John, and later headlined a Pride Month fundraiser.
[At THREE speeches today - in Raleigh, NC and hours later two in NYC - President Biden spoke very well, as he was unable to do last night. I think he can be a fine president for a second term, and I note that he's not running for TV-celebrity status. I wonder whether last night's problem was a cold - or something dropped into his water, etc. Because when Trump encourages crimes, MAGA fanatics often enact such crimes. (Search for "Stochastic Terrorism", below.)]
See Biden's Transformation, From Debate To Campaign Rally. (1-min. video; CNN News, June 28, 2024)
CNN's Kaitlin Collins speaks with David Axelrod about the noticeable difference between President Joe Biden at the CNN debate and at a campaign rally the next day.
[One of THREE powerful speeches that Joe Biden gave the next day!]
Biden Addresses Poor Debate Performance Last Night, Attacks Trump Today At Raleigh NC Rally. (4-min. video; ABC News, June 28, 2024)
President Joe Biden on Friday addressed his poor performance in Thursday's presidential debate, the morning after he faltered on stage in his match-up against former President Donald Trump.
A senior campaign aide told ABC News that the president is "absolutely" not considering dropping out of the race after stumbling with answers, and is committed to a second debate. During the rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, a more energetic-appearing Biden acknowledged that he's not a young man, but contended that his morals and history prove that he's still fit for the job.
Robert Reich: What Do Democrats - And All Sane People In America - Do Now? (Substack, June 28, 2024)
Stay the course, or seek an emergency replacement for Biden?
If anyone were to doubt the menace of Donald Trump, they had only to watch his performance last night. He was worse than ever. His bullying lies were not just lies - they were frightening opposites of the truth, uttered with the vigor and certainty of someone who has now mastered the dark art of demagoguery.
It is difficult to summarize his lies because they suffused every sentence. He said historians judged him the best president (they judged him the worst), that every legal scholar wanted Roe v. Wade overturned (they overwhelmingly urged that it not be), that the U.S. has provided more aid to Ukraine than Europe has (the opposite is true), that migrants crossing the southern border are criminals and rapists (their rate of crime is significantly lower than the crime rate of people born here), that Biden is a criminal and liar … and on and on and on.
Biden had good and often detailed answers to the questions put to him, but last night's debate was never going to be about Biden's answers. It was always going to be about his age. Sadly, Biden's stiff, halting, withering delivery coupled with his slack-jawed expression and frozen stare when he wasn't trying to form sentences made him seem not just old but on the decline.
When I got home from hosting our watchalong last night, my emails and text messages were brimming with worried friends, acquaintances, and political operatives. Most said it was urgently necessary to replace Biden with another candidate.
There are many problems with trying to replace Biden at this point. Among them:
- Biden would have to willingly give up the nomination in order to release delegates already pledged to him. I have a hard time seeing how this could happen, unless Jill Biden, along with his closest and most trusted advisers and Barack Obama, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, and Hakeem Jeffries all teamed up and told him he must exit the race.
- The public doesn't know any other Democrat nearly as well as they know Biden, and it would be difficult to introduce someone to the public at this late date without them being defined by Trump, the Republicans, and Fox News in the worst possible ways.
- The only people I can think of as possible nominees are Kamala Harris, Gretchen Whitmer, Josh Shapiro, Wes Moore, Gavin Newsom, and (my personal favorite) Sherrod Brown. Out of all of them, Kamala Harris is obviously best known because she's vice president, but if the criterion is who can beat Trump, it's far from clear she's the best choice. Yet, if it's not to be Biden, a failure to nominate Harris might upset lots of Black people, women, and younger voters.
- The Democratic nominating convention is only seven weeks away. An open convention, in which potential candidates duke it out, would be a chaotic mess (anyone remember 1968?), particularly in comparison to what's expected to be Trump's seamless and worshipful inauguration by the Republicans.
- There are also not-so-pesky details about money and organization. All of the money now lodged in superPACs dedicated to Biden would have to be redirected. All of the national, state, and local party machinery, advertising, and internet capacity now designed to get out the vote for Biden would have to be totally redesigned.
- I'm not saying it's impossible to replace Biden at this juncture, only that it would require extraordinary deftness and collaboration on the part of the leaders of the Democratic Party, who are not always known for their deftness and collaboration.
I give it 10 days. By then, we'll know whether Biden will be replaced. In the meantime, you can bet that his campaign, his advisers, and Jill Biden are doing whatever damage control they can - which centers on showing Biden to be vigorous, energetic, and on top of his game.
*
Today, at a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, surrounded by cheering supporters, Biden nearly shouted:
"I know I'm not a young man, to state the obvious. I don't walk as easy as I used to. I don't speak as smoothly as I used to. I don't debate as well as I used to. But I know what I do know: I know how to tell the truth. I know right from wrong. And I know how to do this job. I know how to get things done. And I know, like millions of Americans know, when you get knocked down you get back up."
Watch the clip, if you can. In it, Biden shows the kind of energy and vitality he lacked last night. These are not the words or actions of a candidate contemplating an emergency exit from the race.
But nor does Biden's behavior today in Raleigh explain what the hell happened last night. And frankly, that's what troubles me more than almost anything else.
Biden is smart. He can show energy and vitality, as he did in Raleigh today and at the State of the Union. But he can also reveal something else, as he did last night - a man who in many respects seems older than 81 years, who has trouble walking and speaking, and who, at least in those times and moments, doesn't seem to stand a chance of being re-elected president of the United States - even when his opponent is a twice-impeached convicted felon, pathological liar, and dangerous sociopath.
Jim Puzzanghera: After A Brutal Debate, Democrats Stick By Biden - For Now. (several short videos; Boston Globe, June 28, 2024)
After a bad debate night for President Biden, it was not a good morning Friday for House Democrats as reporters swarmed them at the Capitol asking whether their party should find another nominee to take on Donald Trump.
Many rushed by without commenting before huddling in the House chamber in animated conversations. Those who did stop to talk acknowledged Biden had a poor performance. But none publicly called for him to abandon his candidacy.
David Corn: Trump Was the Trump We Know. Biden Was the Biden We Feared. (Mother Jones, June 28, 2024)
Trump raged. Biden aged.
Joe Biden had his shot - a chance to dispel concerns about his age and his abilities. But in his first debate with Donald Trump, he stumbled through 90 minutes, muffing answers, often looking uncertain, speaking in a low, gravelly voice that did not convey strength. This was not only a missed chance. It was a disaster. Afterward Democrats had good cause to be in despair and to wonder if disarray was on its way.
While Biden's State of the Union speech earlier this year showed him vigorously on his game - perhaps a surprise to his detractors - this appearance, within minutes, provided a ton of ammo to those who contend Biden is not up to the job. In the Oval Office, he may be able to do the work of a president well. But if a vibrant public performance is necessary to win the confidence of uncommitted or loosely committed voters, Biden failed miserably.
The bottom line was obvious before the first commercial break: Trump came across as the Trump people know and either love or hate: boastful, brash, disingenuous, demagogic. Biden was not the Biden that Democrats wanted.
Biden accurately slammed Trump for Trump's stint in the White House: historic deficits, a supersized tax cut that benefitted the rich, mismanagement of the Covid pandemic. Yet he often muddied his remarks with not just his usual stutter but with half-sentences and misspoken words. There's no denying this: Biden did not come across as commanding. Any voter who has wondered about the abilities of this 81-year-old-man would not be reassured.
Trump stuck to the usual stuff. He was combative and dishonest. He repeatedly stated the United States had the best economy in its history when he was in the White House. He claimed Democrats want to allow abortions after birth. He insisted that he did more for veterans than Biden and that vets "can't stand" Biden. He hailed his handling of Covid, and said he would end the Ukraine war immediately after being elected. (Why not share this plan before?) He blamed Nancy Pelosi for January 6, insisting (falsely) that he had offered 10,000 troops to protect the Capitol that day. He said polls rated him "one of the best" presidents ever. It was his customary blend of lies and bluster.
Biden got his licks in - and it often got ugly. Referring to Trump's recent New York City criminal trial and the verdict in a civil case that found Trump liable for sexually assaulting writer E. Jean Carroll, Biden called him a "convicted felon" and said he had "the morals of an alley cat". Biden pounded Trump for inciting January 6, doing nothing to stop the violence that day, and vowing to pardon the rioters who have been prosecuted and found guilty.
Trump gave no ground on this front. When CNN host Jake Tapper asked Trump if he had violated his constitutional oath that day by not intervening to halt the rioting, Trump did not answer the question and instead attacked Biden for being a weak leader. And when Biden turned to Trump and asked him to denounce the rioters, Trump would not, showing that Trump remains the champion of violent domestic terrorists.
If the debate was merely just about the sentences said, Biden would have racked up points. But too often his delivery was faltering. He couldn't stick it. He even looked befuddled, whether or not he was.
Trump more effectively channeled his anger and hatred. For some voters, that will make him seem fierce and forceful. He lied and lied—claiming he had "the best environmental numbers ever" and was responsible for lowering the price of insulin - but he did so with fervor. Just as he relentlessly decried America as a decaying "third-world nation" that people around the world are laughing at.
Trump's main line of attack was fear: Millions of migrants - from prisons and mental institutions - are pouring into the country and destroying it, and Biden is either orchestrating or allowing this. "They are taking over our schools, our hospitals, and they will be taking over Social Security", he bellowed. And crime, crime, and crime. "If Biden wins this election…we probably won't have a country left anymore", Trump brayed. Moreover, he added, Biden "will drive us into World War III." And Trump threw in glancing references to made-for-Fox conspiracy theories about Biden and his son Hunter. He called Biden a "criminal" and assailed his competency: "We're trying to justify his presidency…The worst presidency in the history of this country."
Biden kept trying to land punches. He pointed out Trump's falsehoods. "He hasn't done a damn thing about the environment", Biden exclaimed. He declared that Trump doesn't understand American democracy. He noted that many former Trump White House officials and cabinet officers have refused to back Trump in this race. He had a particularly good moment when he turned to Trump and said, "You're a whiner. When you lost the first time…you continued to promote this lie…There is no evidence of that at all… Something snapped in you when you lost last time."
But Biden was trodding through a maelstrom with unsteady steps. He coughed. He blinked a lot. His sentences often trailed off. This is not trivial stuff - not when his age, fairly or not, has become a critical issue of the campaign. Voters don't get to watch a president at work in the Oval Office. Public appearances matter. Shortly into the debate, his team began telling reporters that Biden was fighting a cold. But that explanation will not help.
Trump bragged that he had aced two cognitive tests (really?) and had recently won two golf-club championships. (Fact Check: He cheats at golf.) He absurdly asserted he was in as good physical shape as he was 30 years ago. He claimed Biden couldn't pass these tests or hit a golf ball 50 yards. Then the two bickered about golf-playing, with Biden deploying this zinger: "I'm happy to play golf with you if you carry your own bag." But like most all of Biden's attack lines, this one bounced off Trump. There was no oomph. No verve. For most of the night, Biden was verveless.
Minutes into the debate, you could tell what the reaction was going to be. There would be no way to spin this: a bad night for Biden and the Democrats. A debacle. And one didn't need a crystal ball to know that there would soon be - maybe before the debate was done - renewed chatter about the possibility of replacing Biden as the Democrats' nominee. (How that can happen without a complete mess is tough to envision. Would Vice President Kamala Harris inherit the nomination? If she went for it and was challenged by one or more candidates - California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer - would that lead to a civil war within the party and offend a key constituency: Black voters?)
Bill Clinton used to say that strong-and-wrong beats weak-and-right. With his performance on Thursday night, Biden created a perfect test case for that proposition.
Jane C. Timm, Julia Ainsley, Adam Edelman and Tom Winter: Fact-checking Biden And Trump's Claims At The First Debate (3-min. video; NBC News, June 28, 2024)
Forget "alternative facts" and "political spin": yesterday's presidential debate was more like a tsunami of falsity. Trump unleashed a torrent of misinformation on topics from Jan. 6 to terrorism to taxes during the first debate of the 2024 general election, while President Joe Biden flubbed a few figures and facts about military deaths and insulin prices. Watch the first 2024 presidential debate in 3 minutes.
Riley T. Keenan, Assist. Prof. of Law, Univ. of Richmond: Supreme Court Makes Prosecution Of Trump On Obstruction Charge More Difficult, With Ruling To Narrowly-Define Law Used Against Him And Jan. 6 Rioters. (The Conversation, June 28, 2024)
The indictments – and in some cases, the convictions – of hundreds of people charged with participating in the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, will have to be reconsidered, and possibly dropped, because of a ruling today by the U.S. Supreme Court. Among those charged using a broad interpretation of the obstruction law now narrowed by the high court: former President Donald Trump.
In its decision in Fischer v. United States, the Supreme Court held that a federal statute that prohibits obstructing an official proceeding may not apply to three defendants who were charged with participating in the U.S. Capitol riot.
Although former President Donald Trump is not a defendant in the case, special counsel Jack Smith has charged him separately with violating the same statute. If that case survives a separate pending Supreme Court appeal, the former president will likely seek dismissal of that charge.
Trump may not succeed, however, as the obstruction charge against him is based in part on the allegation that he organized slates of electors to certify false election results to Congress. That may amount to impairing the integrity of the evidence used in the certification proceedings. ["MAY"? Seriously?] And the obstruction charge is not the only count the former president faces. But the ruling may narrow the case and make it more difficult for the special counsel to present evidence to the jury concerning the violence that occurred on Jan. 6. Under this new ruling, that violence alone may not count as obstruction.
The Fischer case also shows how sometimes, especially in high-stakes cases, the justices can use methods of legal reasoning that they are quick to criticize in other contexts. In the opinion, members of the Supreme Court's conservative majority cited the legislative history of the obstruction law – evidence that conservative jurists such as the late Justice Antonin Scalia often called unreliable.
The Supreme Court's decision in the Fischer case may have a profound effect on the special counsel's historic prosecution of former President Trump. But even if it does not, it still sheds important light on the court's inner workings and the federal government's [diminishing] power to safeguard the integrity of its proceedings.
Ryan J. Reilly: Steve Bannon Must Report To Prison By Monday, After Supreme Court Rejects Last-Minute Appeal. (June 28, 2024)
Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon must report to prison by Monday, after the Supreme Court rejected his last-minute bid to stave off his four-month sentence for defying subpoenas from the House Jan. 6 Committee.
[Interesting! This GOP-heavy SCOTUS voted appropriately. Will that make Trump more nervous? And, was it the following poem that made them repent? :-)]
Carolyn McGiffert Ekedahl: "Crooked Justice", A Poem (Raw Story, June 28, 2024)
(Carolyn McGiffert Ekedahl is the former deputy inspector general for inspections at the Central Intelligence Agency.)

Our rule of law, which we've long prized
  Disintegrates before our eyes.
Justices who act corruptly
  Stop due process quite abruptly.

These justices have cooked up ways
  To force indefinite delays,
Thus ensuring Crooked Don
  Toward re-election scurries on.  [To read the entire poem, click its link.]
[** NOTE: Within this thread, the articles below were posted BEFORE the first 2024 Presidetial debate. **]
Inae Oh: A Renowned Debate Expert, On How Biden Can Beat Trump's Lies In Real Time (Mother Jones, June 27, 2024)
Like many Americans, I am dreading the first presidential debate of the 2024 election, an event that's all but certain to feature a litany of vile lies by one candidate and awkward, if not painful, stumbles by another.
But Thursday's high-stakes 90-minute encounter will also see an exceedingly rare moment: Donald Trump onstage with a mic muted - at least when it's President Biden's turn to respond - after the two candidates agreed to CNN's rules. An audience won't be present for the event either, another key departure from previous presidential debates. The new rules appear to be an attempt to avoid the incoherent mess American voters witnessed during the 2020 debates, with Trump spewing toxic rhetoric, lies, and vicious personal attacks at a relentless clip. But will guardrails prove to be enough to shut up a man who, during countless moments, seems genuinely incapable of even the slightest restraint?
"I was surprised that Trump's people let them agree to the muting of the microphone issue", Will Baker, director of New York University's Debate Fund, told me. "It's going to be interesting to see how that actually plays out."
For decades, Baker has coached some of the country's top college debaters, and I reached out to hear his thoughts ahead of Thursday's rematch. He offered some insight into what strategies Biden could employ to win over a serial liar, what he can do about those absurd cocaine insinuations, and what Trump might do to circumvent the mic-muting.
Oh: Let's start by reflecting on the 2020 debates. What was your reaction at the time?
Baker: It was disappointing. It fell apart so dramatically, and voters were ultimately deprived of any debate on real issues. It sadly felt much more like watching a couple of teenagers that I needed to discipline, than an actual presidential debate.
Oh: Going into tonight, who would you say has the advantage?
Baker: It's fascinating - because the advantage really comes down more to the performance of the night, rather than innate skills. It's going to be about momentum tonight. On policy though, I think Biden has the advantage because that's always where he's most comfortable. He's got the track record of the past few years and also a chance to correct any misperceptions. As for Trump, his biggest advantages are connection and charisma. Again, I'm very surprised he agreed not to have an audience there because that's always been shown to be a huge benefit for him. If Biden has any type of slip-up on the policy front, getting a date or event wrong, Trump can pounce on those things in the moment.
Oh: Do you think Trump is going to stick to the mic rules? Because I can totally see this man just shouting anyway.
Baker: I have been wondering about that. He might take the opportunity to literally walk over to Biden's face and talk through Biden's mic. There are lots of ways that [Trump's team] could play that. My assumption is that [Trump's team] agreed to it because it has a strategy. So I'll be interested to see that play out.
Oh: Wow, that's both fascinating and horrifying. What about Trump's record of lying? How do you debate someone known to straight-up lie on stage?
Baker: In some forms of debate, you have protection because the judges are looking at evidence. But in an environment like the one Biden will be in, the lying is already baked into the calculus, right? So Biden's strategy has to be to identify over-arching themes where the lies don't change things. For example, if Trump says, "Look, you've broken far more laws than I have", or, "You know, your son's done XYZ", Biden needs to have a compelling, quick, catchy phrase. Not a long explanation of all the felonies. I hope his team won't have a listing of these charges, because that's going to bore the audience. He should prepared to say something like, "Only one of us has a sentencing hearing in two weeks for 34 felonies." Or, "You can lie to the American public, but the courts don't lie." That would change the pace. It's all about rhythm.
Oh: Trump seemed to imply that Biden would be using cocaine during the debate. From a professional perspective, would the use of cocaine even be a good strategy?
Baker: That is a horrible idea. Cocaine creates hyped-up reactions, right? The whole thing about a debate is that you don't have a list of the questions beforehand. So if you get ahead of yourself, that's how people often make the most mistakes. So being coked-up for a presidential debate is probably the worst idea ever.
Oh: Aside from drugs then, what is your best advice for debate prep?
Baker: Most of the time, when people make mistakes during debates, they're tired or not focused. I tell my debaters that when they are getting ready for a debate, they should do things that help them stay focused and relaxed. For some people that might be coffee, for others, it might be a 20-minute walk. For some people that might be meditation. There isn't one magic elixir.
[These debates are a poor way to choose between a liar and mass-murderer (even if his lies about Covid mostly killed his own followers) vs. an honest and effective president. But - with apologies for the long excerpt - these insights are, as Oh and Baker said, uh, interesting!]
Alex Shephard: Biden's Not-So-Secret Weapon In Tonight's Debate: Donald Trump. (New Republic, June 27, 2024)
Our President isn't the debater he was four (or 12 or 36) years ago. But his opponent is more deranged than ever.
David Gilbert: Trump–Biden Debate Conspiracies Have Already Flooded The Internet. (Wired, June 27, 2024)
Republican lawmakers, right-wing media outlets and influencers, and Trump himself are pushing conspiracies about Biden's health and the debate in general.
David Gilbert: A Russian Propaganda Network Is Promoting An AI-Manipulated Biden Video. (Wired, June 26, 2024)
Experts tell Wired that Russian disinformation campaigns are using generative-AI more and more.
[Trump isn't into technology - but Putin's into Trump.]
Talia Jane: Trump-Backed Candidates Flop Big-Time In Contested Republican Primaries. Call It The Trump Effect. (New Republic, June 26, 2024)
Trump's anti-Midas touch showed up strong on Tuesday, as the only three contested, Trump-endorsed candidates lost bigly in their primaries in Utah, Colorado, and South Carolina. The 0-for-3 showing suggests that even in an election year where Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee, his endorsement is about as valuable as a Beanie Baby with its tag cut off.
Mark Follman: Trump Is Inciting Violence As The Election Approaches. (Mother Jones, June 26, 2024)
His latest migrant bashing, lies about the FBI, and other verbal attacks could lead to bloodshed.
The public has long been accustomed to Donald Trump saying outrageous things, even when he appears to encourage political violence. It's almost as if his aggrieved and menacing rhetoric has become a normal part of American politics.
This normalizing effect is no accident; research shows it's the result of a strategy utilized by autocrats. Ever since Trump was president, his approach to messaging has included a method of incitement known to security experts as stochastic terrorism. He frequently uses inflammatory and dehumanizing language that elicits rage against political "enemies" among his extremist supporters - yet his rhetoric is always deliberately-ambiguous enough to deny that he inspired any subsequent acts of violence.
Exhibit A for how this works: Demonize a political adversary as "sick" and "crazy" and responsible for national demise - as Trump and his allies long did to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi - and eventually some troubled person may stalk her with a hammer and zip ties and brutally attack her husband. Republicans in thrall to Trump then help him dodge blame by dismissing the violence with conspiracy theories and mockery. Trump further reinforces these effects by telling a crowd of roaring fans he thinks Pelosi is an "animal".
Demagoguery in politics is as old as the republic, but no president has ever engaged in a campaign of incitement against Americans like Trump has. It has worked on individuals and mobs, the latter most infamously when Trump paved the way for the January 6 insurrection.
[For more, search this webpage for "Stochastic Terrorism".]
NEW: Doctor John Kruse: Trump Is Obviously On Drugs, Has ADHD. (16-min. YouTube video; David Pakman Show, June 26, 2024)
Dr. John Kruse, neuroscientist, psychiatrist, and author, joins David to discuss the possibility of Trump having ADHD and using stimulant medications.
Hafiz Rashid: Trump Appears To Short-Circuit During Interview. (New Republic, June 26, 2024)
Trump called in to his former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski's show on Newsmax Tuesday night. Lewandowski asked the former president and convicted felon about Joe Biden's preparation for the upcoming debate, noting Trump has claimed that Biden would need to practice standing for 90 minutes and "might need a shot to stay up for the debate."
Suddenly, Trump went silent for several seconds, as Lewandowski tried to fill the silence by repeating his question. When Trump finally spoke, he sounded groggy. "Well, if I have to practice standing, we have ourselves a big problem", Trump said. "No, I had heard that too; he's practicing how to stand, or something, standing!"
It was just after 8 p.m. E.T. when the live interview took place, so it shouldn't have been too late at night for Trump, although his usual routine reportedly is getting up at 5:30 a.m. every day and going to sleep at about midnight or 1 a.m. It's possible that the silence may have been due to a technical glitch. But it could also have been Trump passing out, falling asleep, or even suffering from something he accuses Biden of having: cognitive decline.
Lately, Trump seems to be forgetting things such as eating a sandwich, and he has been fumbling during his rallies. He even appeared to blank during a speech to the National Rifle Association last month, and critics have made super-cuts of his gaffes, where he confused people's names.
Is this why he and his allies are making excuses about Thursday's debate, claiming Biden will be on drugs? Are they worried that Trump won't be up to the task?
Hafiz Rashid: Very-Stable-Genius Trump Can't Remember Event That Just Happened. (New Republic, June 25, 2024
It's common for politicians on the campaign trail to make a show of sampling the local cuisine to look more like an "everyman". So when Donald Trump was in Philadelphia, of course, he got a cheese-steak. But then, he did something unusual.
Saturday, Trump had stopped by Tony and Nick's Steaks to grab one of Philly's famous sandwiches. An interviewer asked him about it, and the convicted felon contradicted himself in his answer.
"Ohhh, that was good", Trump said. "I haven't sampled it yet, but I will."
NEW: Robert Reich: Why Trump Is Partnering With Christian Nationalists (5-min. YouTube video; Inequality Media, June 25, 2024)
Donald Trump keeps comparing himself to Jesus. Whether he actually has a messiah complex or is just conning his supporters, he's playing to a growing GOP faction that wants America to be a white Christian Nationalist state, with Donald Trump as a divine ruler. Be Warned.
NEW: Chris Walker: 7 In 10 Americans Want SCOTUS To Be Subject To Investigation Over Ethics Issues. (Truthout, June 24, 2024)
In the wake of numerous controversies regarding the ethical legitimacy of the U.S. Supreme Court, a new poll demonstrates that the vast majority of Americans, across political lines, want a stronger enforcement mechanism to hold justices of the Court accountable. An Economist/YouGov poll conducted from June 16-18 found that the Supreme Court currently has a very-low approval rating, with only 35% giving the institution positive marks and 50% saying they disapprove. Other results from the poll imply that one of the main reasons for the low approval rating is that justices are abusing the Court's ethics rules, which allow them to decide for themselves whether or not they should recuse themselves from a case.
When asked how they would feel about a new formal ethics code being implemented - one that would allow for justices to be investigated if they are accused of a highly unethical action - nearly 7 in 10 Americans (69%) said that they would back such a standard. Only 14% were opposed to the idea. Proposals for stronger ethics rules are backed by a majority of both Democratic and Republican voters.
Greg Sargent: Trump Just Revealed How He'll Attack Biden At Debate - And It's Vile. (New Republic, June 22, 2024)
He's going to pin "migrant killings" on Biden. It's false, and here's how Biden should respond.
NEW: Lisa Mascaro: Mike Pence's Foundation Launches A $10-Million Election-Year Campaign To Preserve Trump-Era Tax Cuts. (Associated Press, June 20, 2024)
Former Vice President Mike Pence's foundation is launching a $10-Million campaign to preserve the Trump-era tax cuts that are set to expire after next year, as he presses conservatives not to stray from the fight before the November election. Advancing American Freedom released a 13-page blueprint Thursday with arguments being made to Capitol Hill and to voters in swing states, particularly in those that could decide control of the Senate. The group envisions a lengthy campaign that will spin into 2025, when the White House and Congress will have to decide whether to keep the tax code as approved in the 2017 tax law when Republican Donald Trump was president or make adjustments.
Much will depend on power centers in the House and Senate and which party controls the White House. Democratic President Joe Biden has proposed keeping the tax cuts for people making under $400,000 a year, while raising the corporate rate and introducing higher taxes on the wealthy. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for the White House, also wants to keep the tax cuts for many households, but he proposes lowering the corporate tax rate even further to 20%, from the current 21% rate.
Talia Jane: Embarrassing Video Reveals Trump's Alarming Cognitive Decline. (?-min. video; New Republic, June 20, 2024)
Donald Trump's memory issues seem to be growing by the day.
Trump has apparently chosen to "Streisand effect" his cognitive lapses into the public eye by mocking Biden while getting tripped up by his own pesky deteriorating brain. Over the weekend, Trump challenged Biden to take a cognitive test - and promptly forgot the name of the doctor who administered his in 2020. Two days ago, Trump mocked Biden, claiming he wandered off during a G7 Summit meeting, referring to a doctored video as a "clean fake", perhaps meaning to say "cheap fake", which isn't the correct term to begin with.
Trump's cognitive decline has been notable for years, as he frequently rambles incoherently in a word-association whirlwind of nonsense about sharks, slurring his words, freezing - even forgetting his own son's name.
Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling: Trump Just Made His Most Extreme Threat Yet For If He Loses Election. (New Republic, June 18, 2024)
Donald Trump elaborated on a shocking threat during his visit to Racine, Wisconsin, Tuesday, warning the crowd that the country will be pushed into World War III if he isn't re-elected in November. "Under Crooked Joe Biden, the world is in flames, our border is overrun, inflation is raging, Europe is in total chaos, the Middle East is exploding, Iran is emboldened, China is on the march, and the worst, most incompetent, most corrupt president in history is going to drag us into World War III", Trump said.
The presumptive GOP presidential nominee had previously used the bleak image while speaking to attendees at CPAC in February, framing a Biden-led U.S. as not just causing the imagined international war, but also losing it.
"We won't even be in World War III, we'll be losing World War III with weapons the likes of which nobody has ever seen before", Trump said at the Nazi-attended conservative conference. "These are the stakes of this election. Our country is being destroyed. And the only thing standing between you and its obliteration is me. It's true."
[And when Trump says, "It's true"... Did he mean to say, "The only thing standing between you and democracy is me. It's true."? No, that would be honest.]
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