August 13, 2024

Tuesday, August 13, 2024. Annette’s News Roundup.

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Kamala is always busy.

On the cover of Time Magazine

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Kamala needs a BlueSenate. Kamala needs a BlueHouse.

Candidate of the Day. Donate. Volunteer. Share.

Elisa Slotkin - Democratic Candidate for Senate from Michigan.

Elissa is a native of Michigan where her Russian Jewish grandparents arrived in 1900.

Elissa has dedicated her career to serving the country she loves. She happened to be in New York City on September 11, 2001, and by the time the dust cleared, Elissa knew she wanted to go into national security to protect our homeland. She was recruited by the CIA to be a Middle East analyst, and within a year she was sent on the first of three tours in Iraq alongside the U.S. military. Fluent in Arabic and Swahili, she served three tours in Iraq as a CIA analyst. During the George W. Bush administration, she worked on the Iraq portfolio for the National Security Council.

Her time in a combat zone led her to national security roles at the White House, where she worked as a civil servant, for whoever was the Commander-in-Chief. Elissa worked for President Bush as a member of his national security staff and was asked to stay on when President Obama took office. In the Obama Administration, she helped negotiate some of the Pentagon’s most sensitive national security matters from the fight against ISIS to the U.S. response to Russian aggression.

But the reason she first decided to run for office was more personal: her mom. Elissa’s mother died of ovarian cancer in 2011. She struggled to afford healthcare for years because of an early case of breast cancer, and at the time, the insurance companies had gouged her for years based on that pre-existing condition. The same month that the family got her mother’s terminal diagnosis and was desperately trying to get her life-saving care was the same month that they were also filling out the paperwork for her to declare bankruptcy. Protections for people with pre-existing conditions and the exorbitant cost of healthcare and prescription drugs got Elissa into politics, and it remains one of her top priorities.

Elissa has been in Congress for 3 terms of office (elected in 2018, 2020, 2022) working on the issues that she hears about most from people across Michigan: bringing down the cost of prescription drugs, bringing critical supply chains back to the U.S., creating jobs with dignity, and getting money out of politics. Elissa was endorsed in her re-election in 2022 by Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney. Elissa was the first Democrat Cheney had ever supported.

Now, she’s ready to fight for all of Michigan’s working families in the U.S. Senate, replacing the retiring Senator Debbie Stabenow. Her opponent is Mike Rogers.

Who is Mike Rogers? A MAGA Republican who has the backing of national Republican groups and Donald Trump.

The article below outlines issues Slotkin is emphasizing about Mike Rogers.👇

Mike Rogers campaign sends cease and desist over Slotkin ad in Michigan.

Michigan GOP Senate nominee Mike Rogers’s campaign has sent cease and desist letters to more than two dozen local television stations over an ad released by his opponent that it says is false and misleading.

The letter from two legal counsels for the Rogers campaign said the ads sponsored by the campaign for Rep. Elissa Slotkin, the Democratic nominee for the Senate seat, make a few false claims regarding Rogers’s residency and business involvement.

The ad accuses the former House member of leaving “Michigan for good” after the end of his time in office. Rogers represented Michigan’s 8th Congressional District from 2001-15.

The legal team said the claim is “patently false,” as Rogers is currently a taxpaying resident of Michigan and is registered to vote in the state.

Democrats have sought to accuse Rogers of carpetbagging due to a home he owned in Florida after leaving office and being registered to vote there. He has since moved back to Michigan and resumed being a voter in the state.

The letter also notes that the ad accuses Rogers of “helping Chinese tech companies” and “giving them access to the U.S.,” but the counsels said this claim is also false as Rogers has not worked for any Chinese technology firms, including ZTE and Huawei, both of which are named on the screen during the ad.

The counsels said the ad cites a Business Insider article claiming Rogers made “millions” through this work, but the article does not say this nor mention ZTE or Huawei. They note the article states Rogers decided to become involved in cybersecurity firms after leaving office to “help push back on both international criminal gangs” and Russia and China.

The letter says Rogers founded an organization called 5G Action Now in 2020 to oppose Chinese companies trying to be involved in 5G networks in the U.S. and help remove Chinese hardware from infrastructure in the country.

Chris Gustafson, the communications director for the Rogers campaign, said Slotkin previously “couldn’t stop raving” about his record for Michiganders but has changed because she is running against him.

“But rather than defend her own record of high grocery prices, a dangerous open border, and votes to ban gas cars, she’s decided to spread lies and falsehoods about Mike Rogers’ to Michiganders,” he said. “Slotkin is simply a self-serving politician that will say whatever it takes to get elected.”

The counsels urged the TV stations to consider their obligations to the public interest and providing reasonable access to candidates

“You are not required to provide Elissa Slotkin with absolute and unfettered access to your station’s airtime so she can sponsor ads containing false statements about her opponent,” they said.

Slotkin campaign spokesperson Antoine Givens said Rogers is “desperate to cover up his record of enriching himself while Michigan families pay the price.”

“But facts are facts: Rogers left Congress, increased his net worth by 2000 percent, and moved to a waterfront mansion in Florida,” Givens said. “He walked through the revolving door to make millions from corporate gigs — including his work for companies with ties to China and Saudi Arabia.”

Past reporting has revealed Rogers working for companies with ties to Saudi Arabia and China. This includes Rogers’s work for AT&T, which had done work with Huawei and ZTE.
The Hill has reached out for comment from the stations that were sent the letters.

Rogers and Slotkin formally became their party’s nominees Tuesday, following the state’s primaries. The race is expected to be one of the most hotly contested this year and to help determine which party wins control of the Senate in November. (The Hill)

Some Slotkin Endorsements

Elissa Slotkin’s campaign for U.S. Senate has been endorsed by more than 200 community leaders and elected officials from across Michigan, including U.S. Reps. Haley Stevens, Hillary Scholten, and Dan Kildee, as well as State Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks and State Sens. Mallory McMorrow, Sarah Anthony, and Dayna Polehanki.

Elissa has also been endorsed by former Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and recently picked up support from the Council of Baptist Pastors of Detroit and Vicinity.

Additionally, labor unions representing over 600,000 Michigan workers have also endorsed Elissa, including:

• The Detroit Federation of Teachers
• The International Brotherhood of Teamsters
• Michigan Education Association (MEA)
• The Michigan Building Trades Council
• The Michigan Pipe Trades Association
• The Laborers’ International Union of North America (LiUNA)
• Amalgamated Transit Union
• The Michigan State Conference of the International
• Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW)
• Bricklayers and Allied Craftsworkers
• Michigan Farmers Unions
• Michigan Professional Firefighters Union
• UNITE Here Local 24
• SMART (International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers)
• Michigan Machinists Council
• United Steelworkers District 1
• Iron Workers Local 25
• Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters and Millwrights
• American Federation of Government Employees
• UFCW 951 & UFCW 876
• Utility Workers Union of America
• Operating Engineers Local 324

• International Union of Painters and Allied Trades

  Additional endorsements:
  - Reproductive Freedom for All
  - Planned Parenthood Action Fund
  - EMILYs List
  - League of Conservation Voters Action Fund
  - The National Committee to Preserve Social Security and
  - Medicare PAC
  - VoteVets
  - End Citizens United / Let America Vote
  - GIFFORDS
  - The Brady Campaign
  - Foreign Policy for America
  - Elect Democratic Women
  - The Original Eastside Slate
  - Spanish Speaking Democrats
  - Progressive Women Alliance of West Michigan
  - The Kent County Democratic Party Black Caucus
  - Michigan Democratic Party Veteran Caucus
  - National Women’s Political Caucus

Elissa Slotkin is uniquely qualified to be an American Senator. Help her.

Elissa Slotkin — Donate.

https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ebs-ads-

Volunteer. Share this information.

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Joe is always busy.

I received this text yesterday from Joe Biden. Did you?

Today we mark seven years since white supremacists descended on Charlottesville, Virginia.

Seven years since a mob chanted the same anti-semitic bile heard in Nazi Germany. Since an innocent woman was killed for standing up to them. Since Trump told a stunned nation there were "very fine people on both sides."

And that's when I decided I had to run for president. I had to keep my promise to my son Beau. I had to defeat Donald Trump and lead the battle for the soul of America.

Well that battle continues today.

I know that Kamala and Tim can finish the job we started together.

Let's remember who we are, Annette. We are the United States of America, and there is nothing we can't accomplish if we stand together.

Keep the faith,

Joe Biden

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Who wouldn’t want Tim Walz as a teacher or Vice President!

Former Students and Colleagues recall high school teachers Gwen and Tim Walz as allies and advocates.

MANKATO, Minn. (AP) — Jacob Reitan said he told Gwen Walz he was gay before he told his parents.

Reitan was a student in 1999 at Mankato West High School in Minnesota, where Walz and her husband, Tim, were teachers. In her classroom, Gwen Walz had announced at the start of his sophomore year that her class was a safe place for gay students.

“I’d never heard a teacher ever talk about gay issues from the front of the classroom,” recalled Reitan, now a 42-year-old lawyer in Minneapolis. “That act meant the world to me. It made me feel welcome in the place where I’m supposed to learn.”

Gwen Walz’s unwavering support was shared by her husband, who moved to Minnesota from rural Nebraska long before the Democrat became a congressman, governor and Vice President Kamala Harris’ choice to be her running mate in her 2024 presidential campaign.

It was Tim Walz whom Reitan approached about starting a Gay-Straight Alliance at the high school. Having the backing of the football team’s defensive coordinator — a straight, married man and soldier in the Army National Guard — gave the plan a boost.

Walz, a world geography teacher, offered to be the group’s faculty adviser. That mattered, Reitan said, to a young man who had had his car window broken and a gay slur scrawled on his family’s driveway.

But he said that is how Walz treated all students.

“He had the ability to talk about issues of bullying in a way that helped both the bully and the bullier,” Reitan said. “He made clear that bullying makes no sense. It doesn’t help anybody. And it made the school safer for me.”

In introducing Walz as her running mate, Harris shared that story. But Walz’s advocacy for the LGBTQ community has not been met with universal approval in the days since he joined the ticket. Some Republican elected officials and conservative commentators have cited Walz’s opposition to bans on gender affirming care for minors as proof that he is too liberal to be vice president.

Tiffany Justice of Moms for Liberty, a parental rights group that has pushed to restrict the discussion of LGBTQ issues in schools, contended in a recent interview with Fox News that Walz is “the most anti-parent candidate that Kamala Harris could have chosen.”

His approach stands in sharp contrast to actions taken in states such as Florida, Alabama and Iowa that have acted to restrict open discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in schools.

Reitan said the high school’s administration supported forming the club and that there was surprisingly little blowback. A few parents called and threatened to keep their kids out of school, he said, but the principal at the time simply replied that the school would mark those students absent.

Such criticism is rare among those who have spoken publicly about their experiences with Walz at Mankato West. Former students say Walz’s classes felt like a bridge to the wider world.

“He made the world feel smaller and more approachable,” said Nicole Griensewic, a student in Walz’s geography class. “And so he would talk about China like it wasn’t so far away and it wasn’t so foreign.”

Griensewic’s brother had been bullied, she said, but he felt comfortable enough with Tim and Gwen Walz that he joined them on an educational trip with other students to China.

“Dare I say, there’s a lot of toxic masculinity in the whole football realm,” she said. “And to see someone who was a football coach, but also saying, ‘Hey, we’re going to respect everyone. And I absolutely won’t put up with any of that crap.’ That was really bold.”

Adam Segar said Walz found a spot for him on the football team despite problems he had adding weight and muscle. Segar said that approach was commonplace with Walz — trying to make sure students and athletes who might not fit a traditional mold found a place.

“I think that’s what Tim brought to small-town America was, you know, the willingness to have an open mind and ask the students to make sure that they did too,” Segar said.

Ann Vote remembers Walz as an extrovert who was passionate not just about teaching kids, but learning from them. He supported her vision for a unique prom theme that was not included in the school vendor’s premade prom kits and required nearly all the decor to be made by hand.

The theme was “In Our Wildest Dreams,” which, Vote joked, seemed to foreshadow Walz’s trajectory.

When he subbed for one of her classes, he showed a video that he continuously stopped so he could excitedly explain various elements of it.

“He was just so passionate and engaged in what we were to be learning at a time when a lot of teachers put videos on to give themselves a break,” said Vote, who spent 12 years as a social studies teacher before becoming a motivational speaker. “Many of us at that school later became teachers.”

The curent high school principal, Sherri Blasing, did not teach with Walz, but she and her family lived next door to him for 22 years. When Blasing’s four children became teenagers, her family found themselves short on transportation. Walz gave them an old Buick they named “Laverne” that she said was a testament to Walz’s generosity.

“You see that common theme with Tim over and over again,” Blasing said, “That he values every person for who they are, and he is going to do what he can to help them be the best that they can be.”

John Considine, an offensive lineman on the school’s 1999 state championship team, had Walz for geography class. Considine would often cut his lunch break short to show up early so the two could chat.

In the late 1990s, before cellphones permeated campus life, Walz invented expressions that some students came to call “Mr. Walz-isms.”

One such Mr. Walz-ism that stuck with Considine was “11 to the ball.” The phrase called for cohesion among all 11 players on the football field.

Pat Ryan got to know Walz as a colleague while teaching speech and theater. Ryan was in on a faculty prank aimed at the newly hired Walz that did not quite go as planned. Thanksgiving was around the corner, and the veteran teachers gave Walz what appeared to be a certificate for a free turkey from a local grocery store.

The certificate was a fake, and the teachers waited outside the store ready to have a laugh at Walz’s expense.

Instead, Walz emerged from the store with a free turkey. He said Walz won people over that way.

“That’s how charming he is,” Ryan said. “You’re going to have a hard time finding anyone who knows him and doesn’t like him.”

For Reitan, the connection was more personal. But he believes everything he knows about Walz translates into the world of politics.

“He is so authentic. He is exactly what he seems to be,” Reitan said. “Tim Walz understands that being different is OK. Being different is part of the diversity of of the schoolyard and the classroom, but also part of the diversity of our nation.” (Associated Press).

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Warnings roll in.

What are we going to do?

Get Ready Now: Republicans Will Refuse to Certify a Harris Win

Trumpist county election officials are preparing to throw the process into chaos.

1. Trump’s Not Taking the L. . .

The last two weeks—the unveiling of the Harris-Walz ticket, and Kamala Harris’s surge in the polls—feels like some surreal dream state. Everything has changed. Have you noticed Harris has pushed Donald Trump right out of the comfy lead he’s held for an entire year? He’s noticed. From FiveThirtyEight to RealClearPolitics—pick your polling average—they all now show Harris out in front after only two and a half weeks.

Trump is no longer on track to win the election—which he has been for more than six straight months. Instead, the momentum, money, voter registration, volunteering, grassroots organizing, polling, and online engagement all favor the Democrats and it looks now like Trump could easily lose.

But that won’t happen, because Trump doesn’t lose. He beat Joe Biden in 2020—remember? So if he’s not the rightful victor on November 5, an entire army of Republicans is ready to block certification of the election at the local level.

No need to worry about mayhem on January 6, 2025 when Congress meets in joint session; the election deniers plan to stop a result right away if it looks like Harris is winning. Their goal: Refuse to certify anywhere—even a county that Trump won—and prevent certification in that state, which prevents certification of the presidential election.

A Harris victory could become a nightmare.

An investigation by Rolling Stone identified “in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania . . . at least 70 pro-Trump election conspiracists currently working as county election officials who have questioned the validity of elections or delayed or refused to certify results.” Of those 70, 22 of them already have “refused or delayed certification” in recent past elections. Nationwide, Republicans have refused to certify results at least 25 times since 2020, in eight states—the most in Georgia.

The article describes social media posts from the zealots who have infiltrated election administration as showing “unapologetic belief in Trump’s election lies, support for political violence, themes of Christian nationalism, and controversial race-based views.”

There are more than enough such individuals in these key posts to bring us to a constitutional crisis.

“I think we are going to see mass refusals to certify the election” in November, Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias told Rolling Stone. “Everything we are seeing about this election is that the other side is more organized, more ruthless, and more prepared.”

Sit with that.

Then there is this. Trump’s self-destructive attacks on Georgia’s popular governor made the headlines from his Atlanta rally last Saturday, but he also singled out for praise three little-known Georgians—Janice Johnston, Rick Jeffares, and Janelle King—calling them “pitbulls fighting for honesty, transparency, and victory.”

Who are Johnston, Jeffares, and King? They are three of the five members of Georgia’s State Election Board. Three days after Trump’s speech, this past Tuesday, those three Republicans approved a new rule requiring a “reasonable inquiry” prior to election certification that—while vague and undefined—could be exploited to delay certification and threaten the statewide election certification deadline of November 22.

The law in Georgia, where Trump and fourteen1 others are charged with plotting to overturn the 2020 election result, requires county election boards to certify results “not later than 5:00 P.M. on the Monday following the date on which such election was held”—so this year, by the evening of November 11. The secretary of state is then to certify the statewide results “not later than 5:00 P.M. on the seventeenth day” after the election, so November 22.

Across the country, the November election results will have to be certified in more than 3,000 counties, and all state results must be final by the time electors meet in each state on December 17. Members of county election boards are not tasked with resolving election issues; certification is mandatory and “ministerial,” not discretionary. Disputes over ballot issues are separate from the certification process—investigated and adjudicated by district attorneys, state election boards, and in court.

Election experts say the new rule could disrupt the entire process across the state by allowing local partisans to reject results. And Georgia appears to be at the center of Trump’s plans. Casting doubt on Fulton County, which makes up the bulk of Democratic votes in the state, will help him claim he won the Peach State as the rest of the results come in red.

But even without an explicitly permitted “inquiry” like the new Georgia rule provides, Republicans in other swing states still plan on acting at the county level to slow or stop certification. Because questioning the outcome at the very start of the process will create delay. Any doubt and confusion, and perhaps even violence, makes it easier to miss essential deadlines and can threaten the chance that the rightful winner prevails.

Election deniers also hope that sowing chaos might prompt GOP legislatures to intervene—in Georgia, Arizona, or Wisconsin for example—a dangerous scenario I wrote about in April.

1. How Is This Happening All Over Again?

With all that has transpired since November 3, 2020, why are we here again?

Four years later we must ask this question. Our entire country has been held hostage by Trump’s mental and emotional deficits. He doesn’t “lose.” He is unwell and cannot publicly acknowledge defeat. Democracy was vulnerable before Trump, but its fragility could be fatal because of him.

The Big Lie, born from his pathological insecurity, led to a failed coup and a deadly insurrection. We had hoped those two things would undo or, at least, diminish the power of the Big Lie. Yet it has only grown more potent and widespread. It is an article of faith in the GOP base, with polls estimating that roughly two-thirds of Republicans are bought in.

These voters know there was no “evidence” that passed legal muster in court in more than 60 separate cases.

They know multiple recounts and audits in swing states certified Biden the winner.

They know Trump’s own Department of Justice concluded the same and that his own Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency called the election “the most secure in American history.”

But they cling to his lies, and to conspiracy, because Trump’s cult provides a sense of belonging more nourishing than truth, and more compelling than facts.

Most GOP elected representatives and leaders do not believe the Big Lie—after all, they never questioned their own victories or losses in 2020. But they are cowards, so to stay in power they have perpetuated Trump’s mass delusion through their silence or their bandwagoning—which Liz Cheney details in her enraging book Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning. Those named in her account of the aftermath of the 2020 election know what is coming this November if Trump loses, from House Speaker Mike Johnson on down.

So Trump knows there are millions among us who believe him when he says Democrats can only win if they cheat and who believe dark forces are at work to thwart him again. And Trump needs to be president again. He wants to get his criminal cases thrown out, and to stay out of jail.

There is nothing he won’t try.

1. Who Can Stop It?

Courts have already intervened to stop efforts like this. At least ten counties refused certification in the primaries in 2022, followed by two counties—in Arizona and Pennsylvania—refusing to certify general election results that year. They lost in court and the results were certified. Participants in fake elector schemes have been prosecuted.

In retrospect, those efforts look like initial probes—like a bank robber casing the joint, figuring out where the guards stand and the cameras are while planning the real heist. Elias wrote last week that “Republicans are building an election subversion war machine.” It sure doesn’t appear that the law is going to deter them from launching an unprecedented attack on our elections.

And the ways that the potential scale of the assault will test the legal system is, in and of itself, daunting. The Brennan Center for Justice wrote, “little academic attention has been paid to the mechanics of state certification processes, leaving many in the legal community bewildered by the recent string of attacks.”

The Washington Post reported in June that “in some states, election administrators have already identified voters in each county who could serve as plaintiffs in emergency lawsuits to force county boards to certify results. In others, state administrators are sending detailed instructions to county officials laying out the limits of their power to block certification.”

It’s crucial that these plans are widely publicized. And they can be. Just like Project 2025, which was virtually unheard of and is now in the forefront of the political debate. Putting a media spotlight on this issue will force Republican officials to address what they are well aware of and are refusing to call out.

Yesterday CBS News reported Biden said in his first interview since leaving the presidential race he is “not confident at all” there will be a peaceful transfer of power if Trump loses. Harris isn’t likely to talk about this in her campaign, so it’s critical that other high-profile surrogates do. President Obama, President Clinton, Hillary Clinton, and others must educate voters about the plot underway to force more public pressure and accountability on the process.

Every Republican must be asked about local certification of elections, electors honoring the popular vote of their state, preventing political violence—all of it. Repeatedly.

As Elias told an interviewer, there are things we can do, as citizens willing to invest some time, to take action.

This isn’t a threat from abroad. This year—and likely for years to come—we will all have to continue to fight against what our fellow Americans are doing to subvert elections. Because without free elections—and facts and truth—we cannot be a free country.

We are forewarned. (The Walwark)

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Your Daily Reminder.

Trump is a convicted felon.

On May 30th, he was found guilty on 34 felony counts by the unanimous vote of 12 ordinary citizens.

The Convicted Felon Donald J. Trump was scheduled to be sentenced on July 11. He will now be sentenced sometime around September 18th.

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Olympics closure.

Don’t forget Paris.

Broadcasters, corporate sponsors and even the French public are smiling this morning as the Paris Olympics ended on a high and all eyes now turn to the next summer Games in Los Angeles, Vivienne Walt reports for DealBook.

As the cleanup begins, here are the big talking points:

Live sports and celebrities galore made Paris 2024 an advertising extravaganza. LVMH, Bernard Arnault’s luxury goods juggernaut, led the way with a $163 million Olympic partnership deal. (It didn’t hurt that Lady Gaga and Celine Dion performed, clad in Dior). Los Angeles is aiming for an ad-fueled $1 billion profit in 2028.

Ratings were a knockout. NBC estimated its Olympics audience was its best ever, by a long distance. That included 28 million viewers on Thursday, when U.S. track athletes won three gold medals and 19.5 million tuned into the men’s basketball final on Saturday.

[NBC said on Sunday that the U.S. Men’s Basketball Team’s thrilling 98-87 victory over France averaged 19.5 million viewers on NBC and Peacock based on fast national data from Nielsen and Adobe Analytics. The company said it was the most-watched gold medal game since the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. The game peaked at 22.7 million viewers from 5-5:15 p.m. ET in the final quarter of the game.

The ratings for the Women’s Gold Medal Basketball Final Team USA v. France were not yet available.]

The French economy could see an Olympics boost. G.D.P. is expected to grow as much as 0.45 percent this quarter — not huge by host country standards, but decent for slow-growth Europe. Whether that will help pay off the roughly $9 billion tab for the Games is an open question.

It was an Olympic comeback. After two pandemic-hit games and Rio de Janeiro’s 2016 corruption-riddled event, Paris’s success has been palpable. Months of political upheaval was all but forgotten after French athletes had their most successful Games in the modern Olympics era.

Pandemic-era doldrums have given way to a hunger for big gatherings. “People want to go see live events,” Paul Caine, president of On Location and IMG Events, a division of Endeavor, told DealBook. The company set up 25 V.I.P. venues across Paris, including atop the Eiffel Tower: Clients splashed out to attend swimming or gymnastics competitions alongside former gold medalists, including Michael Phelps or Aly Raisman.

Paris’s adored monuments featured prominently. Organizers said 450,000 people had attended beach volleyball matches at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, making it one of the Olympics’ hottest tickets. And thousands crowded the banks of the Seine to watch triathletes, or converged every night to watch the Olympic cauldron float above the Tuileries gardens.

Many Parisians were surprised. “I sent my wife and kids to Normandy, because I thought Paris would be a nightmare,” Julien Pescatore, a public-relations professional, told DealBook. “Now I totally regret it. I’m experiencing an incredible Paris.”

Can Los Angeles top that? Last night’s closing ceremony featured Tom Cruise belaying into the Stade de France, and live performances by the rappers Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. Los Angeles has promised a green Games and Hollywood is sure to do its best to help repeat the city’s success as a host in 1984, widely considered the most financially successful Summer Olympics of the modern era. (DealBook New York Times).

Touch to watch.👇

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