October 3, 2024

The Stuttering Lede, Oct. 3rd, 2024

32 days until we know if we can stop fascism

JD Vance is a fusion of every kid that vanished on the Wonka Factory tour. John Fugelsang

Today in History

On this day in 1951, the *second* wave of deportations of Operation Osen began. Over 16000 Lithuanians were forcibly deported to Siberia as USSR continued to liberate them from fascism & their freedom 6 years after WW2 ended.

Elections 2024

• What if Trump wins?

• This 165-page redacted motion re presidential immunity from Jack Smith's filing explaining why Trump's alleged criminal conduct in attempting to overturn the 2020 election is not immunized from prosecution, perfectly captures what Trump did.

• Someone used Gemini Pro to figure out who the redacted people might be in the gov's motion against Trump. This is based on public info & the document, not official confirmations.

• So what, then, would prevent Trump from announcing in say, mid-2028, that radical Marxists had infiltrated the U.S. election systems and that he was declaring a national emergency and postponing the November election?”

• The GOP-led noncitizen voting scare has a purpose. To set the stage for the next Stop the Steal. But this scheme is even more hare-brained than 2020's nightmare scenario.

• Russia-paid influencers, trolls step up efforts to influence U.S. election.

• Liz Cheney will campaign today with Vice President Harris in Ripon, Wisconsin — the city recognized as the birthplace of the Republican Party.

• “Kamala Harris consoles those devastated by Helene in Georgia — a contrast with Trump's visit."

• As Helene approached N.C., Gov. Roy Cooper asked top officials for emergency powers as he mobilized response efforts.

  Every Council of State member voted yes, except one:

  Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who didn’t respond to the request at all.

• Trump says he would revoke the temporary protective status of Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio.

• CBS reporting found dozens of injured soldiers originally weren't awarded Purple Hearts, despite appearing to qualify, because for fear of undercutting Trump's assertion that the injuries were minor. Following the report, the Army reversed course and awarded them the honor.

• Michael Harriot: “The VP debate was boring It didn’t have single reference to dog eating, “Black jobs” or locking up opponents. They just talked a lot, disagreed on policy & lied about how great they are. It was a throwback to the golden age of politics… And hip hop.”

• Melania Trump new book: “It is imperative to guarantee that women have autonomy in deciding their preference of having children, based on their own convictions, free from any intervention or pressure from the government."

• All that weaseling does at least make clear we're winning the national debate on abortion. Republicans are terrified of saying they want to ban it. (But they still want to ban it.)

  JD Vance Didn't Fool Anybody With His Slick Rick 'Empathy' On Abortion.

• Jared Yates Sexton writes: “JD Vance was allowed to lie and present himself and Trump as moderates. It was repulsive and dangerous. Winning this election, and defeating MAGA as an authoritarian movement, means breaking this facade and communicating how extreme they are.”

• JD Vance is genuinely intelligent and fast on his feet, as well as a totally unprincipled authoritarian liar.

• Fact check—US manufacturing under Trump versus Biden.

  JD Vance is lying:

• Nothing makes MAGA whine like a fair fact check.

• Let's talk about JD Vance's approach in the debate. It's it's soft fash and it's a way of mainstreaming "traditional family" fascist aesthetics.

• Fascism isn’t a problem with the volume of your voice. It’s a problem with the content of your ideas. Stop civil-washing J.D. Vance.

• Obviously Tim Walz, a lawmaker who has signed numerous gun safety laws, meant "I’ve become friends with VICTIMS OF school shooters," as opposed to JD Vance who did not misspeak when he said he sees school shootings as a "fact of life.

• The foreign election interference "won’t stop with the election... They’re looking at moments when we were vulnerable; and the distrust in the actual election results is a vulnerability in our country."

• Dems have a secret weapon working hard in FL to register new voters and get them to the polls - marijuana dispensaries, who are busy blasting out emails & texts to their 831,775 medical marijuana customers in FL to get them to vote for full legalization.

Politics

• Benjamin Balthaser writes: “When I think of the immense cultural power of both Zionism and the Jewish bourgeoisie to define “Jewishness” for both Jews and gentiles, the first Jewish head of state in North America rating silence in the Jewish press bc she’s a pro-Palestine leftist is all one needs to know.” Claudia Sheinbaum is the first woman, and first Jewish, president of Mexico. She was sworn in yesterday. There are over 90 articles that come up on Google News discussing it. 0 are in a Jewish publication.

• The reason Ta-Nehisi Coates scares so much of America's intelligentsia and commentariat is because when he says that Israeli rule over Palestinians is just another, hyper militarized Jim Crow regime there's basically nothing to dispute. You can see it with your own eyes.

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• Texas has become a laboratory for Christian nationalist policy.

• Republican war on women continues: Louisiana has reclassified the abortion pill as a Schedule 4 dangerous drug, making possession of a single pill punishable by 5 years in prison.

• The longshoremen (what about women??) strike is causing heads to explode. Here's the zealously pro-Trump but anti-union NY Post righteously going after the pro-Trump union boss who's shutting down the economy to help Trump.

• The President of the International Longshoremen's Association is an anti vaxxer and eludes to being an "America First" type guy.

• Harold Daggett, the president of the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA), who has publicly stated intentions to “cripple” the U.S. economy with the port strike, owns a 76-foot yacht and a Bentley, with an annual salary exceeding $900,000. He also has close connections to organized mob and Donald Trump.

• Prosecutors say further charges against Eric Adams ‘possible,’ charges against others ‘likely.’

• Bonus issue of "One First" looks at SCOTUS's role during the 2020 election—and whether, as some prominent Court-watchers argued at the time, the Court should have done more to endorse the result than simply stay out of the post-election disputes.

• Boeing just cut healthcare coverage for its 33,000 striking workers.

• 68 defendants charged in indictment of dozens of members and associates of San Fernando Valley white supremacist gang. So it’s not the immigrants, but the Nazis who are trafficking fentanyl.

Middle East

• Here's the summarized report on what's happening in the Middle East: “I believe this fucking war is almost certainly the result of the strategic planning involving (but not limited to) Putin, Benjamin Netanyahu, Iran, Hamas, and Donald Trump with the hopes that what is happening right now, 35 days before the election, would be happening".”

• Iran had two bad choices after the assassinations of Nasrallah and Haniyeh, and it chose to open itself to an Israeli blow in order to save face.

• Esfandyar Batmanghelidj writes: “Coming events may prove me wrong, but I continue to believe that Iran seeks to avoid a war with Israel. Israel may now have the pretext to take the fight to Iran, but if Iran considered a war inevitable, tonight's attack would have looked very different.”

• Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib says Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah agreed to a ceasefire right before Israel killed him. If this is true, it fits a pattern. Hamas’s Salah Shehadeh (2002) and Ahmad Jabari (2012) were both assassinated as they agreed to ceasefires with Israel, and specifically in the time between agreeing a deal and before the deal was publicly announced.

• This is what the past year was all about. All the rest is smoke and mirrors.

• Gaza school strike which killed 22 - including 13 children and six women - targeted one Hamas figure."

• More women and children have been killed in Gaza by the Israeli military over the past year than the equivalent period of any other conflict over the past two decades.

• Satellite footage shows the outcome of the Iranian strike on Israel’s Nevatim Air Force base. Four possible hits, with one of them causing considerable damage to a hangar. Not clear what if anything was inside at the time. No evidence of any damaged aircraft.

• The risks of escalation in the Middle East and limited value of an Israeli preemptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

• Why does the US suddenly want to sell F-35s to Turkey?

• Interesting development in the Middle East, as Israel is allegedly destroying Russian ammo depots in Syria.

Ukraine/Russia

• Putin Ally Found Dead with Gunshot Wound Near Moscow. Seems they kill their friends as well as enemies. Basically life expectancy in Russia is just plain short.

• Russia is acutely short of personnel to work at defense enterprises: such plants are looking for tens of thousands of new employees.

• Russia To Accept Mandarins Instead of Money From Pakistan Amid Payment Difficulties.

• Russians use drones to attack civilians in Kherson, in what has become known as 'human safari.'

• Russia is reportedly using private militias to control and “weaponise” immigration into Europe. Vladimir Putin is said to be using the tactic to destabilise Europe.

• Ukraine's PM Shmyhal: By the end of 2024, Ukraine plans to manufacture 1.5 million war drones, while government has also launched an experimental project on certifying UAV operator schools.

• Russian paranoia about the colours yellow and blue – Ukraine's national colours – have led to a schoolteacher being fired by an archbishop for wearing a yellow skirt and blue blouse. However, critics have noted that he wears the same colours on his church robes every Sunday.

• Meet the Ukrainians who want to win the war - a war that cannot end until the *Russians* stop fighting.

  Putin, not Zelensky, must be persuaded that the war was a mistake, the price is too high and Ukraine is not Russia.

Tech

• Elon Musk's endorsing and promoting Marko Jukic, who was syndicated by American neo-Nazi and white supremacist Richard Spencer. Jukic advocated for the segregation of Jews from Europeans.

• “X is the only place to find the truth” says Elon Musk; NYT says that a third of 171 posts last week by Musk were false, misleading or out of context. I am willing to bet that number goes up if we include retweets.

• Elon Musk’s X has been valued at just under $13.6 billion, nearly a fifth of the $63.6 billion the Tesla founder paid in 2022.

• The secret commercial ties between Yair Netanyahu and far-right social network Parler.

Climate Change

• How did Helene get so destructive? Oceans are record hot.

  Why are oceans record hot? We've rapidly grown heat-trapping oil, gas, & coal pollution for 100+ years.

  Why did we keep polluting when we knew for much of that time it was catastrophic? Big Oil's lies and corruption.

Misc.

• Multiple Women Claiming Romantic Relationships With RFK Jr. Threaten His Standing in Trump Orbit.

• Oh boy. Francis is obv one of our best directors, ever. But this is a self-inflicted wound and a cautionary tale for aging narcissists everywhere.

Humor