September 11, 2024

The Stuttering Lede, Sept. 11th 2024

55 days until we know if we can stop fascism

“This… … … … former president.” Vice President Kamala Harris

Today in History

Presidential Debate

• Laura Loomer, Matt Gaetz (whose sexual trafficking scandal just does not go away) and Tulsi Gabbard were prepping Trump for the debate, in case you wondered why it went so splendidly for him.

• Donald Trump had a really, really bad debate, like historically bad.

• During the debate Trump uses actual literal Nazi propaganda tactic by falsely claiming that immigrants are eating pets. Ben Makuch looks at far-right and neo-Nazi groups latching onto anti-immigration rhetoric from the Trump campaign. This is the same tactic as last week when Trump repeatedly lied about a Venezuelan gang taking over residential buildings in Colorado.

• I know that many feel that I use fascism and nazism too casually, but "these sexual-deviant disease carriers must be stopped" is literal Nazi shit. And nothing about its use right now looks remotely accidental.

• The Springfield, Ohio Police Division said Monday morning they have received no reports related to pets being stolen and eaten.

• Later Trump posted a video of a woman in Canton, Ohio who reportedly killed and ate a cat last month. Of course, the only crazy person in Ohio to actually do it is an American with a family history of crime.

• Meanwhile, a factory owner in Springfield says that he likes the Haitians because they consistently show up to work and don’t have drug problems.

• Going from "crazy cat ladies are ruining this country "to "illegal immigrants will eat your beloved pets" in less than a month.

• I thought that I misheard during the debate, but no, Trump did say the obscenely misogynist and racist “she put out.”

• It's always a good sign if you spend the day after the debate fuming so hard

  

• about your performance that you and your cultists are screaming that the host network should lose its license.

  

• Laugh all you want at this ridiculousness. But it’s what Trump has promised he’d do. Believe him.

• After the debate last night, Vance continues to push the claims that immigrants are eating pets.Vance is using the literal Nazi tactic of claiming Springfield is being 'ravaged' by disease Haitians have brought. Which it's not.

2024 Elections

• While we all rightfully focused on the debate, GOP leaders in increasingly close red states are looking to win the old fashioned way: Voter suppression, including Orwellian police raids on everyday voters and volunteers in FL, TX.

• Tucker Carlson and Vivek Ramaswamy are chill with RFK Jr. openly threatening a bloodbath.

• Sobering interview about the very real potential for violence both before and after Election Day.

• The only convicted felon ever nominated, the only president to attempt to overturn an election, and under whom murders increased more than ever, again promises to abuse power.

• Trump wants another January 6th.

Subscribe now

• Trump is proposing two of the largest-ever federal arrests of people living in America, including U.S. citizens, if he's re-elected. Yet not a single word about Trump's epic, explicit, written threat to investigate and lock up his opponents under the false pretext of election cheating.

• This should terrify everyone, they will come not just for migrants. According to Agenda47, the detention camps are also for people who: use drugs; suffer from mental illness or don't have a place to live.

• A mysterious influencer network pushed sexual smear campaign against Kamala Harris.

• Carter Walker looks at why Philly is so frequently a target of election fraud accusations. There's a real history of some "bad things," but that obscures the reality of how modern elections work.

• Girl Scout thief and simply deplorable human being Mark Robinson is losing the ads war in North Carolina.

• Ohio family tells Trump and Vance to stop talking about their tragically dead child.

• Old news but as we clearly witness last night, Trump still does not understand what tariffs are or how they work. Kamala Harris was right calling this proposal a Trump Sales Tax.

• Don’t forget that Trump still says he had every right to interfere in the election and attempt to overthrow the US Constitution.

• It turns out the vast majority of Jewish Americans (80%) don’t like Trump’s dangerous, antisemitic rants about how we’re crazy and/or disloyal.

Politics

• All hail Lina Khan!!

• As expected, mass protests erupt in France after Macron picks Barnier as PM.

• Meanwhile France’s newest nuclear reactor shuts itself down.

• Pakistani police arrest lawmakers allied with Imran Khan.

• Justice Sam Alito got almost $1K in concert tickets from a right-wing German princess who hosted him at her royal castle, which Justice Alito described as “amazing.”

• The “biggest worry in Europe” right now is that Trump “makes unilateral concessions” to Putin following “a confrontational meeting at NATO, that exposes disagreement and division among allies."

• As predicted, Florida’s anti-immigrant Senate Bill 1718 has been disastrous for the state. The Florida Policy Institute estimated this law could cost the state's economy $12.6 billion in its first year, without counting the loss of tax revenue.

• How Roy Cohn helped Rupert Murdoch.

• Barsalogho Massacre: how defensive trenches became a mass grave.

• The US unceremoniously surpassed 1,200,000 confirmed covid deaths in August.

• Oh, right, we cancelled COVID.

• The legitimate winner of Venezuela's election has had to flee the country, joining other leaders who have tried to oppose the autocrat.

• Evidence that the 2023 massacre in Sudan's Kutum was ethnically motivated.

Mental Health

• Adolescents addicted to short-form videos tend to have more sleep problems and social anxiety.

• Solitary nocturnal introverts are challenging our understanding of happiness.

• People who grew up in a dysfunctional family usually display these 7 behaviors. Yup. This checks out.

• Addiction study reveals distinct cognitive mechanisms behind different behaviors.

Education

• Professors colorfully protest Harvard’s new campus use rules.

• 15 Australian universities to have their international student cap slashed.

• Impact of Covid lockdowns to disrupt England’s schools into the 2030s.

• Going back in time: schools across Europe banning mobile phones.

• Mapping the money flowing from billionaires into PACs and to candidates, all in the name of kneecapping Texas public education (and getting those public tax dollars, allowing them to segregate, indoctrinate, and line pockets) is illuminating.

Ukraine/Russia

• Biden hints at a possibility of ending restrictions on use of long range missiles by Ukraine. It’s about bloody time. Let Ukraine Strike Back!

• Russian documentary accused of falsely showing invading soldiers as victims. I wrote about this yesterday: Are We the Baddies?

• Ursula von der Leyen and Recep Tayyip Erdogan declare that Crimea is Ukraine.

• Why Russia is accusing its own scientists of treason.

• Russia launched a major counter-offensive in Kursk. Current draft of what's happening based on Russian and Ukrainian reports. Orange area is confirmed, red is reported/claimed.

• Latvian Prime Minister Evika Siliņa announced a new military support package for Ukraine that will include armored personnel carriers.

• China is giving Moscow "very substantial" help to beef up its war machine, and in return Russia is handing over its closely guarded military tech on submarines and missiles.

• Chinese banks have introduced territorial restrictions on transactions with Russian importers: If the business is outside the province, no open account.

• Another report available from early 2022 (based on research before the invasion) this uses interviews and other sources to look at the political and social attitudes of former and serving Spetsnaz special forces.

Middle East

• Why did a British Jewish newspaper published fake Israeli intelligence?

• Al Mawasi: Dozens killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza humanitarian zone.

• 200 Syrians missing after arrest by regime forces near Damascus.

• The Jordanian who killed 3 Israelis served 20 years in the military, including 6 months at Jordan's embassy in the U.S. in 2019.

• 3 eyewitnesses to the killing of 26-year-old American-Turkish activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi told Haaretz that Israeli troops shot her for no reason and there had been no clashes at the time.

• IDF investigates how forged documents were leaked to foreign media to shape public opinion on Israel.

Gun Violence

• Police foiled a major mass shooting plot targeting 770, the Chabad Lubavitch headquarters in NYC, planned for October 7. The suspect told undercover police that he needed to obtain AR-style assault rifles and ammunition.

• School shootings may be a fact of life. But recognizing that reality is different than accepting it.

• New measures in NJ high school football games after a shooting.

• The suspect who opened fire on a Kentucky highway texted his ex-wife beforehand: “I'm going to kill a lot of people. Well try at least … I'll kill myself afterwards.” He shot five people with an AR-15 and 2,000 rounds of ammo he bought that morning.

• Deputy Gilbert Acciardo: “When our first two units got to the scene, they said it was a madhouse. People on the sides of the road, emergency flashers going, bullet holes, windows shot out, nine vehicles shot. Can you imagine that?”

Tech

• I can’t fathom any other CEO of a major public company, much less a major US Defense contractor openly boasting about wanting to forcefully impregnate a woman he has no relationship with.

• Racist pseudo-science is making a comeback thanks to Elon Musk. Musk is amplifying users who incorporate cherry-picked data and misleading graphs into their argument as to why people of European descent are biologically superior. Dr. Émile P. Torres

  is right, writing “Jaron Lanier argued in The Social Dilemma--2 years before Musk bought Twitter--that social media poses an "existential threat" to civilization. I agree. I mean, where does this end? How will this play out? Fascism, race science, etc. are being normalized among a HUGE demographic.”

• You thought Alexa and Siri were invasive, well Ford has something to say about it.

• Nvidia suffers $415 billion loss in single day.

• Ilya Sutskever's new safety-focused AI startup SSI raises $1 billion.

• Sam Altman indicated it's impossible to create ChatGPT without copyrighted material, but a new study claims 57% of the content on the internet is AI-generated and is subtly killing quality search results.

• Sam Altman’s infrastructure plan aims to spend tens of billions in the US. I have to ask, whose billions??

• Peter Thiel's Polymarket hires Nate Silver after taking in $265M of bets on U.S. Election. Nate spends the day gaslighting people but we remember:

Climate Change

• According to the UN climate chief, climate change costs Africa up to 5% of GDP.

• Governments do not realise that if they don’t stop climate change and the devastation that will come with it, they risk breaking the entire concept of government. Nothing like this has ever happened in human history. If the state refuses to keep its citizens safe then it invalidates itself.

• Kimchi no more? Climate change puts the cabbage dish at risk.

• Cate Blanchett refused to be cut off mid-sentence while talking about climate change.

• Hotter, drier and all-around different: How climate change will alter your life in LA.

• California farmers turn to agave amid drought conditions and climate change.

• The controversial plan to turn a desert green. Did they not read or at least watch Dune??

• Over 2/3 of Australia’s tourist sites are at major risk if climate crisis continues.

• Pope Francis calls for climate change action during Istiqlal Mosque visit.

• Finland unveils world's first deep-Earth repository to bury nuclear waste.

• New report reveals how govts crack down on climate activists and violate basic rights.

Misc.

• Commander of Navy warship relieved of duty months after backward rifle scope photo flap.

• Why people suddenly are taking photos of airport security trays. It’s the latest in a line of trends where people curate their possessions for a public showcase, from bookshelves to bedside tables to even the insides of our refrigerators (“fridgescaping”).

• Fur farming a ‘viral highway’ that could spark next pandemic, say scientists in a study in China that finds viruses that could infect people are rampant in farms breeding mink, raccoons and foxes for their fur.

Humour