October 15, 2024

The Stuttering Lede, Oct. 15th, 2024

22 days until we know if we can stop fascism...

“Totalitarian propaganda can outrageously insult common sense only where common sense has lost its validity.” Hannah Arendt

Elections 2024

• Our problem in the nutshell: failure of education and media means that 20% of Gen Zers believe that Hitler had some good ideas.

• Swastika Flags Flown During Donald Trump Boat Parade in Florida If you're in a parade with people flying Nazi flags, you might be part of a Nazi movement.

• AP take: Trump’s Pennsylvania town hall turns into impromptu concert after medical incidents. Reality: Trump appears lost, confused, and frozen on stage as multiple songs play for 30+ minutes and the crowd pours out of the venue early. If any other candidate for any political office behaved like this, his own party would be screaming for him to step down.

• Unbelievable sanewashing of a fascist. The headline. The photo greeting troops. When he actually said: "We have some sick people, radical left lunatics ... and it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military."

• More sanewashing from the actual NY Times:

• This is what Mr. Trump posts at 1am:

  

• Donald Trump abruptly canceled his planned Friday interview on CNBC.

• The American economy has left other rich countries in the dust.

• The Democrats Are the Only True Defenders of the Constitution.

• Georgia Court DECLARES "no election superintendent (or member of a board of elections and registration) may refuse to certify or abstain from certifying election results under any circumstance." Certifying elections is a required duty of county election boards in Georgia, and they’re not allowed to refuse finalizing results based on suspicions of miscounts or fraud, a Fulton County judge ruled Tuesday.

• Sen. JD Vance claimed on national television that Donald Trump "didn't go after his political opponents" during the four years of his presidency. Fact check: we were alive during those four years.

• Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson filing defamation lawsuit against CNN over story about alleged posts porn website, calling it a “hit job” and “election interference.”

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• Early voting has officially begun in Georgia today which means President Jimmy Carter is finally able to cast his vote for Kamala Harris today.

• Pelosi and Joe Biden have still not spoken since she played a crucial role in forcing him out of the presidential race.

• At least 7 people who got clemency from Trump have been charged with new crimes.

• Kamala Harris’ plan for Black men hailed as ‘game changer.’

• Musk's voter mobilization for Trump is going just about as well as his Twitter Spaces.

Politics

• This takedown of Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin is merciless.

• The real reason Texas can't control its border: it needs the migrants too badly.

• Marine Le Pen faces court on charges of embezzling EU funds If found guilty, Le Pen and her co-defendants could face up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to 1 million euros ($1.1 million) each.

• Josh Hawley is a disgrace.

• NRA chief involved in gruesome cat killing as college fraternity member.

Middle East

• The US government informs Israel that if the humanitarian situation in Gaza doesn’t improve within 30 days U.S. law will oblige it to reassess military assistance.

• They are bombing them directly’: Medics in Lebanon increasingly worried about ‘double tap’ air strikes.

• Dave Cameron says he was planning to sanction two “extremist” Israeli ministers, Bezalel Smotrich & Itamar Ben-Gvir, during his time as foreign secretary Cameron said the sanctions would have been a means of putting “pressure on Netanyahu.”

• “Israeli commanders claim they are not leaving unless and until a credible force is deployed in southern Lebanon to keep Hizbullah from coming back. Yet if that credible force never emerges, then the idf faces the prospect of a partial occupation.”

• U.N. refugee agency official: 25% of Lebanon is under direct Israeli military evacuation orders.

Ukraine/Russia

• Russian milbloggers have spoken approvingly of the recently filmed mass execution by Russian forces of captured Ukrainian UAV operators, calling for them to be "shot like rabid dogs" who "should not live".

• The Russian opposition needs to stop blaming Putin and start confronting Russia's violent imperial legacy.

• “Journalist or Russian spy? The strange case of Pablo González."

• Orban is seeking to block European money for Ukraine as a favor to Trump, which tells you a lot about both of them.

• The Impending Betrayal of Ukraine.

Women Rights

• In this Q&A, Wendy Kline walks us through the dark history of the pelvic exam, from lack of consent to the heroes who have tried to change the medical system.

Climate Change

• Almost total collapse of Finland's forest and peatlands carbon sink since 2009 And this is happening across the planet.

Tech

• On fake engagement.

• The Optimus robots at Tesla’s Cybercab event were humans in disguise.

Misc.

• Scientists used EEG headsets, MRI machines and eye trackers to study volunteers’ responses to five paintings housed at the Mauritshuis museum in the Netherlands.

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• Florida universities are culling hundreds of general education courses.

• Late Night Movie Review: Trump Attacks “The Apprentice” Trump calls those involved in movie, “human scum.”

Humor

Dazed and Confused was set in 1976 and largely the cast was made up of high school students. They would have been born around 1960, making them Boomers, not Gen X.