October 30, 2024

The Stuttering Lede, Oct. 30th, 2024

The countdown is 6 days....

“These wars teach us nothing, not even how to conquer our fears. We are still cave men. Democratic cave men, perhaps, but that is small comfort. Our fight is to get out of the cave. If we were to make the least effort in that direction we would inspire the whole world.” Henry Miller.

Harris gives closing argument speech at the Ellipse, offering "a different path" than Trump. Vice President Harris: “The patriots at Normandy, Selma, Seneca Falls, and Stonewall… They did not sacrifice only to see us cede our freedoms and submit to the will of another petty tyrant. The United States is the greatest idea humanity ever devised. In 7 days, let us turn the page and start writing the next great chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told.” More than 75,000 people. This is what turning the page looks like.

This little kid is why we are fighting & who we are doing it for.

Elections 2024

• Trump says Americans who don’t support him are “sick” and “evil”: “This is a sick group of people... There's a lot of evil there.”

• Trump shamelessly urged his naïve followers to cast multiple ballots (by double or triple voting), a blatant act of voter fraud! This reckless call for illegal action is un-American and deserves major news coverage.

• Boris Johnson, "I am actually optimistic about what a Trump presidency would bring" "When it comes to it, I think he will not want to begin his presidency as the guy who made the Soviet Empire great again" "He wants to be the guy who makes Russia... Errr.. America great again"

• JD Vance is wrong when he says: “There are so many reasons this is ridiculous, but here's one: Who do you actually think the gross majority of the men who stormed the beaches at Normandy would vote for? The answer is obvious: Donald J. Trump.” Soldiers serving overseas in 1944 were—based on polling—presumed to be such a decisively Democratic constituency that congressional Republicans fought hard to limit their access to the ballot.

• Trump accused VP Harris of running a campaign of hate in a display of projection days after his rally in New York became embroiled by racist and crude comments that aides worried might have broken through to voters in the final days of the race.

• Elon Musk-funded super PAC is pushing ads that fabricate false policies of Harris, including “mandatory” gun buy-back programs, allowing undocumented immigrants to vote, etc.

• It’s the same lies every speech at this point, mostly about immigration. Here’s a quick fact check of 18 of the false claims Trump made at Mar-a-Lago today, including big lies about FEMA and immigrants.

• There are two Republican campaigns. One is ugly and angry but normal, seeking to get people to vote. The other one preparing people to accept an assault on the electoral system, if Trump loses, or on the political system, if he wins.

• Elon Musk's history of being undocumented was framed as "hypocrisy." MAGA doesn't see it that way. The events at Trump's Sunday hate rally show why. The word "illegal" is just code for people they don't like, including native-born people.

• Oh, nothing to see here. Only Puerto Rico’s biggest newspaper asking all Puerto Ricans abroad to vote for Kamala in the name of all in the island that don’t have the power to vote.

• Don Jr. suggests Laura Loomer or Alex Jones as future White House Press Secretaries.

• Trump is laying the groundwork to contest Pennsylvania election results, claiming without evidence this morning that the whole commonwealth somehow is cheering at “large scale levels:”

• North Carolina Court of Appeals DENIES Republican appeal to prevent US Citizens born and living overseas from voting in North Carolina.

• Trump claims ‘nobody loves Puerto Rican community more than I do’ at Pennsylvania rally.

• More than 250,000 Washington Post subscribers—approx. 10% of all paid circulation—have now canceled their subscriptions since Friday's reporting that owner Jeff Bezos was blocking the paper's endorsement of Kamala Harris.

• Bezos, Soon-Shiong, and Musk have not capitulated to Trump out of fear or cowardice, as many imagine. They’ve all made decisions to collude WITH Trump.

• Elon Musk admitted that he knows that Donald Trump’s policies if elected president would crash the economy, but thinks that the price is worth it.

• Confident of a big win, Mike Johnson promises he and Trump will abolish Obamacare and bring back denial of insurance for preexisting conditions.

• RFK Jr. says Donald Trump has promised him "control of the public health agencies." This is terrifying.

• "People need to decide if they want to live in a U.S. version of an oligarchy, whether they want us to go down the same kind of path as Russia. They’ll make that decision at the ballot box."

• Trump/Harris closing messages, and how what you see in swing states is not what you see in the news cycle.

Politics

• Sobering visual of how Roberts majority (& other Trump-appointed judges) have shielded Trump from as much legal accountability as possible before the election granting him "near-complete impunity in advance if he wins)."

• MAGA’s post election meltdown.

• Madison Square Garden has a notable history of being used as a location for mass meetings of far-right and overtly racist political movements in U.S. history.

• 50 Cent turned down a $3 million offer to perform at former President Donald Trump’s controversial rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Sunday.

• Consumer Confidence Surges But Inflation and Interest Rates Remain Top Concerns.

• At least 51 people have died in flash floods in southeast Spain.

• Mehdi Hasan keeps getting into verbal spats on live TV.

• Ryan Girdusky, now a champion of VP candidate JD Vance, previously wrote for Richard Spencer's Alternative Right website -- using his own name.

• Judge Cannon says her praise for Trump — and "rumors" of a potential promotion for her if he retakes the White House – are not enough to warrant her recusal from his cases.

• A pizza shop owner is sentenced to 8.5 years in prison for threatening workers with deportation.

Climate Change

• Ocean current collapse at it’s tipping point.

• Key Atlantic current could collapse soon, 'impacting the entire world for centuries to come.

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• What would happen if the Gulf Stream collapsed?

Women Rights

• Trump’s Director of White House personnel John McEntee has posted a video saying “Sorry, we want male only voting. The 19th might have to go.” That’s certainly a strategic choice one week before the election.

• Why women are choosing to say no.

• TX woman dies after waiting 40 hours for care.

• Judge extends his temporary restraining order blocking Florida from taking action regarding the Amendment 4 (abortion) ads, for 14 days or until he rules on the preliminary injunction—likely putting the order in place through the election.

• Josseli Barnica is one of at least two pregnant Texas women who died after doctors delayed emergency care. She'd told her husband that the medical team said it couldn't act until the fetal heartbeat stopped.

Russia/Ukraine

• Ukrainian drone attack on the Vladimir Putin Russian Special Forces University in Chechnya is reported to have set the facility's main building on fire, potentially causing serious damage.

• A small number of North Korean troops are already inside Ukraine and may soon join the front lines to help Russia.

• Russia Suffers Third-Greatest Single Day Loss of Troops in Ukraine.

Tech

• Pro-Trump groups have spent years building election denial networks that, combined with Big Tech’s hands-off approach and continued foreign interference, have created a toxic information ecosystem.

• Ahead of the election, militias are using Facebook to recruit, coordinate training, and promote ballot box stakeouts. Meta isn’t shutting their groups down and is even *auto-generating* pages. Yes, *auto-generating*.

Misc.

• Folks have severed their ties with WaPo with a good reason. But before you go completely, do read this piece from May 2024: violence against children. "From the time he was 8, he was instead identified by number, a new one assigned each year.”

• Jon Stewart Defends Tony Hinchcliffe After Controversial Trump Rally Jokes: 'I Find That Guy Very Funny' For once Jon is wrong, very very wrong.

Humor